AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not long ago I started following an online conversation about Israel Regardie's development of the material for his first volume of Golden Dawn knowledge (dubbed "the brick," I assume for its impressive girth and density). I had just begun re-reading Regardie's Eye in the Triangle when this exchange grabbed my attention. During his … Continue reading A Foot Soldier in the “Light” Brigade
Divination
“Shot on Goal” – An “Answer +1” Cartomantic Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm using my new cartomantic spread to explore present and future developments in a long-delayed initiative. There are a couple of ways to read these cards, but the one that is uppermost in my mind is the prospect for resurrecting my public divination practice that went dormant with COVID and my cross-State … Continue reading “Shot on Goal” – An “Answer +1” Cartomantic Reading
“The Answer + 1” – A Cartomantic Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently learned about the "Answer Spread" developed by Kapherus (J. David Arcuri) from Regina Russell's earlier design, so I went to his Art of Cartomancy FB page to check it out. I'm a relentless spread creator with over 300 original patterns to my credit and more awaiting my attention. I knew before … Continue reading “The Answer + 1” – A Cartomantic Spread
Somebody Wants Something: The Single-Minded Focus of the Court or “Face” Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just set aside the two uninspiring tarot books I've been reading and went looking for a volume on playing-card divination. A member of the online cartomancy community recommended Roger Horne's Cartomancy in Folk Witchcraft, and I was able to buy it on Kindle for a small sum. His writing style is a … Continue reading Somebody Wants Something: The Single-Minded Focus of the Court or “Face” Cards
“Coming By It Honestly”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My Canadian forebears had a wealth of colorful Scottish and Irish folk sayings that I've treasured since the long-ago summers I spent in New Brunswick. Many of the best were preserved by my mother and my maternal grandparents over the decades before they passed. One was "He comes by it honestly" (i.e. "He … Continue reading “Coming By It Honestly”
Pattern-Recognition and Meaning-Making: Unlikely Twins of An Indifferent Mother
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The above title was adapted from the Dan Fogelberg-Tim Weisberg recording Twin Sons of Different Mothers, but the inspiration for this essay came from Joe Monteleone's Tarot Mysticism: The Psycho-Spiritual Technology of the Thoth Tarot. In his discussion of the second tarot trump (the Magus/Magician/Bateleur), Monteleone observed that this card symbolizes human consciousness … Continue reading Pattern-Recognition and Meaning-Making: Unlikely Twins of An Indifferent Mother
“Happening to the World” – A Trump-and-Pip Card Exercise
AUTHOR'S NOTE:This spread examines the conceptual divide between our private self-image and the public self-projection that signifies - in tarot author Joe Monteleone's memorable phrase - "how we happen to the world." The degree of separation or integration is determined by comparison of two parallel columns of trump and pip cards. In one model of … Continue reading “Happening to the World” – A Trump-and-Pip Card Exercise
Playing Cards and the Astro-Romany Personality Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several years ago I adapted the 21-card Romany spread for use with the seven planets of classical astrology and came up with a dual-axis developmental profile for both character analysis and associated timing. All seven columns can be used for a complete personality study, or only those that apply to specific circumstances can … Continue reading Playing Cards and the Astro-Romany Personality Profile
Deploying the Cartomantic Significator
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a unique way to deploy the Significator in playing-card reading that draws its inspiration from later cartomantic techniques. It places the querent squarely in the middle of the action by having to "live in the present" while dealing with previous inputs and subsequent outputs. It relies on the shuffle (and cut … Continue reading Deploying the Cartomantic Significator
What Happened to Nancy? – A Pair of Missing-Person Readings
AUTHOR'S NOTE:I was recently asked by a magazine publisher whether I had already performed a missing-person reading for Nancy Guthrie. That prompted me to catch up to the case with my "Train to Nowhere" exploratory spread, which is a 13x6-card array that employs all 78 cards. I chose the Queen of Wands as the Significator … Continue reading What Happened to Nancy? – A Pair of Missing-Person Readings
