AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a spread that takes its design from the directional model of horary astrology while also offering an opportunity to bring the pendulum into play. In horary astrology, the geographic location of the astrologer and not that of the querent or the "quesited" (that which is being asked about) is a key … Continue reading The “Tarot of Place” Situational Outlook Spread
Tarot Theory
Reading Skills: Black & White or Technicolor?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: These are entirely my own opinions about what it takes to become an effective tarot reader in a face-to-face setting, based on over five decades of practice. (Online reading doesn't count since it is not an interactive art requiring presentation skills; it falls under the "black & white" category of the title.) This … Continue reading Reading Skills: Black & White or Technicolor?
“Turning the Page”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's a rare diviner who doesn't occasionally encounter an almost entirely neutral tarot reading, one that is about as exciting as dishwater, and who doesn't have a good feel for how to shine a constructive light on the forecast. A common practice is to simply keep pulling cards until something more inspiring or … Continue reading “Turning the Page”
Tarot and Astrology: Convergence or Collision?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I was already a natal astrologer of the "psychological" school and had been for a couple of years before I began pursuing tarot study and practice in a systematic (primarily esoteric) way. So I have an abiding appreciation for astrological principles even though … Continue reading Tarot and Astrology: Convergence or Collision?
Sublimation as a Reading Strategy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I'm using it here, to "sublimate" something means to "elevate it to a higher order of excellence." I'm focusing this principle on the problem of how to deal in a constructive way with particularly discouraging cards in a tarot reading that stubbornly resist interpretive mitigation. We may not be rewarded with a … Continue reading Sublimation as a Reading Strategy
Tarot Worldview: A Matter of Perspective
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Germans have a precise but rather fierce-sounding word for it: weltanschauung. As an esoteric thinker with Germanic roots and a decidedly rational (as well as curmudgeonly) approach to tarot matters, I've always had reservations about the metaphysical worldview that assumes everything in existence is mystically entwined in a matrix of perfect congruence, … Continue reading Tarot Worldview: A Matter of Perspective
A Confluence of Perfection: The Hermit by Threes
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several years ago I came across the revelation that the numbers Three, Six and Nine represent the "Three Perfections" of ancient Greek (or possibly Hindu) philosophy. I was unable to discover the historical source of this information, but the idea has stuck with me. The "magic number" in the following meditation is the … Continue reading A Confluence of Perfection: The Hermit by Threes
Mental Over-steering: Mercury and the Tarot Eights
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the Book of Thoth Aleister Crowley expounds at length on the fact that the Sevens and Eights are unbalanced, "low down on the Tree and off the middle pillar." In the case of the Eights they represent an over-emphasis on intellectual rationalizing divorced from the more mystical, intuitive and fluid outlook of … Continue reading Mental Over-steering: Mercury and the Tarot Eights
The “Elemental Grab-Bag” Four-Mode Answer Spread
Here is another spread that uses a "prepared" deck with four elemental sub-packs, Fire, Water, Air and Earth. It applies "quintessence" cards to suggest external factors in the matter, but only if more than one column is being read as the answer to the question. A single-column interpretation is construed to mean that the matter … Continue reading The “Elemental Grab-Bag” Four-Mode Answer Spread
The Birth Card: A Matrixed Approach
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The subject of birth cards sometimes comes up in online discussions. Many people use a numerological approach, adding together the numerals for the day, month and year, reducing "Theosophically," and coming up with a Major Arcanum as a symbolic avatar that can be used as a "significator" in tarot readings. Here I'm looking … Continue reading The Birth Card: A Matrixed Approach
