AUTHOR'S NOTE: More musings inspired by Sallie Nichols' Tarot and the Archetypal Journey. The Collective Unconscious has been characterized as uniting (at least in theory) all conceivable human potential in a comprehensive "architecture of becoming" composed of archetypal symbolism that exists apart from exterior reality. It intrudes upon our waking world only to the extent … Continue reading The “Aperture of Awareness”
Tarot Opinion
“Impaled on Words”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Tarot and the Archetypal Journey, Sallie Nichol's remarkable Jungian treatise on the tarot, I came across the vivid phrase "impaled on words" to denote the inability of prose to capture the elusive nature of the Fool, a failing that might be ascribed less urgently to the rest of the allegorical images. … Continue reading “Impaled on Words”
“Name Your Poison”
(For lovers of useless minutiae, June 8 is "Name Your Poison Day.") AUTHOR'S NOTE: Among modern tarot enthusiasts there exists a fundamental dispute regarding proper use of the cards that has been smoldering since the Jung-besotted 1970s. It typically surfaces in the divide between those who believe that a tarot deck should be employed solely … Continue reading “Name Your Poison”
The Symbols Behind the Curtain
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Question of the Day - What do you feed a starving archetype? I pulled another quote from Sallie Nichol's Tarot and the Archetypal Journey that inspired this essay. In discussing the Empress and the Emperor, she observes that we can become like "puppets in an archetypal drama, manipulated by giant figures operating above … Continue reading The Symbols Behind the Curtain
Narrative or Descriptive Reading: A Cartomantic Divide
AUTHOR'S NOTE: During my studies I occasionally see a distinction being made between a narrative "storytelling" approach to explaining the cards in a reading, in which a series of scenes is presented much like the panels of a comic strip, and a less-anecdotal descriptive style that defines the broader relationship among the cards, often in … Continue reading Narrative or Descriptive Reading: A Cartomantic Divide
The “So What?” Moment
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm indebted to a fellow r/tarot contributor for expanding my vocabulary of exclamatory responses to the surprising things I encounter in tarot readings (although this one may be more routine than exceptional and will understandably evoke a dismissive "Ehh"). We've all heard of the "Aha!" moment, the instant during a reading when an … Continue reading The “So What?” Moment
The Nature of Truth (As We Know It)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "What is the truth?" (at least in the matter at hand) is one of the "big questions" along with "What is the meaning of life?" (usually "my life" when asked by a querent) that are often put to the tarot and other modes of divination. (Of course, both questions are aimed at discovering … Continue reading The Nature of Truth (As We Know It)
Filling the Cup
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First a disclaimer. Although I'm unmoved by most pop-culture forms of psychological navel-gazing masquerading as spiritual enlightenment, I firmly believe that all legitimate attempts at fortune-telling embody an element of psychic sensitivity based on my own assumptions about "how divination works" (discussed ad nauseum in other posts). So I'm not an arch-enemy of … Continue reading Filling the Cup
“Answer Me This If You Can . . .”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a persistent myth among diviners who haven't carefully thought it through that tarot can't be used to answer "yes-or-no" questions with any degree of accuracy, and that such use is a miscarriage of its narrative prowess. To which I reply "Nonsense!" Like any form of inquiry, binary or otherwise, tarot can … Continue reading “Answer Me This If You Can . . .”
Putting the “Self” into the “Situation”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Unless there is a specific position defining the individual's direct involvement in the matter, most cartomantic spreads envision the seeker (or querent) as an outside observer of the circumstances shown in the cards, peering through a "mystical window" at their future with the reader's assistance. The querent as active "doer" rather than as … Continue reading Putting the “Self” into the “Situation”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 