AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's no secret that I'm both an esoteric theorist and a conceptual minimalist in my approach to tarot card interpretation, although as a reader I consider myself first-and-foremost a creative storyteller with a flair for inspiration, imagination and ingenuity in my narrative output. The purpose of this essay is to explore ways to … Continue reading The Art and Science of Precise Tarot Reading
The “Persona & Shadow” Two-Deck Personality Profile Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've long felt that tarot reading is principally a storytelling art built on anecdotal assumptions rather than a deductively rigorous discipline. It is therefore not ideally suited to the analytical exploration of the human mind, neither the subjective navel-gazing kind nor the psychological profiling of other people. (Natal astrology already has that pretty … Continue reading The “Persona & Shadow” Two-Deck Personality Profile Spread
A “Grunge Tarot” New Year
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was gifted the recent (2021) Grunge Tarot for Christmas and decided to use it in my annual forecast for 2023. The deck is billed as an homage to "the last great rock movement" that emerged in Seattle during the 1990s, with tormented souls like Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) and Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) as … Continue reading A “Grunge Tarot” New Year
An Alternate Take on the “Shadow” Card
It is a common practice among modern tarot readers to look at the bottom card of the deck after the rest of the cards have been dealt, with the purpose of discovering hidden aspects of the matter; this is variously called the "base" or "shadow" card. Personally, I want none of this in my own … Continue reading An Alternate Take on the “Shadow” Card
Swords and Wands As “Present” and “Future”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here's another unusual twist from Alejandro Jodorowsky. Although I certainly don't love everything he's written since so much of it is mystically obtuse (when it isn't merely peculiar), he does come up with some thought-provoking notions. In comparing the Ace of Swords to the Ace of Wands in The Way of Tarot, Jodorowsky … Continue reading Swords and Wands As “Present” and “Future”
Tarot Taken Twice
Long before I read the chapter titled "The Tarot Two by Two" in Alejandro Jodorowsky's book The Way of Tarot (in which he examines the cards as pairs, couples and duets), I was advising beginners that - rather than trying to learn the meaning of individual cards in an interpretive vacuum - it's best to … Continue reading Tarot Taken Twice
A Two-Tiered New Year’s Forecast Spread with Monthly Updates
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's time once more for New Year's predictions. Here is a spread that offers a little more "meat on the bone." I've used this approach before (notably in my annual "Wheel of the Year" readings), but here I'm providing additional storytelling guidance for its use. The premise is that the yearly forecast is … Continue reading A Two-Tiered New Year’s Forecast Spread with Monthly Updates
Busting Trump: A “Conditional Yes-or-No” Example Reading
It appears increasingly likely that former President Donald Trump will be charged with a criminal offense by the Department of Justice as a result of the "January 6th Commission" recommendations. I decided to test my new "yes-or-no" spread by asking whether he will be convicted. I used the Thoth deck for this reading, with "Adjustment" … Continue reading Busting Trump: A “Conditional Yes-or-No” Example Reading
A “Conditional” Yes-or-No Outcome Spread
My experience has been that "yes-or-no" answers delivered by the tarot are seldom crystal-clear and often have "strings attached" that cloud the picture. I call such muddling factors "conditional qualifiers" and use what I describe as the "Yes, But/Maybe, If/No, Unless" paradigm to analyze their influence. In each case the caveat means that the seeker … Continue reading A “Conditional” Yes-or-No Outcome Spread
The Tens: A “Holding Pattern”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I won't regale you with where I got the raw material for this essay; suffice it to say that it's "of a piece" with my last dozen "sourced" ideas. The Tens of the Minor Arcana have been described as representing a "cessation of effort" while awaiting new information or a fresh impulse to … Continue reading The Tens: A “Holding Pattern”
