AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Empowerment" is one of the most common personal-growth buzzwords enlisted in the performance of divination. Nobody dares offer a prediction without at least mentioning it for fear of being branded a "fortune-teller." We nearly do back-flips trying to erase any hint of predestination from our readings (you know the shtick: the future isn't … Continue reading Seizing the Power of “Empowerment”
Tarot and Psychology
Believing is Seeing: The Power of Suggestion vs. Confirmation Bias in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading a passage in Dean Radin's book Supernormal, in which he described a controlled "psi" experiment where subjects who believed strongly in extrasensory perception (ESP) scored significantly higher than non-believers on a blind symbol-recognition test conducted at a distance. Although Radin didn't use the term, I'm wondering whether "auto-suggestion" on … Continue reading Believing is Seeing: The Power of Suggestion vs. Confirmation Bias in Divination
Immodest Claims: The Cult of “Thems That Think They Knows”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In their debut recording Bert and I . . . and Other Stories from Down East, rustic Maine humorists Robert Bryan and Marshall Dodge referred slyly to "thems that knows" in one of the monologues. I recall this quip whenever I encounter the tarot community's online ranks of zealous Jungian partisans who are … Continue reading Immodest Claims: The Cult of “Thems That Think They Knows”
Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is no concept more widely endorsed in the divination community than that of peppering (aka empowering) a sitter with encouragement during the conduct of a tarot reading. We don't merely want to hand our clients relevant information about their future circumstances, we attempt to make them feel like they are (or will … Continue reading Empowerment as “Mental Induction”
Social Neutrality: Neither “Using” Nor “Being Used”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've long believed that the prototypical "average person" often harbors a private agenda that exemplifies the "social user" stigma of the title. They may not even be aware of their antisocial inclinations, but those close to them certainly are. As a group, social users aspire to either dominate others and thereby gain a … Continue reading Social Neutrality: Neither “Using” Nor “Being Used”
Scrubbing Tarot of its Myths, One-by-One
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the last fifteen years I've been on a quiet crusade to liberate the practice of tarot from the numerous popular myths about what should and shouldn't be done before and during divination with the cards. I last wrote about it at some length in a 2020 essay titled "The Myths of Tarot: … Continue reading Scrubbing Tarot of its Myths, One-by-One
The Mystical Tide: Rising or Falling?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Between the ages of 18 and 30, I lived through the 12-year period that saw the hippie zeitgeist reach its brief zenith and then fade. It was a heady time of boundless "New Age" enthusiasm for all things exotic in the realm of metaphysics, as well as the burgeoning of unique psychological and … Continue reading The Mystical Tide: Rising or Falling?
Rambling On: A Metaphysical Journey in Ten Phases
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Unsurprisingly, as I sit here lulled by the Florida sun and surf, I've momentarily run out of profound ideas for my daily deliberation. So permit me to ramble on a bit with an updated riff on a couple of old autobiographical posts. Things have been moving again, albeit glacially, and it's time for … Continue reading Rambling On: A Metaphysical Journey in Ten Phases
Action-and-Event-Oriented Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm currently working my way through the court-card section of Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot, and one of her observations struck an agreeable chord: the presence of these cards in a spread signifies human activity, and the more of them there are, the higher the energy level will be. In other words, court cards … Continue reading Action-and-Event-Oriented Tarot Reading
The Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Tarot Reading
"Deal them down and deal them dirtyLife's a wheezing hurdy-gurdyDeal them up and deal them cleanMan is just a soft machine"-from Dame Fortune by the Holy Modal Rounders AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay gave me another opportunity to trot out the card-playing trope from the Holy Modal Rounder's song Dame Fortune, which alludes to the fact … Continue reading The Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Tarot Reading
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 