For those who seek a more ""graded" supplement to intuitive appraisal of relationship potential, this is a spread that uses various forms of "dignity" (elemental; numerical; rank-based; astrological; shared traits; energy profile; etc) to judge the likelihood of affinity or disunity between two people (or other entities). Alignment or misalignment of these qualities between the … Continue reading Prospective Partners: A Quantitative Approach to Compatibility
Tarot Techniques
A Matter of “Expectation”
In The Grand Etteilla, a mid-19th-Century French compilation of informed opinion on Jean-Baptiste Alliette's late-18th-Century cartomantic deck of the same name, one snippet of text on the 6 of Clubs (Wands) assigns zero to "the world" (with a lower-case "w") and gives it the reversed keyword of "Expectation" (not "none" as one might reasonably assume … Continue reading A Matter of “Expectation”
The Hazards of “Clumping”
I've written previously on the subject of shuffling tarot decks, both the purpose and the practice. But the topic still comes up regularly on the tarot pages and feeds, which has caused me to once again sharpen my perspective. The "how" doesn't concern me as much as the "why." The commonly-held belief that we shuffle … Continue reading The Hazards of “Clumping”
Knights and Streetcars: “Coming and Going”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My wife dismisses blues music as "whining man" music (as in "My baby done left me and I'm feelin' lowdown and mean." But there is a bawdy old "whining woman" blues song from the early 20th Century that complains: "Men are like streetcars/They keep coming and going." (A similar modern version would be … Continue reading Knights and Streetcars: “Coming and Going”
The “Environmental” Yes-or-No Answer
I'm mildly amused by people who say "Tarot isn't meant for yes-or-no questions." I suspect that back in the 18th and 19th Centuries (before we went "all psychological and spiritual" with it) tarot wasn't used for much else but binary questions. The cards will basically do anything we require of them as long as we … Continue reading The “Environmental” Yes-or-No Answer
Reversed Cards and “Night-Crawler Hunting”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay presents the second epiphany I've gained from my reading of the 19th Century French tarot book, The Grand Etteilla. Whenever I encounter reversed cards in a reading and determine that they should be handled in a psychological rather than a pragmatic way, I often treat them as showing where subjective "inner … Continue reading Reversed Cards and “Night-Crawler Hunting”
A “Chaotic Complex” Random-Variable Life-Reading Spread
A couple of days ago a client asked me if I have any "chaos-based" spreads. I replied that I don't but then remembered that at an earlier time I had casually researched chaos theory, so I went back for another look. Although I have a few designs that nibble around the edges, I have none … Continue reading A “Chaotic Complex” Random-Variable Life-Reading Spread
The “Opportunity Spotter”
There is a certain queasiness in tarot circles about use of the term "fortune-teller" to describe what we do, as if we're contemplating the commission of a scurrilous or unclean act. The rational-sounding "psychological" approach to the tarot is usually trotted out to dispel any taint of moral impropriety that the mere mention of prognostication … Continue reading The “Opportunity Spotter”
The Gestalt Overview and the Hierarchy of Significance
A question came up recently on the r/tarot subreddit regarding the most effective way to build an overarching "big-picture" synopsis from the individual cards in a tarot spread. I prefer to think of the goal as avoiding the "Lego-block" mentality of simply stacking up keywords that often fail to jell into a convincing summary. Once … Continue reading The Gestalt Overview and the Hierarchy of Significance
A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 2
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is the "tarot" segment of my two-part analysis of the 2022 Congressional mid-term election. It turned out to be a nuanced and tricky reading. (I apologize in advance for the seemingly gratuitous use of quotes and parenthetical asides, but they're intended to season my rhetoric with anecdotal aptness.) Full Disclosure: For most … Continue reading A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 2
