WARNING: Here be dragons! If you are at all religious in the customary Western sense, this may insult or at the very least offend you. Proceed at your own risk if the mere mention of Richard Dawkins doesn't send you screaming for the exit. A few years ago, preeminent atheist Richard Dawkins wrote a book … Continue reading The God Dilemma
A Reasonable Assumption
As regular readers of this blog know, I'm not an advocate of remote tarot reading of any kind although, with COVID keeping me away from "live" divination venues for the foreseeable future, I've been doing a few of them by email. The thought struck me that useful parallels might be drawn between the conventions of … Continue reading A Reasonable Assumption
Express Yourself
"It's not what you look likeWhen you're doin' what you're doin'It's what you're doin' when you're doin'What you look like you're doin'Express yourselfExpress yourself"- Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band Before we moved across the State, I had an occasional tarot reading gig at a local esoteric shop and then, after the … Continue reading Express Yourself
“Two Roads Diverged . . .”
. . . and, like poet Robert Frost, I chose the one that impressed me as "less traveled by," at least in the annals of 21st Century tarot. There is an increasingly contentious "fork in the road" regarding the proper use of the tarot cards for individual edification and enlightenment. There are the very vocal … Continue reading “Two Roads Diverged . . .”
A Simple Oracle: Yes/No/Maybe
It's common for those who consider themselves wise in the ways of tarot to say loudly (and, in my opinion a bit smugly) "There are no bad cards!" (This attitude strikes me as just a convenient excuse for dodging profound contemplation of the possibility). The more thoughtful among them will allow that "Their fortunate or … Continue reading A Simple Oracle: Yes/No/Maybe
The “Stones in My Passway” Situational Spread
Here is another "tricksy" (pardon me, I'm channeling my "inner Gollum") situational spread that employs a redirected flow, this time according to elemental assignments and their "active" or "passive" nature. All of the explanatory text and instructions are included in the spread graphic. This spread is not all that different from reading a straight multi-card … Continue reading The “Stones in My Passway” Situational Spread
Why I Do It
. . . create complex and challenging tarot spreads, that is. In general, when reading the cards I prefer five-to-ten-card arrays that have explicit milestones or "signposts" for interpretation (aka step-wise position meanings), and an orderly, sensible progression between them (my "tweaked" version of the Celtic Cross is the best example of this: https://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com/2017/08/02/parsifals-wheel-a-celtic-cross-variation/ ). … Continue reading Why I Do It
Going for the Gold
I now have a handful of tarot decks with gold-foil highlights and in some cases complete backgrounds. I also have the Golden Lenormand but I'm not including it here, and the Dali Tarot but it only has gold on the upper and lower borders. Kat Black's Golden Tarot and Eric Dunne's Illuminati Tarot didn't make … Continue reading Going for the Gold
A Best Case/Worst Case “Offset” Example Reading
I know someone who suffers from a disabling physical condition that isn't eligible for surgery, and who hasn't responded all that well to less-invasive conventional treatments. I asked what the "best-case" and "worst-case" predictions look like for this person. I used the Albano-Waite deck without reversals for the reading. In the "best-case" row, the two … Continue reading A Best Case/Worst Case “Offset” Example Reading
A Best-Case/Worst-Case “Offset” Spread
Here's an unusual spread that requires a "prepared" deck with favorable and unfavorable sub-packs; the cards' nominal "good" and "bad" qualities are based on my personal system, which applies Aleister Crowley's essays and keyword meanings from the Book of Thoth. The model also employs some occult number theory (see Joseph Maxwell's The Tarot), in that … Continue reading A Best-Case/Worst-Case “Offset” Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 