AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I had been using the Golden Dawn's "Elemental Dignities" (EDs) casually since 1972 and thought I had a firm grasp of the fundamentals, something about their application still bothered me. My doubts were exacerbated almost ten years ago when I spent quite a bit of time and effort dissecting the Order's tarot … Continue reading Elemental Dignities: A Belated Awakening
Tarot Card Meanings
Tapping the Power: A Self-Realization Matrix
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a third adaptation of Benebell Wen's Lo Shu Square, this time applied loosely to her feng shui tarot model. I've created my own theme and position meanings for this purpose and did not adopt her spread design. (See her book Holistic Tarot for background details.) Another inspiration was the Lenormand 9-card … Continue reading Tapping the Power: A Self-Realization Matrix
Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
"As the saying goes “You can put lipstick on a sow but it’s still a sow,” or similarly and more bluntly, “You can’t polish a turd.”- from my 2019 essay When "Bad Is Bad" AUTHOR'S NOTE: Over the last few weeks I've encountered two posts in the online tarot community where novice diviners were agonizing … Continue reading Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
Tarot-Card Rank as a Measure of “Reach”
Author's Note: In her book Tarot and the Tree of Life, Isabel Kliegman spent some time describing the implications of accidental ennoblement as symbolized by common suit, element, number, polarity or rank displayed by several cards in a reading. This commonality (known as "dignity") gave the affected cards an edge in effectiveness over their unaffiliated … Continue reading Tarot-Card Rank as a Measure of “Reach”
A Three-Card “Yes-or-No” Spread with Extra Detail (à la Eden Gray)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In her 1971 book, Mastering the Tarot, Eden Gray presented a three-card "yes-or-no" predictive model that had the four Aces as its key feature. (Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot pointed me at it and I do in fact own a copy.) I've adapted Gray's approach in developing this spread, but I won't offer a … Continue reading A Three-Card “Yes-or-No” Spread with Extra Detail (à la Eden Gray)
The “Crossing Card” – An Alternate View
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It has been common knowledge when working with the Celtic Cross spread that the horizontal card sitting atop the first vertical one - "crossing" it - always indicates an obstacle to the flow of events or circumstances, but that premise falls apart when a positive card is pulled for the crossing position. This … Continue reading The “Crossing Card” – An Alternate View
The “Peaks-and-Valleys” Landscape: A Five-Card Reading Matrix
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The most common way to read a tarot line spread is as an unbroken flow of cards from left-to-right (and typically from past to future) with occasional "bumps in the road" caused by less-fortunate or reversed cards. In my own practice, I first examine the whole layout, looking for peaks and valleys of … Continue reading The “Peaks-and-Valleys” Landscape: A Five-Card Reading Matrix
The Numerical Essence Card as “Vaulting Over Limitations”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After taking a long detour into the psionic research of Dr. Dean Radin as applied to divination, I've returned to reading Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot. I just encountered a three-card example reading in the book that I felt deserved a more carefully-considered analysis. The reading was for an aggressive Aries male who was … Continue reading The Numerical Essence Card as “Vaulting Over Limitations”
Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
"One explanation for (human sentience) is that consciousness emerges as a result of the complexity and self-reflective recursion that is built into the circuits of the brain, like a hall of mirrors."- Dean Radin in Supernormal AUTHOR'S NOTE: A commonly-help opinion among tarot practitioners is that the random cards pulled for a reading "mirror" the … Continue reading Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
The Card Whisperer
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the strangest questions posed from time-to-time in the online tarot community (even stranger than "Do you think the cards have personalities?") is "Do you talk to your decks?" As if we can be expected to cozy up to a pack of cards on the sofa over tea and have a meaningful … Continue reading The Card Whisperer
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 