AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm using the analogy of a telescope to examine the transition between the three consecutive "lights" of the Major Arcana. As the series of tarot trumps nears its end, we are faced with the necessity of refocusing our view of the world from all angles - mental. emotional, spiritual and practical - … Continue reading The Star, the Moon and the Sun: An Optical Analogy
Trumps
Anchoring the Abstract
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many years ago in Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom, I encountered the 21-card, 7x3 tableau of tarot trumps (the Fool was set aside as a "thing apart"). The arrangement ran from the Magician at the top-left to the World at the bottom-right. More recently, I came across it again in Sallie Nichols' … Continue reading Anchoring the Abstract
The Vertical Sword: “Lighting Rod of Inspiration”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been contemplating the notion that any single, vertical sword shown in a tarot card can act as a "lightning rod" that conducts focused inspiration directly into the subject of a reading. I'm indebted to Sallie Nichols for bringing this to my attention as it relates to the raised sword of Justice that … Continue reading The Vertical Sword: “Lighting Rod of Inspiration”
“Don’t Rock the Boat!” – The Secular Hierophant
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
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although it still surfaces occasionally among new students, the outdated opinion that the upside-down orientation of a tarot card automatically overrules and refutes the upright meaning doesn't get much play these days.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”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 