AUTHOR'S NOTE This essay has been in the "pending" queue for a while now and I've moved on from where I was when I wrote it to explore other topics, but I think it's still worth posting. It seems that I can't push even one page further into my renewed study of James Ricklef's Tarot … Continue reading Expansion and Contraction in Tarot Reading
Professional Tarot
“Stepping Back from the Brink” – Wisely Confronting Adversity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's not uncommon during our life's journey to encounter major pitfalls that can only be described as steeply plunging cliffs barring the way ahead. Assuming the risks have been identified far enough in advance to allow for timely deliberation, we may have a number of choices for dealing with them. My focus here … Continue reading “Stepping Back from the Brink” – Wisely Confronting Adversity
Metaphysical Entropy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: During a recent conversation in the online tarot community, the questionable accuracy of long-range forecasts came up for discussion. The idea of intervening variables was mentioned, those unexpected changes in circumstances that can render a prediction invalid before it fully matures. I made the following observations (slightly edited for this essay): The main … Continue reading Metaphysical Entropy
Irrelevance in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of my unshakeable convictions about modern society is that there is nothing less relevant to my own life than the Hollywood actor, the professional sports figure and the online "influencer," all of whom seem to think that their social, cultural and political views matter. I rarely sit still to observe an entire … Continue reading Irrelevance in Divination
Scrubbing Tarot of its Myths, One-by-One
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the last fifteen years I've been on a quiet crusade to liberate the practice of tarot from the numerous popular myths about what should and shouldn't be done before and during divination with the cards. I last wrote about it at some length in a 2020 essay titled "The Myths of Tarot: … Continue reading Scrubbing Tarot of its Myths, One-by-One
The “Thematic Threads” of the Major Arcana
AUTHOR'S NOTE: More insights from Tarot Reading Explained by James Ricklef. This essay is a rehash of several previous posts on the subject, but I think the common tendency of tarot readers to exaggerate the impact of trump cards in a reading bears further scrutiny, and I received reinforcement for this assumption from my re-reading … Continue reading The “Thematic Threads” of the Major Arcana
Illuminating the Path: A Hopeful Light in the Darkness or Dim Prospects Ahead?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Querents often sit for a tarot reading when they are completely in the dark about what to do next in their current situation. At its best a forecast will illuminate the path ahead and give the sitter something to shoot for in the way of self-directed effort. But all too often the vista … Continue reading Illuminating the Path: A Hopeful Light in the Darkness or Dim Prospects Ahead?
The Reversed Hanged Man: Transcending Forced Idleness
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've just encountered another instance of the reversed Hanged Man in a tarot reading, and decided to revisit my past assumptions about it. There are three ways to approach it: practical, psychological and spiritual. In divination I usually consider its practical implications first and its psychological impact next, while spiritual consequences are not … Continue reading The Reversed Hanged Man: Transcending Forced Idleness
Public Figures and Personal Privacy in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book Tarot Reading Explained, James Ricklef mentioned that, when he began practicing tarot divination on prominent public figures in support of his American Tarot Association column, he chose not to read about those who were still living, under the assumption that it would constitute an invasion of privacy and could result … Continue reading Public Figures and Personal Privacy in Divination
Parsing* the Three-Card Reading
*Parse: To analyze a complex set of information—such as a sentence, data, or code—by breaking it into smaller parts to understand its structure and meaning, or to process it, AUTHOR'S NOTE: Right off the top I should mention that the three-card reading finds little favor in my own work because there can be a glaring … Continue reading Parsing* the Three-Card Reading
