In doing my "courts and trumps" series of posts, I used one of my long-neglected decks, the Tarot of the Old Path. (I didn't realize it at the time, but there is a good reason those court cards all look so haughty!) I had always felt that the courts in this deck are kind of … Continue reading Tarot of the Old Path Deck Interview
Tarot
The Pages and the Priestess: Acolytes of the Mysteries
I've always felt that the lowly Pages have more to them than conventional wisdom assumes. They are often described as youthful students or apprentices of either sex who have yet to attain mastery of their element, and are therefore of marginal potency in the hierarchy of the tarot court. Their function has sometimes been limited … Continue reading The Pages and the Priestess: Acolytes of the Mysteries
The Knights and the Empress: Fealty and Favor
Some writers make much of the fact that the court cards are unnumbered and therefore can't be used in any way associated with numerology. Personally, I consider them to be part of the suit sequence and to have an implied numeration, 11 through 14. I've been having some fun linking them through numerical correspondence to … Continue reading The Knights and the Empress: Fealty and Favor
The Queens and the Emperor: The Power Behind the Throne?
Continuing my thoughts on the veiled connection between the court cards and the "higher court" represented by the "noble" trumps, I'm now looking at the Queens and the Emperor. The Queens are the thirteenth card in each suit, which number reduces numerologically to Four, the number of the Emperor. This suggests that they can act … Continue reading The Queens and the Emperor: The Power Behind the Throne?
Useful Patterns: Trump Card Overseers
I'm always looking for useful patterns among the cards of the tarot to augment my spread interpretation. Lately I've been playing around with numerical convergence between the cards of the Major and Minor Arcana. But I like to go beyond the obvious into more oblique territory. For example, when the values of all of the … Continue reading Useful Patterns: Trump Card Overseers
The Kings and the Hierophant: An Unholy Alliance?
In historical times there was little separation between Church and State, with secular rulers relying on the sway that the clergy held over the pious to keep them tractable. When you're praying you can't be fomenting unrest (unless you're Martin Luther). The clergy, in turn, relied on the King's protection and largess. Tarot shows us … Continue reading The Kings and the Hierophant: An Unholy Alliance?
“The Oyster and the Sword” Eye-Opener Spread
There is a line from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor where the braggart Pistol obliquely threatens Falstaff when the latter refuses to lend him money: "Why then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open" I figured this quote is a good inspiration for a spread aimed at exploring unknown territory that … Continue reading “The Oyster and the Sword” Eye-Opener Spread
The “Friend in Need” Value-Added Spread
In working with a sitter who was very concerned about the plight of her best friend and was wondering what she could do to help. I realized that I don't have a spread to address this specific situation. So I created one. What I came up with includes an initial action/reaction scenario, a "willing and … Continue reading The “Friend in Need” Value-Added Spread
Where Is Denise? – A Missing-Person Cold Case Reading
I fist tackled this nearly 40-year-old cold-case puzzle back when I created my "Train to Nowhere" missing-person spread. Since this blog didn't exists then, I most likely posted the results on the Aeclectic Tarot forum but, although that now-defunct site has been archived, finding anything on it is difficult. Unfortunately, I didn't save the original … Continue reading Where Is Denise? – A Missing-Person Cold Case Reading
Life After Intuition
I'm not a huge fan of purely intuitive tarot reading. There, I said it. It will probably be dismissed as mean-spirited literalism toward what is chiefly an elastic, visionary pursuit, but there is something too fatuously "squishy" about unmitigated intuition for my taste. I think the idea is fed to beginners as "The Way" because … Continue reading Life After Intuition
