AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another random insight from The Grand Etteilla. In Jean-Baptiste Alliette's Book of Thoth tarot (aka the "Grand Etteilla") there is a card titled "Marriage" that is markedly similar to modern versions of the Lovers based on the Waite-Smith design. It shows a man and a woman attended by an officiating priest, obviously engaged … Continue reading The Lovers: Decisions, Commitments and A “Fork in the Road”
Reversed Cards and “Night-Crawler Hunting”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay presents the second epiphany I've gained from my reading of the 19th Century French tarot book, The Grand Etteilla. Whenever I encounter reversed cards in a reading and determine that they should be handled in a psychological rather than a pragmatic way, I often treat them as showing where subjective "inner … Continue reading Reversed Cards and “Night-Crawler Hunting”
That Mean Ol’ Moon
I've begun reading the English-language translation of The Grand Etteilla, a 19th Century French tarot compilation by Julia Orsini et al, with the goal of beginning to wrap my head around Alliette's "Continental" system of interpretation. I noticed three things immediately: 1) the method of pulling and arranging the cards for a reading (often using … Continue reading That Mean Ol’ Moon
A “Chaotic Complex” Random-Variable Life-Reading Spread
A couple of days ago a client asked me if I have any "chaos-based" spreads. I replied that I don't but then remembered that at an earlier time I had casually researched chaos theory, so I went back for another look. Although I have a few designs that nibble around the edges, I have none … Continue reading A “Chaotic Complex” Random-Variable Life-Reading Spread
Tarot of Mystical Moments: An Atypical Deck Interview
UPDATE: I discovered that I made a "fortuitous error" in the quintessence calculation for this reading. The trump card thus derived should have been Justice and not the Hanged Man. But this deck is emphatically non-cerebral, so I'm going to leave the essay as it stands. (Maybe the Magician was peeking out cautiously from behind … Continue reading Tarot of Mystical Moments: An Atypical Deck Interview
The “Opportunity Spotter”
There is a certain queasiness in tarot circles about use of the term "fortune-teller" to describe what we do, as if we're contemplating the commission of a scurrilous or unclean act. The rational-sounding "psychological" approach to the tarot is usually trotted out to dispel any taint of moral impropriety that the mere mention of prognostication … Continue reading The “Opportunity Spotter”
The Gestalt Overview and the Hierarchy of Significance
A question came up recently on the r/tarot subreddit regarding the most effective way to build an overarching "big-picture" synopsis from the individual cards in a tarot spread. I prefer to think of the goal as avoiding the "Lego-block" mentality of simply stacking up keywords that often fail to jell into a convincing summary. Once … Continue reading The Gestalt Overview and the Hierarchy of Significance
Necessity, Convenience or Just Plain Ignorance?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The "curmudgeon" has entered the building! "Snowflakes" should find the exit A few years ago, not too long after the fateful day when character limits were imposed on messaging by Twitter, I began to observe what seemed like a steep decline in the grammatical proficiency of English-language users. Punctuation appeared to have gone … Continue reading Necessity, Convenience or Just Plain Ignorance?
A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 2
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is the "tarot" segment of my two-part analysis of the 2022 Congressional mid-term election. It turned out to be a nuanced and tricky reading. (I apologize in advance for the seemingly gratuitous use of quotes and parenthetical asides, but they're intended to season my rhetoric with anecdotal aptness.) Full Disclosure: For most … Continue reading A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 2
A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 1
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although this horary forecast is scheduled to appear in a future issue of the online AstroLogic magazine, I wanted to present it here first since I'm working on Part 2 and didn't want to wind up in a "cart > horse" situation when I publish it. The success of my Sarah Palin prediction … Continue reading A 2022 U.S. Congressional Election “Majority” Forecast, Part 1
