“All around me golden sunflakes/Settle on the ground.”- from Granchester Meadows by Pink Floyd AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was just reading a fascinating description of the behavior of visible light from a quantum physics perspective. Luminosity has been portrayed by scientists as quasi-particulate in that it is transmitted and received in "packets" of massless particles called … Continue reading The “Quantum Theory” of Tarot Reading
Tarot Spreads
Purposeful Divination
AUTHOR NOTE: I was answering a question on one of the occult forums regarding what kind of magic I've found most effective, and I came up with the following response. Although I haven't performed any ritual magic since the mid-1980s, I realized that I now pursue what might be called "purposeful divination" as a form … Continue reading Purposeful Divination
General Life-Reading As “Logic Puzzle”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's a common practice, when a client arrives for a reading with no specific question or topic of interest in mind, for the reader to offer a "general life-reading" that explores the environmental theme or tone of the period for which it is performed. Some argue that this type of prediction is of … Continue reading General Life-Reading As “Logic Puzzle”
“One Ringy-Dingy” – A Tarot “Patch-Through” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Those who (like me) are "older than dirt" will remember Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In with Lily Tomlin as "Ernestine" the telephone switchboard operator and her iconic line "One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy" as she patched a call through and waited for the receiving party to pick-up. In this spread I've used the "patch-cord" motif … Continue reading “One Ringy-Dingy” – A Tarot “Patch-Through” Spread
The Conditional Future: A “Retrocausation” Spread
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book Real Magic, Dean Radin introduced me to the idea of "time running backward" and its corollary, "retrocausation," in which the future reaches back into the present and shapes current circumstances to align with its long-range outlook. I covered this in my previous essay "Predisposition in Tarot Reading," and here I'm … Continue reading The Conditional Future: A “Retrocausation” Spread
A “Week Ahead” Forecast: Active and Passive Days
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I seldom perform single-card daily draws but they do have a place in the seven-card weekly reading to show how the period might trend. Here I've added the idea of "active" and "passive" days that adjust the energy level delivered by the cards. This is another mixed-media spread that employs tarot cards and … Continue reading A “Week Ahead” Forecast: Active and Passive Days
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
The Story of a Life: Past-Life Reading with the Tarot
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A question occasionally arises in the online divination community regarding whether anyone has attempted to explore past lives with the tarot cards. I have a couple of existing spreads for this purpose, but I'm currently reading parapsychologist Dean Radin's book on yoga, Supernormal, in which he makes a case for reincarnation and past-life … Continue reading The Story of a Life: Past-Life Reading with the Tarot
A Timing Prediction with Tarot, Dominoes and Pendulum
AUTHOR'S NOTE: An acquaintance of mine who is pregnant and due to deliver on or about July 30 asked me to do a reading to predict whether the baby will arrive on-time. I decided to pose the question three ways: will the event occur within one week, two weeks or three weeks on either side … Continue reading A Timing Prediction with Tarot, Dominoes and Pendulum
Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In its lengthy dissertation on the reciprocal "separating and compensating" action of a swinging pendulum as envisioned in Hermetic thought, The Kybalion observes that it is the goal of an aspiring master to "get off the treadmill" (my own phrase for it) by rising above the mindless tide of repetition and refusing to … Continue reading Leaving the Treadmill: Separation, Compensation and Neutralization
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 