AUTHOR'S NOTE: Any armchair philosopher and cerebral cartomancer who has ever encountered a complex problem-solving scenario has most likely waffled between the various ways to tackle the solution: emotionally, intellectually or intuitively. Rather than just throwing down a series of cards and reading them, the diviner tries to finesse the situation by "what-iffing" it to … Continue reading The “Philosopher’s Scorecard” Problem-Solving Spread
Numerological Oddities
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently encountered a mathematical term that is new to me (not something that happens every day), although the concept isn't: that of numerical aliquots, as in "the sum of the aliquot parts of an integer." I came across this in a discussion of the number Six as being an "aliquot sum" in … Continue reading Numerological Oddities
The Hierophant, the Archetypal “Five” and the Maelstrom
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I credit Edgar Allan Poe with educating me about the maelstrom: it is the "Mother of All Whirlpools" that will relentlessly suck down any seafaring vessel careless enough to wander into its embrace, kind of like an oceanic "black hole." Here I'm drawing unflattering parallels to religious fundamentalism and its purveyors, although that … Continue reading The Hierophant, the Archetypal “Five” and the Maelstrom
Jupiter’s Child: A “Tarotscape”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While writing my recent essay about the Lover and the Chariot I had occasion to look up the words to Steppenwolf's 1969 rock song Jupiter's Child, and confirmed my recollection that its mythic tone is perfect for my approach to linking tarot cards with song lyrics. I decided to use the Anna K … Continue reading Jupiter’s Child: A “Tarotscape”
“The Lover’s Escape” – Thoughts on the Chariot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading an interesting observation that the Chariot symbolizes the "escape" of the bemused Lover from the moral dilemma confronting him in the sixth arcanum. He was standing at a crossroads between two women who sought his favor, hemmed in on both sides (with Eros hovering above) and needing to find … Continue reading “The Lover’s Escape” – Thoughts on the Chariot
Affirmation Bias and “Participation Mystique”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an extremely useful concept in Sallie Nichols' Tarot and the Archetypal Journey, that of "participation mystique." The premise is that, until they can begin to fashion words into coherent ideas that define their individuality, infants have no sense of personal ego and instead reside in a limitless, amorphous ocean … Continue reading Affirmation Bias and “Participation Mystique”
“Finding the Path” – Opening A Spirit Contact Channel
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I occasionally encounter questions about ways to contact the spirits of the departed and other disembodied entities using the tarot cards. Through my esoteric studies and practice over the last fifty years I've become familiar with the principles of "astral pathworking" using the Major Arcana, but that is a more disciplined - and … Continue reading “Finding the Path” – Opening A Spirit Contact Channel
A Kid’s Tarot-Reading Game
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm always looking for novel ways to read the cards for young people that will get them involved in the process and hold their interest. Here is a board-game motif that invites them to roll a die and move a token on the board to select cards for the reading. It requires a … Continue reading A Kid’s Tarot-Reading Game
“Through A Glass Darkly” – Predicting World Events
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The art of correctly divining the course of large-scale human events (as opposed to purely natural phenomena) on the world stage is one that has intrigued fortune-tellers since Elizabethan astrologer William Lilly predicted the Great Fire of London in 1666. In my own work, these occasions are primarily sociopolitical in scope, and the … Continue reading “Through A Glass Darkly” – Predicting World Events
Higher Octaves: The Outer Planet Conundrum
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading Aleister Crowley's Eight Lectures on Yoga, I came across his brief analysis of the ten planets of astrology, the seven "classical" orbs of the ancients and (at least in part) the three modern planets. Back in the 1970s, esoteric astrologers considered Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to represent the "higher octaves" of … Continue reading Higher Octaves: The Outer Planet Conundrum
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 