AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just rejoined the r/SecularTarot sub-reddit feed, and another member asked how the secular diviner reads the cards without mystical input. Lately I've been thinking of myself more as a "rational" reader than a "spiritual" or "psychological" one, so in answer to this request I decided to summarize where I've landed since I … Continue reading Logic and Imagination: The Twin Pillars of Secular Tarot Reading
Tarot Theory
The Anecdotal Angle in Divination
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The reliability of highly speculative forms of divination like cartomancy is an open question that is normally approached from an anecdotal angle. Did the querent experience the outcome exactly as described in the forecast? A more empirical viewpoint would seek to quantify the results based on more than just subjective perception, perhaps along … Continue reading The Anecdotal Angle in Divination
Warping Reality: The Role of Intention in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In his book Real Magic, Dean Radin discusses synchronicity, the simultaneous occurrence of events or situations that are unrelated from a cause-and-effect standpoint but that are inherently similar in nature and can be thematically linked as is done in astrology with its "As above, so below" premise. He goes on to associate this … Continue reading Warping Reality: The Role of Intention in Tarot Reading
Real Tarot (Not Just “Coping”)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've just begun reading Dean Radin's Real Magic, and I can already see that it aligns with my own view of rational metaphysics that has evolved over the last fifty years of study and practice, both anecdotally in the public arena and experimentally in private. As I’ve often said, I’m inclined to believe … Continue reading Real Tarot (Not Just “Coping”)
The Tarot Reader and the “Sword of Truth” – The Perilous Pursuit of Speculative Divination
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”- Attributed to Mark Twain (with thanks to Dean Radin for the tip) AUTHOR'S NOTE: Those tarot readers who champion freestyle improvisation and dismiss matter-of-fact appraisal of the cards have an implacable "sword of truth" … Continue reading The Tarot Reader and the “Sword of Truth” – The Perilous Pursuit of Speculative Divination
Beyond the Facts: The Role of Speculation in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First a disclaimer. I'm no fan of the word "intuition" as universally applied to tarot reading because I think of it as a "one-size-fits-all" mystical answer-generator that encourages over-reliance on subjective bias, as in "If it feels true it must be true." I'm far too cautious (not to mention too skeptical) to swallow … Continue reading Beyond the Facts: The Role of Speculation in Tarot Reading
Over the Hill: The “Post-Crisis Downslope” in a Five-Card Tarot Reading
"So you know, that you're over the hillWhen your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill."- from Old Folk's Boogie by Little Feat AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Little Feat quote was a late pick as I began thinking about a title for this post. The first inspiration was a quip I came across online: … Continue reading Over the Hill: The “Post-Crisis Downslope” in a Five-Card Tarot Reading
The Monkey Mind and the Meat Brain: Putting the Brakes on Mystical Excess in Divination
"I'm a monkey, m-m-monkeyI'm a monkey, m-m-monkeyI'm a monkey, m-m-monkeyMonkey, monkey man"- from Monkey Man by the Rolling Stones AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm indebted to James Ricklef and Lon Milo DuQuette, in Tarot Reading Explained and Tarot Architect respectively, for bringing these concepts to my attention. (Oh, and to Mick Jagger for obvious reasons.) By way … Continue reading The Monkey Mind and the Meat Brain: Putting the Brakes on Mystical Excess in Divination
Expansion and Contraction in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE This essay has been in the "pending" queue for a while now and I've moved on from where I was when I wrote it to explore other topics, but I think it's still worth posting. It seems that I can't push even one page further into my renewed study of James Ricklef's Tarot … Continue reading Expansion and Contraction in Tarot Reading
A Reversed-Card Digest: King of Cups, 6 of Cups and 8 of Wands
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is no connection between these cards other than the fact of reversal. They weren't part of an involved study, just the subject of three different pending essays that I compiled to clear out my backlog of unpublished posts. These vignettes are prime examples of my present approach to reversals; they were inspired … Continue reading A Reversed-Card Digest: King of Cups, 6 of Cups and 8 of Wands
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 