More musings on "how tarot works," with a new twist or two (but I will spare you a few of my overused personal aphorisms and axiomatic bromides). I've long believed that the Age of Enlightenment (aka the Age of Reason) that arose out of Renaissance "humanism" between the 17th and early 19th Centuries did more … Continue reading Enlightened Folly?
Tarot History
Why Waite? Why Now?
After a couple of recent conversations with what I can only think of as "traditional tarot snobs" (which is not necessarily a bad thing, it was just painfully obvious that I was talking to a wall), I decided to revisit my opinion of the Waite-Smith deck (if only because the traditionalists damn it so vehemently). … Continue reading Why Waite? Why Now?
Tore Down
Texas bluesman Freddie King once wrote a song titled Tore Down with the refrain "I'm tore down, almost level with the ground." This is a near-perfect expression of the customary take on the Tower card when it appears in a reading: a cautionary glimpse at some kind of calamitous "accident waiting to happen." In my … Continue reading Tore Down
A Long Way from Home
Or maybe I'm just waxing nostalgic? (Curmudgeon alert: incoming attitude!) At any rate, I'm no fan of what is apparently being touted as the emergence of a "New Tarot," a description I'd never heard until last week. (It's not a deck, it sounds more like a "cultural movement.") The gist of it seems to be … Continue reading A Long Way from Home
Archetype, Archetype, Who’s Got the Archetype?
It appears from the on-line conversations I've been following that there are two distinct chains of archetypal descent in the tarot. One of them - the older one - is culturally-specific, symbolizing conventions that were widely understood and accepted during the pre-Enlightenment era when they were first captured in the trump cards. Their appeal to … Continue reading Archetype, Archetype, Who’s Got the Archetype?
What’s In a Name?
Samuel Liddell Mathers was one of the seminal figures in the annals of modern esoteric tarot, having co-founded and eventually dominated the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, single-handedly penning a large portion of the tarot curriculum that was compiled in Liber T. (Hmm, why does spellcheck keep trying to substitute "single-underhandedly" and "single-highhandedly?" Maybe … Continue reading What’s In a Name?
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 