A very long time ago when I first began working with the Thoth deck, I encountered the idea that the Devil card brings enormous physical energy and creativity to the subject of a reading (even if Crowley did inevitably characterize it as procreative or at any rate sexual). This seemed like a more useful take … Continue reading The Devil’s Due
Tarot Card Meanings
An “Envelope of the Year” Example Reading
This is a practice reading using my new "Envelope of the Year" Life-Reading Spread; the querent here is an imaginary male sitter and the full-year layout was used with the Waite-Smith Centennial Pocket Edition, including reversals. In doing this for myself I will probably go month-by-month and do a series of weekly readings for each … Continue reading An “Envelope of the Year” Example Reading
Alike But Different: The Two and Three of Wands
In her book The Tarot and the Tree of Life, Isabel Kliegman goes to some length to justify why we need both the Two and Three of Wands in a pack of tarot cards when - at least in the Waite-Smith deck - they seem to be almost identical in appearance. For me there has … Continue reading Alike But Different: The Two and Three of Wands
The “Innies” and the “Outies”
This essay is both a synopsis and a further exploration of some of the ideas I covered more fully in my "TdM Thumbnail" series of posts. Those of us who spend a good deal of time "navel-gazing" (by which I mean, of course, contemplating "the world in a grain of sand" . . . or … Continue reading The “Innies” and the “Outies”
My Weekly Elements
Since I haven't been very diligent about doing my daily "element-and-number" draws as described in my previous post, I decided to do a seven-day look-ahead using the same technique. If I remember to do so, I will probably add day-to-day pulls to the series for additional insight about this longer-range projection. Overall, it looks like … Continue reading My Weekly Elements
One Is The Loneliest Number . . .
. . . until it becomes a catalyst for change. In the song of the title, Harry Nilsson was talking about the stifling torment of emotional rejection, but French tarot writer Joseph Maxwell had a different idea. Maxwell considered the number One to be the primal unity, perfect in its indivisibility and needing no amplification. … Continue reading One Is The Loneliest Number . . .
Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
The thing that is most obvious when examining the two cards of the title is that the figure on each is manipulating a fluid that has been symbolically linked to the ethereal elixir of Spirit. Temperance is sloshing it back-and-forth between two chalices (and much has been made of the fact that, in the Waite-Smith … Continue reading Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
Finally . . . A Valid I Ching/Tarot Reading
I think I have most of the kinks worked out of this spread, and the decks I selected seem like a winning combination. For this reading I used the boldly-colored Albano-Waite RWS deck and the similarly vibrant Tabula Mundi Colores Arcus as companions to Anthony Clark's I Ching Pack. The Albano-Waite executes the table of … Continue reading Finally . . . A Valid I Ching/Tarot Reading
Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
This spread serves two purposes: its more obvious aim is to forecast the likely weather conditions for a planned outdoor event or travel situation. Its more abstract objective is to serve as a data-collection tool for determining how effective prediction is with the cards. One of the chief weaknesses in cartomantic prognostication is that so … Continue reading Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
What About Those Sixes?
In keeping with my previous post about perceived weaknesses in the Waite-Smith deck, I want to talk about a telling example that fully demonstrates the questionable wisdom of Waite's and Smith's departure from their Golden Dawn roots: the Sixes of the Minor Arcana. In the Qabalistic system of the Golden Dawn (later adapted by Aleister … Continue reading What About Those Sixes?
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 