AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the most difficult challenges in professional tarot reading is grappling with the presence of the Death card in a spread when an anxious client is waiting expectantly for a constructive explanation. There is an inevitable fixation on its gloomy portent and our own mortality even when nothing of the sort is … Continue reading “A Spiritual Death”
Spirituality
Synchronizing the “Inner” and the “Outer” Self: A Tarot Mandala
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not proposing this as a spread for divination but rather as a tool (a form of mandala) for meditation. It could, however, be used as a "birth-chart" for the moment of the pull and supplemented over time with additional cards that function like astrological transits to a natal horoscope. One possible way … Continue reading Synchronizing the “Inner” and the “Outer” Self: A Tarot Mandala
Too Much “Woo” and Not Enough to “Shew” for It
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another rant, just when you thought it was safe to come out. This has been in the queue for a while and I debated whether to post it because it could burn another bridge or two between me and those who might have had an interest in following my work. But that work … Continue reading Too Much “Woo” and Not Enough to “Shew” for It
“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
Pitch-Perfect: Tarot Reading as “Tone Poem”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: On nearly every page of Benebell Wen's book, I Ching, the Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, I encounter another example of ancient Chinese wisdom that provides fresh impetus for my ever-increasing forays into esoteric syncretism. This time it was the following excerpt: ". . . every movement in the … Continue reading Pitch-Perfect: Tarot Reading as “Tone Poem”
Symbolic Sacrifice and Ritual Cannibalism
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This will surely offend some people, but I've never been especially thin-skinned, and I make no apologies for my non-religious attitude. Consider this an entry in my "tarot curmudgeon" series. I've always understood that early shamanistic cultures performed human sacrifice - and later, animal sacrifice - to summon their gods and thereby curry … Continue reading Symbolic Sacrifice and Ritual Cannibalism
Deep, Distant, Dire or Ditched? – Competing Views on the Major Arcana
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every time I encounter a new observation about the significance of the Major Arcana I feel compelled to revisit the subject in order to re-examine my own position. When I was learning to read the tarot cards back in the early '70s the consensus was that the 22 Major Arcana were a "big … Continue reading Deep, Distant, Dire or Ditched? – Competing Views on the Major Arcana
Cut the Cord! – Folk Magic and the 3 of Swords
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written in the past about the opportunity presented by the Waite-Smith (RWS) 3 of Swords to resist wallowing in the apparent misery it depicts and instead actively seek a way to remove the swords from the heart and let it heal. (This is the symbolic function of the nimble and resilient number … Continue reading Cut the Cord! – Folk Magic and the 3 of Swords
Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't touched on this subject recently, but my involvement in the Reddit sub r/seculartarot brought it back around. I once described divination in fanciful terms as "running my mental fingers through the warp-and-woof of the fabric of reality, trying to tease out threads of truth." More recently I encountered the ideas of … Continue reading Schrodinger and the “Fabric of Reality”
Something Borrowed, Something New
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In reading about the mythological history of the stars and their constellations, I came across the supposition that, in primitive cultures, the concept of a personal "guiding star" predated by millennia that of an individual "guardian angel." Everyone was aligned with a dominant stellar (or more likely planetary) force that governed their destiny … Continue reading Something Borrowed, Something New
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 