My assumption has always been that Four is one of the "good" numbers: it is the doubling of the binary (Two), which is the root of conciliation and harmony, as well as the source of the term foursquare, which means "standing squarely and solidly." It is synonymous with stability and anything in a steady-state condition. … Continue reading When Stability Goes Stale: A Study of the Fours and the Binary Paradigm
Tarot Resources
Without A Trace: A Missing-Person Roundup
There are currently three active missing-person cases in New Hampshire that I've been following closely to judge the accuracy of my readings. These cases are starting to grow cold, and at least two of them may not "break" until the winter weather does the same. In the past I have accurately (but only belatedly) divined … Continue reading Without A Trace: A Missing-Person Roundup
DAS: A Joyful Scourge
Around the end of every year there seems to be a flood of new-deck announcements and glossy (albeit online for most of us) catalogs from Lo Scarabeo, U.S. Games Systems and a few smaller publishing houses. These feed the pernicious addiction many of us share: "Deck Acquisition Syndrome." Every tarot forum I've participated in (I'm … Continue reading DAS: A Joyful Scourge
A Milestone and a Conundrum
I've just passed 175 self-created spreads in my personal inventory (see the Dropbox link in the sidebar for the list, which you can explore in the WordPress search function), and I paused a moment to wonder whether I will ever use the majority of these spreads in practice. Although I've binned them by category, the … Continue reading A Milestone and a Conundrum
The Cartomancer Redux
I see that The Cartomancer, the magnificent (and singular) high-quality tarot journal has changed hands again. Arwen Lynch acknowledged that she was having difficulty keeping up with production demands and schedules, so she sold the quarterly glossy magazine to 7 Stones Publishing with Lori Barbieri Ross at the helm. The following message was posted on … Continue reading The Cartomancer Redux
A Valuable Resource
Although it's far from comprehensive given the explosion of new tarot decks in the last few years, there is a "tarot-card gallery" website that offers complete scans of numerous popular and historically-significant decks. My understanding is that the German owner of the site has authorization to publish the images from the copyright owners of the … Continue reading A Valuable Resource
No Question? No Problem
Most diviners have occasionally encountered sitters who are too shy, nervous or confused to come up with a single question to put to the tarot. My practice has always been to have them concentrate on what they want to know while shuffling the deck in a form of silent communion, although my goal hasn't been … Continue reading No Question? No Problem
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
Numerological and Archetypal Counterparts: A Visual Tableau
I decided to turn my previous post on trump-card counterparts into a graphic display. In addition to visually aligning the cards according to their numerical and archetypal values (both natural and derived), this tableau allows for drawing more imaginative correlations between cards that answer to the same number. In the case of the court and … Continue reading Numerological and Archetypal Counterparts: A Visual Tableau
Cosmobiology and the Chaldean Decans in Tarot
The German cosmobiologists of the mid-20th Century held that the "soft" aspects between planets (the sextiles and trines along with the less prominent quintiles and bi-quintiles) were largely a waste of time in that they seldom show anything "visible" happening. These astrologers focused on the "hard" aspects - squares, semi-squares, sesquiquadrates and oppositions - when … Continue reading Cosmobiology and the Chaldean Decans in Tarot
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 