There is a strong sentiment among experienced diviners that "fortune-telling" of the flatly predictive variety - while it is not exactly denounced - is an impractical and unreliable pursuit, for a couple of reasons: 1) the future is a moving target and can change regularly based on intervening circumstances not always of our own making … Continue reading Predicting the Future: Prescience or Self-Projection?
Professional Tarot
The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
I must be getting really desperate if I'm resorting to "Archie-Bunker-isms" for my post titles; for the culturally uninitiated, it reads "The Point and the Choice." What I'm referring to, of course, is the key point (goal, not location) in our approach to divining with the tarot cards and the choices we make in their … Continue reading The “Pernt” and the “Cherce”
A “Wish, Will and Way” Example Reading
I decided to test my 5-card approach to this method by asking the same question I've been chasing for the last few years: "As a professional diviner, how can I become more publicly successful and sought-after?" I chose for my inspiration the time-honored assumption that a skilled cartomancer is both sensitive and intuitive (Queen of … Continue reading A “Wish, Will and Way” Example Reading
On-Line Reading: An Appreciation
I've now had several on-line clients since I posted my "Open for Business" article, and I must say that the practice of having them pull their own cards while concentrating on their question or topic area has been working out exceptionally well. My assumption has always been that if our subconscious has something to tell … Continue reading On-Line Reading: An Appreciation
Big Fish, Little Fish, Old Fish, New Fish
Not long ago, after I was published for the second or third time in The Cartomancer and had made a few appearances in the American Tarot Association's monthly and quarterly publications, while at the same time seeing my professional reading career display tiny sparks of life (so what has changed?), my sister-in-law said to me … Continue reading Big Fish, Little Fish, Old Fish, New Fish
General Topic Reading and the “BS Factor”
On-line tarot reading, which is starting to pull me in after years of resisting its call, has become something of a crusade for me. When I first approached it, my long-standing beliefs about "how tarot works" ran head-on into what seemed to be the questionable practices of on-line readers as a group. There is an … Continue reading General Topic Reading and the “BS Factor”
Open for Business
I found out yesterday that my WordPress PayPal button does in fact work, and I've begun doing on-line tarot readings. The client in the most recent case shuffled and pulled her own cards, effectively putting her personal stamp on the reading, and e-mailed me the list to reconstruct the layout and read it at my … Continue reading Open for Business
“Assume the Position”
Those who have been in the military may remember this command, but here I'm repurposing it in divinatory rather than disciplinary terms. I'd wager that most diviners don't think too much about the "mechanics" of their readings once they settle into a groove. Many of the subtle touches we apply to our reading space become … Continue reading “Assume the Position”
Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Warning: I'm going to be politically obtuse here and talk about gender, as in demographics, because at the purely biological level (barring surgical intervention), it is what it is. For the record, I'm an Old White Male (but not quite the "Bernie Sanders of the Tarot" yet), married to the same woman for 40 years … Continue reading Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Cut the Cake
My wife makes a very elegant four-layer chocolate/coconut/custard cake with different fillings between the layers. It's like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates; "You never know what you're gonna get," but it's always delightful (yes, even the jelly fillings). It's a perfect analogy for how I view the cards of the tarot. I like to say … Continue reading Cut the Cake
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 