AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is a two-part learning exercise with a dual purpose - to study individual cards that have been giving us trouble during interpretation, and to examine their effects in combination with other cards as a way to better understand their practical functionality. This essay is a couple of months old and the narrative … Continue reading Trump-Card Functionality: A Learning Exercise
major-arcana
Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Calcination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading about the seven stages of alchemy for another purpose, I hit upon the idea of doing a series of tarot spreads for individual self-development based on those principles. The first stage of personal growth is one of symbolic calcination, an act of depletion that chastens and corrects as it redeems. The … Continue reading Tarot Alchemy in Seven Stages: Calcination
The Third Principle
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus covered a minor point that I've explored in much greater detail in my own work over the last few years, although at the time I had no idea I was echoing a nearly 150-year-old numerological concept. He proposed treating the second of two cards in a non-adjacent … Continue reading The Third Principle
Papus and the Trump-Card Septenaries
AUTHOR'S NOTE: With the numbers One through Ten, Papus (Gerard Encausse) found major inspiration in the quaternary paradigm, by which he managed to turn ten "pips" into a triad of four-card arrays. (See my previous essay.) With the trump cards he adopted a septenary model instead, and strove to bring the two onto the same … Continue reading Papus and the Trump-Card Septenaries
Scattered Elements
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just came across a radical departure from the typical "Fool's Journey" motif for the Major Arcana that I find intriguing since it relies on the hierarchy of elements shown in the four "magical implements" of the Magician. This led me to a related topic: whether the cards pulled for a spread can … Continue reading Scattered Elements
Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The World card of the tarot (aka "the Universe" in the Thoth and other esoteric decks) prompts endless questions from beginners who are not yet versed in its symbolism. Is it in fact a "good" card that portends success for the seeker because it displays a dancing woman who seems serene and utterly … Continue reading Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
Rolling Back the Golden Dawn’s Syllabus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've known for some time that those who prefer classical decks like the Tarot de Marseille to the esoteric reveries of the post-Occult Revival don't subscribe to the conflation of Hebrew letters and trump cards in general, and particularly not to the model proposed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rather … Continue reading Rolling Back the Golden Dawn’s Syllabus
The Lover as Morality Play
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It struck me today that the image of the four characters on the Tarot de Marseille "Lover" card might be viewed as a composite of the first six cards that precede it in the series of trumps. If we lay out those cards according to the scene in the Lover, we have the … Continue reading The Lover as Morality Play
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 