*With apologies to Arlo Guthrie for deliberately misquoting Alice's Restaurant. AUTHOR'S NOTE: The fact that a tarot deck can be subdivided into three distinct but interdependent tiers - trump, court and "pip" cards - invites numerous analogies describing how they interact from the top down in "three-part harmony." Here are a few ideas. We might … Continue reading Tarot Analogies: Three-Part Harmony and Feeling*
Divination
Tarot Reading for Businesses: A Conceptual Overview
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not long ago a new acquaintance, upon hearing that I read tarot cards, asked whether I do readings for business-related questions. I responded that I have yet to do so in a professional capacity but I certainly could, and I have in fact created quite a few experimental spreads for just that purpose. … Continue reading Tarot Reading for Businesses: A Conceptual Overview
Full-Immersion Tarot Reading: Engaging the Five Senses
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently encountered the idea that, when we set out to do a tarot reading, we should crank up our creative imagination by holding in our mind's eye and contemplating the notion that we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell the object of our divination. (You'll notice that the "sixth sense" of … Continue reading Full-Immersion Tarot Reading: Engaging the Five Senses
Aspiring to Perfection: Mining a Metaphor
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As part of my exploration of esoteric syncretism, here I'm paraphrasing a quote from Benebell Wen's I Ching, The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes to make it more relevant to tarot reading. The quote relates to invoking the "Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens" as a metaphor to aid … Continue reading Aspiring to Perfection: Mining a Metaphor
Geomancy and I Ching: Binary Twins?
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
“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
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 