Mission Improbable?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the past I've written about the subject of "facing" (gaze or regard) of the figures on the tarot cards. Here I'm going to address the related topic of gesture or posture, at least to the extent that it applies to the scope of this essay. As I wind down my second pass …

“Actions with Spirits”

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the title of a 16th-Century book by Dr. John Dee and the scryer Edward Kelly that is a seminal work of Enochian magic. Here I'm borrowing it to launch a discussion on using divination (principally the tarot) for contacting ancestors and other disembodied beings. Recently I've noticed an increase in interest …

An “Ideal vs. Real” Credibility-Gap Spread

Here is a spread that attempts to come to grips with that age-old question: "What should I do with my life at this point in time?" It uses the archetypal qualities of the Major Arcana to "set the bar" for expectations, and a second full deck to show any gaps between the hypothetical "best case" …

Horizontal and Vertical Orientation: A Study in Contrasts

AUTHOR'S NOTE: More inspiration from Alejandro Jodorowsky. In The Way of Tarot, Jodorowsky talks about certain trump cards that exhibit a horizontal orientation and thereby symbolize "action in the world," while others align vertically and emphasize interaction between the plane of Earth and the spiritual (or in some cases, infernal) regions. His representative examples were …

The “Way of Wisdom” Mixed-Media Situational Development Spread

Here is a ten-card mixed-media (cards and dice) spread that can shift over time between action and inaction as the suggested "best" response to circumstances. Each of the five selected positions has a modifying card that can influence its expression (this is one of my few spreads that includes built-in auxiliary cards). The side-column that …

An Expanded Past-Present-Future Spread with Psychological Inferences

Here is an enlarged Past-Present-Future layout that places the standard three-card array within a matrix of psychological inferences derived from elemental associations. This approach adds substance and nuance to the situational outlook in the form of behavioral or attitudinal patterns that are either aligned with or indisposed toward the developmental scenario. If there is supportive …

An “On-Point” Alternative Choice Reading

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although the issue has already been settled in principle if not yet in fact, a client has reached a "tipping-point" in a major life decision and is seeking additional insight from an impartial Universe regarding the wisdom of a pending action that was chosen and is soon to be taken. I used my …

A Matter of Presentation

Questions are often posed in online tarot discussion groups regarding the various ways that readings can be presented to clients. I thought I would take some time to enumerate them along with what I perceive to be their strengths and weaknesses. Face-to-Face Reading: This is the ancestor of all delivery methods and in my estimation …

The Further Adventures of “Gaze and Regard”

I've written in the past on the topic of "facing, gaze or regard" between two adjacent tarot cards that include human or human-like beings in their iconography, and what their juxtaposition in a spread means for the narrative when they are either facing toward or away from one another. (Simply put, one suggests "seeing eye-to-eye" …

“Not A Very Nice Man?”

Whenever I present the observation that by all accounts occultist Aleister Crowley was "not a very nice man," I pause and wonder whether I should look in the mirror. Going back over five years of almost daily posts in this blog, I realize that the "curmudgeon content" in my writing is fairly high, which can …