AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been using a combination of Pythagorean and Qabalistic number theory with the minor (or "pip") cards over the entire span of my five-decade tarot journey, but more recently I came across a new model (which is not all that different from my old one) in playing-card divination. I thought it would be … Continue reading A Multi-Path Progression: Occult, Cartomantic and Numerological Number Theory
Esoteric Tarot
All or Nothing: Suit Distribution* as a Key Factor in Divination
*The techniques described below can also be applied to the elemental attributes of the Major Arcana by either direct association or astrological correspondence. AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently commented on an r/tarot sub-reddit post about a spread that was "all Pentacles." This brought up the question of preponderance or absence of an energy (or energies) in … Continue reading All or Nothing: Suit Distribution* as a Key Factor in Divination
Prepping the Celtic Cross for Elemental Dignities
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before I begin, I should mention that my personal version of the venerable Celtic Cross (CC) spread is based on Eden Gray's model from her 1960 book, The Tarot Revealed, and not on A.E. Waite's Christian-inflected design from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Gray made a couple of significant changes that alter … Continue reading Prepping the Celtic Cross for Elemental Dignities
The Emperor’s Deputies: Kings as “14” and “4”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As promised, here is the second iteration of the court cards as numerological counterparts to the trump cards according to "transcendence" of the second digit in their numeration, this time covering the Kings (Thoth Knights). "Transcendence" is Jame's Ricklef's word for Alejandro Jodorowsky's "decimal equivalency" that is also used by James Wanless in … Continue reading The Emperor’s Deputies: Kings as “14” and “4”
The Suit of Pentacles: “Plan the Work and Work the Plan”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been following the drama surrounding the proposed White House ballroom. Statements made by the administration that the court only prohibited ground-breaking and that planning would still proceed reminded me of my current thinking on the tarot suit of Pentacles (aka Coins and Disks). A few years ago I developed a set of … Continue reading The Suit of Pentacles: “Plan the Work and Work the Plan”
Divination: A Step Away from Ceremonial Magic
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a longtime student and practitioner of the esoteric arts, I progressed through several years of close contact with ceremonial magic back in the 1980s. This was a natural outgrowth of my investigation of the Hermetic Qabalah and the literature of its chief proponents that began in 1971, particularly addressing the contributions of … Continue reading Divination: A Step Away from Ceremonial Magic
Sitting with Ourself: A Thoth Perspective
"If I had the chance, I'd ask the world to danceAnd I'd be dancing with myself"- from Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I began reading Joe Monteleone's Tarot Mysticism: The Psycho-Spiritual Technology of the Thoth Tarot, I came upon his premise that one of the three primary uses for the tarot … Continue reading Sitting with Ourself: A Thoth Perspective
The Story in the Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book Tarot Mysticism, The Psycho-Spiritual Technology of the Thoth Tarot, Joe Monteleone observes that the ego "moving through time and space and acting on circumstances . . . gathers a story." In the realm of tarot divination, I submit that the story revealed by the cards in a spread serves as … Continue reading The Story in the Cards
The Maverick Cartomant, Part 4: The Waite-Smith Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I recently told one of my online tarot groups, I've saved "the worst for last." When compared to the majority of modern diviners, I'm very far off the beaten path in my dim view of the RWS deck. While the Waite-Smith (RWS) tarot may be the most popular deck in the world, … Continue reading The Maverick Cartomant, Part 4: The Waite-Smith Tarot
The Maverick Cartomant, Part 3: The Thoth Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It may be disingenuous to claim "maverick" status when my approach to the Thoth tarot is at least 95% aligned with the content of its companion volume, The Book of Thoth, and the Golden Dawn's Liber T tarot curriculum on which it is largely based. But I do have reservations about a couple … Continue reading The Maverick Cartomant, Part 3: The Thoth Tarot
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 