AUTHOR'S NOTE: Occasionally, playing cards and tarot cards converge in unlikely ways, as they do here. When my brother and I were kids learning to play "trick-taking" cards games from our grandmother (who was an old-school cartomancer, although she would never read for us or even talk about it), her oft-repeated mantra was "Highest in … Continue reading “Highest in Red, Lowest in Black” (or Not)
Tarot Card Meanings
The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've long believed that there is a conceptual link between the Fool, the Aces and the Pages of the tarot as the inspiration but not necessarily the "prime mover" for a departure from the status quo. They might put the idea in our head but, if anything useful is to be made of … Continue reading The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
Reversal as Imbalance
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There are numerous ways to decipher the significance of reversed cards in a tarot reading. Here is one that will perhaps have more universal applicability than some of the others I've explored. Tarot expert Paul Fenton-Smith has a unique take on reversed cards. His premise is that when a card appears upside-down in … Continue reading Reversal as Imbalance
Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an opinion in the tarot literature that a reversed court card in a spread will typically highlight the negative character traits of an individual when that card stands for another person who is involved in the situation and not a psychological or universal/spiritual concept. Given my nuanced approach to … Continue reading Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another of my random, intermittent forays into the Minor Arcana of the Thoth deck, which has been my steadfast companion in the study and practice of tarot for over five decades. (See my Tarot 101 series of posts for a more systematic overview.) Think what you will of Crowley, his deck … Continue reading The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I may regret it from the standpoint of intellectual overload (and so might my readers), I've just begun digesting (you don't idly graze these things) Ronald Decker's scholarly study of occult tarot history, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah, in the introduction to which he acknowledges that he … Continue reading The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm endlessly annoyed by the popular opinion that the 3 of Swords is a card of devastating emotional suffering and heartbreak. C'mon, people, it's a low-numbered Air card; any pain will most likely be short-and-sharp, more a flesh wound than a disemboweling gash, and more commonly mind-centered than heart-centered. I've even seen it … Continue reading The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently performed a reading that provided excellent insights into how reversed cards can alter the thrust of a prediction. The client graciously allowed me to post this narrative as long as anonymity is preserved. The question involved the long-range consequences that might result if the client continues taking the medications she has … Continue reading Riffing on Reversals: An Instructive Reading
The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written frequently in the past about the fact that the insurmountable obstacles to an agreeable outcome shown in the Waite-Smith 8 of Swords can be circumvented by the compromised woman - whose feet are unbound - "feeling her way" along the watercourse to escape off the lower-right corner of the card. (When … Continue reading The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
Personalizing the Princesses
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my previous essay on assigning tarot court cards to the Sun, Moon and Ascendant degrees of the natal horoscope, I promised to address how the multi-sign Princesses of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley can brought into the same model. Here goes! It is a traditional assumption that each King has mastered … Continue reading Personalizing the Princesses
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 