Mercury Retrograde: Mystics and Statistics

Warren Zevon knew a thing or two about "mystics and statistics" (look it up). One of my favorite metaphysical whipping-boys is the almost universally-held opinion that the periodic transit of retrograde Mercury is unquestionably significant in our daily lives - all of us at the same time. As an astrologer of fifty years' standing, I …

Magical Places, Magical Times

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Too often we don't know the person behind the posting. Here are a few of the deeply-felt experiences that have brought me to where I am today as a mystical thinker, writer and practitioner of the esoteric arts. I've always had a powerful, almost euphoric connection to Nature, having been raised in a …

“Nothing Is Sacred”

There, I said it. I can't think of a single thing when it comes to the tarot that should be considered immutable and inviolable, except maybe its 78-card structure since I don't cotton to extra cards; no "Happy Squirrel" card for me since such "augmented" decks act more as oracle than tarot. The same is …

The “Hidden Path” Situational Awareness Spread

I'm fascinated by reversals and am always looking for creative ways to take maximum advantage of their subtle influence. Here is a spread that uses reversal to further the "hidden" story-line. The reading will be from two to five cards depending on how many reversals appear, and the first reversed card will set the topical …

RWS in the Cross-Hairs: A Critique

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm not enamored of the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) tarot deck. I think it comes in a distant second to the Thoth Tarot's "masterful/magical/mystical/ mythical/metaphorical mojo;" after all, how could it compete with Aleister Crowley's enormous erudition and Frieda Harris's brilliant rendering. Don't hate me, but I'm afraid it's true. I do use it in …

“Inner Navigation” with the Thoth Tarot

The purpose of this essay is to inquire "At what point does (or should) a serious tarot scholar become a diviner?" The best answer to that comes from Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth, at the beginning of Appendix A, "The Behaviour of the Tarot: Its Use in the Art of Divination," which I will quote …

A Tarot Spread “4-Pack”

At the rate I'm creating new content, I may never catch up on my backlog of essay drafts because I try to post only once each day to avoid spamming my readers. Since tarot spread creation is a "fill-in" activity between my more involved literary efforts, they tend to languish in the queue, now more …

Sneaking Up on the Book of Thoth

In response to those tarot journeymen who are struggling mightily (and often unsuccessfully) with Aleister Crowley's daunting Book of Thoth (BoT) and complaining almost as fiercely, I'll stick my oar in the water here. As always, I do this at the risk of repeating myself, not for the first time nor the last. (I could, …

The Thoth Minor Arcana: “Back Door” to Cartomancy?

I've long wanted to practice playing-card cartomancy, and have studied it just a little. But learning a new system and figuring out how to effectively work with it is a time-consuming proposition, so I haven't made much headway beyond buying a few decks of playing cards and a book or two. However, during online discussions …

The American Justice System Superimposed on the Astropsychological Tree of Life

Mainly for my own amusement, I spent some time superimposing elements of the American Justice System on the paths of my "re-imagined" version of the Hermetic (Kircher) Tree of Life. I started with the idea that Justice has to do with the "trial" in any judicial setting and Judgement speaks of the "verdict," and then …