A Mixed-Media Situational Posture Spread

Here is a spread that uses dominoes and tarot cards to project the best posture to adopt in any situation. It is based on the assumption that odd numbers are "active" while even numbers are "passive."

Crowley: What’s to Like (or Not)?

The subject of Aleister Crowley is a polarizing one among tarot enthusiasts. Many of those who truly "get" his Thoth Tarot and particularly its erudite and challenging companion tome, the Book of Thoth, think he can do no wrong, while others (when they don't find him completely opaque) consider him a preening egomaniac, the self-anointed …

“Reading by Intention”

There is a common belief that "good intentions" are all that is necessary to obtain constructive insights from a tarot reading. Learning and experience are optional as long as the reader's heart is in the right place, a manifestation of what I think of as the "It's all good" mode of prophecy in which no …

The “War or Peace” Conflict-Resolution Spread

Here is a spread that can serve as a "first cut" to assess the advisability of taking a contemplated course of action in a conflict scenario. It's one of my "mixed-media" spreads that uses both tarot cards and dice. The outcome will either strengthen or weaken the initial urge to adopt a particular stance in …

Best Served Cold

"Two Ways to Ask the Question: The first way of proceeding is to let the Seeker state his question aloud. In this case I feel that the Reader may be influenced in his interpretation by the knowledge of what he has been asked, and is therefore less likely to give an impartial reading. The second …

The “Flying Wedge” Redirection Spread

I've created spreads in the past based on the idea that the appearance of reversed cards in the sequence will cause a shift in the overall focus of the reading from an overt perspective to a more covert or indirect one. But the draw always proceeded from the top of the deck, which meant that …

A Storyteller’s Perspective

I'm fond of saying that I much prefer face-to-face sessions to online tarot reading and have written a number of essays about it in the past, but I haven't fully explained why I feel that way. Obviously, it's about the stimulus of spoken communication and the need to think on my feet as I do …

The “Blame Game” Spread

The idea of assigning accountability (or more bluntly, "blame") for challenges encountered in a situation being addressed in a tarot reading continues to fascinate me. Not that I think we need to do it, or that it's even productive, just that it's often on a sitter's mind when the matter at hand is particularly elusive …

A “Temporal Focus” Example Reading: Roe vs Wade

I'm going to preface my interpretation by saying that on one hand I'm a small-government "Libertarian sympathizer" and a firm believer in "States' Rights" as originally intended by the framers of the Constitution, while on the other hand (at least in the purely mystical sense of the soul's delayed entry into the body, which doesn't …

A Different Take on the “Past/Present/Future” Outlook

One of my "pet" notions is that people seeking a tarot reading who are experiencing difficulties in their lives love to identify someone or something else to blame for their troubles, whether or not they choose to admit it. The usual "past/present/future" spread design is somewhat imprecise in pinning down the likely "drivers" for these …