AUTHOR'S NOTE: Recalling the raucous furor that attended the colloquial renaming of Covid-19 as "the Chinese flu" (in which many people chose to demean the source of the presumed gaffe and dismiss the mounting evidence), and the more recent rallying cry over "cultural appropriation," I might have felt some trepidation about the political correctness of … Continue reading The “Chinese Menu” Tarot Timing Spread
Tarot Readings
Playing to Strength, Caving to Weakness: Aspiration and Temptation in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that offers a "high road" and a "low road" for approaching the outcome of a reading; these are parallel routes, each with an itinerary that features either optimism for a successful arrival or pessimism over the risk of being detoured into failure. It could be useful when contemplating whether … Continue reading Playing to Strength, Caving to Weakness: Aspiration and Temptation in Tarot Reading
Thoughts, Feelings and Desires as Inputs to a Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been grappling with the subject of "confirmation bias" in divination ever since I encountered the term a couple of years ago. As I understand it, the cynical assumption is that seekers invest (some might say "infect") the reading with their subjective hopes and fears, then don "rose-colored glasses" and see in the … Continue reading Thoughts, Feelings and Desires as Inputs to a Tarot Reading
“Bursting the Bubble” – A Problem-Solving Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread for those who feel like they're "living in a bubble" of arrested development, and who are looking for a way to escape as the atmosphere grows stale and the internal pressure increases. It adopts the pyramidal structure of the ten-card "tetractys" spread that I created earlier, but instead flows … Continue reading “Bursting the Bubble” – A Problem-Solving Spread
The Candidates on Policy: A Tarot and I Ching Analysis
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As the 2024 Presidential election cycle enters its critical phase, Republican nominee Donald Trump has been trying to steer the campaign towards policy debate and away from ad-hominem invective. One of the liberal media commentators has admitted that if the vote were held today based solely on policy, Trump would most likely win. … Continue reading The Candidates on Policy: A Tarot and I Ching Analysis
Another Election Forecast: Two “Shots-on-Goal” Readings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I decided to apply my new "Shots-on-Goal" spread to the upcoming US Presidential election. The first reading shows Donald Trump's chances of winning while the second displays the same scenario for Kamala Harris. For the "Conscious Intention" row, using the Thoth deck I chose the Star as "High Hopes;" Lust as "Playing to … Continue reading Another Election Forecast: Two “Shots-on-Goal” Readings
A “Shots on Goal” Advancement Spread: Elemental Alignment and Orientation as Success Factors
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The phrase "shots on goal" describes a statistic used in sporting events such as international football and hockey to quantify how many legitimate attempts to score a team was able to make during a game (which is usually a function of offensive-line ability to breach the opponent's defense). There are situations in daily … Continue reading A “Shots on Goal” Advancement Spread: Elemental Alignment and Orientation as Success Factors
2024 Presidential Election: A Political Showdown Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now that Kamala Harris has been confirmed as the Democratic nominee for US President, I figured it's time to do my usual "Enemy at the Gates" political showdown reading to see what the tarot has to say about a probable winner. (See the link to the spread at the end of this essay.) … Continue reading 2024 Presidential Election: A Political Showdown Reading
“Pulling the Trigger” – An Allocated-Action Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the First Operation of the Golden Dawn's "Opening of the Key" method there is a step by which the diviner attempts to "intuit" (aka "guess") the reasons behind the querent's request for a reading based on which of four elemental sub-packs the Significator card appears in after the shuffle and cut. The … Continue reading “Pulling the Trigger” – An Allocated-Action Spread
The Exemplary Way: Leveraging the Quintessence
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Some tarot readers (notably Europeans) prefer to read with only the 22 trump cards, ignoring their exalted metaphysical archetypes and allotting them no more significance than the rest of us assign to the pip cards. They also frequently use the "quintessence" calculation to derive a fifth "synthesis" card from the four-card tirage en … Continue reading The Exemplary Way: Leveraging the Quintessence
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 