Hard and Soft, Red and Black

During my intermittent involvement with the Tarot de Marseille (I'm still waiting for that "one book to rule them all"), I've come across the opinion that Batons and Swords are the "hard" suits, while Cups and Coins are "soft." There is some logic to this: both wooden batons (also called staves) and edged metal blades …

The “Bowling for Dollars” RWS Storyboard

This is the fourth and last of my "storyboard" studies of the RWS minor cards. The title comes from the old TV show "Bowling for Dollars" and plays off the bizarre impression created by the central image on the Ace of Pentacles. It is tempting to think of the suit of Pentacles (Coins or Disks in other decks) …

Cardboard, Ink and Magic

The forum conversations used to go something like this: Question: Do tarot cards have "personalities?" Answer: Nope, they're just tools made of cardboard and ink. The human qualities they seem to exhibit are those we project onto them. The formal word for it is "anthropomorphizing" but, put more simply, it's a type of animism with roots in …

End of an Era

On a housekeeping note, Mozilla has finally gone and done it. The legacy version of Firefox I've been using to retain all of my old add-ons and plug-ins no longer supports editing of posts and viewing of stats in WordPress, so I've had to migrate management of this blog to Internet Explorer. The transition appears to be …

The “Light and Shadow” RWS Storyboard

This is the third of my "storyboard" examinations of the Minor Arcana cards of the Waite-Smith (aka RWS) tarot. The suit of Swords is unquestionably the least encouraging  of the set since any light it emits is muted and often fades into gloom, so the title of this post may be somewhat optimistic. Swords encompass the realm …

Where Is “Rogue #13” (Carrie’s Killer)?

As promised, I ran the King of Swords from the previous "Whodunit" reading through my "Sundial Location Spread." I also used the RWS Centennial Edition for this layout. The Significator turned up in the South quadrant, implying a warm, sunny place. If the suspect was over 45 years old at the time of the  murder, …

Who Killed Carrie? – A “Whodunit” Example Reading

This is the first use of the "Rogue's Gallery" spread I posted earlier today. Fourteen-year-old Carrie Moss was found murdered in New Boston, NH in 1989; no charges have ever been filed in her death. I used the RWS Centennial Edition deck in this reading. http://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-unsolved-case-file-carrie-moss/22551101 All images copyright U.S. Games Systems, Inc, Stamford, CT …

The “Whodunit” Rogue’s Gallery Spread

I spend quite a bit of time examining missing-person cases - both current and "cold" - and have encountered a few alternate situations where the police have a body but they don't have a suspect, who is actually the absent person. These victims don't qualify as missing, so neither of my spreads designed for that …

Tarot Euphemisms: A Work-in-Progress

If you've been following my "RWS storyboard" posts and have read any of my example readings, you're already aware that I make extensive use of metaphor and analogy when interpreting the minor cards of the tarot, often bringing in shared cultural, social, historical and literary references. The Thoth tarot, my mainstay for many years, offered …

The Sagittarian Conundrum

Sagittarius is described in the literature of astrology as a high-minded philosophical and religious sign (along with its associated 9th-House placement in the "natural" zodiac, although traditional astrologers tell us signs and houses have nothing to do with one another); it is the province of academics and clerics and the most abstract and "temperate" of …