“Gut” or “Gourd” – Your Choice

As I frequent larger Facebook tarot groups, I encounter advice for reading the cards that recommends to beginners "Just go with your gut, don't think about it," which seems to be  book-ended by "There is no right or wrong way, so whatever feels right is "right for you." As a thinking person, I have some …

Reversed Cards As Psychological Cues

I know I'm repeating myself here, but I draw few psychological inferences (not none, but certainly not many) from my tarot readings. I'm an "action-and-event" kind of guy, and would rather explore what could potentially happen in a situation and not what someone else "thinks or feels" might happen, since (putting it kindly) they may …

The “Six Particulars” Past-Life-Reading Spread

I often see people online asking whether anyone does past-life readings with the tarot. I've only had prior experience with psychic past-life readings, but it seemed like a reasonable proposition so I created this spread to attempt it. I could only come up with six questions that were broad enough to be answered with the …

An “Agree to Disagree” Example Reading

To test this spread, I asked how effective the US government's response to the COVID-19 crisis is going to be. I used the dazzling Tabula Mundi Colores Arcus Tarot (a Thoth clone), with reversals. Note that, in this case, the only relevant aspects of the two court cards are their facing and orientation; they aren't …

The “Agree to Disagree” Decision-Making Spread

Here is a spread designed to examine situations where an individual must interact with another person or entity to undertake an initiative of some kind when one or both of them may not be fully on-board with the arrangement. I could see using it in any scenario involving controversial legislative action in the present US …

Lunar Month Look-Ahead for March-April 2020

On every New Moon I try to remember to do my Lunar Month Look-Ahead spread for the upcoming 28-day period, and the March New Moon occurred today, March 24. With what has been going on in the world, it seemed like an especially good month to do one. This time I brought out the Anna …

“Lucky You!” – A Tarot Board Game

UPDATE: I just tweaked some of the rules for the trump cards. Also, I've been playing around with this and found that, since I skewed the population of cards to the lower end, it's very difficult to get a +5 card in order to get out of jail (especially factoring in reversals); so I changed …

The “Let Me Face It” Action/Initiative Decision-Making Spread

This spread is named in honor of a French-Canadian acquaintance who always said "Let me face it" instead of the rhetorical "Let's face it" when making a point. It uses the facing of the court cards to indicate which of four rows of face-down cards to select for the reading. The court cards are separated …

A 2020 Spring Equinox Quarterly Outlook

I performed my Quarterly Outlook spread for the first quarter of the zodiacal year beginning March 20, 2020. I used the Waite-Smith Centennial Pocket Edition with reversals for this reading. All images copyright U.S. Games Systems, Inc, Stamford, CT This 3-month layout displays two different developmental arcs that are, at least on the surface, out-of-sync …

Much Ado About Nothing? – The Problem with Trump Cards in Prediction

Although I've been working up to it for a while, I recently decided to take a more measured stance regarding the significance of trump cards in my personal readings (but not in those for other people since I won't presume to tinker with their destiny; that's for them to decide upon seeing the cards). I've …