*"Say it ain't so, Joe!" has been memorialized in legend as a small boy's reaction upon hearing that star outfielder "Shoeless Joe" Jackson allegedly admitted involvement in major league baseball's "Black Sox" bribery scandal of 1920 (according to court records, he didn't and was eventually exonerated). Although this quote is most likely apocryphal, the youngster … Continue reading “Say It Ain’t So” – The Sting of Swords*
“The Boomerang Effect” – Reversal as Denial
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was reading Isabel Kliegman's description of the reversed 9 of Cups as indicating "denial of the need for self-care" (my words paraphrasing hers) in an alcohol-addiction scenario where the client was obviously lying to herself. Smelling another opportunity to enhance my growing appreciation for reversed-card significance, I decided to look through my … Continue reading “The Boomerang Effect” – Reversal as Denial
The “High/Low/Middle” Situational Outcome Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I did with Alejandro Jodorowsky's Way of Tarot, I will continue posting selected insights that I pick up from my re-reading of Isabel Kliegman's Tarot and the Tree of Life. Yesterday I rediscovered her Jungian take on the 8 of Cups with its image of a man who, having failed to find … Continue reading The “High/Low/Middle” Situational Outcome Spread
Left or Right? Polarity in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Moving on from my recent essay about the observer's proper orientation to the left and right pillars of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, I set out to explore the significance of the left and right sides in divination. In Western mystical circles, the passive left side is often referred to as the receptive, … Continue reading Left or Right? Polarity in Divination
A Worthy Outlet?
One thing to which any blogger pays at least casual attention is daily site traffic. In my own case I haven't monetized this blog so I'm not hanging on every minuscule fraction of a penny that changes hands over my contribution to the community. But, although I have slightly more than 300 followers now (a … Continue reading A Worthy Outlet?
A Meditation on “Oddness”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although as students and practitioners of the mystic arts we can be excused for often feeling "odd" in a world that rewards conformity, that's not what this essay is about. One of the most useful bits of metaphysical wisdom I've received from Joseph Maxwell's Tarot de Marseille book, The Tarot, is that the … Continue reading A Meditation on “Oddness”
The Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn – A Deck Interview
This is Pat Zalewski's much-anticipated take on the Golden Dawn tarot. Its main selling point is that it is hyped as being faithful to the color scales of the Order, while in a less beguiling sense it looks remarkably like a color-corrected, minor artistic overhaul of the graphics created by Robert Wang in collaboration with … Continue reading The Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn – A Deck Interview
The Problem of Pronunciation
" . . . the relationship among letters, words and reality is potent, magical and central to human life." (Isabel Kliegman, in Tarot and the Tree of Life) The truth of this quote is apparent in the lives of those for whom the spoken word seems to be vital to their sense of self-identity beyond … Continue reading The Problem of Pronunciation
A State of Mundanity
It is now going on five years since we moved to our new home in a much more populous region of southeastern New Hampshire. Although we relocated mainly for proximity to family, we had high hopes that we would discover an active social and intellectual environment. Unfortunately that hasn't proved to be the case. While … Continue reading A State of Mundanity
The Withholding
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've always had reservations about the prevailing opinion of the Waite-Smith 6 of Pentacles that advocates "charity and generosity" as its core premise since I believe this is social commentary that Smith grafted onto Waite's basic divinatory meanings of "gifts, presents and gratification," objective ideas that present no moral argument (although he does … Continue reading The Withholding
