I've used the venerable Celtic Cross spread during most of my long involvement with the tarot, having first encountered it in Eden Gray's book The Tarot Revealed in 1972. At the time I didn't realize that Gray had taken a few liberties with A.E. Waite's original, and I found her version to be remarkably effective. … Continue reading Dissecting the Celtic Cross
Tarot Theory
The Repurposed Significator: A Comprehensive Overview
In previous posts I've mentioned the idea of reinstating the Significator card in my Celtic Cross readings (something I did away with as unnecessary a while ago) for the sole purpose of identifying through its facing whether the querent is consciously focused (or unconsciously fixated) on the past, the present or the future of the … Continue reading The Repurposed Significator: A Comprehensive Overview
Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
The thing that is most obvious when examining the two cards of the title is that the figure on each is manipulating a fluid that has been symbolically linked to the ethereal elixir of Spirit. Temperance is sloshing it back-and-forth between two chalices (and much has been made of the fact that, in the Waite-Smith … Continue reading Temperance, the Star and the Water of Spirit
Time’s Up! Further Thoughts on Tarot Timing
A logical follow-up to my post on "timing cards" (https://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com/2019/07/10/rare-medium-or-well-done-a-timing-card-experiment/) is to find a consistent way to bring them to bear in any spread. The most obvious solution would be to simply apply my table to the "outcome" card, but not all of my spreads have outcome cards as such. A better approach may be … Continue reading Time’s Up! Further Thoughts on Tarot Timing
Virtue Is As Virtue Does
. . . or something like that. The uncertainty over which tarot trump card represents which of the four cardinal and three "theological" virtues is a continuing source of on-line debate. As a non-religious person I don't bother much (or at all) with the Christian virtues in a tarot reading, but I am intrigued by … Continue reading Virtue Is As Virtue Does
The Proverbial “Spaniard:” An I Ching/Tarot Reading Attempt
John Lennon once wrote a book called A Spaniard in the Works. Its title appears to have been a puckish allusion to the British expression for an unforeseen problem: "a spanner in the works." As it turned out when I attempted to use this spread, my memory was faulty. Not all of the Thoth Minor … Continue reading The Proverbial “Spaniard:” An I Ching/Tarot Reading Attempt
An I Ching/Tarot Problem-Solving Spread
This is my first attempt at fashioning a practical spread from a combination of the I Ching and the tarot. The decks I intend to be used are Anthony Clark's I Ching Pack, which has direct correspondences to the hexagrams; the Thoth deck with its association to the hexagrams through Aleister Crowley's commentary in The … Continue reading An I Ching/Tarot Problem-Solving Spread
A New Chapter: I Ching and Tarot
Over the years, as I've worked my way several times through Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth, I've pondered his references to I Ching hexagrams in his commentary on the cards of the Minor Arcana but I've never done anything practical with that information. I also own the Thoth-based Haindl tarot deck, which has the hexagrams … Continue reading A New Chapter: I Ching and Tarot
Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
This spread serves two purposes: its more obvious aim is to forecast the likely weather conditions for a planned outdoor event or travel situation. Its more abstract objective is to serve as a data-collection tool for determining how effective prediction is with the cards. One of the chief weaknesses in cartomantic prognostication is that so … Continue reading Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
The “Shadow-Play” Motivational Awareness Spread
As a spin-off of my "House System for Tarot" post, I created a spread that draws the house cards from the bottom of the deck as shadow-card companions to the more outwardly explicit cards pulled from the top of the deck. These cards will show underlying motives or causes that affect the outer aspects of … Continue reading The “Shadow-Play” Motivational Awareness Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 