AUTHOR'S NOTE: I realize that it's moot to identify as an iconoclast when dealing with a system of divination that - as I was told when I first took up the TdM - has no established or documented tradition of interpretation going back to the era of its origin. (After all, it was primarily a … Continue reading The Maverick Cartomant, Part 2: Tarot de Marseille (TdM)
tarot-reading
An Insurrection Panorama
"Pass the dynamite 'cause the fuse is lit"- from Riot in Cell Block #9 by The CoastersAUTHOR'S NOTE: Here I'm using my favorite sociopolitical deck, Brian Williams' PoMo Tarot, to pose the question "What are the prevailing circumstances for invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota?" (I decided that national/international politics and world events are still … Continue reading An Insurrection Panorama
Outgrowing “Lego-Block” Tarot: When Rote Memorization Gives Way to Internalized Recall
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The professional tarot community is understandably dismissive of the journeyman reader's reliance on memorized keywords as a shortcut to flesh out the bones of a rudimentary narrative. This is a perfunctory technique that I've called "Lego-Block® divination" in previous essays because it promotes the stacking-up of tailored snippets of language in the hope … Continue reading Outgrowing “Lego-Block” Tarot: When Rote Memorization Gives Way to Internalized Recall
A New Year, A New Agenda
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's no secret that I've become thoroughly disenchanted with the populist pretensions of the online tarot community, to the point that I've decided to disengage from public conversation and return to private academic pursuits of a more esoteric nature. (I doubt the typical YouTube "talking head" will miss me or even notice.) I … Continue reading A New Year, A New Agenda
Probability Management: Divination as Agent of Destiny
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the "magical practices" section of her book, Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers, T. Susan Chang offers "probability enhancement" as one definition of practical magic. It involves creative visualization (a more assertive type of creative imagination) in the form of a consciously-scripted aim to manifest what we want for the future. … Continue reading Probability Management: Divination as Agent of Destiny
Esoteric Correspondences “In the Trenches”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been inspired by something I just read in T. Susan Chang's Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers to revisit a subject I covered a few years ago in my essay "Correspondences: How Much is Too Much?" (linked below). Her section on "putting it all together" provides useful techniques by which the … Continue reading Esoteric Correspondences “In the Trenches”
Swapping Correspondences for the Empress and the Lovers*
*Empress = Taurus (the most fertile of signs) and the Lovers = Venus (the Goddess of Love) In an earlier post (linked below), I explored "rethinking" the Golden Dawn's astrological assignments for the Major Arcana based on my five decades of practice with the esoteric tarot and astrology. This is the third in my series … Continue reading Swapping Correspondences for the Empress and the Lovers*
Online Tarot: Fishing for Meaning But Catching Only Noise
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another installment in my long-running "beating-a-dead-horse" criticism of online tarot as my impatience with its superficiality continues to simmer. I've reached a new low in my opinion of the self-indulgent shallowness exhibited by so much of what I see going on, and have retreated to my hermitage to contemplate it. I … Continue reading Online Tarot: Fishing for Meaning But Catching Only Noise
2025 Year-End Recap & 2026 “Cusp of Renewal” Forecast
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the New-Year's forecast spread I created in December of 2024, and it seems like a good one to repeat this year. My current state of ill health won't let me go at it full-tilt, but I wanted to keep my streak of posts going. Thoth Tarot, copyright of US Games Systems … Continue reading 2025 Year-End Recap & 2026 “Cusp of Renewal” Forecast
A Flu Recovery Scenario
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've now been sick with the flu for over two weeks since our family Christmas party in mid-December and decided to do a reading about what my remaining recovery period looks like. I used the beautiful Boadicea's Tarot of Earthly Delights for this not-so-delightful situation, with its suits of "Combustion" (Fire); "Tentacles" (Water); … Continue reading A Flu Recovery Scenario
