Here is a twist on the business startup spread. The premise behind this layout is that the reader has some leeway (and responsibility) in hand-picking (from a randomly-drawn sub-set) the best cards to support an entrepreneur's objectives in mounting a new business venture, as represented by an intentionally-selected "Business Venture" trump card. The idea is … Continue reading The “A La Carte” Business Development Spread
Tarot Techniques
2022 and the Nature of “Six-ness” – “Pleasure with Pain for Leaven”
Author's Note: Here is a meditation on the nature of "Six-ness" as it applies to the year ahead. (Please forgive the cynic in me, it's irrepressible.) This is the time of year when everyone and their psychic brother (or, more plausibly, sister, daughter, mother, aunt or grandmother) will be doing an annual forecast for 2022. … Continue reading 2022 and the Nature of “Six-ness” – “Pleasure with Pain for Leaven”
“Passing the Monkey” – A Problem-Solving Spread
We have all been in situations that make us squirm uncomfortably, wishing with all our heart that we could "get off the hot seat" or "out from under the microscope." I was just reading some commentary about an old Harvard Business Review book titled Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? by William Oncken and Donald … Continue reading “Passing the Monkey” – A Problem-Solving Spread
The Impressionistic Tarot – “”What-If?” or “So-What?”
(NOTE: I'm not talking about a particular deck here, just a method of reading the cards.) It's undeniable that I'm more literal (some might say "clinical") than mystical in the way I go about dissecting the meaning of a tarot card. I start with a firm footing in the traditional definitions that have adhered to … Continue reading The Impressionistic Tarot – “”What-If?” or “So-What?”
Chasing the Sun and Moon: The Astro-Psychology of the Major Arcana
According to the psychological astrology that had its roots in the groundbreaking work of Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones and its initial flowering during the 1970s, the zodiacal (sign) placement of the Sun shows our Ego-center or, in more poetical terms, how we can "shine" most brightly in our personal self-expression (the house placement … Continue reading Chasing the Sun and Moon: The Astro-Psychology of the Major Arcana
The “Three-Part Cacophony” Reading Method: One Part Melody, Two Parts Counterpoint
Here's one from "way out in left field;" I chose "Cacophony" because "harmony" is never a foregone conclusion in a tarot reading. This layout has some similarities to the Celtic Cross (CC) in the way it is read, but the structure differs, the number of "developmental" cards is flexible and there are fewer fixed position … Continue reading The “Three-Part Cacophony” Reading Method: One Part Melody, Two Parts Counterpoint
A Reasonable Assumption
As regular readers of this blog know, I'm not an advocate of remote tarot reading of any kind although, with COVID keeping me away from "live" divination venues for the foreseeable future, I've been doing a few of them by email. The thought struck me that useful parallels might be drawn between the conventions of … Continue reading A Reasonable Assumption
Garbage In, Garbage Out
This is likely to be a controversial subject. There is an old tenet from computer science that goes: "Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that flawed, or nonsense input data produces nonsense output or 'garbage.' The principle also applies more generally to all analysis and logic, in that arguments are unsound if their … Continue reading Garbage In, Garbage Out
The “12 Modes of Consciousness” Spread
Although I'm no fan of using tarot for psychological profiling (which is better served by natal astrology), preferring instead a more action-and-event-oriented approach, here is a spread that adopts a creative spin on the four cognitive functions of Carl Jung. Reversals may be used to show a further elaboration of the inner landscape.
The Virtue of Simplicity
As time goes on I find myself drawn more and more to working with only the 56 Minor Arcana cards in divination. Granted, the 22 Major Arcana are where most of the philosophical "meat" lies in the tarot, but very few of my readings rise to that level of metaphysical complexity and intensity. Most of … Continue reading The Virtue of Simplicity
