I've been reading Barbara Walker's excellent 1984 book, The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History and Symbolism, and have been gaining some valuable insights and inspiration from her brief essays on the Minor Arcana. In it she applies the Thoth title of "Cruelty" to the 9 of Swords while discussing it mainly in terms of … Continue reading “The Wall Was Too High” – A 9 of Swords Comparison
A “Left Brain/Right Brain” Example Reading: The Fate of Roe vs Wade
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is the companion piece to the spread I posted earlier today. To test my new "Left Brain/Right Brain" Split-Decision Spread, I decided to tackle one of the most highly-charged and divisive issues of our time from both a legal and emotional standpoint: the fate of the Roe vs Wade abortion law in … Continue reading A “Left Brain/Right Brain” Example Reading: The Fate of Roe vs Wade
The “Left Brain/Right Brain” Split-Decision Spread
AUTHOR"S NOTE: I will follow this up shortly with an example reading showing how it is to be used. To help resolve the endless debate (or perhaps to generate more debate) on whether an allusive, intuitive approach to reading the cards or a literal, logical one is most informative, I decided to create a spread … Continue reading The “Left Brain/Right Brain” Split-Decision Spread
The “Three of a Perfect Pair*” Tarot Card Selection Method
I'm always looking for novel ways to pull cards for a tarot reading. Here I've adopted and also adapted the "card pairing" method of the Golden Dawn as used in the First Operation of the "Opening of the Key." First, I shuffled the deck and pulled a single card to show the "Heart of the … Continue reading The “Three of a Perfect Pair*” Tarot Card Selection Method
Isolation and Insight: The “Essence of Nine”
I just unearthed another random gem from Barbara Walker's book, The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History and Symbolism. One meaning she offers for the 4 of Swords is "insight generated by seclusion" and, judging from the obvious opportunity for introspection shown in the RWS version, I can see where she's coming from. The Thoth … Continue reading Isolation and Insight: The “Essence of Nine”
Tarot As “Wave-Form”
A wave is described as "a traveling disturbance that carries energy from one place to another." We might consider the flow of cards from one place (the first position) to another place (the last position) in a linear tarot spread to be a "wave-form," with observable peaks and troughs along the way (a mix of … Continue reading Tarot As “Wave-Form”
Where Is Harmony? – A Tarot-Cartography View
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is one of my "bonus" posts that I will occasionally double-up on in my daily output. UPDATE: During an online conversation about this reading, someone observed that the 4 of Wands clearly means she is deceased. I responded by saying that I'm not so sure. Aleister Crowley's idea behind the title for … Continue reading Where Is Harmony? – A Tarot-Cartography View
Barbara Walker and the RWS Suit of Pentacles
Although it's a bit overstuffed with mythology and "armchair" anthropology (think "Golden Bough Lite"), I've been reading Barbara Walker's fascinating and frequently enlightening 1984 book Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History and Symbolism. Despite the meticulous academic tone of much of her writing and its overarching themes of matriarchal culture and Goddess worship in antiquity, … Continue reading Barbara Walker and the RWS Suit of Pentacles
“Warring Archetypes”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As my thinking on the Major Arcana continues to evolve, I occasionally experience an epiphany during my online tarot conversations. I was explaining my opinions about the most effective uses for the cards on the r/tarot forum, and was asked a question that sent me down an unexplored path. Having worked with tarot … Continue reading “Warring Archetypes”
Lunar Month Look-Ahead for February – March, 2022
I just applied my "Threepenny Opera" three-deck selection method to my Lunar Look-ahead reading for the February-March cycle that began with the New Moon on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. I use astrologer Dane Rudhyar's 8-phase "Lunation Cycle" model for this layout (with a nod to Marc Robertson’s Cosmopsychology: Engine of Destiny); each phase is roughly … Continue reading Lunar Month Look-Ahead for February – March, 2022
