AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the Book of Thoth Aleister Crowley expounds at length on the fact that the Sevens and Eights are unbalanced, "low down on the Tree and off the middle pillar." In the case of the Eights they represent an over-emphasis on intellectual rationalizing divorced from the more mystical, intuitive and fluid outlook of … Continue reading Mental Over-steering: Mercury and the Tarot Eights
Tarot Card Meanings
“Say It Ain’t So” – The Sting of Swords*
*"Say it ain't so, Joe!" has been memorialized in legend as a small boy's reaction upon hearing that star outfielder "Shoeless Joe" Jackson allegedly admitted involvement in major league baseball's "Black Sox" bribery scandal of 1920 (according to court records, he didn't and was eventually exonerated). Although this quote is most likely apocryphal, the youngster … Continue reading “Say It Ain’t So” – The Sting of Swords*
The Withholding
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've always had reservations about the prevailing opinion of the Waite-Smith 6 of Pentacles that advocates "charity and generosity" as its core premise since I believe this is social commentary that Smith grafted onto Waite's basic divinatory meanings of "gifts, presents and gratification," objective ideas that present no moral argument (although he does … Continue reading The Withholding
Change As Stability
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've just begun re-reading Isabel Kliegman's excellent Tarot and the Tree of Life and I've already encountered a meaty subject that is worth a brief essay. Although her focus is Kabbalistic, she uses the Waite-Smith Tarot (aka "RWS") to illustrate the text, which unfortunately introduces some of the prosaic non sequiturs characteristic of … Continue reading Change As Stability
“On the Other Hand . . . ” (A Study in Contrasts)
I've been thinking about the presence of interpretive contrasts and contradictions in almost every tarot reading, particularly when using spreads that include a "reactive" position such as the three-card "action/reaction/resolution" layout in which the second card provides an occasion for rebuttal against the original premise. Unless we are indulging in wishful thinking of the "It's … Continue reading “On the Other Hand . . . ” (A Study in Contrasts)
The Reconciler
Over the past few weeks I've written at some length about the various ways to read a three-card tarot spread. One idea I didn't spend much time on is the aggregating power of the middle card: rather than merely being a transitional turning-point in the narrative or a "hinge" between the past and the future, … Continue reading The Reconciler
Numerological Counterparts and the “Blueprint for Perfection”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Mirroring the principles of natal astrology, it could be said with some justification that the basic "blueprint for self-realization" resides in the planetary correspondences for the first four numbered trumps of the tarot: the Magician (1) as Mercury, the High Priestess (2) as the Moon, the Empress (3) as Venus, and the Emperor … Continue reading Numerological Counterparts and the “Blueprint for Perfection”
Strength and The Star: A Case of “Brute Finesse?”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since I'm working with the Waite-Smith deck and not my preferred Thoth in these "numerological counterpart" exercises, I'm treating Strength as the eighth trump and pairing it with the Star (17=1+7=8) because I've already written about Justice as "11" (or 1+1=2) and equated it with the High Priestess. My customary approach is to … Continue reading Strength and The Star: A Case of “Brute Finesse?”
The Lovers and The Devil: “I Double-Dare Ya!”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third in my series of essays examining the trump cards of the tarot as "numerological counterparts" that present "alike but different" versions of a common theme. This time I'm looking at two cards that express the number "6," those "strange bedfellows" the Lovers (VI) and the Devil (15=1+5=6). Esoterically, Six … Continue reading The Lovers and The Devil: “I Double-Dare Ya!”
“This Changes Everything”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I sometimes think that history could not have played a more malicious prank on the earnest 21st-Century diviner than the Death card. Cherry Gilchrist is undoubtedly correct in asserting that many of the trump-card images as we know them originated as "triumphs" ("parade floats") in the processional queue of a Medieval pageant, and … Continue reading “This Changes Everything”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 