"The cosmic duty of the elements is to mix with each other in infinite combinations and proportions in order to knit manifest creation together."- Lon Milo DuQuette in Tarot Architect AUTHOR'S NOTE: This quote brought me back to my earlier essay about the four elements as "natural forces," an analysis that aligned with and expanded … Continue reading Mixed Elements Among the Minor Arcana: Recipes for Self-Realization
Qabalistic Theory
“The Great Tuning-Fork” Self-Realization Spread
"You will be calibrating the tuning-fork of your personal consciousness to the great turning-fork of universal consciousness." - Lon Milo DuQuette in Tarot Architect. AUTHOR'S NOTE: These are deep waters, and as the ancient nautical cartographers used to warn, "Here be dragons!" One of the most effective ways I've found to understand complex esoteric subjects … Continue reading “The Great Tuning-Fork” Self-Realization Spread
The Aces: A Point to Ponder
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was going to sub-title this essay "The Importance of Fixity," but you will get that message as you read through it and examine the graphic. Conventional wisdom in the esoteric tarot community is that the Ace represents the creative and formative catalyst or "spark" behind the intent to manifest shown by the … Continue reading The Aces: A Point to Ponder
Thoughts on the Cube of Space and the Cardinal Directions
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been ramping up my study of the esoteric "Cube of Space" while reading Lon Milo DuQuette's Tarot Architect. It's a conceptual model that I've never fully appreciated nor had any practical use for, but that is about to change. In doing so I compared DuQuette's illustration to that of Robert Wang in … Continue reading Thoughts on the Cube of Space and the Cardinal Directions
Qabalistic Saturn: A Step Down and a Step Up
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a life-long student of the Hermetic Qabalah, I confess to being immensely entertained by Lon Milo DuQuette's Tarot Architect and its iconoclastic treatment of the planetary mythology underlying the Hebrew Tree of Life. Of particular interest is his handling of Saturn. I'll paraphrase my quote about Pluto in a previous essay by … Continue reading Qabalistic Saturn: A Step Down and a Step Up
The Meditative Mind
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not long ago my wife of 46 years told me "You could be a hermit," an observation with which I concur because I live mostly in my head. She's still here so I guess she has made her peace with it. Although I'm devoutly non-religious (my favorite oxymoron), I'm constantly pondering spiritual matters … Continue reading The Meditative Mind
The Astrological Trumps and the Sephiroth: A Creative Rethinking
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've studied and worked with the pattern for over fifty years, I've never found much practical (i.e. divinatory) use for the assignment of the tarot's Major Arcana to the paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life outside of astral pathworking (at which I'm not particularly adept). The alignment of the ten sephiroth … Continue reading The Astrological Trumps and the Sephiroth: A Creative Rethinking
Cut to Fit: Existential Advice in Four Elemental “Flavors”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One problem with tarot spreads based on the four classical elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth is that there is often a significant qualitative mismatch between the elemental position meanings and the nature of the cards that land in those positions, requiring vigorous mental gymnastics on the part of the reader to … Continue reading Cut to Fit: Existential Advice in Four Elemental “Flavors”
Tension and Release in the Chaldean Counterparts for the Minor Arcana
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm constantly seeking innovative ways to extract more interpretive value from the set of esoteric correspondences devised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for the Minor Arcana of the tarot. Here is my latest attempt. In musical composition and performance there is the concept of "tension and release" by which the … Continue reading Tension and Release in the Chaldean Counterparts for the Minor Arcana
Reversed Fours: A Stumble and A “One-Point Landing”
AUTHORS NOTE: Having finished re-reading 54 Devils, Cory Hutcheson's playing-card divination book, and not yet possessed of a new tarot book, I picked up my interrupted reassessment of Paul Fenton-Smith's Tarot Master Class (which I believe has now been renamed). In it he mentions that the 4 of Wands reversed can indicate a "lack of … Continue reading Reversed Fours: A Stumble and A “One-Point Landing”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 