AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm constantly seeking innovative ways to extract more interpretive value from the set of esoteric correspondences devised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for the Minor Arcana of the tarot. Here is my latest attempt. In musical composition and performance there is the concept of "tension and release" by which the … Continue reading Tension and Release in the Chaldean Counterparts for the Minor Arcana
Esoteric Tarot
Reversed Fours: A Stumble and A “One-Point Landing”
AUTHORS NOTE: Having finished re-reading 54 Devils, Cory Hutcheson's playing-card divination book, and not yet possessed of a new tarot book, I picked up my interrupted reassessment of Paul Fenton-Smith's Tarot Master Class (which I believe has now been renamed). In it he mentions that the 4 of Wands reversed can indicate a "lack of … Continue reading Reversed Fours: A Stumble and A “One-Point Landing”
Tarot Elements: Four or Five?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm aware that some diviners read the tarot as partaking of five elements: the four of Empedocles (and Zoroaster before him, apparently, although I haven't researched it) - Fire, Water, Air and Earth - with the Major Arcana as the fifth element of Spirit. As an astrologer for a couple of years before … Continue reading Tarot Elements: Four or Five?
Archetypal Gates and Elemental Focus: A Ritual Matrix and Tarot Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Tarot Magic, Donald Tyson described a hierarchy of tarot trumps based on a Kabbalistic cosmology that places the Earth at the bottom as fixed and unmoving; the three "Primal Elements" (Water, Air and Fire in ascending order) as the first three increasingly-subtle "spheres" one encounters when rising from the Earth's surface; the … Continue reading Archetypal Gates and Elemental Focus: A Ritual Matrix and Tarot Spread
A Four-Path Attitudinal Guidance Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm fond of spreads that diverge in opposite directions along several different paths to closure. This one is designed to aid the querent in deciding whether the matter at hand should be approached assertively (Wands/Fire); compassionately (Cups/Water); thoughtfully (Swords/Air) or pragmatically (Disks/Earth). It uses all 78 cards and can be read with reversals. … Continue reading A Four-Path Attitudinal Guidance Spread
Portable Magic by Another Name
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've just begun reading Donald Tyson's book, Tarot Magic, one that I've wanted to own for a long time under its original title, Portable Magic. Its premise is that tarot cards can stand in for the elaborate trappings of full-blown ceremonial magic, and we can just box up the deck and put it … Continue reading Portable Magic by Another Name
“Absence of Strain” – Managing Esoteric Correspondences
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Discarded Image (a seemingly bottomless source of inspiration for this blog), C.S. Lewis describes the insertion of astrological principles into Medieval literature and architecture as, in the best cases, being "woven into the plot," while in the less salutary examples the addition amounts to an "overload of philosophy." These observations offer … Continue reading “Absence of Strain” – Managing Esoteric Correspondences
Approaching the Hub: An Elemental Alignment Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading about the Medieval concept of "Fortuna" (later identified with the tarot Wheel of Fortune), I was impressed by the thinking of Boethius (as presented by C.S. Lewis), who put the following into the mouth of his philosophical muse, Philosophia. (Note that, although "Divine Providence" is not in my personal vocabulary as … Continue reading Approaching the Hub: An Elemental Alignment Spread
Qabalah, Cabala, Wherefore the Kabbalah?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Western occultists of the late 20th Century (or at least those with no prior background in Jewish mysticism) who spent time with the Hermetic Qabalah invariably encountered its progenitor, the Hebraic Kabbalah. This typically occurred (and probably still does) through exposure to the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) and the numerology of Gematria, … Continue reading Qabalah, Cabala, Wherefore the Kabbalah?
The “Power Grab” Spread: A Personal Power Profile
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As inquisitive beings we are always looking for insights that will aid us in understanding our inherent strengths and weaknesses. Although I don't use the "Tree of Life" spread often, here is a version that employs tarot cards to create a "power profile" showing the relative potency of eleven different aspects of our … Continue reading The “Power Grab” Spread: A Personal Power Profile
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 