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 …

The “Two-Trump Tango” Example Reading: A Study in Determination

In this example pull for my new life-reading spread, I used the Spanish Tarot TdM deck without reversals. The question I asked was "Where will my guitar-playing initiative take me in the next six months?" Last week, completely out of the blue, I decided to resume the guitar-playing ambitions that I dropped shortly after buying …

A Tarot de Marseille Two-Deck Comparison Reading

For quite some time I've been intending to use my "Friend or Foe" deck comparison spread with my two Fournier TdM decks, Le Tarot de Marseille and the Spanish Tarot. I finally got around to doing it. First, here is a link to the spread, followed by the reading layout. I prefer not to anthropomorphize …

A “Breaking the Chain” Example Reading

This turned out to be a provocative and entertaining spread in actual use. For the topic I chose to examine the causal chain for my admitted "sweet tooth," especially around the holiday season. I purposely selected the Empress as the "Root Card" for my dietary indiscretion: "It's not nice to say 'No' to Mother Nature!"). …

A “Tetractys” Example Reading

I decided to test the "Tetractys" spread with my Fournier Tarot de Marseille deck, without reversals. Two weeks ago  I received a tentative offer to perform tarot readings at upcoming metaphysical events sponsored by a spiritual medium in the area.  There is apparently a shortage of male readers and I would apparently be a welcome …

Archetype, Archetype, Who’s Got the Archetype?

It appears from the on-line conversations I've been following that there are two distinct chains of archetypal descent in the tarot. One of them  - the older one - is culturally-specific, symbolizing conventions that were widely understood and accepted during the pre-Enlightenment era when they were first captured in the trump cards. Their appeal to …

What Happened to Tre? – A Missing Person Reading

UPDATE: On December 5, the body of Tre Rouse was discovered inside his vehicle submerged in the Merrimack River in Hooksett, NH. This was something he had apparently been threatening to do before his November 15 disappearance. This reading obviously goes into the "failure" column as far as predictive accuracy. https://patch.com/new-hampshire/concord-nh/missing-pembroke-man-found-inside-suv-merrimack-river-update Original Post: On November …

Squaring the Circle

I remember reading in Jean-Michel David's Tarot de Marseille course material that it can be instructive to lay out the "pip" cards in different, seemingly random patterns to see what visual hints to their interpretation might be gleaned from the various combinations. Recently, I was reading an informative article about the meaning of the Masonic …

Lunar Month Look-Ahead, October-November, 2019

I haven't done one of these in a while because the New Moon tends to slip by without notice and I insist on punctuality in the performance of readings that have transitional "milestone" dates. Here I've applied my most recent spread design, with which I use only the pip cards as explained in this excerpt …

The Ringmaster Speaks

While digging through on-line interview material looking for videos by Enrique Enriquez, I came across a quote of his that put something into perspective for me. "The first metaphor in tarot happens when we shuffle the tarot. There is a carnivalesque stance in this debasement of hierarchies. I associate this with sabotaging reality. Shuffling the …