AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another mixed-media spread that uses cards and dice. It is intended as a longer-range alternative to the Celtic Cross that offers a similar event timeline and "advice" mode while providing for two alternate "end of the matter" cards. I've been having an online conversation regarding the premise that "now" is the … Continue reading “Alternate Outcome” Developmental Timeline Spread
Tarot Spreads
2024 Celtic Wheel of the Year Layout
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the next solar cycle, I chose not to pull random cards to represent the Celtic year, but rather to use the tarot trump cards associated with the eight Celtic holidays and the four zodiacal ingress dates for the Sun, thus creating a universal layout with slightly more irregular sequencing than the typical … Continue reading 2024 Celtic Wheel of the Year Layout
A Tarot Grand Tableau: Cross-Cutting Heresy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: When Lenormand experts are confronted with the question of whether tarot cards can be paired with traditional Lenormand spreads, they sound the alarm and man the battlements. But in keeping with my current action-and-event-based approach to tarot, I can see how the Minor Arcana might be used in a manner similar to the … Continue reading A Tarot Grand Tableau: Cross-Cutting Heresy
Turbatus Somnus* – A Sleep-Cycle Disruption Spread
*Disturbed sleep (I know very little Latin, blame Google Translate) AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's common to ask the tarot "How will my day go?" Here I'm asking "How will my night go?" Insomnia is a subject I haven't tackled before in a tarot spread. I have a mild form of it and the cause is seldom … Continue reading Turbatus Somnus* – A Sleep-Cycle Disruption Spread
Anchoring the Abstract
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many years ago in Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom, I encountered the 21-card, 7x3 tableau of tarot trumps (the Fool was set aside as a "thing apart"). The arrangement ran from the Magician at the top-left to the World at the bottom-right. More recently, I came across it again in Sallie Nichols' … Continue reading Anchoring the Abstract
The “Double-Axle” Energy Rotation Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I often contemplate the operation of "centrifugal" (externalizing) and "centripetal" (internalizing) metaphysical forces as they can be applied to the practice of tarot, something I used to good effect in working up my personal set of definitions for the Tarot de Marseille pips. Here is a spread constructed on those principles. (It is … Continue reading The “Double-Axle” Energy Rotation Spread
Lunar Month Look-Ahead for November – December, 2023: A “Double Feature”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For my New Moon forecast this month I'm doing both my normal monthly reading with the tarot and a Lenormand Grand Tableau overview to get a different perspective on the next four weeks. (I need more practice with the GT.) The eight lunar sub-phases for the period are as follows; each span is … Continue reading Lunar Month Look-Ahead for November – December, 2023: A “Double Feature”
The “Compleat” Celtic Cross
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Compleat" is an archaic English spelling that I'm using here to characterize my advanced approach to the considerably less-archaic Celtic Cross (CC) spread. (My "completely" irrelevant point-of-reference is Izaak Walton's 1653 "fish-tale," The Compleat Angler.) Almost forty years ago I spent some time modifying Eden Gray's version of A.E. Waite's venerable Celtic Cross … Continue reading The “Compleat” Celtic Cross
Chasing Fate: Pulling the Thread on Trends
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's a well-worn cliche that nothing presented in a tarot reading is carved in stone; any outcome is subject to adjustment by timely action (and, it must be said, negligent inaction) of the seeker. However, there are cards that lean toward a fortunate outcome no matter how ill-favored they are by surrounding cards, … Continue reading Chasing Fate: Pulling the Thread on Trends
The “Do/Don’t Do” Problem-Solving Spread (with “Bottom Line”)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Tarot spreads frequently include positions for "Do This" and "Don't Do That." Here is a problem-solving spread that expands on that premise by offering two paths, one involving active disposition of situational factors in five areas and the other suggesting either inaction or a more passive stance in those aspects of the matter. … Continue reading The “Do/Don’t Do” Problem-Solving Spread (with “Bottom Line”)