This pair presents what might be considered a "turnaround" of the previous one since the trump cards swap position from top to bottom and left to right: where before the Tower and the Lovers were subsidiary counterparts to the Chariot and the Devil, respectively, here they are the primary trumps. The Lovers now appears to … Continue reading Recombinant Trumps: Lovers and Tower
Tarot Opinion
Counterparts and the Tarot de Marseille
This tableau presents the Tarot de Marseille in a matched arrangement of numerological and archetypal counterparts that provides a condensed "snapshot" of the model I've been exploring in detail with the Waite-Smith deck. This layout shows the pre-eminence of the first nine numbered trump cards (the Fool as zero is a non-participant in this model), … Continue reading Counterparts and the Tarot de Marseille
Recombinant Trumps: Chariot and Devil
The fourth array of trump-card counterparts involves the Chariot and the Devil on opposite sides of Justice, and the relevant numbers for the accompanying cards are Seven, Fifteen and Six; there are no court-card counterparts for these trumps. Once again, I have inserted the Fool into this tableau without an obvious numerological derivation because the … Continue reading Recombinant Trumps: Chariot and Devil
Recombinant Trumps: Strength and Temperance
The third array of trump-card counterparts involves Strength and Temperance on opposite sides of Justice, and the relevant numbers for the accompanying cards are Eight, Fourteen and Five. I decided to insert the Fool in all of these tableaux, even without an obvious numerological derivation. because the Fool represents the "jumping-off place" for all of … Continue reading Recombinant Trumps: Strength and Temperance
Recombinant Trumps: Hermit and Death
The second array of trump-card counterparts involves the Hermit and Death on opposite sides of Justice, and the relevant numbers for the accompanying cards are Nine and Four. The interplay of numbers across this one is fascinating, and it will be interesting to see if it repeats with the remaining eight tableaux. The Hermit, numbered … Continue reading Recombinant Trumps: Hermit and Death
Recombinant Trumps: Rescuing Chaos from Conformity
This post brings together a few ideas I've floated in past essays: "playing both ends against the middle" when approaching the trump-card sequence; the concept of "numerological counterparts" among the trumps; the trumps as "archetypal expressions" of the "pip" cards; and the linking of certain trumps through means other than immediate proximity. I've recently been … Continue reading Recombinant Trumps: Rescuing Chaos from Conformity
The “Keys to the Kingdom”
Somewhere in the dim and distant past I encountered the idea that astrology represents the "gold key" to unlocking visions of the future through divination, in that it is objective and rational (that is, based on visible phenomena), while the more subjective and intuitive tarot provides the "silver key." I can no longer find the … Continue reading The “Keys to the Kingdom”
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
Daily-Draw Tones and Overtones: Variations On a Theme
I've found over many years of working with them that single-card daily draws are more useful for showing the background "tone" of the upcoming day than for trying to pinpoint specific activities or events. They are too limited in scope to effectively convey all of the ramifying "overtones" that can accompany the main theme, which … Continue reading Daily-Draw Tones and Overtones: Variations On a Theme
Why Do It?
In his book The Horary Textbook, John Frawley makes the point that divination shouldn't be attempted unless the querent (who is often oneself) has a legitimate need to know the answer. Anything other than that is just idle curiosity about circumstances that don't directly concern us, and therefore a misuse of the method. I've been … Continue reading Why Do It?
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 