AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every time I encounter a new observation about the significance of the Major Arcana I feel compelled to revisit the subject in order to re-examine my own position. When I was learning to read the tarot cards back in the early '70s the consensus was that the 22 Major Arcana were a "big … Continue reading Deep, Distant, Dire or Ditched? – Competing Views on the Major Arcana
Divination
Tarot Occupations
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay is not about careers in divination (although that is another interesting topic), but rather the typical occupations that are symbolized by the tarot cards. It's a subject I've been intending to address more thoroughly for quite some time, even though I don't consider myself uniquely qualified as a historian or sociologist … Continue reading Tarot Occupations
Reversed or Not: An Endless Debate
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a topic that is apparently never going away, so here is yet another of my attempts to be "definitive" about it. Even those diviners who avoid pulling reversed cards by always orienting their tarot decks in the upright direction sometimes find themselves embroiled in the online debate about whether there is … Continue reading Reversed or Not: An Endless Debate
Mistaking Etteilla: An Insult to Hairdressers
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It seems I was justified in my belief that I would find fresh insight regarding the life and work of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (known to cartomancers as "Etteilla") in the closing chapters of Ronald Decker's esoteric tarot history book, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah. As an admittedly biased admirer … Continue reading Mistaking Etteilla: An Insult to Hairdressers
“Highest in Red, Lowest in Black” (or Not)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Occasionally, playing cards and tarot cards converge in unlikely ways, as they do here. When my brother and I were kids learning to play "trick-taking" cards games from our grandmother (who was an old-school cartomancer, although she would never read for us or even talk about it), her oft-repeated mantra was "Highest in … Continue reading “Highest in Red, Lowest in Black” (or Not)
Negative Cards: Ugly Is Only Skin-Deep
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Nothing causes more panic for neophyte diviners than the presence of obviously negative cards in their tarot readings. The 3 of Swords? Yikes! The 9 or 10 of Swords? Shoot me now! The 5 of Cups? Waaaaah! The Tower? Death? Arrrgh! Granted that these are only knee-jerk reactions caused by the imagery, they … Continue reading Negative Cards: Ugly Is Only Skin-Deep
“Optical Naturalism” and Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a fairly complex topic that will take some doing to sort out (not to mention a couple of very long sentences). In The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah), tarot historian Ronald Decker mentions that Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci often applied the principles of optical naturalism … Continue reading “Optical Naturalism” and Tarot Reading
The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've long believed that there is a conceptual link between the Fool, the Aces and the Pages of the tarot as the inspiration but not necessarily the "prime mover" for a departure from the status quo. They might put the idea in our head but, if anything useful is to be made of … Continue reading The Page, The Ace and the Fool: Three of a Kind
Reversal as Imbalance
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There are numerous ways to decipher the significance of reversed cards in a tarot reading. Here is one that will perhaps have more universal applicability than some of the others I've explored. Tarot expert Paul Fenton-Smith has a unique take on reversed cards. His premise is that when a card appears upside-down in … Continue reading Reversal as Imbalance
Dice, Cards and the Quintessence Calculation: A Three-Phase Tarot Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Dice and cards (particularly the numbered "pip" cards of a standard poker deck) share a long history as gaming devices. Their joint role in divination is less storied (except perhaps in the fortune-telling manual, Triompho di Fortuna, published in 1526 by Sigismondo Fanti of Venice), but I have been using them together for … Continue reading Dice, Cards and the Quintessence Calculation: A Three-Phase Tarot Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 