There is no shortage of sage advice for neophyte tarot readers seeking their very first deck. Some of it has been debunked; for example, the old caveat that you can't legitimately buy your first deck, it must be gifted to you. But other notions linger, like the opinion that you should latch onto the first … Continue reading That First Deck
Tarot Opinion
Tarot Therapy
Some diviners present themselves as counselors, therapists or "life coaches" offering advice via the tarot for dealing with life's problems. Some are very good at it. But the fact remains that by doing so without the requisite technical training, they often risk straying into the territory of the licensed mental health professional. I have talked … Continue reading Tarot Therapy
Opening Moves
The term gambit typically means an opening move in chess by which the player sacrifices something of minor importance in order to gain a positional advantage later in the game. But its more general usage describes a remark that is intended to start a conversation. Professional tarot readers (at least those who meet face-to-face with … Continue reading Opening Moves
Building the Perfect Deck
Although I'm a trained graphic artist with the skills to do so, I don't have the inclination or enthusiasm to tackle the monumental task of creating 78 individual works of art to populate my own tarot deck. But that doesn't prevent me from having opinions as to how I might go about it. It is … Continue reading Building the Perfect Deck
“You Want Fries With That?”
Another day, another new topic. I haven't quite reached the point of the weary "time to make the donuts" drudge from the old Dunkin Donuts commercials yet, but sometimes I wonder. Professional wisdom for blog management is that those who post something 11 times a month receive more viewer traffic (and potentially more advertisers). I'm not in … Continue reading “You Want Fries With That?”
Not If, But When
For those of us who believe that tarot divination is an effective tool for identifying future possibilities and tendencies in an individual's personal reality, the question of "when" looms large on the predictive horizon. There is a divergence of professional opinion on the subject of how long a reading is "good for." Some people say they have … Continue reading Not If, But When
“According to Dignity”
I've carried on at some length in previous posts about the concept of Elemental Dignity, which is a method of inflecting the meaning of a card according to the elemental influence of its neighboring cards in a spread (that is, the level of agreement or disagreement between the qualities of the classical elements [Fire, Water, Air and Earth] assigned to the … Continue reading “According to Dignity”
For Good or Ill
Anyone who delves into the Golden Dawn's "Liber T" tarot study material will soon encounter a phrase that places the focus of a question squarely on its context. MacGregor Mathers, its principle author, frequently stated that the influence of a card would be experienced "for good or ill" by the querent in a reading. The idea is … Continue reading For Good or Ill
The Eights and Anxiety
As the result of an ongoing Facebook discussion, I've been solidifying my opinion of the tarot Eights as an expression of anxiety. This appears clearly in two of the RWS cards but is less obvious in the other two. Although I'm not well-versed in it, my understanding is that conventional numerology treats Eight as a "power" number, and in exoteric tarot … Continue reading The Eights and Anxiety
The End (By Any Other Name)
The "outcome" card has been a formal fixture in tarot spreads at least since the time of Arthur Edward Waite, and much earlier in cartomantic practice. The "Gypsy fortune-teller" was expected to deliver an answer, an informative guide to a specific destination and not just an uneventful trip report. Since the 1970s, divination has been crowded into the … Continue reading The End (By Any Other Name)
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 