I've decided that I will no longer be updating this blog, and will let it go when my subscription runs out next June. I can't deal with the Gutenburg block editor that WP has forced on its users when all I need is a simple text editor, and will be moving shop to another platform … Continue reading End of an Era
Garbage In, Garbage Out
This is likely to be a controversial subject. There is an old tenet from computer science that goes: "Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that flawed, or nonsense input data produces nonsense output or 'garbage.' The principle also applies more generally to all analysis and logic, in that arguments are unsound if their … Continue reading Garbage In, Garbage Out
The “12 Modes of Consciousness” Spread
Although I'm no fan of using tarot for psychological profiling (which is better served by natal astrology), preferring instead a more action-and-event-oriented approach, here is a spread that adopts a creative spin on the four cognitive functions of Carl Jung. Reversals may be used to show a further elaboration of the inner landscape.
The Virtue of Simplicity
As time goes on I find myself drawn more and more to working with only the 56 Minor Arcana cards in divination. Granted, the 22 Major Arcana are where most of the philosophical "meat" lies in the tarot, but very few of my readings rise to that level of metaphysical complexity and intensity. Most of … Continue reading The Virtue of Simplicity
TURN OFF THE CAPS! (Majors-Only Tarot Reading)
It seems to be popular in Europe to read with only the 22 trump cards and leave the pip and court cards aside. This is surely a pre-20th-Century form of cartomancy that antedates the lofty assumptions of Jungian thought and its psychological archetypes. I'm not familiar enough with Joseph Campbell to say so conclusively, but … Continue reading TURN OFF THE CAPS! (Majors-Only Tarot Reading)
“My Way, Your Way or the Highway” Conflict-Resolution Spread
We've all heard of the expression "It's my way or the highway!" as the take-it-or-leave-it crowing of someone who holds the upper hand in a disagreement and is rubbing the other person's nose in it. I decided to use that concept in a conflict-resolution spread in which dice and cards are consulted to indicate whether … Continue reading “My Way, Your Way or the Highway” Conflict-Resolution Spread
Spiritual Realism and Fuzzy Logic
In keeping with my life-long aversion to the "father-knows-best" model of authoritarian determinism, I tend to avoid "isms" of any kind. But in contemplating my approach to spiritual matters in general, I was casting around for a definition that does the same thing for me that "scientific materialism" does for the pure rationalist. I consider … Continue reading Spiritual Realism and Fuzzy Logic
Jungian Typology and the Four Elements
Twentieth Century psychologist Carl Gustav Jung subdivided the discriminating faculties of the human personality into four general "types:" sensation (encounters with the physical world that trigger our five bodily receptors); thinking (the intellectual function by which we process the evidence of our senses); feeling (the emotional ways in which we do the same thing); and … Continue reading Jungian Typology and the Four Elements
The “Boss from Hell” – A Riff on Mastery
I've never been satisfied with the accepted notion that the 3 of Pentacles represents the "master craftsman" while the 8 of Pentacles shows an "apprentice." The number Three appears early in the numerical sequence and is therefore relatively undeveloped; in the suit of Earth it portrays a golden opportunity to "learn the ropes" but not … Continue reading The “Boss from Hell” – A Riff on Mastery
A Force Too Short (or Is It Too Long?)
Another curious phrase used by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn describes the 8 of Swords as the "Lord of Shortened Force." To me, "shortened" implies too little of something, but in Liber T Macgregor Mathers had this to say: “Too much force applied to small things." I just can't see it in that … Continue reading A Force Too Short (or Is It Too Long?)
