AUTHOR'S NOTE: Buried in the strident chorus of "Just go with what you feel!" and "You don't have to read books!" emitted in self-righteous certitude by a significant percentage of 21st-Century tarot "influencers," an occasional quiet voice is raised in defense of developing a method of reading the cards that is both rational and instinctual. … Continue reading Structured Intuition
Tarot Theory
The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I sometimes encounter people online who will only read a random cluster of cards with no formal spread positions. I've created a few layouts that embrace that kind of neutrality and here is the latest one, although it goes from scattered to structured in three operations. It owes its premise to two-thirds of … Continue reading The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
A Case for Tarot Divination (with Insights on Self-Reading)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Michael Snuffin's The Thoth Companion, I encountered one of the most lucid explanations of the goals and methods as well as the advantages of performing divination with the tarot cards that I have ever seen in print. I'm summarizing it here since so much of it agrees with my own beliefs. … Continue reading A Case for Tarot Divination (with Insights on Self-Reading)
The Role of Rhythm in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading an interview with Robert de Niro in which the actor observed that every dramatic character has a "rhythm" that must be internalized in order to convincingly master the role. It struck me that a competent tarot reading exhibits a similar rhythm that is often a function of the spread … Continue reading The Role of Rhythm in Tarot Reading
The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm endlessly annoyed by the popular opinion that the 3 of Swords is a card of devastating emotional suffering and heartbreak. C'mon, people, it's a low-numbered Air card; any pain will most likely be short-and-sharp, more a flesh wound than a disemboweling gash, and more commonly mind-centered than heart-centered. I've even seen it … Continue reading The 3 of Swords: Where’s the Blood?
The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written frequently in the past about the fact that the insurmountable obstacles to an agreeable outcome shown in the Waite-Smith 8 of Swords can be circumvented by the compromised woman - whose feet are unbound - "feeling her way" along the watercourse to escape off the lower-right corner of the card. (When … Continue reading The 8 of Swords: Solving the Dilemma
Personalizing the Princesses
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In my previous essay on assigning tarot court cards to the Sun, Moon and Ascendant degrees of the natal horoscope, I promised to address how the multi-sign Princesses of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley can brought into the same model. Here goes! It is a traditional assumption that each King has mastered … Continue reading Personalizing the Princesses
The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been entirely satisfied with the title "Strength" (or its precursor, the Golden Dawn's "Lord of Great Strength") for the Thoth 9 of Wands as signifying the Moon in Sagittarius. The Moon is not particularly forceful at the best of times and Sagittarius is the most muted of the Fire signs. Crowley … Continue reading The Thoth 9 of Wands: Strength in Opposition
The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste" (Jagger/Richards) AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book The Thoth Companion, Michael Snuffin expounds upon the "goat" symbolism on the Queen of Disks card by noting that "A goat stands on a second golden orb in the foreground, which represents the Sun in Capricorn, … Continue reading The Ideal Consort: The Devil and the Queen of Disks
Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Distillation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before I cover the technical definitions, I want to suggest another word for distillation: sublimation, as in refining or purifying something of an inferior quality to elevate it to a condition of surpassing excellence. In spiritual alchemy the mode of self-realization begins to evolve in a more rarefied direction. In traditional alchemy, distillation … Continue reading Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Distillation
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 