AUTHOR'S NOTE: I believe I've found the ideal use for the Waite-Smith tarot deck. (All images used here are copyright of U.S. Games Systems, Stamford, CT, although I understand the RWS deck may now be in the public domain.) Roger Water's somber and occasionally morose lyrics (often about Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barret's fractured … Continue reading “Hey, You” – Pink Floyd Under the “Tarot-scope”
The “Threepenny Opera” Multi-Deck Selection Method
Although some people shuffle the packs together when using more than one tarot deck in a reading, I've never found that approach particularly easy or effective due to inconsistent card size, thickness and finish. So I have always shuffled the decks separately for any multi-deck spread, usually placing them in different rows, columns or "chains" … Continue reading The “Threepenny Opera” Multi-Deck Selection Method
Patience Is Not A Virtue (When Persistence Won’t Do)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the risk of "beating a dead horse," I'm going to present a few more thoughts on my uneasy, rather tepid rapport with the (Rider) Waite-Smith (RWS) Tarot and my much more robust appreciation of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot. I come down somewhere in the middle on "pip" decks like the Tarot de … Continue reading Patience Is Not A Virtue (When Persistence Won’t Do)
The “Tarot-Cartography” Relocation Spread
Here's a little less-complicated fun with reversals. It's based on the "Astro-Cartography" model from the 1970s. This approach to relocation assumes that we have an urge to move but don't know exactly where we want to go to find the best "fit." It uses a process of elimination based on the appearance of reversed cards … Continue reading The “Tarot-Cartography” Relocation Spread
Lurkers on the Threshold
There is an old cliche that "a bad penny always turns up." This aphorism perfectly describes the barely civil dispute about the practice of reading reversed cards that is currently simmering on one of my more advanced tarot forums. The weary consensus is to just "pick your poison" (I'm full of platitudes today) and move … Continue reading Lurkers on the Threshold
A “Mercury Reversed” Example Reading
As luck (or Fate) would have it, Mercury went retrograde on the 14th of January, 2022, giving me a perfect opportunity to test this spread. During much of the period, Venus is also retrograde but there were no Venus decan cards in the draw. It might be worthwhile to set up the "Archetypal Pattern" for … Continue reading A “Mercury Reversed” Example Reading
The “Mercury Reversed” Retrograde Period Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I split this spread off from yesterday's post for better visibility, saying three times "I promise not to repeat myself . . ." As discussed at length in my previous essay, I don't buy the popular notion that Mercury going retrograde as part of the evolving "sky pattern" is automatically a harbinger of … Continue reading The “Mercury Reversed” Retrograde Period Spread
Mercury Retrograde: Mystics and Statistics
Warren Zevon knew a thing or two about "mystics and statistics" (look it up). One of my favorite metaphysical whipping-boys is the almost universally-held opinion that the periodic transit of retrograde Mercury is unquestionably significant in our daily lives - all of us at the same time. As an astrologer of fifty years' standing, I … Continue reading Mercury Retrograde: Mystics and Statistics
Magical Places, Magical Times
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Too often we don't know the person behind the posting. Here are a few of the deeply-felt experiences that have brought me to where I am today as a mystical thinker, writer and practitioner of the esoteric arts. I've always had a powerful, almost euphoric connection to Nature, having been raised in a … Continue reading Magical Places, Magical Times
“Nothing Is Sacred”
There, I said it. I can't think of a single thing when it comes to the tarot that should be considered immutable and inviolable, except maybe its 78-card structure since I don't cotton to extra cards; no "Happy Squirrel" card for me since such "augmented" decks act more as oracle than tarot. The same is … Continue reading “Nothing Is Sacred”
