AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the Golden Dawn's system of elemental correspondences for the suits of the tarot, Swords are assigned to Air, suggesting admirable fluidity, flexibility and agility. This despite the fact that, as A.E. Waite observed in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Swords "generally are not symbolic of beneficent forces in human affairs" … Continue reading The Unpredictable Swords: Mental Agility or Mental Chaos?
tarot-psychology
Major Arcana As “Step-Change”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In manufacturing jargon, effective process control begins with the engineering of a work-station performance envelope that ensures steady-state functionality by permitting only minor, easily-adjusted shifts in operating parameters for the duration of the activity. (As a former quality-control technician, later an engineer and ultimately a manager, I know a little about the subject.) … Continue reading Major Arcana As “Step-Change”
The Science of Tarot: Fact or Fantasy?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the armchair scientists among my followers, my knowledge of quantum mechanics derives from nothing more academic than my reading of the rather quirky Robert Anton Wilson (who was not much of a believer in occult reasoning). Just so you know before you correct me. One of the theories about "how tarot works" … Continue reading The Science of Tarot: Fact or Fantasy?
“Playing the Victim” – Self-Inflicted Pain in RWS Imagery
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wasn't aware that there is a modern interpretation of the Waite-Smith 8 of Swords that describes the person in the picture as "faking" the distress or intentionally "self-victimizing," as in willingly submitting to what looks like abusive treatment. It reminds me of the hateful, misogynistic affront to rape victims and targets of … Continue reading “Playing the Victim” – Self-Inflicted Pain in RWS Imagery
Leveraging the Hexagram: A Motivational Spread
AUTHOR’S NOTE: For this spread, I’ve lifted the internal hexagram array from my “Tarot Magic” layout to use as a motivational overview covering both mental/spiritual and physical aspirations as well as four types of opportunity: adventurous (i.e. risk-taking) or pragmatic (both aligned with Physical Motivation) and intellectual or emotional (associated with Mental/Spiritual Motivation). Taking a … Continue reading Leveraging the Hexagram: A Motivational Spread
The Map and the Territory: Precision in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "The map is not the territory" is a celebrated statement by semanticist Alfred Korzybski that points out the cognitive disconnect between viewing a printed map and physically walking the land it represents. I've used it often to convey the idea that a tarot prediction is only an approximation of one possible future, and … Continue reading The Map and the Territory: Precision in Tarot Reading
“Passing Through Zero:” Transcending the Victim Archetype (A Tarot Spread)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As an astrologer I've long been familiar with the "victim mentality" as revealed in the natal horoscope. (I once called it the "doormat syndrome" exemplified by the Virgo-Pisces axis: people who become accustomed to being walked on.) Now I see that it has been elevated to the status of an "archetype" and decided … Continue reading “Passing Through Zero:” Transcending the Victim Archetype (A Tarot Spread)
Dabblers in the Future
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was reading an essay about Medieval historians and came across the 12th-Century Italian theologian and monastic abbot Joachim of Flora (or Fiore) who was described not as a historian but rather as a "dabbler in the future," mainly for his theory about a coming new age based on clear (at least to … Continue reading Dabblers in the Future
The Fount of All Wisdom?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It could be argued that any human activity - no matter how slight - that isn't fully automatic on one hand or totally arbitrary on the other has an implicit blueprint or model that expresses its ideal performance, even if this exemplar is only a personal benchmark that we keep in our own … Continue reading The Fount of All Wisdom?
Actions with Spirit: A Different Take on the “Cross” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For my header I've truncated the book title Actions with Spirits (Christopher Whitby, Garland Publishing, 1988), itself a condensation of the much longer moniker for a scholarly 1659 analysis of the "actions with spirits" (purportedly conversations with angels) undertaken by Dr. John Dee with scryers Edward Kelley and Barnabas Saul between 1581 and … Continue reading Actions with Spirit: A Different Take on the “Cross” Spread
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 