AUTHOR'S NOTE: A few years ago I read that the numbers Three, Six and Nine represent the "Three Perfections" of Greek philosophy as espoused by Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. I finally pinned down where the idea came from, and it isn't a direct quote from any of them. While an argument can be found in … Continue reading The “Three Perfections” in the Suit of Swords
Tarot Card Meanings
The Devil and the Vulgar Pursuits of Earth
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the opinion of Aleister Crowley, about the best that can be said of the Devil card is that it represents "creative energy in its most material form." He goes on to relate it to the zodiacal exaltation of Mars in Capricorn ("the fiery material energy of creation") and even more vividly to … Continue reading The Devil and the Vulgar Pursuits of Earth
The Tarot Fives as “Difficult People”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I first want to mention that in some systems of numerological thought Five is the number of humanity (five senses, five extremities, five fingers, five toes, etc). For this reason I'm relating it to "people" for the purpose of this essay. The difficult disposition of the title can appear in these individuals as … Continue reading The Tarot Fives as “Difficult People”
Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
"As the saying goes “You can put lipstick on a sow but it’s still a sow,” or similarly and more bluntly, “You can’t polish a turd.”- from my 2019 essay When "Bad Is Bad" AUTHOR'S NOTE: Over the last few weeks I've encountered two posts in the online tarot community where novice diviners were agonizing … Continue reading Rehabilitating Bad Cards (aka “Putting Lipstick on a Pig”)
Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
"One explanation for (human sentience) is that consciousness emerges as a result of the complexity and self-reflective recursion that is built into the circuits of the brain, like a hall of mirrors."- Dean Radin in Supernormal AUTHOR'S NOTE: A commonly-help opinion among tarot practitioners is that the random cards pulled for a reading "mirror" the … Continue reading Tarot Cards as a “Hall of Mirrors”
Objective and Subjective Significance in Tarot Cards
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The keyword meanings given in tarot books are typically objective in that they can apply to a wide range of conditions, and it's up to the diviner to tailor them to a sitter's subjective circumstances. When analytical tarot readers (i.e. those who value the traditional knowledge presented in established definitions) begin to assess … Continue reading Objective and Subjective Significance in Tarot Cards
The Symbolic Disconnect: Prying the Relative from the Jaws of the Absolute
AUTHOR'S NOTE: No, this essay isn't about stopping a grizzly bear from eating Grandma; I swear it's divination-related. The relative and the absolute are metaphysical concepts I picked up while re-reading The Kybalion. Those new to the tarot who approach it with an eye toward becoming a diviner are immediately confronted with a wealth of … Continue reading The Symbolic Disconnect: Prying the Relative from the Jaws of the Absolute
Say What? “Neutral” Cards in the Tarot?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's a rhetorical question because every card carries an elemental "charge," whether by suit or astrological association: Fire and Air are positive; Water and Earth are negative; none are neutral. But for the sake of argument, I'm proposing that some cards are decidedly less emphatic in their normal expression than their peers. The … Continue reading Say What? “Neutral” Cards in the Tarot?
Pages and Knights: Message or Messenger?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again in the tarot literature, I've come across the old assumption that the Pages can represent "messages" for the querent when they appear in a spread. At other times I've seen the Knights described as "messengers" entering the situation. I thought it would be worthwhile to examine the differences between the two … Continue reading Pages and Knights: Message or Messenger?
The Eight of Swords as “Interference”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Anyone who grew up in the 1950s with a tiny black-and-white CRT (cathode ray tube) television and a "rabbit-ear" antenna knows what video "snow" is: the grainy, flickering gray haze that all but obscured the transmitted images due to poor reception. Although the main culprits were distance from the transmitter and occasional electrical … Continue reading The Eight of Swords as “Interference”
