When I started writing this blog, and in fact when I decided to start calling myself a "professional diviner" again, my conscious intent was to not attempt making a lot of money at it. After all, I retired from business ten years ago and the last thing I want is another full-time job. I'm mostly … Continue reading To Monetize or Not
Opinion
Pattern Recognition
Last night, while reading John Michael Greer's The Art and Practice of Geomancy, I came across a passage that has relevance for most forms of divination: "sensing the patterns in the spiritus mundi, after all, is what divination does best." Greer described the spiritus mundi as the "life force of the world," which - along … Continue reading Pattern Recognition
The “Hedge Mystic”
In a recent post I characterized myself as a "garden-variety mystic" in that I don't identify as a "psychic" (much less an all-seeing one) or a "sensitive" in my professional pursuits (nor as an "empath" either, but that's a subject for a different post), I just "read the cards." Today I hit upon the even … Continue reading The “Hedge Mystic”
The Old Style Lenormand “Attitude Check”
I recently acquired the Old Style Lenormand Fortune Telling Cards and ran the deck through my "New Lenormand Deck Attitude Check." This is my Lenormand version of a "deck interview" reading, in which I let the cards tell me their intentions. I'm usually not one to ascribe unique "personality" to decks since I think what … Continue reading The Old Style Lenormand “Attitude Check”
Divinosaurus Recidivus
Sometimes I feel like a displaced "dinosaur," and at other times I'm more a "cosmic anomaly" like Arthur Dent - a walking anachronism on one hand and a "man-out-of-time" on the other - with one foot planted firmly in the cartomantic past and the other tentatively treading the future of the art, but with little … Continue reading Divinosaurus Recidivus
Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Upon entering the ranks of the professional diviner, we inevitably encounter the question "How much is enough?" Time, that is, or effort expended for value received.I was once advised that, in rural New England where I lived at the time, the going rate for a face-to-face tarot reading was a dollar a minute. This was … Continue reading Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
“Tarot-Free” Tarot Decks (or “Damn the Symbolism, Full Speed Ahead!”)
I have a problem with self-proclaimed tarot decks that strip the usual symbolism from the cards and replace it with something radically different and wholly unlikely, whether it's animals or flowers or landscapes or similar charming but overly literal artwork that conveys something other than the customary narrative cues while often being utterly devoid of … Continue reading “Tarot-Free” Tarot Decks (or “Damn the Symbolism, Full Speed Ahead!”)
Tarot and Talking Heads
This will be a controversial topic and I may offend a few of the more experienced purveyors of wisdom in the online divination community, but they aren't my target here. My goal is to encourage improvements for everyone in the overall effectiveness of knowledge transfer and not just to criticize its shortcomings. For the less … Continue reading Tarot and Talking Heads
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 