TURN OFF THE CAPS! (Majors-Only Tarot Reading)

It seems to be popular in Europe to read with only the 22 trump cards and leave the pip and court cards aside. This is surely a pre-20th-Century form of cartomancy that antedates the lofty assumptions of Jungian thought and its psychological archetypes. I'm not familiar enough with Joseph Campbell to say so conclusively, but …

“My Way, Your Way or the Highway” Conflict-Resolution Spread

We've all heard of the expression "It's my way or the highway!" as the take-it-or-leave-it crowing of someone who holds the upper hand in a disagreement and is rubbing the other person's nose in it. I decided to use that concept in a conflict-resolution spread in which dice and cards are consulted to indicate whether …

Spiritual Realism and Fuzzy Logic

In keeping with my life-long aversion to the "father-knows-best" model of authoritarian determinism, I tend to avoid "isms" of any kind. But in contemplating my approach to spiritual matters in general, I was casting around for a definition that does the same thing for me that "scientific materialism" does for the pure rationalist. I consider …

Jungian Typology and the Four Elements

Twentieth Century psychologist Carl Gustav Jung subdivided the discriminating faculties of the human personality into four general "types:" sensation (encounters with the physical world that trigger our five bodily receptors); thinking (the intellectual function by which we process the evidence of our senses); feeling (the emotional ways in which we do the same thing); and …

The “Boss from Hell” – A Riff on Mastery

I've never been satisfied with the accepted notion that the 3 of Pentacles represents the "master craftsman" while the 8 of Pentacles shows an "apprentice." The number Three appears early in the numerical sequence and is therefore relatively undeveloped; in the suit of Earth it portrays a golden opportunity to "learn the ropes" but not …

A Force Too Short (or Is It Too Long?)

Another curious phrase used by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn describes the 8 of Swords as the "Lord of Shortened Force." To me, "shortened" implies too little of something, but in Liber T Macgregor Mathers had this to say: “Too much force applied to small things." I just can't see it in that …

“Thinking Man’s Tarot”

If you listen carefully, you might hear John Wayne saying "Those're fightin' words, pilgrim!" But I'm not attacking anyone here; consider this an op-ed with a curmudgeonly observation or two (or six). Take it as you will. It goes without saying that I'm generally at odds with those who believe tarot reading  thrives only on …

“Pleasure with Pain for Leaven:” Blended Satisfaction

I've often pondered what Macgregor Mathers intended by the description "blended pleasure" as a pejorative for the emotional state shown in the 4 of Cups. I had to stop and think "Blended with what, and to what end?" The purpose of blending two things is usually to improve the quality of one or both of …

Think Once, Then Stop Thinking

There seems to be endless online debate over the proper methodology for laying out the cards. It ranges from "Just do it!" with no planned sequence to carefully orchestrating the pull for maximum coherence. To those who profess to using no prescribed technique, I would ask "Not even self-prescribed?" I would argue that "no method" …

Medicine Man or Wizard?

Why do people seek out a tarot reader? Arguably, a minority are those who are merely curious about something they may have heard from friends and who have the time and money to spend on indulging themselves; or they might happen upon a street reader and impulsively decide to "take the plunge." Among them are …