“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 …

Tarot as “Projection”

There is a common belief among those who dismiss tarot reading as a naive exercise in self-deception that the results are merely a fanciful "projection" of the seeker's fondest dreams or deepest fears, and that the agency of the cards cannot reliably come up with unbiased testimony about future circumstances. In my opinion, this argument …

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 …

Where Have All the Masters Gone?

Folk singer Pete Seeger once wrote a poignant song titled "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" that lamented the transitory flowering and fading of youth and also, obliquely, the folly of war. In contemplating the unfortunate demise of the stimulating forum that was Aeclectic Tarot in 2017, I often wonder where the council of highly …

“Reading by Intention”

There is a common belief that "good intentions" are all that is necessary to obtain constructive insights from a tarot reading. Learning and experience are optional as long as the reader's heart is in the right place, a manifestation of what I think of as the "It's all good" mode of prophecy in which no …

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 Initial Sweep of the Divinatory Eye”

While reading an Amazon review of the gold-enhanced, 78-card Oswald Wirth deck (which I had been thinking of buying but now I'm not so sure), I happened upon the phrase "the initial sweep of the divinatory eye" in a criticism of the uninspired non-Wirth pip cards that drag this deck down. The author noted that …

Tarot Reading and “Psychic Vampirism”

As it frequently does, the subject of defending oneself against negative influences while reading the cards for other people came up again on one of the Facebook tarot pages. I usually approach this perceived vulnerability as Astral Plane intrusion (think "Ouija board") but it is even more likely to come from the person across the …

For What It’s Worth

In my book Tarot Hermetica, I made the following observation about the use of esoteric principles and practices in tarot reading: "Recent years have seen a groundswell of resistance to the theories of esoteric interpretation formulated by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its chief architect, Samuel Liddell “MacGregor” Mathers, at the end …