The “One-Act Play” Example Reading: A Three-Way Conflict

I decided to test this spread on a hypothetical scenario in which three individuals are engaged in a disagreement. To do this I randomly pulled three court cards for the middle position instead of one. I used the magnificent Golden Art Nouveau Tarot with reversals. The situation assumes that two junior individuals are up against …

Why the TdM?

Why, you might well ask, after spending almost 40 years studying and divining with the Crowley-Harris Thoth Tarot and The Book of Thoth, and then nine more years striving to master the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (RWS), would someone want to take on the task of trying to fathom the Tarot de Marseille (TdM) and its non-scenic …

Stemming the Tide

Tarot deck buying is an addictive pleasure. I know a few people who have thousands of them. Those who grouse that you actually  need only one deck to ply your trade (if you're a professional) or explore your inner landscape (if you're not) obviously haven't felt the potent allure of the "next big thing." There …

The “Life’s One-Act Play” Situational Awareness Spread

A long time ago there was a song by British blues band Savoy Brown titled "Life's One-Act Play." It struck my as a perfect idea for a small spread that shows the outcome of a single "act" or "scene" in the life of the seeker. It is a three-carder at heart, with an additional summary …

“Will the Real Page of Wands Please Stand Up?”

The methods by which human personality, age and gender have been assigned to the court cards of the tarot have never resembled an exact science. The old ways of using physical traits as the  basis for qualitative "thumbnails" are almost entirely unsatisfactory: Wands people are assumed to be fair-haired, light-skinned and blue-eyed, those at the …

Trimming the Sails

One of the best quotes I've ever seen describing the nature and purpose of tarot reading comes from respected occultist Dion Fortune  in her description of the "intuitive compass:" "A divination should be regarded as a weather vane which shows which way the winds of the invisible forces are blowing, but it should always be …

The Eyes Have It (The Nose Follows)

While reading Jonathan Dee's Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards, I came across a face-to-face reading technique that hadn't occurred to me before. I seldom look closely at my clients before or during a session because I want to avoid the impression  that I'm "cold-reading" them to gather clues that I can then pretend I got …

Temperance/Art and the Sagittarius Decans

Continuing with my exploration of the "meditation patterns" for the Minor Arcana from Jim Eshelman's Liber Theta, here are the patterns for the Sagittarius trump card, Temperance (Art in the Thoth deck), and the three decans of Sagittarius; I call this sequence "Art for Art's Sake." The Minor Arcana for Sagittarius are the 8 of …

A “5:30” Situational Development Example Reading

To test this spread, I chose as my topic the current status of a long-running initiative involving the sale of property. A non-local couple expressed an interest in buying some land early last year in order to be close to relatives when they visit, but a number of obstacles have intervened to prevent it from …

The “5:30” Mixed-Media Situational Development Spread

One weakness of the traditional method of drawing from the top of the deck is that it leaves a large majority of the cards out of the running for selection. Although I trust the shuffle to bring the "right" cards to the top, I'm always looking for ways to enhance the credibility of the process. …