PinnedIs the Practice of Divination Irrelevant or Dishonest?As I continue to explore the sketchy written history of the early tarot, I frequently encounter the observation that the tarot cards, prior to the appearance of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (aka “Etteilla”) as their original occult proponent in mid-18th-Century France, were not used in the practice of fortune-telling (presently dignified with…4 min read4 min read
17 hours agoAbundance or Absence by Card Type: Feast or Famine in Tarot ReadingAUTHOR’S NOTE: Judging from the amount of dialogue about it on the internet tarot sites, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the consequences of receiving multiple cards of the same type (number, suit, rank, etc) in a spread. Many of the key historical figures in the tarot world…4 min read4 min read
1 day agoReversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?AUTHOR’S NOTE: I recently came across an opinion in the tarot literature that a reversed court card in a spread will typically highlight the negative character traits of an individual when that card stands for another person who is involved in the situation and not a psychological or universal/spiritual concept…3 min read3 min read
2 days ago“Transparent Luminosity” in Tarot ReadingAUTHOR’S NOTE: Last night I dreamed that I was discussing with someone the unforgiving nature of watercolor painting, and when I awoke I drew parallels between that and the conduct of a tarot reading. I’ve had some formal training in the art of watercolor, and one thing that stuck with…3 min read3 min read
3 days agoConnecting Sky and EarthAUTHOR’S NOTE: In his book on the history of the occult tarot ( The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah), Ronald Decker ventures into astrological symbolism as it may have appeared in some of the early decks. …4 min read4 min read
4 days agoThe Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of SpiritAUTHOR’S NOTE: Here is another of my random, intermittent forays into the Minor Arcana of the Thoth deck, which has been my steadfast companion in the study and practice of tarot for over five decades. (See my Tarot 101 series of posts for a more systematic overview.) Think what you…5 min read5 min read
5 days agoThe Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of MeaningsAUTHOR’S NOTE: Although I may regret it from the standpoint of intellectual overload (and so might my readers), I’ve just begun digesting (you don’t idly graze these things) Ronald Decker’s scholarly study of occult tarot history, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah, in the introduction to…3 min read3 min read
6 days agoFurther Thoughts on Rational JournalingAUTHOR’S NOTE: Several times over the last five decades, I’ve started and stopped recording my tarot observations and reading results in a journal because I tend to overthink and consequently overwrite, then I never go back to look at any of it. Here is another way to tackle it. It’s…3 min read3 min read
Mar 22, 2024“Mystic Mercury” and the Lenormand DeckAUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve made a conscious habit of avoiding all esoteric correspondences (astrology, occult number theory, etc) when using the Lenormand cards for divination. But I recently came across an interesting coincidence. On the Hermetic Tree of Life, the planet Mercury corresponds to the number 8 and its “mystic number”…3 min read3 min read
Mar 21, 2024Structured IntuitionAUTHOR’S NOTE: Buried in the strident chorus of “Just go with what you feel!” and “You don’t have to read books!” emitted in self-righteous certitude by a significant percentage of 21st-Century tarot “influencers,” an occasional quiet voice is raised in defense of developing a method of reading the cards that…4 min read4 min read