AUTHOR'S NOTE: Completist that I am, I figured I had better finish my thoughts on the nuances of interpretation that separate the elementally "friendly" minor suits of the tarot. The suits of Cups and Pentacles (or, in different systems, Coins or Disks) are entirely sympathetic to one another; one represents the element of Water and … Continue reading Cups and Pentacles: Even More Subtle Distinctions
Tarot Card Meanings
Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
In my recent thinking about the minor-card suits of the tarot, I recognized that there is some functional convergence (if not quite overlap) between the characteristic energies of the Wands and the Swords: as Fire and Air, both are elementally masculine, active and positive, and both strive for self-expression in a direct and unsentimental way. … Continue reading Wands and Swords: Subtle Distinctions
The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
In my reading I came across the assertion that the Two in tarot always represents an incipient action arising from the potential embodied in the Ace of its suit. (It shows the "first step" or initial outbound impulse that the static, self-absorbed Ace has only been pondering up to that point.) The imputed binary state … Continue reading The Threes as “Feedback Loop”
Islands in the Sea: The “Gateless” Suit of Pentacles
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is one of the more intriguing and challenging mental tasks I've undertaken in a while: rethinking the numbered cards of Pentacles in line with Barbara Walker's discussion in The Secrets of the Tarot: History, Origins and Symbolism. I've long felt that the quaint, folkloric descriptions that have grown up around the Minor … Continue reading Islands in the Sea: The “Gateless” Suit of Pentacles
The Unevolved Fire Signs: A Study in Vanity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I struggled to find a polite way to say "arrogance" without actually saying it, but that would be an extreme example of my point. Also, there is an idea here regarding the reversed court cards and their Golden Dawn assignment to the Chaldean zodiac that warrants further exploration in another essay. In astrology … Continue reading The Unevolved Fire Signs: A Study in Vanity
Tarot Symbolism in Divination: Fabulism or Impressionism?
I'll clarify my terms before starting. "Fabulism" denotes the placement of fantastical elements into an everyday setting; "impressionism" refers to allusions based on subjective reactions, often loosely-stated. As an example, this distinction aptly displays the difference between the Waite-Smith 7 of Cups, which could best be described as moodily phantasmagorical, and the same card in … Continue reading Tarot Symbolism in Divination: Fabulism or Impressionism?
Contemplate the Edges
Here is an ancient adage that we all know well: "There are two sides to every coin." But in my ongoing reading of The Tao of Thoth I was intrigued by the notion that it might be more fruitful to contemplate the edge of the coin that simultaneously divides and unites the obverse and reverse … Continue reading Contemplate the Edges
The Tens as “Disengagement”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This meditation on the nature of Ten is an extension of my previous thoughts on the subject. I've written in the past that, esoterically speaking, the Tens of the tarot suits represent the exhaustion of the original elemental force that first appeared as pure, untrammeled spiritual energy in the Aces. This is based … Continue reading The Tens as “Disengagement”
Health Readings: A Psychosomatic View
Psychosomatic: (literally, mind [psyche] and body [soma] "willing to perform" [matos]); an adjective describing a physical illness or other condition caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress. In tarot circles it's generally acknowledged that attempting to divine someone's future medical condition in a diagnostic way is professionally and personally … Continue reading Health Readings: A Psychosomatic View
The Suit of Wands As “Arrows”
I'm currently reading Alain Bougearel's book, The Language of the Cards: An Initiation into French Cartomancy (OUROBOROS Editions, August 16, 2020), in which he equates the tarot suit of Batons (modern Wands) to the playing-card suit of Diamonds, and associates the arrowhead-shaped suit emblem with the military arrow as a weapon of ranged combat. He … Continue reading The Suit of Wands As “Arrows”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 