A “Paragon of Earth” Talisman

In looking over my "Aces/Princesses" paradigm of descent into materiality that "operates via the 'solar' potency of the Sixes, establishing their 'kingdom on Earth' through the administrative vigor of the fixed signs," I thought it might be interesting to use the "quintessence" technique to turn the series of cards into single trumps to use as …

Cosmobiology and the Chaldean Decans in Tarot

The German cosmobiologists of the mid-20th Century held that the "soft" aspects between planets (the sextiles and trines along with the less prominent quintiles and bi-quintiles) were largely a waste of time in that they seldom show anything "visible" happening. These astrologers focused on the "hard" aspects -  squares, semi-squares, sesquiquadrates and oppositions  -  when …

A “Wish, Will and Way” Example Reading

I decided to test my 5-card approach to this method by asking the same question I've been chasing for the last few years: "As a professional diviner, how can I become more publicly successful and sought-after?" I chose for my inspiration the time-honored assumption that a skilled cartomancer is both sensitive and intuitive (Queen of …

The Wish, The Will and the Way

In tarot divination, there is a tendency to look at the Major Arcana (aka "trump") cards that turn up in a reading and say "That's all well and good as a philosophical abstraction, but what does it really mean for this particular person or situation at this point in time?" Their archetypal aim can be …

Aleister Crowley: The “Measure of the Man”

Since Aleister Crowley's birthday was October 12, I thought I would run my new "Measure of a Man" (aka "homunculus") spread to see what it might say about him. Of course I used the Thoth deck for this, although the layout got a bit crowded. I didn't apply reversals because, in many ways, Crowley was …

The “Measure of a Man” Personality Profile Spread

Back in my early 20's, before I discovered Monty Python, I was a big fan of the Bonzo Dog Band, the British "novelty" act headed by the brilliant eccentric Vivien Stanshall. They were fond of sticking an occasional non-sequitur into the middle of their album tracks. In one, a band member piped up with "And …

A List Of My Tarot and Lenormand Spreads

NOTE: This list gets out-of-date with alarming frequency since I have to print, scan, edit and import a new set of pages every time I add a spread to my inventory. The Dropbox link at the sidebar location that most likely brought you here is the best way to see the current list. You can …

The Ringmaster Speaks

While digging through on-line interview material looking for videos by Enrique Enriquez, I came across a quote of his that put something into perspective for me. "The first metaphor in tarot happens when we shuffle the tarot. There is a carnivalesque stance in this debasement of hierarchies. I associate this with sabotaging reality. Shuffling the …

Poetry in Motion

I've been thinking about Enrique Enriquez' imaginative approach to the Tarot de Marseille that aims to turn the cards into "visual poetry," apparently without the intervention of inductive reasoning. (I believe it's intended to be more inventive and inspiring than ordinary free-association, which works rather poorly with the TdM anyway.) It seems to me that, …

Who Killed Lynne? – A Rogue’s-Gallery “Whodunit” Reading

Lynne Brennan, a 53-year-old Manchester, NH mother of three was found dead in her apartment on October 11, 2010; it was ruled a homicide but no-one has ever been charged with her murder, and no further details were released by police. https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-unsolved-case-file-lynne-brennan/23480932 I applied my "Rogue's Gallery" spread to this cold case to see what …