AUTHOR'S NOTE: As inquisitive beings we are always looking for insights that will aid us in understanding our inherent strengths and weaknesses. Although I don't use the "Tree of Life" spread often, here is a version that employs tarot cards to create a "power profile" showing the relative potency of eleven different aspects of our … Continue reading The “Power Grab” Spread: A Personal Power Profile
Spirituality
The Eighth Nature: Beyond Patience
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay quickly became dense as I continue to draw inspiration from The Tao of Thoth, but it winds up with an exercise that you may find intriguing. Although there are seven tenets in Hermetic philosophy as presented in The Kybalion, an eighth metaphysical precept has been proposed that unifies them. One school … Continue reading The Eighth Nature: Beyond Patience
“When in Doubt, Lay It Out”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Tarot beginners who are doubtful about both their predictive skills and the reliability of divination in general often ask "But is a tarot reading always accurate? Can it actually foretell my future?" I made my own peace with that conundrum long ago and thought I would share my experience. One of the main … Continue reading “When in Doubt, Lay It Out”
Learning the Tarot Cards: Assimilate, Don’t Aggregate!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came upon an alleged "ancient Egyptian proverb" that I decided to tweak for use in this essay. Here I'm revisiting a topic I previously covered in 2020 because I have so many new followers who may not have caught up to it. Original: "True teaching is not an accumulation of knowledge; … Continue reading Learning the Tarot Cards: Assimilate, Don’t Aggregate!
Tarot As “Awareness Practice”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Lately my head has been crammed with ideas from my informal study of Taoism as presented by Benebell Wen in I Ching The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes and Ethan Indigo Smith in The Tao of Thoth. (The former is polished and intelligent while the latter is much more … Continue reading Tarot As “Awareness Practice”
The Virtue of Numbers: Contrast vs Polarity
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Esoteric number theory is an important part of divination with the tarot cards. Aleister Crowley wrote in the Book of Thoth: "Ultimate reality is best described by numbers and their interplay." Since revealing objective truth through subjective engagement with the cards is one of the main goals of serious prognostication, number associations will … Continue reading The Virtue of Numbers: Contrast vs Polarity
“Everybody Needs the Light” (or “Poking Holes in the Veil”)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just listening to In the Light, Led Zeppelin's mystical minor masterpiece (despite the alliteration, it didn't quite make me go "mmm" with aural pleasure), and I came across the opening quote that appears in the title. I was reading Ethan Indigo Smith's The Tao of Thoth at the same time (multitasking … Continue reading “Everybody Needs the Light” (or “Poking Holes in the Veil”)
Concept, Context and Consequences: An Incremental Reading Method
AUTHOR NOTE: I've been reading about the universalizing thrust of individuation by which we begin to puzzle out the Cosmos from our evolving personal vantage point, eventually coming full circle to our primordial state of inborn comprehension. (The final "Star-Child" scene of a fully-conscious fetus in 2001: A Space Odyssey comes to mind.) This got … Continue reading Concept, Context and Consequences: An Incremental Reading Method
Subconscious Induction: Bridging the Gap
"I have only come here seeking knowledge/Things they would not teach me of in college" - from Wrapped Around Your Finger by the Police AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a diviner who prefers face-to-face reading but no longer has a steady clientele (the COVID pandemic and my cross-State relocation saw to that), I now pursue my esoteric … Continue reading Subconscious Induction: Bridging the Gap
A 78-Card Geometric Mandala
"Devil inside, the devil insideEvery single one of us, the devil inside"(From Devil Inside by Inxs) AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the end of this essay is a numbering table I created several years ago for the sequence of 78 tarot cards that begins with the Fool as "1" and ends with the King of Pentacles as … Continue reading A 78-Card Geometric Mandala
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 