AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading The Tarot of the Bohemians by "Papus" (Gerard Encausse) I came across an interesting approach to correlating the Major Arcana that was new to me. This is the last of my essays from the book unless I read it again at some point in the future. In line with his "positive-negative-neutral-transitional" … Continue reading Projection and Reflection: Trump-Card Pairs and Triplets
Tarot Techniques
A Valentine’s Day Mini-Tradition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post is kind of a "gimme" for my daily blog update since I've been bumping the attached analysis periodically on Valentine's Day since I first presented it in 2018. I have quite a few new followers who may not have seen it. Because love readings are such a large part of the … Continue reading A Valentine’s Day Mini-Tradition
“Putting A Face To It” – Physical Profiling with the Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Most of us have felt the quandary expressed in the trope "I know the name but I can't put a face to it." I'm often asked whether the court cards of the tarot can be used to reliably describe the physical characteristics of someone involved in the querent's life. Here is my answer … Continue reading “Putting A Face To It” – Physical Profiling with the Tarot
Breaking Into Spreads: A Beginner’s Syllabus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another essay prompted by a "frequently asked question" from the online tarot community. Tarot beginners who follow the conventional wisdom of learning the cards one-at-a-time, both in a sequential "card-a-day" manner and via single-card pulls, are often unsure how they can break out of that narrow box and into more complex … Continue reading Breaking Into Spreads: A Beginner’s Syllabus
Harbingers of Change
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every tarot card, no matter how static-seeming, is a harbinger of some kind of change, good or bad and great or small. In combination, the cards convey a "state of becoming" in the form of tendencies and trends rather than one of merely "being." Otherwise there would be no reason to include all … Continue reading Harbingers of Change
Papus and the “Universal Fluids”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I delve deeper into The Tarot of the Bohemians by "Papus" (Gerard Encausse), I've encountered his mystical take on the Kabbalistic concept of "the Descent of Spirit into Matter." Although my brain is starting to feel like a pretzel, I'm soldiering on and trying to render the best of it into comprehensible terms. … Continue reading Papus and the “Universal Fluids”
Lines, Circles and T-Squares: The Three-Card Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Dreams have a way of bringing things to your attention that would have never crossed your mind. This one sharpened my view of the three-card spread. A few days ago I dreamed I was having a conversation with a former subordinate (someone I haven't supervised in over twenty years) about the nature of … Continue reading Lines, Circles and T-Squares: The Three-Card Reading
Subconscious Bias in Remote Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a companion piece to my essay of yesterday. I've been spending some time on the r/seculartarot Reddit sub, where nobody believes in the power of divination. The difference between them and me is that I'm firmly convinced of French author Joseph Maxwell's premise that "coming events cast a shadow before them" … Continue reading Subconscious Bias in Remote Tarot Reading
“Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The more I read The Tarot of the Bohemians by Gerard Encausse ("Papus"), the more respect I have for his wisdom (at least until he wanders off into Theosophy and loses me). When - in his discussion of science - he says that "observation and experience are only instruments" of intuition (the cognitive … Continue reading “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”
The Third Principle
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus covered a minor point that I've explored in much greater detail in my own work over the last few years, although at the time I had no idea I was echoing a nearly 150-year-old numerological concept. He proposed treating the second of two cards in a non-adjacent … Continue reading The Third Principle
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 