When reading the pip cards as a numeric sequence in accordance with esoteric number theory (both Pythagorean and Hermetic), the Sevens, Eights and Nines present a unique conundrum because they depart from the elegant geometric simplicity of the first six numbers. This makes them more difficult to conceptualize in metaphysical terms without relying on prior … Continue reading The Sevens and Eights
Tarot Opinion
Grantchester Meadows: The Card
Sometimes a song's lyrics and melody excite the imagination toward a particular deck or even a specific card. I was listening to "Grantchester Meadows," Pink Floyd's charming English-folk-style song from an early album, and thought what a placid, contemplative card image it would make. "Icy wind of night, be gone. This is not your domain. … Continue reading Grantchester Meadows: The Card
Window to Another World
I no longer remember where this came from, but it offers helpful advice for the unalloyed (if there is such a thing) use of intuition in reading tarot cards. Personally, I agree fully with the last sentence but find the rest just a little too ingenuous, since human mental activity - no matter how inspired, … Continue reading Window to Another World
Gerald Suster’s New Age Rant
I've already expressed my growing lack of enthusiasm for all things "New Age" (aka "the Piscean Pipe-dream" and "the False Spring") due to its slow decline into commercialism and faddish superficiality. But I'm an absolute piker compared to the vitriol of esoteric writer Gerald Suster; his rhetoric could peel paint. "The Three of Wands is … Continue reading Gerald Suster’s New Age Rant
“Cheap Shots” #6
Now don't get your back up here, but . . . Who comes up with these crazy notions? First it's "You should leave each and every card in a spread face-down until you're ready to read it," apparently so you don't contaminate your fragile intuitive apparatus with undigested premature details or derail your narrative train-of-thought … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #6
The Voyager Tarot – An Appreciation
Tarot decks come and go - or in my case stay, but the effect is the same. Entirely (or at least largely) new systems are encountered more rarely. One such system, the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless and collage artist Ken Knutson, first appeared in 1984 and has been in print ever since. It is … Continue reading The Voyager Tarot – An Appreciation
“Cheap Shots” #5
"Just the facts, Ma'am." In this post-modern era of do-it-yourself psychological profiling, I firmly believe that what the practice of tarot needs is more Sgt. Joe Friday and less Dr. Phil, less "woo" and more interpretive "glue" binding our card-by-card analyses together with a minimum of intuitive guesswork between the lines. We probably have British … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #5
Hop-Frog, the Ourangoutangs and the Tower of Babel: An Allegory about Jumpers
(I hope Edgar Allan Poe forgives me for pinching his story title.) Hop-Frog (the amphibian, not the dwarf) was happily riding along in the turnip truck with 77 other itinerant farm-hands from Frog Hollow. But the driver wasn't paying attention and hit a pothole. Hop-Frog was bounced out into the middle of the road. He … Continue reading Hop-Frog, the Ourangoutangs and the Tower of Babel: An Allegory about Jumpers
“Cheap Shots” #4
Sometimes a deck - even one you've owned and used for years - seems to betray you and starts "speaking in tongues." I'm not one who believes that tarot decks have personalities, only idiosyncrasies introduced by the creator's unique perspective, so I think the fault, if it can be called that, lies with the reader's … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #4
Do the Pips Roar or Squeak?
That's more than an amusing rhetorical question. One of the most daunting challenges facing those who would divine with historical decks like the Tarot de Mareille (TdM) is how to coax useful meaning from their sparely illustrated, non-scenic minor - or "pip" - cards. There is no body of traditional literature explaining how the stereotypical … Continue reading Do the Pips Roar or Squeak?
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 