AUTHOR'S NOTE: When using a tarot spread with defined position meanings, synthesizing the key points to form a single coherent narrative offers inevitable comparisons to assembling a jigsaw puzzle in which each card contributes one - and only one - irreplaceable "piece of the puzzle" as determined by its positional import. On the other hand, … Continue reading Assembling a Puzzle or Building a Bridge: Two Modes of Tarot Divination
Tarot Techniques
“Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Scrying in the spirit vision" is an occult practice involving out-of-body exploration (or, if you prefer, "astral travel") that is more focused and directed than the spontaneous act of intuitive discernment commonly used in divination. (Classically, one visualizes and enters the "body of light," projecting it onto the Astral Plane and moving about … Continue reading “Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
“Liberating” The Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his fictionalized biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Irving Stone put words in the sculptor's mouth to the effect that, in order to carve a statue of a horse from a block of marble, all he had to do was "remove everything that isn't horse." He was in effect freeing his vision from its … Continue reading “Liberating” The Tarot Reading
Personalizing Taoist Cosmology: Natal Planets and the Five Agents of Change
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In a previous post I explored the Taoist "Five Agents of Change" (Wu Xing) as encompassed by the twin cycles of creation and destruction in the order Wood-Fire-Earth-Metal-Water. I decided to take the Minor Arcana cards associated with the five personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) of my natal horoscope and … Continue reading Personalizing Taoist Cosmology: Natal Planets and the Five Agents of Change
Trumps and Trigrams: A Syncretic Exercise
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my recent essay (linked below) on syncretism between Western astrology and the I Ching, I correlated the twelve Ptolemaic signs of the zodiac with the eight I Ching trigrams and, via synthesis between consecutive signs, with twelve of the 64 hexagrams. In doing so I resorted to a good deal of inspiration, … Continue reading Trumps and Trigrams: A Syncretic Exercise
Pressure-Points: Triggering a Reaction
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'll flatter myself by saying that I do some of my best tarot writing (as well as tarot divination) via the use of storytelling tropes (and humor, but that's more incidental). I've settled on two analogies to bulk up the present, rather slender topic. The first is an electronic "touch screen" with its … Continue reading Pressure-Points: Triggering a Reaction
Up-slopes, Down-slopes and Flat-lines: A Three-Tier Tarot Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm posing the question "Which of three typical 'motifs' will form the core of a tarot reading and have the most to say about the situation?" In this experiment I'm attempting to craft an approach that separates the cards pulled for a reading into three situational scenarios indicating the path the narrative … Continue reading Up-slopes, Down-slopes and Flat-lines: A Three-Tier Tarot Spread
Mission Impossible?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Can tarot really tell the future?" Tarot readers gnaw on this question endlessly the way a dog worries a well-chewed bone, and it frequently comes up in online discussion groups. Judging from the number of comments I've seen, it often feels like there are as many contentious opinions about it as there are … Continue reading Mission Impossible?
“The Fix is In!” – Invoking Tarot Energy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This tarot-based technique for magically imposing one's personal Will on circumstances is based on the concept of intention. If we "intend" something strongly enough we will ideally achieve its realization without "getting our hands dirty." As long as it isn't harmful to others (and if it is, the Wiccan "Three-fold Law" might kick … Continue reading “The Fix is In!” – Invoking Tarot Energy
“The Arduous Path” – Walking the Talk
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As the theme for this essay I'll trot out my slightly cynical version of the hackneyed aphorism: "It's all good . . . except when it isn't." Because I detect a certain weary resignation in the voices of those who use the original as a justification for accepting less-than-ideal conditions, it has always … Continue reading “The Arduous Path” – Walking the Talk
