“Thinking Man’s Tarot”

If you listen carefully, you might hear John Wayne saying "Those're fightin' words, pilgrim!" But I'm not attacking anyone here; consider this an op-ed with a curmudgeonly observation or two (or six). Take it as you will. It goes without saying that I'm generally at odds with those who believe tarot reading  thrives only on …

“Pleasure with Pain for Leaven:” Blended Satisfaction

I've often pondered what Macgregor Mathers intended by the description "blended pleasure" as a pejorative for the emotional state shown in the 4 of Cups. I had to stop and think "Blended with what, and to what end?" The purpose of blending two things is usually to improve the quality of one or both of …

Think Once, Then Stop Thinking

There seems to be endless online debate over the proper methodology for laying out the cards. It ranges from "Just do it!" with no planned sequence to carefully orchestrating the pull for maximum coherence. To those who profess to using no prescribed technique, I would ask "Not even self-prescribed?" I would argue that "no method" …

Medicine Man or Wizard?

Why do people seek out a tarot reader? Arguably, a minority are those who are merely curious about something they may have heard from friends and who have the time and money to spend on indulging themselves; or they might happen upon a street reader and impulsively decide to "take the plunge." Among them are …

The “One-Act Play” Example Reading: A Three-Way Conflict

I decided to test this spread on a hypothetical scenario in which three individuals are engaged in a disagreement. To do this I randomly pulled three court cards for the middle position instead of one. I used the magnificent Golden Art Nouveau Tarot with reversals. The situation assumes that two junior individuals are up against …

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 …

Stemming the Tide

Tarot deck buying is an addictive pleasure. I know a few people who have thousands of them. Those who grouse that you actually  need only one deck to ply your trade (if you're a professional) or explore your inner landscape (if you're not) obviously haven't felt the potent allure of the "next big thing." There …

The “Life’s One-Act Play” Situational Awareness Spread

A long time ago there was a song by British blues band Savoy Brown titled "Life's One-Act Play." It struck my as a perfect idea for a small spread that shows the outcome of a single "act" or "scene" in the life of the seeker. It is a three-carder at heart, with an additional summary …

“Will the Real Page of Wands Please Stand Up?”

The methods by which human personality, age and gender have been assigned to the court cards of the tarot have never resembled an exact science. The old ways of using physical traits as the  basis for qualitative "thumbnails" are almost entirely unsatisfactory: Wands people are assumed to be fair-haired, light-skinned and blue-eyed, those at the …

Trimming the Sails

One of the best quotes I've ever seen describing the nature and purpose of tarot reading comes from respected occultist Dion Fortune  in her description of the "intuitive compass:" "A divination should be regarded as a weather vane which shows which way the winds of the invisible forces are blowing, but it should always be …