AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I've mentioned before, I spent the better part of 40 years (not very diligently) trying to get my head around Temperance in a pragmatic way because the alchemical baggage associated with it defied easy translation into terms that would make sense in a mundane reading. Once I accomplished that feat I turned … Continue reading “Don’t Rock the Boat!” – The Secular Hierophant
Trumps
The “Soft Landing”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although it still surfaces occasionally among new students, the outdated opinion that the upside-down orientation of a tarot card automatically overrules and refutes the upright meaning doesn't get much play these days. The implications of reversal are now understood to be far more subtle and nuanced, even beyond the typical assumptions of "blockage" … Continue reading The “Soft Landing”
Sowing Dragon’s Teeth in the Garden of Death
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For post number 1,900 I thought I would tackle something a bit more profound. In her essay on the Death card, Sallie Nichols notes that the severed heads, hands and feet on the ground beneath the skeleton in the Tarot de Marseille version don't appear to have been dismembered and strewn about haphazardly, … Continue reading Sowing Dragon’s Teeth in the Garden of Death
Run, Don’t Walk – A Critique of “Pathworking”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was recently criticized in an online forum for having chosen long ago to avoid taking a "deep dive" into the tarot by not using the Major Arcana for "scrying in the astral vision." I decided to respond with this broadside. I think these matters deserve a mentor (I'm not volunteering!) since they … Continue reading Run, Don’t Walk – A Critique of “Pathworking”
Negative Energies and the “Dance of Liberation”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Despite the Zen-like title, I'm not going to take this essay in a philosophical direction (at least not entirely); my objective is to "normalize" (i.e. standardize) our approach to patently inauspicious tarot cards that will offer more substance than simply insisting "There are no bad cards." In her discussion of the Hanged Man … Continue reading Negative Energies and the “Dance of Liberation”
Circular Thinking and the “Simultaneity of All Opposites”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Wheel of Fortune is a card that is passed over lightly by many tarot writers, and by most readers who think they know exactly what it means: some kind of change that can go either way, favorable or unfavorable. The reading then moves on to the next card in the spread to … Continue reading Circular Thinking and the “Simultaneity of All Opposites”
Further Thoughts on the “Trump-Card Diamond”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Following up on my previous comments about inscribing an equilateral diamond (essentially a "tipped square") within the circumference of a circle, I decided to do just that with the double-triangle arrangement of trump cards from my earlier essay. Refer to the photograph below. (I did something similar with the pip and court cards … Continue reading Further Thoughts on the “Trump-Card Diamond”
“The Lover’s Escape” – Thoughts on the Chariot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading an interesting observation that the Chariot symbolizes the "escape" of the bemused Lover from the moral dilemma confronting him in the sixth arcanum. He was standing at a crossroads between two women who sought his favor, hemmed in on both sides (with Eros hovering above) and needing to find … Continue reading “The Lover’s Escape” – Thoughts on the Chariot
Higher Octaves: The Outer Planet Conundrum
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Aleister Crowley's Eight Lectures on Yoga, I came across his brief analysis of the ten planets of astrology, the seven "classical" orbs of the ancients and (at least in part) the three modern planets. Back in the 1970s, esoteric astrologers considered Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to represent the "higher octaves" of … Continue reading Higher Octaves: The Outer Planet Conundrum
The “Triangle of Intention” Self-Realization Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across the statement that Pythagoras considered Three to be the first "true" number because it creates the triangle, which is the initial geometric shape and first planar figure that is comprehensible to human intelligence (the philosophical derivation of the Circle seems more mystical than mathematical, or maybe an accidental product … Continue reading The “Triangle of Intention” Self-Realization Spread
