There is something slightly dismal about the opening and closing stanzas of the famous Lewis Carroll nonsense poem that reminds me of some of the more unsettling cards of the Thoth deck (must be those flimsy, miserable, shabby-looking birds described by Humpty Dumpty). I took on the interesting challenge of finding correlations between the cards and the rest … Continue reading The Jabberwocky and the Thoth Tarot
Miscellaneous
Annabel Lee in the Cards
I can't get enough of this project, and Edgar Allan Poe has me by the throat! His somber poem Annabel Lee overflows with vivid imagery that is well-served by the cards of the tarot. Once again, I'm using both "small" cards and trumps in the visual narrative, and this time a court card sneaks in as … Continue reading Annabel Lee in the Cards
The Raven and the Dark “Pip” Cards
There is a dark current running through the Minor Arcana (or scenic "pip") cards of the Waite-Smith deck that finds its most eloquent expression in the suits of Cups and Swords. I was encouraged by my daughter-in-law to examine Edgar Allan Poe's gloomy, elegiac poem The Raven for inclusion in my "poetry-as-trumps" project, and in doing so I couldn't … Continue reading The Raven and the Dark “Pip” Cards
The End of the World and the Major Arcana
This brief poem by Archibald MacLeish is also a candidate for "tarotization." It looks like a five-card trump sequence. Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot The armless ambidextrian was lighting A match between his great and second toe This suggests the dexterous skill of the Magician. Call it "sleight-of-toe." And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting … Continue reading The End of the World and the Major Arcana
One Deck to Rule Them All
I've long believed that for every reader there is one tarot deck that fits like a glove: skin-tight and perfectly responsive to every nuance of interpretation. While we might protest that we can read effectively with any deck, there is almost certainly one that stands out from the pack. We can all recognize those that don't quite measure up; … Continue reading One Deck to Rule Them All
End of an Era
On a housekeeping note, Mozilla has finally gone and done it. The legacy version of Firefox I've been using to retain all of my old add-ons and plug-ins no longer supports editing of posts and viewing of stats in WordPress, so I've had to migrate management of this blog to Internet Explorer. The transition appears to be … Continue reading End of an Era
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 