"Spiritual" use of the tarot is a subject I haven't revisited often enough in my writing since I moved into "action-and-event-oriented" divination a few years ago. My own approach to spirituality is filtered through my long exposure to esoteric studies and practice; it's about as far away from orthodoxy as one can get and also … Continue reading Spirituality and the Tarot
Tarot and Psychology
The “Anatomy of Affirmation” Self-Actualization Spread and Example Reading
I created a self-actualization spread for rational/emotional self-work that uses a pre-selected trump card as its focus, and the idea of contrasting "hard" (rational) and "soft" (emotional) approaches with Elemental Dignities as the main determinant. I also included a tenth card under the middle "Full Face" position and called it "The Back of the Head" … Continue reading The “Anatomy of Affirmation” Self-Actualization Spread and Example Reading
The “Personality Plus” Character Analysis Spread
Here is a spread that builds on the standard four-factor identity model by allowing for an "unfolding" or "flowering" of the basic personality snapshot into multi-faceted fullness stimulated by elemental interaction between the cards pulled and the underlying "state of being" reflected in each "phase:" Fire and Wands represent the Will (including primary drives, urges … Continue reading The “Personality Plus” Character Analysis Spread
Modern Assumptions and Attitudes About Tarot Usage
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's been a while since I've posted even a mild rant on the subject of modern tarot practice. As usual, online conversations with other tarot enthusiasts light my fuse. Although some mystical purists might insist that I've gone philistine, over the last ten years I've adopted a more utilitarian philosophy regarding use of … Continue reading Modern Assumptions and Attitudes About Tarot Usage
The “Spirit-Mind-Body” Personality Matrix
Here is another complex layout that isn't a reading spread but a personality profile developed using the cards; it takes a bit of effort to set up but should be worth it. I've been looking at full-deck readings posted online recently and wanted to try that in a way that randomly "compartmentalizes" the cards into … Continue reading The “Spirit-Mind-Body” Personality Matrix
The Astropsychology of the Tree of Life, Part 2: General Notes
Since the philosophical and hierarchical bases (beyond my First Principle that "Nothing is sacred") may not be perfectly clear for my comprehensive redistribution of the planets, signs and tarot trumps on the paths of the Hermetic Tree of Life , I decided to post my notes. My goals in reallocating the seven traditional planets to … Continue reading The Astropsychology of the Tree of Life, Part 2: General Notes
Chasing the Sun and Moon: The Astro-Psychology of the Major Arcana
According to the psychological astrology that had its roots in the groundbreaking work of Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones and its initial flowering during the 1970s, the zodiacal (sign) placement of the Sun shows our Ego-center or, in more poetical terms, how we can "shine" most brightly in our personal self-expression (the house placement … Continue reading Chasing the Sun and Moon: The Astro-Psychology of the Major Arcana
The “12 Modes of Consciousness” Spread
Although I'm no fan of using tarot for psychological profiling (which is better served by natal astrology), preferring instead a more action-and-event-oriented approach, here is a spread that adopts a creative spin on the four cognitive functions of Carl Jung. Reversals may be used to show a further elaboration of the inner landscape.
Jungian Typology and the Four Elements
Twentieth Century psychologist Carl Gustav Jung subdivided the discriminating faculties of the human personality into four general "types:" sensation (encounters with the physical world that trigger our five bodily receptors); thinking (the intellectual function by which we process the evidence of our senses); feeling (the emotional ways in which we do the same thing); and … Continue reading Jungian Typology and the Four Elements
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 