AUTHOR'S NOTE: The r/tarot sub-reddit feed is turning out to be a gold-mine of inspiration now that I've dumped my Facebook account. Here is an essay based on a thread about reading reversed cards in an integrated way that looks at their interaction with the rest of the cards in a spread. First a condensed … Continue reading Reversal As Out-of-Sync Energy
“Enlightened” vs. “Renegade” Skepticism in Metaphysics
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was more than a little surprised at the intensity of religious fervor in the r/occult reddit community when the subject of Christianity came up in the form of trying to "awaken" someone from its less-credible mystical assertions. I didn't originate the thread, only observed it, so I didn't dare say a word … Continue reading “Enlightened” vs. “Renegade” Skepticism in Metaphysics
Frank Herbert and Dean Radin on Prescience
“I know the trap of prescience . . . to know the future absolutely is to be trapped into that future absolutely. It collapses time. Present becomes future. It’s a subtle and powerful thing, prescience. The future becomes now." AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the above quote, Dune author Frank Herbert expressed fear of being trapped in … Continue reading Frank Herbert and Dean Radin on Prescience
Dysfunctional Psionics: Reverse Telepathy, Thought-Bombing and Risky Jaunting
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My contemplation of the scientific experiments of Dr. Dean Radin in the subtle field of psionics (Real Magic, 2018) brought me back to one of my favorite fictional explorations of psychic ability. Think of it as a nightmare vision of an unlikely future. In his 1956 science-fiction novel The Stars My Destination,* Alfred … Continue reading Dysfunctional Psionics: Reverse Telepathy, Thought-Bombing and Risky Jaunting
The Slippery Slope of “Truth According to Tarot”
"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."- Wolfgang Pauli AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'll preface my remarks by noting that tarot's field of operation - the subconscious mind - can itself be a "slippery slope" that tilts away from where our conscious intentions want to go. We have no immediate control over its orientation and can only … Continue reading The Slippery Slope of “Truth According to Tarot”
Mental Gender, the Tree of Life and the Tarot Trumps
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In presenting the seventh "Great Hermetic Principle" of Gender (as an active/passive mental polarity rather than a biological duality), The Kybalion describes the masculine principle as the domain of the Will, which is dynamic and energizing, and its feminine counterpart as uncommonly responsive and generative in that it welcomes the motivating impulse of … Continue reading Mental Gender, the Tree of Life and the Tarot Trumps
Immodest Claims: The Cult of “Thems That Think They Knows”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In their debut recording Bert and I . . . and Other Stories from Down East, rustic Maine humorists Robert Bryan and Marshall Dodge referred slyly to "thems that knows" in one of the monologues. I recall this quip whenever I encounter the tarot community's online ranks of zealous Jungian partisans who are … Continue reading Immodest Claims: The Cult of “Thems That Think They Knows”
Pre-Conditioning and Pre-Positioning: The Twin Roots of Cause-and-Effect
"There is always a 'cause' and a 'because' for every event. Nothing ever 'happens' without a cause, or rather a chain of causes. There is a continuity between all events precedent, consequent and subsequent. There is a relation existing between everything that has gone before, and everything that follows."- from The Kybalion by "Three Initiates" … Continue reading Pre-Conditioning and Pre-Positioning: The Twin Roots of Cause-and-Effect
Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In its lengthy dissertation on the reciprocal "separating and compensating" action of a swinging pendulum as envisioned in Hermetic thought, The Kybalion observes that it is the goal of an aspiring master to "get off the treadmill" (my own phrase for it) by rising above the mindless tide of repetition and refusing to … Continue reading Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is no concept more widely endorsed in the divination community than that of peppering (aka empowering) a sitter with encouragement during the conduct of a tarot reading. We don't merely want to hand our clients relevant information about their future circumstances, we attempt to make them feel like they are (or will … Continue reading Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
