AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've been an astrologer and tarot-card reader for a very long time, over the years I've also experimented (separately) with geomancy and I Ching. Here is an analysis of the binary syncretism that exists between the two. (In this essay I'm talking about Western geomancy, not Chinese feng shui.) Classical, location-based geomantic … Continue reading Geomancy and I Ching: Binary Twins?
The Case for Esoteric Syncretism
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley went to great lengths (15 pages) to relate a number of primitive cultural rites to his understanding of the Fool, with much of his inspiration coming from Sir James George Frazer's anthropological tome, The Golden Bough. This conceptual melding is known as syncretism, and as one … Continue reading The Case for Esoteric Syncretism
Syncretic Methods: Tarot + I Ching Hexagram Casting
AUTHOR'S NOTE: <Summons his best Dick Nixon monotone> "Let me make one thing perfectly clear" (as if you couldn't tell): I'm no fan of metaphysically "squishy" modes of divination, an attitude that encompasses most purely intuitive forms of interpretation. I like having a firm philosophical basis from which to proceed by applying inspiration, imagination and … Continue reading Syncretic Methods: Tarot + I Ching Hexagram Casting
“Canceling” Effects in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Chinese cosmology there is a premise that certain forms of qi (life-force) subdue and diminish other types, subordinating their influence. I'm intrigued by the idea that something similar could be going on in tarot divination. It's a well-established concept that certain cards in a tarot spread will dominate the reading and push … Continue reading “Canceling” Effects in Tarot Reading
Connecting the Dots: An I Ching/ Oracle Card/Tarot Card Triplet
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A few of years ago I came across a table of correspondences created by a couple of Russians that links the 64 I Ching hexagrams to the 78 tarot cards in a way that nobody else has done. Their website has been taken down, so I was fortunate to have saved a copy … Continue reading Connecting the Dots: An I Ching/ Oracle Card/Tarot Card Triplet
Assembling a Puzzle or Building a Bridge: Two Modes of Tarot Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: When using a tarot spread with defined position meanings, synthesizing the key points to form a single coherent narrative offers inevitable comparisons to assembling a jigsaw puzzle in which each card contributes one - and only one - irreplaceable "piece of the puzzle" as determined by its positional import. On the other hand, … Continue reading Assembling a Puzzle or Building a Bridge: Two Modes of Tarot Divination
“Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Scrying in the spirit vision" is an occult practice involving out-of-body exploration (or, if you prefer, "astral travel") that is more focused and directed than the spontaneous act of intuitive discernment commonly used in divination. (Classically, one visualizes and enters the "body of light," projecting it onto the Astral Plane and moving about … Continue reading “Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
“Liberating” The Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his fictionalized biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Irving Stone put words in the sculptor's mouth to the effect that, in order to carve a statue of a horse from a block of marble, all he had to do was "remove everything that isn't horse." He was in effect freeing his vision from its … Continue reading “Liberating” The Tarot Reading
Personalizing Taoist Cosmology: Natal Planets and the Five Agents of Change
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In a previous post I explored the Taoist "Five Agents of Change" (Wu Xing) as encompassed by the twin cycles of creation and destruction in the order Wood-Fire-Earth-Metal-Water. I decided to take the Minor Arcana cards associated with the five personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) of my natal horoscope and … Continue reading Personalizing Taoist Cosmology: Natal Planets and the Five Agents of Change
Creation and Destruction: The Tarot Trumps and Taoist Alchemy
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the next installment in my series of essays on syncretism between the European tarot and Chinese esoteric tradition. In I Ching, the Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, Benebell Wen presents two diagrams, the Cycle of Creation ("To support and fortify") and the Cycle of Destruction ("To defeat … Continue reading Creation and Destruction: The Tarot Trumps and Taoist Alchemy
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 