Quantity or Quality? (The Blogger’s Challenge)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve decided that it’s time for a recap. For the past 224 days I’ve written a brief essay every morning on a range of topics related to divination, typically three or four paragraphs in length but more recently running from five to eight paragraphs. At least within the narrow range of my chosen field, I seem to be one of the few bloggers who does that except for the numerous “card-of-the-day” and generic “daily-reading” tarot and astrology posters. It has taken on the aura of an opinionated newspaper column.
I’m long past achieving my original goal of mastering the three-paragraph informational essay, so now I just keep on writing for as long as it interests me or until I run out of ideas (fortunately, my technical and legal writing background usually keeps it mercifully brief). I’ve received some compliments on the quality, variety and consistency of my material, and that’s the sort of thing that keeps me going since there’s no other reward for my effort beyond personal gratification. (I’ve chosen not to monetize with ads, although WordPress sticks them in without my consent; that’s the price of maintaining a free account, and I have to acknowledge that some of them are more than mildly obnoxious. Honestly, do we need any more ugly “belly-fat” ads?)
Over the last seven years and nearly 2,000 posts, I’ve expounded several times on the curmudgeonly social and cultural subjects that kept me entertained during the early going (beginning with my “Cheap Shots” series in 2017). I’ve also pretty much tapped out my own hoard of metaphysical knowledge and educated opinion, so now I draw my incentive largely from the traditional tarot books I’ve been reading and the internet conversations in which I’ve participated. I’ve been intrigued by the number of novices who have joined the party in the last ten years, and I enjoy sharing my lengthy experience with them both online and here, although the questions do eventually get repetitious.
The most enjoyable networking community I’ve encountered to date was the Aeclectic Tarot forum, with which I engaged in 2011 and for which I was a moderator from 2015 until Solandia shut it down in 2017. Recently I’ve found that the most rewarding dialogue takes place on the Reddit subs r/tarot and r/seculartarot. Still, nothing quite beats the intellectual and social stimulation of face-to-face gatherings, even though Covid all but killed those in my area and they never really came back. Interestingly, although I figured that living in the wilds of New Hampshire kept me out of circulation for a couple of decades, I’m finding that moving much closer to civilization five years ago has made almost no difference.
Meetup groups come and go with alarming regularity, and most “expert” conclaves are only money-making ventures for the organizers rather than opportunities for cooperative knowledge-sharing. I don’t mind paying group membership dues to a standing organization or making a reasonable session-by-session donation to defray meeting costs, but having to cough up $30 or $40 for the privilege of talking (or more likely listening) to someone for a couple of hours is a bit much. The days of having an informal presentation and then hobnobbing for a bit afterwards have been undone by professional performance dynamics. Old-fashioned jawboning seems to have fallen out of favor and is now a relic of the past.
Anyway, I may break the streak at some point and go back to three or four posts a week. I’ve recently finished burrowing through The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus and have yet to come up with a replacement (although Michael Snuffin’s Thoth Companion is calling me and it may be time for a deep dive into the Thoth deck). The online tarot sites have become a bit tedious, and I’m getting weary of wracking my brain for inspiration. I also promised myself I won’t beat any more of the dead horses I’ve already flayed into submission, so I may be fresh out of worthwhile insights. But don’t count on it just yet . . .
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on February 8, 2024.
