AUTHOR'S NOTE: If we are savvy in the self-empowering ways of practical magic, our encounter with a given tarot card in a reading won't invariably deliver a foregone conclusion. We can choose how much of its influence to let into our life and how to engage it. The fundamental energy won't change, just our handling … Continue reading Embracing the Cards as a Matter of Choice
Practical Mysticism
Probability Management: Divination as Agent of Destiny
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the "magical practices" section of her book, Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers, T. Susan Chang offers "probability enhancement" as one definition of practical magic. It involves creative visualization (a more assertive type of creative imagination) in the form of a consciously-scripted aim to manifest what we want for the future. … Continue reading Probability Management: Divination as Agent of Destiny
The “Spiritual Tribunal” Astral Contact Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: All of the spirit-contact methods I'm aware of assume that we're going to encounter precisely the entity we're seeking (ancestor, god-form, elemental figure, spirit guide, etc.) whenever we ask. But I've never been convinced that disembodied beings are lurking at the threshold of the Astral Plane, just waiting for us to reach out, … Continue reading The “Spiritual Tribunal” Astral Contact Spread
“Twin Flame:” Spiritual Rapport or Galvanic Magnetism?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been convinced of the legitimacy of the "soul-mate" premise (as Aleister Crowley might have said, "One must first believe in a soul"), and the "twin-flame" concept seems even less credible as just being "old wine in new bottles" that once again attempts to put a gloss of spiritual respectability on romantic … Continue reading “Twin Flame:” Spiritual Rapport or Galvanic Magnetism?
“Neat Borders:” A Further Case for Tarot Spreads
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading a fascinating post in which a miscellany of famous authors expounded on why they (often vociferously) disliked a variety of important books by other esteemed writers (some of them very popular). I came across this gem from Charlotte Bronte, who was eviscerating Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: it … Continue reading “Neat Borders:” A Further Case for Tarot Spreads
“Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Scrying in the spirit vision" is an occult practice involving out-of-body exploration (or, if you prefer, "astral travel") that is more focused and directed than the spontaneous act of intuitive discernment commonly used in divination. (Classically, one visualizes and enters the "body of light," projecting it onto the Astral Plane and moving about … Continue reading “Scrying Into” the Tarot Cards: An Alternative to Intuition
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 