Tarot author Tony Willis just posted a new article on auntietarot about the 14th trump card, Temperance. (https://auntietarot.wordpress.com/) Most of it is an exhaustive and well-written recapitulation of ideas that I've come across before, but I took one entirely new concept away from my reading of his observations: that of "reversibility." The thought is that … Continue reading Further Musings on Temperance
Trumps
The Wheel and the World: Jupiter and Saturn
One time over thirty years ago, when I was still very much a novice astrologer with loads of book learning but little practical experience, I was brought up short by someone who obviously had slightly more of the latter. I had made an off-hand remark about Jupiter and Saturn being the “social” planets, bridging the … Continue reading The Wheel and the World: Jupiter and Saturn
Of Ants and Grasshoppers
If I may exercise a little alchemical "creative license" here, in the last half of the Fool's Journey, it is the Hanged Man's mission to submit to sacrifice on the altar of Justice, then undergo radical reduction (Death), transmutation (Temperance), testing (Devil), purification (Tower), sublimation (Star), infusion (Moon), revitalization, (Sun) retrial (Judgement) and restoration (World). … Continue reading Of Ants and Grasshoppers
Jiggery-Pokery
“Hey, Rock, watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat!” The modern tarot Magician began life as “le Bateleur,” a clever, street-wise conjurer skilled at juggling and ingenious sleight-of-hand diversions or, alternatively, a cunning mountebank, charlatan or trickster. The only thing “occult” about him was what he chose to keep hidden from the gaze … Continue reading Jiggery-Pokery
The Fool Abides
When is a Fool not an utter fool? When he's given a mission, obviously, regardless of his readiness to undertake it. In the annals of tarot's "creation myth," the Fool was a stereotype of the medieval court jester, a madman in motley and bells. I sometimes wonder how many of those historical fools had a … Continue reading The Fool Abides
A Candle in the Darkness
I've always thought that hermits and remote caves go together like bread-and-butter, pretzels-and-beer or salt-and-pepper; the sequestered hermit covets outer solitude to stimulate his inner vision. So what's this guy doing out of his hole and on a mountain-top in the middle of the night? The answer would seem to be "aspiring;" he stands at … Continue reading A Candle in the Darkness
“Who’s the Boss?”
I once had a 95-pound German Shepard who fully understood the authoritarian zeal of the Emperor. He was big and strong enough to have ripped my throat out, so every informal training session included a demonstration of my "alpha male" superiority. He loved to mock-fight, so I used to don a pair of heavy work … Continue reading “Who’s the Boss?”
Extreme Makeover: Imperatrix to Earth Mother
The esoteric revisionism of the 18th and 19th Centuries produced many imaginative additions to the existing lexicon of divinatory keywords for the tarot trump cards, which was previously anemic at best. What was once a simple court jester - and mad at that - became a "wise Fool" with a mission, what began as an … Continue reading Extreme Makeover: Imperatrix to Earth Mother
Leaving the Crossroads: A Chariot to Go
In reading Roberts Place's volume, The Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination, I encountered his association of Plato's threefold subdivision of the human soul with the septenary (3x7) arrangement of the tarot trumps (the Fool is set apart as a “wild card”). Plato's unevolved “soul of appetite” corresponds to the seven-card series from the Magician to … Continue reading Leaving the Crossroads: A Chariot to Go
The Moon, Pisces and the High Priestess
Since we've been having an interesting discussion about the nature of the High Priestess, I thought I would refresh a debate we once had on the Aeclectic Tarot forum about its astrological assignment and that of the tarot Moon. First some background that will bring this into focus. Someone asked about the difference between the … Continue reading The Moon, Pisces and the High Priestess
