AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I'm using it here, "execution"" means "the precise performance of a planned action." The other premise I apply to the Swords is that they put considerable thought into the act of planning, although few of the Minor Arcana seem to benefit from it. Maybe the "planning" aspect of a Sword should be … Continue reading The Suit of Swords: A Matter of Execution
“Tarotizing, Psychologizing and Extemporizing” – The Bane of Lenormand
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been busily engaged in the online Lenormand community, and three of my main concerns about the modern approach to reading the Lenormand cards are in full view. "Tarotization" (my own word for it) is the tendency for Lenormand neophytes arriving from the tarot majority to bring all of their interpretive baggage with … Continue reading “Tarotizing, Psychologizing and Extemporizing” – The Bane of Lenormand
“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
Gap Analysis: The Three-Card Reading and the Hidden Agenda
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not much of a fan of the three-card tarot reading because, as I've mentioned before, it leaves too much up to subjective guesswork in bridging the narrative gap between cards that may have nothing even remotely in common. In the three-card pull, utterly antagonistic cards are the intuitive reader's worst nightmare since … Continue reading Gap Analysis: The Three-Card Reading and the Hidden Agenda
Lenormand Logistics: Which Spread is Best?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I browse the Lenormand Facebook pages, sub-reddits and blogs, I inevitably encounter the three-card line as the "go-to" spread for just about any topic, even when there are better (or at least more comprehensive) options. Here I will examine the various traditional spreads in use today, but first I want to anonymously … Continue reading Lenormand Logistics: Which Spread is Best?
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”
The Lenormand “Phrase:” Deconstructing the Three-Card Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post is a condensation of a couple of my previous essays on the subject of the Lenormand "line" spread of varying lengths. If the five-card or seven-card line presents a whole sentence with subject, verb, object and qualifiers (adjectives and adverbs), and the nine-card, 3x3 array furnishes an entire paragraph, the three-card … Continue reading The Lenormand “Phrase:” Deconstructing the Three-Card Reading
Pythagorean Number Theory and Lenormand
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I'm normally a literalist in my reading of the Lenormand cards, this is the sort of thing that excites my imagination. Here I'm playing around with Pythagorean number theory as it might be applied to Lenormand. They are both traditional systems of thought that seem to be entirely compatible. The single-digit 1-to-9 … Continue reading Pythagorean Number Theory and Lenormand
The Threes: Finding Scope in Opportunity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another riff on the topic of "opportunity" as expressed in the cards of the tarot. The Threes of the tarot have long been associated with the concepts of advancement and growth, but a parallel principle is that of opportunity, the premise being that any such development - while it may be … Continue reading The Threes: Finding Scope in Opportunity
“Chunky, Not Creamy” – A Lenormand Working Model
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've been focusing mostly on tarot writing in recent months, my true love in cartomantic divination has become the 36-card Lenormand Grand Tableau. I think of it as the "Swiss-Army-knife" of cartomancy, a multi-tool that is able to cover a wide range of topics in a single pull. But when it is … Continue reading “Chunky, Not Creamy” – A Lenormand Working Model
