AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Michael Snuffin's The Thoth Companion, I encountered one of the most lucid explanations of the goals and methods as well as the advantages of performing divination with the tarot cards that I have ever seen in print. I'm summarizing it here since so much of it agrees with my own beliefs. … Continue reading A Case for Tarot Divination (with Insights on Self-Reading)
Professional Tarot
Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently performed a reading that provided excellent insights into how reversed cards can alter the thrust of a prediction. The client graciously allowed me to post this narrative as long as anonymity is preserved. The question involved the long-range consequences that might result if the client continues taking the medications she has … Continue reading Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
2,001: A Tarot Odyssey
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The adventure of the title began in 2017 when I started this blog and reached a zenith with post #2,000 at the conclusion of my "tarot alchemy" series two days ago. Yesterday, post #2,001 - although little different from the 242 consecutive daily essays that preceded it - opened what I intend to … Continue reading 2,001: A Tarot Odyssey
Words and Pictures
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I believe I've found the perfect aphorism to describe the art of tarot reading. It was in a 1989 short story by science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling, of all places. According to a quote in the story, "underground" (an old cultural buzzword) cartoonist R. Crumb (he of Fritz the Cat fame although you may … Continue reading Words and Pictures
Harbingers of Change
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every tarot card, no matter how static-seeming, is a harbinger of some kind of change, good or bad and great or small. In combination, the cards convey a "state of becoming" in the form of tendencies and trends rather than one of merely "being." Otherwise there would be no reason to include all … Continue reading Harbingers of Change
Hope-Based Questions: “Be Careful What You Wish For”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just read an old blog post by Bjorn Meuris that struck a chord with me. In his advice for asking a proper question of the Lenormand cards (or any cards for that matter) he said "Don't ask for what you do not hope for to be confirmed" by casting your question in … Continue reading Hope-Based Questions: “Be Careful What You Wish For”
Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't touched on this subject recently, but my involvement in the Reddit sub r/seculartarot brought it back around. I once described divination in fanciful terms as "running my mental fingers through the warp-and-woof of the fabric of reality, trying to tease out threads of truth." More recently I encountered the ideas of … Continue reading Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
The “Ex-Partner” Dilemma: Abandonment and Avoidance
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm currently following an interesting sub-reddit thread in which the conversation centers on ex-partner reconciliation and the broader issue of "soulmate/twin-flame" connections, two areas of concern that are frequently brought to a diviner's attention. Then it broaches the subject of "attachment style," which I didn't realize has become an area of formal study … Continue reading The “Ex-Partner” Dilemma: Abandonment and Avoidance
Affirmation Bias and “Participation Mystique”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an extremely useful concept in Sallie Nichols' Tarot and the Archetypal Journey, that of "participation mystique." The premise is that, until they can begin to fashion words into coherent ideas that define their individuality, infants have no sense of personal ego and instead reside in a limitless, amorphous ocean … Continue reading Affirmation Bias and “Participation Mystique”
“. . . By Any Other Name . . .”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Current divination culture shuns as unethical any attempt to forecast the death of an individual, even when it is clearly imminent due to a terminal illness. (After all, it doesn't make sense for amateurs to overstep the legal and professional bounds of a medical diagnosis.) The final "moment of truth" is usually the … Continue reading “. . . By Any Other Name . . .”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 