AUTHOR'S NOTE: Having returned to New Hampshire after a month in the Florida sunshine, I've picked up reading Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Way of Tarot again during my morning treadmill sessions. I'm now pondering his discussion of three-card combinations that exhibit a revolving, left-to-right order of presentation, in which the diversity of the three-way distribution alters … Continue reading Balancing the Arcana: A Sun-Moon Example
TdM Material
Active and Passive Dynamics
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The next major milestone on the road to mastery for the neophyte tarot reader after internalizing the card meanings (as opposed to merely memorizing or looking them up) is to begin synthesizing the interpretation of all the cards in a spread to form a seamless narrative. (I often describe early efforts in this … Continue reading Active and Passive Dynamics
Mission Improbable?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the past I've written about the subject of "facing" (gaze or regard) of the figures on the tarot cards. Here I'm going to address the related topic of gesture or posture, at least to the extent that it applies to the scope of this essay. As I wind down my second pass … Continue reading Mission Improbable?
Horizontal and Vertical Orientation: A Study in Contrasts
AUTHOR'S NOTE: More inspiration from Alejandro Jodorowsky. In The Way of Tarot, Jodorowsky talks about certain trump cards that exhibit a horizontal orientation and thereby symbolize "action in the world," while others align vertically and emphasize interaction between the plane of Earth and the spiritual (or in some cases, infernal) regions. His representative examples were … Continue reading Horizontal and Vertical Orientation: A Study in Contrasts
The Importance of “Focus”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While ordering my thoughts for this essay, I toyed with the idea of talking about "landscape" and "distance" (near, middle and far) as displayed in the scenic cards of the tarot, since both imply "action in the world" (Alejandro Jodorowsky's supple phrase) that can be explored during the interpretation. But then I realized … Continue reading The Importance of “Focus”
The Court Cards as “Decimal Equivalents”
I've been working with the concept of "Theosophical reduction" (adding together and reducing the digits of a composite number to produce a simple, one-factor sum) for so long that I've been more than a little skeptical of Alejandro Jodorowsky's notion of "decimal equivalency" between the double-digit and single-digit cards of the Major Arcana. His premise … Continue reading The Court Cards as “Decimal Equivalents”
Knights as “Messengers”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I continue to pick apart Alejandro Jodorowsky's thinking while wading through The Way of Tarot a second time, I encountered another instance of differing opinion among the general tarot population. I should probably mention that the book is so crammed with ideas that each successive page threatens to crowd out what I … Continue reading Knights as “Messengers”
The Color of Wisdom
In The Way of Tarot, Alejandro Jodorowsky describes the color violet (one of the least prominent colors in his version of the Tarot de Marseille) as the "color of wisdom." As a graphic artist I consider violet a "secondary" color that is a blend of the primary colors red and blue. In esoteric color theory, … Continue reading The Color of Wisdom
Jodo’s Numerical Counterparts: “VI in the Ones Place”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I first came across the idea of "numerological counterparts" for the Major Arcana in the companion book to the Druid Craft Tarot by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. It was derived in the same way as the "quintessence" card, but here is a slightly more involved method. In The Way of Tarot, Alejandro Jodorowsky … Continue reading Jodo’s Numerical Counterparts: “VI in the Ones Place”
“Dreams and Mystification”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not a huge fan of this book but it does have its moments of lucidity. (Some may recall that Jodorowsky was a fiercely iconoclastic and surrealistic film-maker in the '70s [El Topo, The Holy Mountain, etc], which may explain his singular and often peculiar notions about the tarot.) As I begin re-reading … Continue reading “Dreams and Mystification”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 