AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several times in the past I've come across arrangements of the 22 trump cards (aka "Major Arcana") in which the Fool is set apart from the other 21 cards. Most often it is placed above the rest, but my personal preference is to lay it adjacent to but separate from the middle row … Continue reading An Inconvenient Sidekick
Trumps
“Patience Is A Virtue:” A Tarot Perspective
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It goes without saying that most of the cards of the tarot imply some kind of "movement," if only because nearly every reading is about personal growth or situational development. But there are a number of cards that embrace the idea of "patience" in the form of refraining from immediate action, or that … Continue reading “Patience Is A Virtue:” A Tarot Perspective
The “Window of Opportunity”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here are a few more thoughts on "opportunity" as expressed by the cards of the tarot. Any discussion of the effective duration of a tarot reading (i.e. how long it is "good" for) carries the implication that there is a "window of opportunity" for action in the matter that will close sooner or … Continue reading The “Window of Opportunity”
A French Cross Experiment: The Summer Solstice and the Birthday Boy
Since the Summer Solstice is also my birthday, I decided to experiment with the French Cross spread (tirage en croix) that I just learned a few things about. Because both of these events are kind of a "big deal" (one globally - or at least in the Northern Hemisphere - and the other personally) I … Continue reading A French Cross Experiment: The Summer Solstice and the Birthday Boy
Justice By Extension
GRATUITOUS UPDATE: I just came across a "Kabbalistic" definition of "good vision" that I wanted to amend for this post: "20/20 vision is not the ability to see far but the ability to see clearly and accurately that which is right under your nose," a cautionary message for the 2 and 8 of Swords. We … Continue reading Justice By Extension
Sublimation as a Reading Strategy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I'm using it here, to "sublimate" something means to "elevate it to a higher order of excellence." I'm focusing this principle on the problem of how to deal in a constructive way with particularly discouraging cards in a tarot reading that stubbornly resist interpretive mitigation. We may not be rewarded with a … Continue reading Sublimation as a Reading Strategy
A Confluence of Perfection: The Hermit by Threes
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several years ago I came across the revelation that the numbers Three, Six and Nine represent the "Three Perfections" of ancient Greek (or possibly Hindu) philosophy. I was unable to discover the historical source of this information, but the idea has stuck with me. The "magic number" in the following meditation is the … Continue reading A Confluence of Perfection: The Hermit by Threes
The Lovers and The Devil: “I Double-Dare Ya!”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third in my series of essays examining the trump cards of the tarot as "numerological counterparts" that present "alike but different" versions of a common theme. This time I'm looking at two cards that express the number "6," those "strange bedfellows" the Lovers (VI) and the Devil (15=1+5=6). Esoterically, Six … Continue reading The Lovers and The Devil: “I Double-Dare Ya!”
“This Changes Everything”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I sometimes think that history could not have played a more malicious prank on the earnest 21st-Century diviner than the Death card. Cherry Gilchrist is undoubtedly correct in asserting that many of the trump-card images as we know them originated as "triumphs" ("parade floats") in the processional queue of a Medieval pageant, and … Continue reading “This Changes Everything”
The Chariot and The Tower: “Risky Business”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second essay in what may become a series where I take a structured look at "numerological counterparts" among the trump cards as "alike but different" expressions of a common theme. Here I'm tackling The Chariot (7) and its counterpart, The Tower (16=1+6=7). In approaching this subject, I recognized that both … Continue reading The Chariot and The Tower: “Risky Business”
