Home of the Strange

Imagine an unhinged Frank Sinatra crooning: Home, home of the strange Where the seer and the astrologue play Where seldom is heard a Discordian* word And the skrys are not cloudy all day. (Sorry about that, Dr. Higley. And yes, Sinatra did record Higley's original in 1946) I finally have my reading space and occult …

A Guilty Pleasure

I admit to watching almost no television (in fact, nearly zero most of the time). I became offended by its growing insipidity (not to mention cultural and moral bankruptcy) back in the early '80s and pretty much weaned myself off it. The occasional HBO or Netflix fantasy series may still capture my attention (Game of Thrones, Westworld, …

Death, Be Not Loud

Few writers have had as much fun with the personification of Death as Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's stiff-necked Death always spoke in CAPITAL LETTERS and was pompous and portentous to the point of clueless self-ridicule (which was of course the idea). I especially liked the bit where Death wanted to take a holiday and asked his …

The PoMo Tarot Deck Interview

If Brian Williams' Post-Modern Tarot deck from 1994 had a motto, it would be "Nobody likes a smart-ass." Williams managed to put his finger squarely on the pulse of bored, self-indulgent, late-20th-century American culture, and then tweaked its collective nose hard. I've had it since 1994 but seldom used it until recently, when I had a …

The “Fool in the Middle” Spread

This is a slightly cheeky poke at workplace dynamics (and by extension, politics). The "boss" (Fool) is at the center of the corporate universe, and there are up to twenty options to represent co-workers, either as second-level supervisors (Aces) or peers (court cards). The idea is that you only need to populate as many of …

“Cheap Shots” #10: Who Are the Pros?

Since I first connected with other tarot enthusiasts on-line back in 2011, I've met numerous talented readers who have honed their craft to the point that they have successfully entered the ranks of professional diviners. In fact, these contacts encouraged me to return to public reading after many years away. On the other hand, I …

“Cheap Shots” #7 (“Unsheeping”)

I've come to view the "Christian myth" as a kind of allegory, a morality play that depicts an ethically sound and admirable way to live, rather than any kind of historical truth. Nothing wrong at all with its moral tenets, everything wrong with the patriarchal priesthood that has erected a self-serving power structure around it. …

A Fundamentalist Sex-Education Fable

I think even the Shakers would have caught the satirical drift of this one! Maybe the Tea Party would endorse teaching it in Sunday School. "In the beginning were the primordial “dot” [ . ] and the “cipher” [ 0 ]. Excitation of these principals soon begat the “exclamatory” [ ! ] and the “parenthetical …