Several years ago I was informed by someone with good credentials that there is no centuries-old tradition for performing divination with the Tarot de Marseille cards and their Italian Renaissance predecessors, all of which were originally used only for the playing of card games. The popular "French Cross" or tirage en croix spread has little … Continue reading TdM Divination, Approximately
TdM Material
A Meditation on “Oddness”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although as students and practitioners of the mystic arts we can be excused for often feeling "odd" in a world that rewards conformity, that's not what this essay is about. One of the most useful bits of metaphysical wisdom I've received from Joseph Maxwell's Tarot de Marseille book, The Tarot, is that the … Continue reading A Meditation on “Oddness”
Tarot and Transits: Energizing the Chaldean Decans
"These are the daysWhen you wish your bed was already made"from Manic Monday by The Bangles AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sounds like The Bangles needed a tarot-reader or an astrologer, not a housekeeper and a day-planner. Or maybe both. I'm here to help. In the past I spent a good deal of time correlating all of the … Continue reading Tarot and Transits: Energizing the Chaldean Decans
Balancing the Arcana: A Sun-Moon Example
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
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”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 