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A Tarot Conversation with Myself
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This one is just for fun! (Well, maybe there’s an uncomfortable truth or two and a little sarcasm mixed in with the merriment . . . ) Me the Inquisitor: “Why do you read the tarot cards?” Me the Mad Scientist: “I want to get under the skin of objective reality and see what makes…...
An “Overt-and-Covert” Situational Development Spread
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here is a spread that is designed to follow the progress of an initiative, enterprise, or project from its inception to the “first milestone” of self-sustaining viability. (The “story arc” is structured so it can be repeated for later phases of a strategic game plan.) It includes a public (or “overt”) arc and…...
Applied Tarot: From Anxiety to Empowerment
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I recently came across the opinion that fear, as expressed in a tarot reading, is not necessarily a bad thing because it keeps us sharply focused on our challenges while galvanizing us into action. In addition, fear in the form of anxiety is often the driver that brings a sitter to the reader’s…...
Love, Sex . . . and Tarot
AUTHOR’S NOTE: There is a well-established marketing ploy that assumes “Sex sells, and everyone’s buying!” In the tarot-reader’s world, the sales model is more like “Love sells, and sex is along for the ride!” Most diviners have extensive experience with the “love” question, usually phrased as “When will I find it?” Some querents are actively…...
The Aces as “Seed-State”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In Tarot Architect, Lon Milo DuQuette describes the Ace of Wands as the “Seed of Will” that carries the blueprint for purposeful action. I decided to extend this concept into the rest of the Aces. The Ace of Cups suggests the “Seed of Compassion;” the Ace of Swords the “Seed of Insight;” and…...
Sagittarius: Distant Cousin of the Flame
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Among the Fire signs of the zodiac, the Sagittarius native can be a perennial “dabbler” while the other two are usually accomplished “doers.” Aries sports the ruddy flush of Fire on its ample brow (I know a few who fit the description), and Leo wears the sentiment on its sleeve, but Sagittarius keeps…...
“Downsizing” the Major Arcana in Mundane Tarot Reading
AUTHOR’S NOTE: All too often, the random appearance of a trump card in a tarot reading about a commonplace subject feels like a giant rock has been tossed into the middle of a placid pond when a drop of rain or two would have been sufficient to stir the water to a depth that churns…...
“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…...