I'm constantly chiding my wife over the perfectly reasonable assumption that talking to someone is best performed face-to-face, not by shouting from two rooms away and expecting to be understood. (On the other hand, getting up and trotting over to her desk every five minutes is great exercise!) As I see it, this premise also … Continue reading A Matter of “Reach”
The Post-Rational Diviner
I've always felt that the Enlightenment (or "Age of Reason"), which spanned the 17th and 18th Centuries, was the single most devastating blow to mysticism in general, and to the practice of divination in particular. To this day, causal determinism trumps the more allusive modes of cogitation in the dim view of the average intellect. … Continue reading The Post-Rational Diviner
Court-Card Hierarchies: An Interesting Comparison
I've just rediscovered Alejandro Jodorowsky's unorthodox sequencing of the court cards and, although I still don't fully agree with him, I now find more sense in his thinking. I decided to compare his vision side-by-side with Waite's historical hierarchy and the Qabalistic premise of the Golden Dawn/Thoth model. All images are copyright of U.S. Games … Continue reading Court-Card Hierarchies: An Interesting Comparison
The Power of Ten in Four: The Court Cards and the Decimal Paradigm
Along with a few other tarot authors I've encountered, Alejandro Jodorowsky makes much of the fact that the court cards have no numbers on their faces and therefore shouldn't be given them for any purpose whatsoever. His specific argument is that the organic "base-10" structure of the Minor Arcana doesn't support the practice of assigning … Continue reading The Power of Ten in Four: The Court Cards and the Decimal Paradigm
The Psyche, Numerology and the Tarot: A Psychological Reading Method
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This reading template and methodology were developed by me using a colleague's translation of psychologist John Beebe's archetypal model into tarot. In adapting it to my own analytical style, I made some changes to apply personal preferences, knowledge and experience. The matrix of Major Arcana cards supports a randomly-drawn four-card reading that will … Continue reading The Psyche, Numerology and the Tarot: A Psychological Reading Method
The Three-Card Quintessence: A New Twist on an Old Idea
In The Way of Tarot, Alejandro Jodorowsky points out that the second half of the Tarot de Marseille trump-card series - both in its whole numbers and in its factored integers - progresses by addition of the Roman numerals with no subtraction needed (e.g. while the Devil is 10 + 5 [or X+V] = 15, … Continue reading The Three-Card Quintessence: A New Twist on an Old Idea
The “Mandala of the Moment”
In The Way of Tarot, Alejandro Jodorowsky envisions arranging all 78 cards of the Tarot de Marseille in a single emblematic pattern, a geometric "mandala" that can be visually absorbed at a glance, instantly embraced by the mind and easily understood in its entirely once the cards' basic meanings have been internalized. While pondering this … Continue reading The “Mandala of the Moment”
Convergence (or Not) – A Relationship Spread
I almost stopped reading The Grand Etteilla when I reached the minutiae of tables, spreads and examples at the end. I'm glad I didn't because the "Inverted Pyramid" relationship spread gave me the inspiration (although I tweaked it drastically) for one of the more practical and useful partnership affinity forecasts I've come up with so … Continue reading Convergence (or Not) – A Relationship Spread
“Riddle Me This” – An Astral Exploration Spread
I've seen more than a few online requests for advice and spread suggestions about communication with disembodied entities (spirit guides, ancestors, angelic powers, etc). My personal belief is that our access to such beings is channeled through the Astral Plane, with the inherent risk of self-deception and the psychological peril that traveling the Lunar path … Continue reading “Riddle Me This” – An Astral Exploration Spread
“Dreams and Mystification”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not a huge fan of this book but it does have its moments of lucidity. (Some may recall that Jodorowsky was a fiercely iconoclastic and surrealistic film-maker in the '70s [El Topo, The Holy Mountain, etc], which may explain his singular and often peculiar notions about the tarot.) As I begin re-reading … Continue reading “Dreams and Mystification”
