And the Band Played On

Since the American political "stew," which has been at a steady simmer for a long time, appears to be about to come to a full, raging boil again, I figured I should take a look at the Democrats' chances for impeaching Donald Trump. I used my "Enemy at the Gates" vulnerability spread with my favorite …

Aristotle’s Theorem: A Situational Gestalt Spread

I've started creating spreads specifically for use with the Tarot de Marseille (but certainly not limited to it). Here is my most recent one, a sophisticated layout that can be read in whole or in discrete parts, three cards at a time or the entire 24-point tableau plus knighting. I built it around an industrial …

“. . . and I Must Scream.”

In thinking about the widely-held but just as widely dismissed opinion that tarot cards have personalities and "speak" to us with anthropomorphic aptness, I recalled that science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison once wrote a story titled "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." This led me to finally pin down what makes for my ideal …

“Stick-tuitiveness”

Because tarot-card interpretation is such a fluid form of expression in which we sometimes "throw everything against the wall to see what sticks" (hint: it ain't that simple, kids), the common advice is to pick one method of working and stay with it through thick-and-thin. The thought is that consistency of approach will keep our …

What’s In a Name?

Samuel Liddell Mathers was one of the seminal figures in the annals of modern esoteric tarot, having co-founded and eventually dominated the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, single-handedly penning a large portion of the tarot curriculum that was compiled in Liber T. (Hmm, why does spellcheck keep trying to substitute "single-underhandedly" and "single-highhandedly?" Maybe …

A Horse of a Different Color

To my knowledge, other than the small dog in Le Mat, the lion in La Force, the two canines in La Lune and the two horses in Le Chariot, there have been few attempts to rope the Tarot de Marseille animals into the narrative of a reading and give them a starring role. I was …

The “Innies” and the “Outies”

This essay is both a synopsis and a further exploration of some of the ideas I covered more fully in my "TdM Thumbnail" series of posts. Those of us who spend a good deal of time "navel-gazing" (by which I mean, of course, contemplating "the world in a grain of sand" . . . or …

My Weekly Elements

Since I haven't been very diligent about doing my daily "element-and-number" draws as described in my previous post, I decided to do a seven-day look-ahead using the same technique. If I remember to do so, I will probably add day-to-day pulls to the series for additional insight about this longer-range projection. Overall, it looks like …

What Happened to George? – A Missing-Person Reading

FINAL UPDATE: The remains were determined to be those of George Cross; they were found in a wooded area east of where he was last seen, in line with my original prediction. His death has been ruled "not suspicious." UPDATE #2: There may finally be a break in this case. Human remains have been found …

One Is The Loneliest Number . . .

. . . until it becomes a catalyst for change. In the song of the title, Harry Nilsson was talking about the stifling torment of emotional rejection, but French tarot writer Joseph Maxwell had a different idea. Maxwell considered the number One to be the primal unity, perfect in its indivisibility and needing no amplification. …