It's probably evident that I'm getting a lot of intellectual stimulation and pleasure (not to mention expository mileage) out of reading The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis, a thoughtful, scholarly study of Medieval cosmology that has intriguing implications for the Renaissance tarot. Here is another instance. At one point Lewis mentions that "night" in our … Continue reading Like Night and Day
Tarot Theory
The “Two-Trump Tango” Life-Reading Spread*
*(So named for no other reason than that it has a pleasing alliteration to it.) I've long held that, when they appear in a prediction, the tarot trump cards usually presage "matters of greater import" emerging in a person's life, while the rest of the cards are more about routine experiences and attitudes arising within … Continue reading The “Two-Trump Tango” Life-Reading Spread*
The Grand Illusion
My understanding from numerous on-line conversations with European tarot enthusiasts is that many of them use only the 22 trump cards in divination. I've tried this approach but it seems a bit too much like reading a text message that is all capital letters and exclamation marks (like a Donald Trump tweet). There can be … Continue reading The Grand Illusion
“Celestial Seeping”
As I work my way through The Discarded Image, an examination of Medieval cosmology by C.S. Lewis, I encountered an observation that seems to support my long-standing assumption - not my own idea but one I read somewhere - that the Hermetic Qabalah is to a large extent grounded in the Neo-Platonism that was grafted … Continue reading “Celestial Seeping”
A Baleful Thing?
Upon the recommendation of a fellow on-line "Tarot History" member, I've begun reading The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis, a study of Medieval literature and its iconography. At the very beginning of the Introduction I encountered a passage that stopped me in my tracks. He was talking about how, when we come upon "hard places" … Continue reading A Baleful Thing?
A Step Beyond
In the last few months I've read three tarot books that have caused me to move beyond my aversion to drawing additional "clarifier" cards during my readings, although in a very specific and limited way. This situation arises due to the facing (also known as "gaze," "regard," "gesture" or "posture") of the figures on the … Continue reading A Step Beyond
Hand Jive*
(*For those unfamiliar with it, the hand jive was a dance from the 1950s involving "a complicated pattern of hand moves." It brings to mind some of the elaborate manual maneuvers we make in preparing a tarot deck for a reading.) Last night I was reading Paul Huson's Mystical Origins of the Tarot and reached … Continue reading Hand Jive*
“Read ‘Em and Weep”
If your experience is similar to mine, you've most likely encountered reading situations where the cards drawn are so wildly at variance with the context of the question that you're hard-pressed to meet your professional obligation of giving your sitters something meaningful to work with. As you strive to salvage your credibility, it can seem … Continue reading “Read ‘Em and Weep”
Days Like This
As you probably know, I'm not a fan of the one-card daily draw because it's so static; you're stuck with its singular influence since there is little sense of movement or development in it unless you "intuit" such from free-association or your prior experience with the card. (In a previous post I called it the … Continue reading Days Like This
The “Trump-Card Interrogation” Spread
This spread is based on the work I did with Alejandro Jodorowsky's list of trump-card questions that I posted yesterday. It is one step above a general life-reading in level of detail and is intended for use when the sitter doesn't have a more personal question to ask of the cards. The spread begins with … Continue reading The “Trump-Card Interrogation” Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 