I recently participated in a forum discussion involving ways to increase one's accuracy when reading for others. Many readers experience occasional lapses in querent satisfaction after a long string of successful attempts, and are puzzled why this should be the case since nothing has changed in their approach. My thought on this is that they … Continue reading A Question of Accuracy
Tarot Techniques
The Dark Side of the Sun
A perennial question that arises in tarot circles is "Can the Sun ever be a bad card?" In most of the historical literature, the answer to that is a resounding "No!" The Golden Dawn gave a nod in that direction by saying the the Sun with very bad cards can show "arrogance, display" (which I … Continue reading The Dark Side of the Sun
Devilish Details
The Devil is always a fascinating card to approach from an interpretive standpoint. As I understand it, the paragon of evil shown in early decks was intended to be a demon (or arch-demon), not the biblical Satan; its elevation came later. There is a modern tendency to see the Devil as "not such a bad … Continue reading Devilish Details
A Turn of the Wheel . . .
Had Omar Khayyam been a tarotist, he might have said something like "The moving Wheel spins, and having spun, moves on." Until fairly recently, the usual interpretation of the Wheel of Fortune was predominantly positive, given its astrological correspondence to the planet Jupiter, known as "the Greater Benefic." A sampling of keywords yields "Destiny; fortune; … Continue reading A Turn of the Wheel . . .
The Tower as Opportunity
In the realm of "It's all good!" affirmational self-persuasion, the Tower is a tough archetype to fit into the model. Traditional decks name it "The Blasted Tower" or "the House of God," relating it to the Tower of Babel as a symbol of divine retribution for human arrogance. It is customarily seen as a traumatic … Continue reading The Tower as Opportunity
Christopher Hyatt and the Opening of the Key
During my recent exploration of the Opening of the Key (OotK) method as described by Aleister Crowley in both the Book of Thoth and in his 1912 release of the Golden Dawn tarot material in The Equinox, Volume 1, Number 8 (which he also identified as "revised and improved" from the version "given to students … Continue reading Christopher Hyatt and the Opening of the Key
Counting with the OoTK: The Ultimate Solution?
As I discussed in a previous post, the Book of Thoth is silent about how to count and pair the cards when the Significator is at or near one end of the line, such that the full count can't be reached and pairs may not be achievable. In Israel Regardie's Complete Golden Dawn System of … Continue reading Counting with the OoTK: The Ultimate Solution?
Numerological Fun with the Trumps
I was thinking today about the ways that the Major Arcana cards tie together numerologically. Except for the Fool, all of them have what Phillip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm call "numerological counterparts:" trump cards whose numbers when subject to mathematical reduction result in a lower-numbered card with which the original card can be seen as having … Continue reading Numerological Fun with the Trumps
How to Read the OotK Pairs
Another question that the Book of Thoth leaves completely unanswered is how one goes about actually reading the paired cards on either side of the Significator at the end of the First Operation of the "Opening of the Key" (OotK) method. "Make a story of these cards." OK, Al, but are they to be read as … Continue reading How to Read the OotK Pairs
A Finger-of-Fate Test Reading
As usual, I ran a test reading with the new spread I just posted to see how well it works. I have a moderately challenging home repair task underway. The first half went well, and I'm finishing the rest of it today. I chose that project as my target, pre-selecting the Thoth "Work" card (3 … Continue reading A Finger-of-Fate Test Reading
