AUTHOR'S NOTE: It has been common knowledge when working with the Celtic Cross spread that the horizontal card sitting atop the first vertical one - "crossing" it - always indicates an obstacle to the flow of events or circumstances, but that premise falls apart when a positive card is pulled for the crossing position. This … Continue reading The “Crossing Card” – An Alternate View
Tarot Teaching
Individual Reading Style in Divination (A Recap)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've touched on this subject numerous times in previous essays, but almost always in passing. Here I will give it the full treatment from my personal perspective, with a small amount of unavoidable repetition. Traditional tarot decks feature a wealth of symbolic raw material that is "baked-in;" these fundamental meanings should be internalized … Continue reading Individual Reading Style in Divination (A Recap)
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”
The Bane of the Tarot Neophyte
"Coherence is the sole quality demanded of us."- Aleister Crowley in Magick AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Eye in the Triangle, his biographical study of the life of Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie referred to a quote from Crowley's Liber 185 that, with a little paraphrasing, has a direct bearing on the title of this post:"One may … Continue reading The Bane of the Tarot Neophyte
Deck Selection and Spread Dynamics
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not proposing that there are "scientific" answers to these questions but, humans being the insatiably curious and highly critical creatures that we are, I tend to think in those terms. "What is the best deck to use? What is the best spread?" I hear these questions all the time from beginners who … Continue reading Deck Selection and Spread Dynamics
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 