I have updated my post regarding the whereabouts of Trish Haynes to show that her remains have been recovered from a pond in Grafton, NH. The "missing-person" aspects of this case have now been resolved, and it has become a homicide investigation. I haven't decided whether to perform my "Whodunit?" Rogues' Gallery Spread on her … Continue reading Where Is Trish? – A Missing-Person Case Closure
An Oracle with Teeth
I'm on a mission to discover an oracle deck with a natural or mythological theme that isn't full of bland, breezy New Age affirmations or shamanistic pretensions. Angel decks are "right out," as Monty Python used to say. Tennyson's line "Nature, red in tooth and claw" comes to mind, although I'm looking for a balance … Continue reading An Oracle with Teeth
The Binary Dilemma
As much as we encourage them to frame their questions in a flexible manner that invites meaningful commentary from the cards rather than an open-and-shut, "yes-or-no" verdict, I would venture to say that the majority of people who request a reading from us aren't seeking a panoramic view of their future circumstances. They want a … Continue reading The Binary Dilemma
Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Warning: I'm going to be politically obtuse here and talk about gender, as in demographics, because at the purely biological level (barring surgical intervention), it is what it is. For the record, I'm an Old White Male (but not quite the "Bernie Sanders of the Tarot" yet), married to the same woman for 40 years … Continue reading Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Symbolic Triptych: A Past/Present/Future Life-Reading Snapshot
This spread is an oddity for me in that it only has three cards. But I wanted to play around with geometric symbolism and someone asked me for a small-spread recommendation. The square represents stability in past circumstances (even if only in the sense that they aren't going to change) and perfectly symbolizes the "Foundation" … Continue reading Symbolic Triptych: A Past/Present/Future Life-Reading Snapshot
Cut the Cake
My wife makes a very elegant four-layer chocolate/coconut/custard cake with different fillings between the layers. It's like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates; "You never know what you're gonna get," but it's always delightful (yes, even the jelly fillings). It's a perfect analogy for how I view the cards of the tarot. I like to say … Continue reading Cut the Cake
What About Those Sixes?
In keeping with my previous post about perceived weaknesses in the Waite-Smith deck, I want to talk about a telling example that fully demonstrates the questionable wisdom of Waite's and Smith's departure from their Golden Dawn roots: the Sixes of the Minor Arcana. In the Qabalistic system of the Golden Dawn (later adapted by Aleister … Continue reading What About Those Sixes?
A Long Shadow
The Waite-Smith (aka "RWS") tarot deck, which modern revisionist thinking has insisted on renaming the Smith-Waite Tarot (nearly as much of a misnomer as calling the Thoth deck the "Harris-Crowley Tarot"), does indeed cast a long shadow (or pall, depending upon your opinion) over the world of exoteric tarot, and specifically over the art of … Continue reading A Long Shadow
The “Tale of Two Arcs” Business Dynamic Spread
I enjoy playing with 3D effects in spreads. Sometimes I use layered positions to obtain that perspective, but here I'm opting for visual card size to show rising and falling developments in two contrasting arcs, one that peaks in the middle and the other that hits a mid-cycle trough. Any start-up business venture faces a … Continue reading The “Tale of Two Arcs” Business Dynamic Spread
Cutting Remarks
***NOTE*** This post won't be of much interest to you if you prefer to pull your cards from a "fan," or don't bother to cut the deck. There is an old practice, still popular among tarot mystics, that after shuffling a deck of tarot cards, the pack should be "cut into three piles with your … Continue reading Cutting Remarks
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 