Most Recent
“Lenormand 101” in Brief
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Even with nearly twelve years of study and practice behind me, I’m still far less experienced with divination using the Lenormand cards than I am with tarot reading after five decades of involvement, so I haven’t felt confident (or competent) in publishing a Lenormand e-book to accompany my five tarot volumes. The fact…...
Pursuing the “Imaginative Turn of Phrase”: An Astrological View
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In his essay on the Knight of Swords in Tarot Master Class, Paul Fenton-Smith observed that this “quick-minded Knight “is keen to practice an imaginative turn of phrase.” This once again brought to mind my own predilection for nailing the “well-chosen metaphor” in my writing on divination. (Full Disclosure: I’m a Thoth Knight-of-Cups…...
The Maura Murray “Cold Case” at Twenty-one
AUTHOR’S NOTE: February 9, 2025, marked the 21st anniversary of the disappearance of 21-year-old Massachusetts college student Maura Murray from a New Hampshire roadside near I-91 after allegedly crashing her car. I’ve done three previous tarot readings on this subject, but nothing has panned out to date. I decided to try again in light of…...
Tarot Card Meanings: A Matter of Symbolism
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Not so long ago (before purely psychic free-association became fashionable among “pop-tarot” practitioners), tarot reading was a matter of deciphering complex images to come up with a narrative that was assumed to explain mundane conditions. The diviner’s art lay in the translation of decidedly arcane symbolism into more commonplace language for the purpose…...
The Turning Away: Reversal as the “Other Fork”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The title of this essay was inspired by the Pink Floyd song “On the Turning Away,” although my use of the idea isn’t identical. It can be said with some confidence that every tarot card has a preferred path for expression of its influence and that route is usually indicated by its upright…...
A Tarot Triptych: Catalysts, Linked Patterns and Sensitive Junctures
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Although I haven’t considered it for quite some time because the opportunity for self-improvement is a foregone conclusion among experienced diviners, I was recently reminded by Benebell Wen in Holistic Tarot that tarot cards can serve as catalysts or motivators for seekers to act on their own behalf in ways suggested by the…...
Reading the Signs: An Astro-Tarot Topical Forecasting Method
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This technique requires a natal horoscope for the querent; an astrological ephemeris for the year in question; and the Golden Dawn’s Chaldean wheel of tarot-card correspondences. (See the graphic below). Due to the necessary preparation, it will not be suitable for most walk-in clients. More than one deck will be needed for this…...
Elements and Modes in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR’S NOTE: If there are any astrologers among my readers who were active during the era of New-Age metaphysical expansion, feel free to fact-check my historical observations. Having been there myself, this is how I remember it. Astrology uses a modal form of analysis: there are three quadriplicities (also known as modalities) – Cardinal, Fixed…...
‘Block Timing’ with the Tarot Cards
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve tried numerous methods of reckoning the likely date (or at least the date-range) for the occurrence of future events using the tarot, both conventional techniques and those of my own design, but I’ve never been satisfied with the results. In recent years I’ve used a “block timing” approach to generalize the window…...
A Tarot Compass and Range-Finder: Locating the Lost
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Although horary astrology is much better for it, I sometimes work with tarot as a means of finding lost items or people. I once applied the left-or-right gaze of the human figures on the cards to indicate a past or future bias in a querent’s situation. Here I’m bringing it to bear, along…...