Tomorrow we will be moving out of our temporary home and relocating across the State to our new one. New posts from me will be scarce for about a week as we get settled in.
Miscellaneous
Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #3
Here is the third installment of my "Rubaiyat as Tarot Cards" visual narrative. I have a hunch this is going to get difficult due to the sheer number of iterations. As expected, I'm finding more situations where the pictorial story-telling vignettes in the RWS minor cards dovetail at least as vividly with the text as … Continue reading Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #3
Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #2
This is the second of my episodic attempts to translate the quatrains of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into the visual language of the tarot cards, approximately one card per quatrain. I'm looking for logical transition points in the flow of the text so I can limit these posts to four or five related paragraphs … Continue reading Omar’s Picture Book, Episode #2
“Better a Live Sparrow”
In my ongoing (and lately intermittent) attempts to transform classic English-language poetry into visual narrative via the tarot cards, one work stands out as the "Holy Grail" of my lofty aspiration: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It is one I have been reluctant to tackle because it is so heavily laden with metaphysical imagery (the … Continue reading “Better a Live Sparrow”
Not Milk
Milk for Babes and Meat for Strong Men is the (much redacted) title of a religious treatise published posthumously in 1661 on behalf of the early English Quaker leader James Nayler. Later, in The Theosophist, Vol. III, No. 7, Supplement to April, 1882, Helena Blavatsky presented an essay titled "Milk for Babes and Strong Meat … Continue reading Not Milk
A Moment to Reflect
As of tomorrow afternoon, our house here in New Hampshire will be empty of furniture and we will be moving to temporary quarters while our new house is being built. We have been here since 1980, so this is a major turning point in our lives. I will be packing my computer and peripherals today, … Continue reading A Moment to Reflect
For Good or Ill
Anyone who delves into the Golden Dawn's "Liber T" tarot study material will soon encounter a phrase that places the focus of a question squarely on its context. MacGregor Mathers, its principle author, frequently stated that the influence of a card would be experienced "for good or ill" by the querent in a reading. The idea is … Continue reading For Good or Ill
The End (By Any Other Name)
The "outcome" card has been a formal fixture in tarot spreads at least since the time of Arthur Edward Waite, and much earlier in cartomantic practice. The "Gypsy fortune-teller" was expected to deliver an answer, an informative guide to a specific destination and not just an uneventful trip report. Since the 1970s, divination has been crowded into the … Continue reading The End (By Any Other Name)
Ulalume and Thoth: A Perfect Pair
Edgar Allan Poe's somber, stately poem, To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad may represent the peak (or pit, depending on your opinion of Poe) of tarot symbolism above all his other works. It embraces the Moon foremost, but also the Star, the Tower and the Devil, as well as many of the harsher Thoth Minor Arcana … Continue reading Ulalume and Thoth: A Perfect Pair
Invictus and the Tarot Triptych
In honor of William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus, which started me down this road with the line "My head is bloody, but unbowed" and its perfect complement in the Waite-Smith Tarot's 9 of Wands, I decided to render the entire poem in tarot cards. Although the text is structured in four-line stanzas, the three-card triptych made for … Continue reading Invictus and the Tarot Triptych
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 