I once had a 95-pound German Shepard who fully understood the authoritarian zeal of the Emperor. He was big and strong enough to have ripped my throat out, so every informal training session included a demonstration of my "alpha male" superiority. He loved to mock-fight, so I used to don a pair of heavy work … Continue reading “Who’s the Boss?”
Tarot
Extreme Makeover: Imperatrix to Earth Mother
The esoteric revisionism of the 18th and 19th Centuries produced many imaginative additions to the existing lexicon of divinatory keywords for the tarot trump cards, which was previously anemic at best. What was once a simple court jester - and mad at that - became a "wise Fool" with a mission, what began as an … Continue reading Extreme Makeover: Imperatrix to Earth Mother
A 1980 Cold-Case Reading
I recently came across a news report about an investigation by local police and FBI agents into a 37-year-old New Hampshire (USA) missing-person "cold case." http://www.wmur.com/article/officials-search-for-evidence-related-to-1980-missing-person-case/13521816 I have a spread designed for missing-person divination and decided to apply it to this case. Here is the layout: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kz9ay5wf44526er/Train%20to%20Nowhere%20Spread.pdf?dl=0 The spread has thirteen positions modeled after a … Continue reading A 1980 Cold-Case Reading
Leaving the Crossroads: A Chariot to Go
In reading Roberts Place's volume, The Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination, I encountered his association of Plato's threefold subdivision of the human soul with the septenary (3x7) arrangement of the tarot trumps (the Fool is set apart as a “wild card”). Plato's unevolved “soul of appetite” corresponds to the seven-card series from the Magician to … Continue reading Leaving the Crossroads: A Chariot to Go
An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part Two
Continuing from my last post: The 51 cards I extracted from the full deck according to the astrological features of my natal horoscope form what I call a "prepared" deck, or in this case, partial deck. Normally, when I pre-conditon a deck in some way, it's usually by separating out the trump, court and pip … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part Two
An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part One
This post is yet another installment in a long-running theme that has been intriguing me for several years: the blending of tarot and astrology in more practical ways than simply using the latter to provide depth to the meaning of the cards. It will also pull together several other ideas that have been gaining traction … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Meditation, Part One
The Solitary Path
Back when I was an active member of American Mensa, I was what was known as an "Isolated M," which meant that I lived so far out in "God's Country" (aka "the Middle of Nowhere") that I derived zero benefit from my paid membership (to add insult to injury, they refused to send me a … Continue reading The Solitary Path
The Moon, Pisces and the High Priestess
Since we've been having an interesting discussion about the nature of the High Priestess, I thought I would refresh a debate we once had on the Aeclectic Tarot forum about its astrological assignment and that of the tarot Moon. First some background that will bring this into focus. Someone asked about the difference between the … Continue reading The Moon, Pisces and the High Priestess
The High Priestess: Good, Bad or Indifferent?
The High Priestess is one card that idealists and advocates for a benign (or at least neutral) view of the tarot archetypes love to put on a pedestal as a lofty example of purity and virtue. She is obviously as pristine as the driven snow, never mind that she is also as crystalline as an … Continue reading The High Priestess: Good, Bad or Indifferent?
Death, Be Not Loud
Few writers have had as much fun with the personification of Death as Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's stiff-necked Death always spoke in CAPITAL LETTERS and was pompous and portentous to the point of clueless self-ridicule (which was of course the idea). I especially liked the bit where Death wanted to take a holiday and asked his … Continue reading Death, Be Not Loud
