In the Golden Dawn tarot papers, MacGregor Mathers made an observation regarding the facing or directionality of the Kings and Pages when placed in a spread: "The Kings, if looking against the direction of the reading, or if meeting it, represent the coming of a person or event, or phase of an event, but if … Continue reading Coming or Going?
The Long and Short of It
As a creator of numerous tarot spreads, I find that I must walk a fine line between pursuing too much information and seeking insufficient detail in the structure of a layout. Trying to parse a reading into narrative bits that are too fine-grained risks putting too much insignificant "ground clutter" on the reader's radar screen, … Continue reading The Long and Short of It
The “PB&J” Sandwich Spread
As usual, I'm having some fun with the title, but the intent of this spread is quite serious. It offers a "Progressive Betterment and Judgment" ("PB&J") outlook for long-range prospects in life improvement, both overall and in specific focus areas. The three-card "sandwiches" provide a past/present/future profile in four areas of personal growth: Inspirational, Emotional, … Continue reading The “PB&J” Sandwich Spread
“Cheap Shots” #23: “Random” Thoughts
The perceived need to assure a random distribution when pulling the cards for a reading often comes up in forum discussions. It's seen by some as the sine qua non for success in producing a meaningful result. When you think about it, though, it's not the mismatched assortment of cards drawn by pure chance that … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #23: “Random” Thoughts
An American Football Prediction
I decided to keep experimenting with my "Enemy at the Gates" conflict-resolution spread to predict the outcome of sporting events, specifically the American football match-ups for Sunday, November 6. In looking at the standings, I wanted to pick two adversaries with winning records that at least have a chance against one another. Although most of … Continue reading An American Football Prediction
World Series Game 7 Postmortem
It's interesting how life teaches you lessons through the tarot. The flaw in my first attempt to predict the outcome of the final World Series game was in using a coin-flip to decide which team to place in the top row of the spread, rather than following the traditional practice of putting the visiting team … Continue reading World Series Game 7 Postmortem
The Star Tarot Deck Interview
Let's get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. While Cathy McClelland's artwork is a wonder to behold, the manufacturing quality of the deck is rather poor. I had to order the Star Tarot from Amazon twice and both times some cards had damaged backs. Many had rolled sections or shallow nicks on the … Continue reading The Star Tarot Deck Interview
A 2017 World Series Postscript
I thought I would try an experiment to see if I could come up with a layout that would emulate a baseball box-score for the final game of the World Series. I used a Tarot de Marseille deck (the Hadar) because the non-scenic pips are easier to read as pure numbers. Since not many Major … Continue reading A 2017 World Series Postscript
A 2017 World Series Prediction
UPDATE: I neglected to report back on the outcome. I got the score right (5-1) but the winning team wrong; the Houston Astros won Game Seven and the World Series, four games to three. Using the coin flip may not be a reliable way to assign the teams to the rows since there is a … Continue reading A 2017 World Series Prediction
Number Theory in Action
Occult number theory - whether Pythagorean or qabalistic - is one of my favorite ways to extract additional information from the cards in a spread. The geometric axioms of Pythagoras evolve from the Monad (the Point, or Number One) to the Decad (the Decahedron, or Number Ten), while the qabalistic approach follows the descending flow … Continue reading Number Theory in Action
