AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although this post is somewhat redundant to my "GT Architecture" presentation and has become divorced from it by intervening topics as well as decoupled in time, it's worth seeing all of the features combined in a single graphic.The array of cards surrounding the Significator Card (SC) in a Lenormand Grand Tableau is sometimes … Continue reading The Lenormand “GT Mandala”
Chasing Fate: Pulling the Thread on Trends
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's a well-worn cliche that nothing presented in a tarot reading is carved in stone; any outcome is subject to adjustment by timely action (and, it must be said, negligent inaction) of the seeker. However, there are cards that lean toward a fortunate outcome no matter how ill-favored they are by surrounding cards, … Continue reading Chasing Fate: Pulling the Thread on Trends
The Malleable Clay of Probability
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another 3:00 AM meditation that is trying to turn itself into a full-blown essay. Divination with the tarot cards is an unlikely craft that presumes to mold a reasonable approximation of upcoming circumstances from the malleable clay of probability with nothing more than the symbolic images on the cards and a … Continue reading The Malleable Clay of Probability
Why Ask “Why?”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Jungian tarot author Sallie Nichols made a strong case for why it isn't helpful to ask "Why?" of the tarot cards. I gave her a fair hearing but came away unconvinced. In her lengthy chapter on the Wheel of Fortune in Tarot and the Archetypal Journey (which I've been wading through in half-hour … Continue reading Why Ask “Why?”
Tarot Culture and “Toxic Introversion”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The subject of "toxicity" in human relations seems to be on a lot of minds lately. But I believe there is an equally noxious "disinclination to engage" in face-to-face terms, and that is my focus here. A pair of recent posts brought me to the contemplation of how this premise operates in modern … Continue reading Tarot Culture and “Toxic Introversion”
“Destruction of Illusion” – A Crowleyan Exercise
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This one has been in the queue for a while, but my recent essay on the Wheel of Fortune was a perfect lead-in to finally publishing it. The following quote from Aleister Crowley got me thinking about an intriguing way to harmonize the interaction of any two cards in a tarot deck. I'm … Continue reading “Destruction of Illusion” – A Crowleyan Exercise
Detachment, the Master Key to Objectivity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've yet to meet a tarot beginner who hasn't agonized over whether an emotionally unsteady state of mind will improperly bias the outcome when reading for themselves.* This can certainly happen (for example, in stressful romantic situations), but it doesn't have to. For the record, divination with the cards is an emotive storytelling … Continue reading Detachment, the Master Key to Objectivity
Kindness as the “Coin of the Realm”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It looks like "kindness" is the new social and cultural buzzword. Suddenly I'm seeing it everywhere: on bumper stickers, on window decals, on posters, on panhandlers' placards, even spray-painted on walls. I've been expecting the entrepreneurs to catch up with the phenomenon sooner or later, and I didn't have long to wait. If … Continue reading Kindness as the “Coin of the Realm”
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”
“The Kid-Glove Treatment:” A Soft Approach to Reversals
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This meditation on reversed cards joins more than a dozen other unconventional approaches I've already examined in past essays, while revisiting some of my earlier observations. (See my two "compendiums" [compendia?] of earlier posts on the subject elsewhere in this blog.) "Kid gloves" were made from the exceptionally supple hides of baby goats … Continue reading “The Kid-Glove Treatment:” A Soft Approach to Reversals
