Who Killed Trish? – A “Whodunit” Rogues’ Gallery Reading

I ultimately decided to perform my "Rogues' Gallery" spread on the murder of 26-year-old New Hampshire native Trish Haynes, whose remains were found in a pond in Grafton, NH. (See my previous "missing-person" posts.) This spread uses the Death card as the Significator, the 16 court cards as the "rogues' gallery" of potential suspects, and …

A “Binary Dilemma” Example Reading

I was asked to do a reading to determine whether the casual acquaintances between a couple and two others can be expected to blossom into real friendship. This "yes-or-no" question presented a perfect opportunity to test-drive my new approach to binary inquiries. I selected the Conver Ben-Dov Tarot de Marseilles for this reading, and used …

Playing-Card Insets: A Challenge Worth Taking

I've been working with the Lenormand cards going on nine years now, but I've never put a lot of effort into understanding and using the playing-card insets. Concurrently, I've been studying playing-card cartomancy somewhat casually, first through Dawn Jackson's Hedgewytchery material and more recently through the excellent blog of Kapherus (J. David Arcuri), Art of …

Where Is Trish? – A Missing-Person Case Closure

I have updated my post regarding the whereabouts of Trish Haynes to show that her remains have been recovered from a pond in Grafton, NH. The "missing-person" aspects of this case have now been resolved, and it has become a homicide investigation. I haven't decided whether to perform my "Whodunit?" Rogues' Gallery Spread on her …

An Oracle with Teeth

I'm on a mission to discover an oracle deck with a natural or mythological theme that isn't full of bland, breezy New Age affirmations or shamanistic pretensions. Angel decks are "right out," as Monty Python used to say. Tennyson's line "Nature, red in tooth and claw" comes to mind, although I'm looking for a balance …

The Binary Dilemma

As much as we encourage them to frame their questions in a flexible manner that invites meaningful commentary from the cards rather than an open-and-shut, "yes-or-no" verdict, I would venture to say that the majority of people who request a reading from us aren't seeking a panoramic view of their future circumstances. They want a …

Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes

Warning: I'm going to be politically obtuse here and talk about gender, as in demographics, because at the purely biological level (barring surgical intervention), it is what it is. For the record, I'm an Old White Male (but not quite the "Bernie Sanders of the Tarot" yet), married to the same woman for 40 years …

Symbolic Triptych: A Past/Present/Future Life-Reading Snapshot

This spread is an oddity for me in that it only has three cards. But I wanted to play around with geometric symbolism and someone asked me for a small-spread recommendation. The square represents stability in past circumstances (even if only in the sense that they aren't going to change) and perfectly symbolizes the "Foundation" …

Cut the Cake

My wife makes a very elegant four-layer chocolate/coconut/custard  cake with different fillings between the layers. It's like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates; "You never know what you're gonna get," but it's always delightful (yes, even the jelly fillings). It's a perfect analogy for how I view the cards of the tarot. I like to say …

What About Those Sixes?

In keeping with my previous post about perceived weaknesses in the Waite-Smith deck, I want to talk about a telling example that fully demonstrates the questionable wisdom of Waite's and Smith's departure from their Golden Dawn roots: the Sixes of the Minor Arcana. In the Qabalistic system of the Golden Dawn (later adapted by Aleister …