Tone vs. Substance: “Soft Focus” and the Art of Simplification

Sometimes (well, actually, more often than not) I think people just starting into the practice of tarot reading expect far too much from it in the way of precision. I was talking to a frustrated individual online who admitted to being extremely analytical and receiving little encouragement from the persistent lack of congruity between his …

Timing of Events: Linear, Rotational and “Scatter” Spreads

The subject of time is a fascinating one. In some quarters it is believed that time is not linear (if I recall correctly, some theoretical physicists say "curved" as a kind of wave-form, some say "cyclical," some say "synchronistic"); in the last one, any conceivable event is likely to occur (or may even be occurring …

“Adjectivitis” – The Tarot Writer’s (and Reader’s) Albatross

I have to confess that the comma is my enemy, particularly when it is used to link an endless array of modifiers that would be best boiled down into a single compelling noun or trenchant adjective (for that matter, the more sophisticated semi-colon is at most a "friend with benefits" and not a faithful consort …

Half-Measures

Here's another tidbit from Paul Marteau's Tarot de Marseille book. In describing the "inverted" or reversed image of the Knight of Cups, he says "The power of the card is only reduced in half, being too active for the effects to be extinguished; there are delays or impediments." One popular assumption about reversed cards in …

The “Science” of Tarot

Aleister Crowley said he pursued the "Aim of Religion" (by which I assume he meant spiritual enlightenment and not sacerdotal hegemony) using the "Method of Science" (he was clearly enamored of the scientific advances of his time, and much of the latter is on display in the Book of Thoth). Those tarot readers who don't …

The Power of Vibration

Many years ago (in the Spring of 1967, to be exact), while attending art school in New York City, I participated in an anti-Vietnam-War "peace" march. I wasn't part of a group, just a solitary marcher, and I fell in with a large contingent of "Hare Krishna" people with their shaved pates and saffron robes. …

Best Served Cold

"Two Ways to Ask the Question: The first way of proceeding is to let the Seeker state his question aloud. In this case I feel that the Reader may be influenced in his interpretation by the knowledge of what he has been asked, and is therefore less likely to give an impartial reading. The second …

A Storyteller’s Perspective

I'm fond of saying that I much prefer face-to-face sessions to online tarot reading and have written a number of essays about it in the past, but I haven't fully explained why I feel that way. Obviously, it's about the stimulus of spoken communication and the need to think on my feet as I do …

A Glut of Garbage?

I've written in the past that there seems to be a veritable tsunami of mediocre tarot and oracle decks entering the market, most likely due to the ease of self-publishing and the impression that "anyone can be an artist" (aka "It's so simple a caveman could do it"). Now I notice on the Tarot Marketplace …

The Teaching Way

Back in the mid-70s my brother and I had an esoteric teaching gig in Connecticut. He was an accomplished astrologer and I was an up-and-coming tarot reader with the Thoth deck. We had several lively study groups going on simultaneously and were busy with them a large part of every week. Unfortunately, it didn't last …