AUTHOR'S NOTE: I avoided discussing this technique in my previous post on reconstituting the trump cards, but I've been mulling over ways to make it work. Once again, I will use the Tower as my main example and also provide a couple of others. (If you're unfamiliar with isomorphs, I linked my "primer" on the … Continue reading Trump Cards and Isomorphs
Tarot Card Meanings
The Pentacles Court: Strategy Over Tactics
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading a Quora essay that described George Washington as a lousy military tactician but a brilliant strategist. It seems he lost all six of the major battles in which he participated, but his goal wasn't to win, just to preserve his army so it could remain a thorn in the … Continue reading The Pentacles Court: Strategy Over Tactics
Boundaries, Fences and Neighbors: Drawing a Line in the Sand
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his poem Mending Wall, Robert Frost gives the impression that he is rudely baiting the neighbor who keeps telling him earnestly "Good fences make good neighbors" as they work on repairing their shared stone wall. ("Something there is that doesn't love a wall." Hmm. Why do I feel that Frost would have … Continue reading Boundaries, Fences and Neighbors: Drawing a Line in the Sand
“Just Desserts” vs “Justice Served” – The Two Faces of Justice
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Whenever the Justice card appears in a client's reading, I usually talk about "receiving one's just desserts" according to the propriety of one's actions. I like to tell them that "the trick is to be found worthy and not wanting when the verdict is handed down." But there is another, potentially more sinister, … Continue reading “Just Desserts” vs “Justice Served” – The Two Faces of Justice
One Against Nature: A Tarot Self-Critique
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Mystical and spiritual types like to assert that they use tarot solely to tap into their self-awareness and self-improvement potential in the service of personal enlightenment. Fair enough, but going at it completely cold with nothing but the cards to compare ourselves to - no model or set of criteria defining excellence and … Continue reading One Against Nature: A Tarot Self-Critique
The Lover Departs (or “Squeezing the Grape”)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an unusual interpretation of the Tarot de Marseille "Lover" card that I find quite engaging. It inspired me to present a pair of amusing anecdotes that convey a serious message. (I've already covered this subject from the Chariot's perspective in much the same language; see my previous essay, linked … Continue reading The Lover Departs (or “Squeezing the Grape”)
Reversed Aces As “Scattered Focus”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I learned them, the Aces exhibit an undivided "singularity of purpose" that embodies the purest and most spiritual expression of the elemental energy associated with their suit. There is no whiff of mundane degradation about them; elementally, they are "as good as it gets" and in a reading they suggest tremendous untapped … Continue reading Reversed Aces As “Scattered Focus”
Inspirational and Cautionary “Catch-Phrases” for the Major Arcana
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There are several ways to split the 22 Major Arcana into rows; one of the most popular is the 7x3 layout of 21 cards with the Fool standing apart, an array I first encountered in Rachel Pollock's 78 Degrees of Wisdom (although it is much older). Here I'm organizing the rows into "duets" … Continue reading Inspirational and Cautionary “Catch-Phrases” for the Major Arcana
Tarot Occupations
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay is not about careers in divination (although that is another interesting topic), but rather the typical occupations that are symbolized by the tarot cards. It's a subject I've been intending to address more thoroughly for quite some time, even though I don't consider myself uniquely qualified as a historian or sociologist … Continue reading Tarot Occupations
Reversed or Not: An Endless Debate
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a topic that is apparently never going away, so here is yet another of my attempts to be "definitive" about it. Even those diviners who avoid pulling reversed cards by always orienting their tarot decks in the upright direction sometimes find themselves embroiled in the online debate about whether there is … Continue reading Reversed or Not: An Endless Debate
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 