*My grammatically absurd title is an intentional poke at the current practice of substituting a plural pronoun in situations demanding a singular one as a way to avoid gender specificity. While there may be a place for gender-neutral pronouns in the English language, this clumsy abomination most definitely ain't it; we clearly need a new … Continue reading They Loves Me, They Loves Me Not*
Tarot Techniques
An Astro-Tarot Analysis of a Suicide
This is a detailed study of a recent death-by-suicide using a method I've been developing for combining astrological and tarot techniques in horoscopic analysis. The event occurred following a family celebration; I was present at both the gathering and the scene of death. All images © U.S. Games Systems, Inc, Stamford, CT and Robert M. … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Analysis of a Suicide
Court Card Thumbnails: The Knight/Prince of Wands
The Court Cards: The Knight/Prince of Wands Titles: Air of Fire; The Prince of the Chariot of Fire Astrological Correspondence: 21° degrees of Cancer to 20° degrees of Leo Commentary: Golden Dawn “Liber T” (S.L. Mathers): “Swift, strong, hasty, rather violent, yet just and generous, noble and scorning meanness. If ill-dignified, cruel, intolerant, prejudiced and … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The Knight/Prince of Wands
Lunar Cycle Outlook, November-December 2017
The Star Tarot by Cathy McClelland was used for this reading. The November-December, 2017 lunation cycle began with the New Moon on November 18. The weekly period from the New Moon to the First Quarter on November 26 is dominated by fiery Wands cards, implying a vigorous, stimulating start to the lunar month. The 9 … Continue reading Lunar Cycle Outlook, November-December 2017
A 1980 Cold-Case Reading
I recently came across a news report about an investigation by local police and FBI agents into a 37-year-old New Hampshire (USA) missing-person "cold case." http://www.wmur.com/article/officials-search-for-evidence-related-to-1980-missing-person-case/13521816 I have a spread designed for missing-person divination and decided to apply it to this case. Here is the layout: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kz9ay5wf44526er/Train%20to%20Nowhere%20Spread.pdf?dl=0 The spread has thirteen positions modeled after a … Continue reading A 1980 Cold-Case Reading
An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part Two
Continuing from my last post: The 51 cards I extracted from the full deck according to the astrological features of my natal horoscope form what I call a "prepared" deck, or in this case, partial deck. Normally, when I pre-conditon a deck in some way, it's usually by separating out the trump, court and pip … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part Two
An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part One
This post is yet another installment in a long-running theme that has been intriguing me for several years: the blending of tarot and astrology in more practical ways than simply using the latter to provide depth to the meaning of the cards. It will also pull together several other ideas that have been gaining traction … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part One
“Cheap Shots” #24: A Herd By Any Other Name
Preponderance: A fancy word that simply means "lots more of one thing than another." A herd of mostly-brown horses. The consensus among my tarot forum-mates is split as to whether it's best to look for dominant "signatures" in a reading first - for example, many more cards of one suit, number, rank or orientation than … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #24: A Herd By Any Other Name
“Hard” and “Soft” Suits
One concept from the Tarot de Marseille "school" of interpretation - which has a meager divinatory legacy unless one can read French - that is worth carrying forward into general use is that of "hard" and "soft" suits. The former are comprised of the Wands and Swords cards, while the latter encompass the Cups and … Continue reading “Hard” and “Soft” Suits
Coming or Going?
In the Golden Dawn tarot papers, MacGregor Mathers made an observation regarding the facing or directionality of the Kings and Pages when placed in a spread: "The Kings, if looking against the direction of the reading, or if meeting it, represent the coming of a person or event, or phase of an event, but if … Continue reading Coming or Going?
