I think it's been a year since I last bought a new tarot or Lenormand deck. That will most likely change early next year to celebrate moving into our new home. I've had a few decks on my wish list forever, and 2019 will be the year to chip away at it. Among the 60 … Continue reading 2019 Wish List
Tarot Resources
A Proper Gander
When I was in the US Army in Germany in the late '60s, I was co-editor of an anti-establishment underground newspaper called Proper Gander. The title was a puckish take on the government "propaganda" to be found in the military's official news organs, the Stars and Stripes and the Overseas Weekly. Needless to say, we … Continue reading A Proper Gander
Sporting Event Prediction: Lessons Learned
For roughly two years now I've been using tarot to attempt picking the winners and the comparative scores in sporting events. Needless to say, my track record until recently has been less than stellar. I started off with a bang, accurately predicting the regulation tie between the Patriots and the Falcons in the 2017 Super … Continue reading Sporting Event Prediction: Lessons Learned
That First Deck
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
“Adam Cardman”
There is a qabalastic tradition that places an image of the male human body within the structure of the Tree of Life, such that the ten spheres (or sephiroth) of the Tree relate to different parts of the anatomy. This image is known as "Adam Kadmon," or the Primordial Man. The most common version of … Continue reading “Adam Cardman”
Devil Inside
One of the most well-known tunes by Australian rock band INXS is the breathy "Devil Inside," with singer Michael Hutchence doing his best Lou-Reed-meets-Billy-Idol impersonation. I heard it a few days ago and it got me thinking about the tarot Devil and its somewhat disjointed jumble of meanings. A widespread belief is that the card … Continue reading Devil Inside
Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Tens
Plato considered Ten to be a perfect number when viewed from a philosophical rather than a mathematical perspective (in the second case, the term has an entirely different derivation attributed to Euclid). In the qabalistic model of the Universe, Ten delivers the "last gasp" of an elemental energy in its increasingly encumbered progress down the Tree of Life. The original, largely spiritual, force … Continue reading Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Tens
“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”
Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Nines
The number Nine marks the end of the series of simple numbers; the Ten is more of a postscript, the "jumping-off place" for a return to Unity (Ten reduces numerologically to One: 1+0 = 1). As such it is considered the completion and fulfillment of the promise of the Ace of each suit. Zoroaster said it … Continue reading Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Nines
Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Eights
I've said almost everything I have to say about the Eights in two previous posts, "The Eights and Anxiety" and "The Sevens and Eights" (links below). The one thing that bears repeating is Joseph Maxwell's idea that the simple even numbers Four and Eight are characteristically balanced owing to their roots in the binary Two, although the … Continue reading Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Eights
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 