AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before I cover the technical definitions, I want to suggest another word for distillation: sublimation, as in refining or purifying something of an inferior quality to elevate it to a condition of surpassing excellence. In spiritual alchemy the mode of self-realization begins to evolve in a more rarefied direction. In traditional alchemy, distillation … Continue reading Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Distillation
Spirituality
Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Fermentation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In alchemy, fermentation is a euphemism for "putrefaction" or rotting, from which an impure elixir is generated. Spiritually speaking, the composite Self formed during the process of conjunction was assumed to be authentic but it had not yet achieved the pinnacle of perfection and must now be dissolved, digested and reformulated. The union … Continue reading Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Fermentation
“Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an approach to personality profiling that uses a "prepared" deck split into trump, court and pip card sub-packs. The design employs three layers of significance: the outer rectangle of four "pip" cards displays a tableau of daily experience in four elemental attitudes or postures; the middle diamond of four court cards … Continue reading “Who Am I Right Now?” – A Three-Part Personality Profile
Scrambled Symbolism: Revisiting the Sepher Yetzirah
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently had occasion to revisit the Sepher Yetzirah (Hebrew "Book of Formation") as part of a discussion about the relationship between the tarot trumps and the 22 paths of the Hermetic Tree of Life. Once one acclimates to the euphoric "God-talk" and its mystical exhortations, the material in the brief epistle invites … Continue reading Scrambled Symbolism: Revisiting the Sepher Yetzirah
Cut the Cord! – Folk Magic and the 3 of Swords
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written in the past about the opportunity presented by the Waite-Smith (RWS) 3 of Swords to resist wallowing in the apparent misery it depicts and instead actively seek a way to remove the swords from the heart and let it heal. (This is the symbolic function of the nimble and resilient number … Continue reading Cut the Cord! – Folk Magic and the 3 of Swords
Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The World card of the tarot (aka "the Universe" in the Thoth and other esoteric decks) prompts endless questions from beginners who are not yet versed in its symbolism. Is it in fact a "good" card that portends success for the seeker because it displays a dancing woman who seems serene and utterly … Continue reading Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
2024 Celtic Wheel of the Year Layout
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the next solar cycle, I chose not to pull random cards to represent the Celtic year, but rather to use the tarot trump cards associated with the eight Celtic holidays and the four zodiacal ingress dates for the Sun, thus creating a universal layout with slightly more irregular sequencing than the typical … Continue reading 2024 Celtic Wheel of the Year Layout
Red and Blue: “Living and Knowing”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Except for the traditional block-printed Marseille decks, I get very little mileage out of color symbolism in the tarot. Even then, I stay mainly with the three primary colors red, blue and yellow (along with black and white), scarcely noticing the uncommon secondary hues of green, orange and purple, and even less so … Continue reading Red and Blue: “Living and Knowing”
Rebirth of the Sun: A Solstice Meditation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of us who are more attuned to the mystical significance of the Winter Solstice than to that of Christmas, I can think of nothing better to read on that occasion than this clever piece of poetic appropriation from the work of Clement Clarke Moore.* It doesn't take a doctorate in theology, … Continue reading Rebirth of the Sun: A Solstice Meditation
Something Borrowed, Something New
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In reading about the mythological history of the stars and their constellations, I came across the supposition that, in primitive cultures, the concept of a personal "guiding star" predated by millennia that of an individual "guardian angel." Everyone was aligned with a dominant stellar (or more likely planetary) force that governed their destiny … Continue reading Something Borrowed, Something New
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 