AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been using a combination of Pythagorean and Qabalistic number theory with the minor (or "pip") cards over the entire span of my five-decade tarot journey, but more recently I came across a new model (which is not all that different from my old one) in playing-card divination. I thought it would be … Continue reading A Multi-Path Progression: Occult, Cartomantic and Numerological Number Theory
Tarot Techniques
The “Liberating” Tarot and the “Locksmith’s” Portion
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Tarot Currents, Paul Hughes-Barlow recently observed that the true aim of tarot reading is not solely the telling of fortunes but rather the delivery of relief from suffering and liberation from a feeling of entrapment. In Paul's words: "The proper use of TARO is not simply to predict events. Its purpose is … Continue reading The “Liberating” Tarot and the “Locksmith’s” Portion
A “User Profile” Spread and Table: Stalking the Wild Sociopath
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In a recent post I explored the subject of "using" and "being used" in a socially-manipulative way. Here I'm making good on two "oh-by-the-way" suggestions I made in that essay. One was to create a spread to examine the social priorities of a target individual (or entity) and the other was to bin … Continue reading A “User Profile” Spread and Table: Stalking the Wild Sociopath
A Drama of Threes
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Recently I was digging through my old posts looking for a specific piece of information and came across this amusing and instructive bit of whimsy that first appeared in a slightly different form. (I've linked the original post below, but be aware that it gets deep!) The essay involved numerological correspondences between pairs … Continue reading A Drama of Threes
‘Tis O’er the Hills and Far Away: Clairvoyance as a Hedge Against Cold Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First a disclosure. Ever since the day I returned to public tarot reading in 2011, I've been a vocal critic of remote divination in general, and especially of that offered by online practitioners in the form of "psychism-with-props" (cartomantic clairvoyance or precognition). But here I'm approaching it a bit differently, beginning in the … Continue reading ‘Tis O’er the Hills and Far Away: Clairvoyance as a Hedge Against Cold Reading
“Predisposition” in Tarot Reading
"Now, what if - as magical lore suggests - intention bypasses the ordinary flow of time, manifesting the goal in the future and thereby causing events unfolding in the present to be pulled toward that goal? This (referring to one of his experiments) suggests that some intentional effects may involve processes that - from a … Continue reading “Predisposition” in Tarot Reading
The Art of the Draw: Card-Pulling Strategies
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The originator of a recent r/SecularTarot sub-reddit thread asked about the best way to pull cards: "Should I shuffle until I'm satisfied, let the cards 'come to me,' pick however I want, or another approach?" Here is my answer: As a convenient way to add structure to any pull, I normally use positional … Continue reading The Art of the Draw: Card-Pulling Strategies
The Problem of Replication in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not a scientist by education or profession, but my understanding of the cardinal rule for any scientific experiment is that, to be accepted as legitimate, the conclusions must be reproducible (i.e. "replicable") with a high degree of confidence via later independent trials, ideally at an unaffiliated laboratory. I'm also not an occult … Continue reading The Problem of Replication in Tarot Reading
Logic and Imagination: The Twin Pillars of Secular Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just rejoined the r/SecularTarot sub-reddit feed, and another member asked how the secular diviner reads the cards without mystical input. Lately I've been thinking of myself more as a "rational" reader than a "spiritual" or "psychological" one, so in answer to this request I decided to summarize where I've landed since I … Continue reading Logic and Imagination: The Twin Pillars of Secular Tarot Reading
The Anecdotal Angle in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The reliability of highly speculative forms of divination like cartomancy is an open question that is normally approached from an anecdotal angle. Did the querent experience the outcome exactly as described in the forecast? A more empirical viewpoint would seek to quantify the results based on more than just subjective perception, perhaps along … Continue reading The Anecdotal Angle in Divination
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 