AUTHOR'S NOTE: Beyond offering "something completely different" to mark my 1,800th post on this blog, I thought I would add an informal supplement to my Diviner's Manifesto explaining the reasons for my dissatisfaction with much of the over-hyped sideshow that passes for mystical enlightenment in the social-media age. (I honestly have no problem with this … Continue reading Bat Chain Variations (A Metaphysical Reverie)
Practical Mysticism
Flights of Vanity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This rant certainly won't endear me to the few video-content creators of my acquaintance, so I won't be sharing it widely. While there are a handful I respect for their professionalism, I imagine they could become expert at anything they attempt; the rest seem to subscribe to the notion that "It's so simple … Continue reading Flights of Vanity
Left or Right? Polarity in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Moving on from my recent essay about the observer's proper orientation to the left and right pillars of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, I set out to explore the significance of the left and right sides in divination. In Western mystical circles, the passive left side is often referred to as the receptive, … Continue reading Left or Right? Polarity in Divination
An Apostate in the Woodpile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm now re-reading Isabel Kliegman's Tarot and the Tree of Life, which has a nicely detailed explanation of the core principles and potentialities of the "Kabbalistic" Tree (as distinct from the "Qabalistic" rendition of Western occultism). But this chapter has rekindled much of my early aversion to the fundamentally religious model when compared … Continue reading An Apostate in the Woodpile
Divination or Fortune-Telling: A Matter of Degree, Not Pedigree
These days I fancy myself an ordinary "fortune-teller" rather than a starry-eyed purveyor of the psychological and spiritual insights that I've concluded are not particularly worthwhile pursuits for the tarot when compared to the robust capabilities of natal astrology. But I also agree with Alejandro Jodorowsky that a tarot reading - although it may be … Continue reading Divination or Fortune-Telling: A Matter of Degree, Not Pedigree
A Cards-and-Pendulum “Yes-or-No” Example Reading: Return of Deposit
AUTHOR'S NOTE: When I "calibrated" my new pendulum, the horizontal axis responded to "Yes," which made the vertical axis "No" for all future readings. To test this method, I asked the question "Will we receive our full deposit back?" for a contract we cancelled when the contractor failed to perform the work within a reasonable … Continue reading A Cards-and-Pendulum “Yes-or-No” Example Reading: Return of Deposit
“Actions with Spirits”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the title of a 16th-Century book by Dr. John Dee and the scryer Edward Kelly that is a seminal work of Enochian magic. Here I'm borrowing it to launch a discussion on using divination (principally the tarot) for contacting ancestors and other disembodied beings. Recently I've noticed an increase in interest … Continue reading “Actions with Spirits”
Reckoning the Rewards: Divination in Review
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've acknowledged before that I don't consider myself much of a psychic, although every form of divination certainly involves some level of mystical perception in its skill-set. (If it didn't, we would call it "science.") Here I'm going to examine and to some extent rank my own experience with the practices I've used … Continue reading Reckoning the Rewards: Divination in Review
Swords and Wands As “Present” and “Future”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here's another unusual twist from Alejandro Jodorowsky. Although I certainly don't love everything he's written since so much of it is mystically obtuse (when it isn't merely peculiar), he does come up with some thought-provoking notions. In comparing the Ace of Swords to the Ace of Wands in The Way of Tarot, Jodorowsky … Continue reading Swords and Wands As “Present” and “Future”
Aleister Crowley: “Hierophant” or “Devil?”
I'm now reading Alejandro Jodorowsky's commentary in The Way of Tarot about the number Five and its "decimal equivalency" in the Pope (Hierophant) and the Devil. One passage struck me as an accidental portrait of Aleister Crowley as an exemplar of what Jodo is talking about: "The Five of Wands represents two temptations: sublimating the … Continue reading Aleister Crowley: “Hierophant” or “Devil?”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 