AUTHOR NOTE: I've been reading about the universalizing thrust of individuation by which we begin to puzzle out the Cosmos from our evolving personal vantage point, eventually coming full circle to our primordial state of inborn comprehension. (The final "Star-Child" scene of a fully-conscious fetus in 2001: A Space Odyssey comes to mind.) This got … Continue reading Concept, Context and Consequences: An Incremental Reading Method
Quintessence Spreads
The Integrated Way: Moral Judgement in Tarot (A Self-Development Spread)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While I prefer to "just read the cards" and typically shy away from offering moral advice in my tarot readings, use of the cards for self-analysis and self-development invites its consideration in making value-based decisions about one's life. The cards themselves are neutral on that score, so it's a context-specific call the querent … Continue reading The Integrated Way: Moral Judgement in Tarot (A Self-Development Spread)
Mastery of Circumstances: The Triangular Pyramid Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In "The Problem of the Fourth" (Part Five of A Psychological Approach to the Trinity), Carl Gustav Jung observed "There are three, but where is the fourth?" There are numerous tarot spreads that use a tripartite motif: past/present/ future; action/reaction/resolution; thesis/antithesis/synthesis; if/then/else; etc. But here I'm projecting that planar model into three dimensions … Continue reading Mastery of Circumstances: The Triangular Pyramid Spread
Incentivizing the Shadow: A “Numerical Synthesis” Pros-and-Cons Spread with Resolution
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A while back I came to the realization that the so-called "quintessence" calculation is anything but when applied to a group of input cards that doesn't consist of the traditional four-card "cross." (Quintessence in tarot terms simply means "fifth expression," not "without equal"). I came up with alternative nomenclature for the numerical synthesis … Continue reading Incentivizing the Shadow: A “Numerical Synthesis” Pros-and-Cons Spread with Resolution
2024 Presidential Election: A Political Showdown Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now that Kamala Harris has been confirmed as the Democratic nominee for US President, I figured it's time to do my usual "Enemy at the Gates" political showdown reading to see what the tarot has to say about a probable winner. (See the link to the spread at the end of this essay.) … Continue reading 2024 Presidential Election: A Political Showdown Reading
The Exemplary Way: Leveraging the Quintessence
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Some tarot readers (notably Europeans) prefer to read with only the 22 trump cards, ignoring their exalted metaphysical archetypes and allotting them no more significance than the rest of us assign to the pip cards. They also frequently use the "quintessence" calculation to derive a fifth "synthesis" card from the four-card tirage en … Continue reading The Exemplary Way: Leveraging the Quintessence
The Joint-and-Several “Relationship Fishbone” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The "fishbone" of the title refers to the Ishikawa (aka "fishbone") diagram that is sometimes used in manufacturing problem-solving to pin down the various causes that led to an off-normal condition (typically called "root-cause analysis"). All of the inputs are streamed diagonally into a main stem that, when fully populated, resembles the skeleton … Continue reading The Joint-and-Several “Relationship Fishbone” Spread
“Hold Him While I Hit Him” – A Summary-Justice* Spread
*Summary Justice: "A . . . judicial action accomplished swiftly and without observance of certain formalities of legal procedure, with the connotation of arbitrary and unfair judgment." (If you've been unjustly harmed in a lopsided conflict and are seeking the advice of the tarot, you can ignore that last part and [like "Judge" Roy Bean, … Continue reading “Hold Him While I Hit Him” – A Summary-Justice* Spread
The “Go With The Flow” Decision-Making Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my ongoing I Ching studies I'm reading about enlisting the qi (life-force) of water to effect a reversal of misfortune. In nature, water flows where it will, surrounding and over-topping all obstacles in its relentless advance. It fills "potholes" in the road, which can give the illusion of firmness even though water … Continue reading The “Go With The Flow” Decision-Making Spread
The “Inner Question” Spread: Darkness at the Center
"When the day goes to sleep and the full moon looks/ The night is so black that the darkness cooks" - from The Green Manalishi by Peter Green AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my ongoing study of I Ching divination (a lifetime pursuit similar to astrology and tarot but much more scholarly), I discovered the premise that … Continue reading The “Inner Question” Spread: Darkness at the Center
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 