The snooty elitism of wine snobs is well-known. Much of their recondite vocabulary speaks of properties that apply to anything but fermented grapes. To be fair, I have come to the conclusion that some red wines do present the fanciful and not-entirely-agreeable sensory impression of "raisins" or the slightly more desirable "black currants" in both … Continue reading Cartomantic Snobbery?
Tarot Miscellany
A Milestone and a Conundrum
I've just passed 175 self-created spreads in my personal inventory (see the Dropbox link in the sidebar for the list, which you can explore in the WordPress search function), and I paused a moment to wonder whether I will ever use the majority of these spreads in practice. Although I've binned them by category, the … Continue reading A Milestone and a Conundrum
The Cartomancer Redux
I see that The Cartomancer, the magnificent (and singular) high-quality tarot journal has changed hands again. Arwen Lynch acknowledged that she was having difficulty keeping up with production demands and schedules, so she sold the quarterly glossy magazine to 7 Stones Publishing with Lori Barbieri Ross at the helm. The following message was posted on … Continue reading The Cartomancer Redux
To Inform or Inspire?
Ever since the day last year when I was chided (gently) for my "fancy writing," I've striven to sharpen, refine and carefully prune my overly verbose descriptive style (of course, I'm not always successful because, as you can plainly see, I adore adjectives, semicolons and parentheses). In doing so, I sometimes find myself skewered by … Continue reading To Inform or Inspire?
A Valuable Resource
Although it's far from comprehensive given the explosion of new tarot decks in the last few years, there is a "tarot-card gallery" website that offers complete scans of numerous popular and historically-significant decks. My understanding is that the German owner of the site has authorization to publish the images from the copyright owners of the … Continue reading A Valuable Resource
Deck Wish List for 2020
Around this time every year I take a look at the decks I've wanted but still don't have. The list gets shorter each year, not because I've been buying a lot of decks (I haven't) but because my interests have been changing as I focus more on the Tarot de Marseille and other historical decks … Continue reading Deck Wish List for 2020
On-Line Reading: An Appreciation
I've now had several on-line clients since I posted my "Open for Business" article, and I must say that the practice of having them pull their own cards while concentrating on their question or topic area has been working out exceptionally well. My assumption has always been that if our subconscious has something to tell … Continue reading On-Line Reading: An Appreciation
Nevermore?
I don't know about you but when I encounter a post more than three or four paragraphs long, I tend to glaze over before I get to the end and I often leave the page without finishing (unless it's something I want to keep for future reference, in which case I'll save the link for … Continue reading Nevermore?
An Astro-Tarot Meditation Aid
Aleister Crowley said that the ideal way to become intimately acquainted with the Major Arcana of the tarot as "living beings" is meditation (although divination is the most practical way for the uninitiated). In his book The Druidry Handbook, John Michael Greer observed that the noisy Western mental machinery is not amenable to the Eastern … Continue reading An Astro-Tarot Meditation Aid
Virtue Is As Virtue Does
. . . or something like that. The uncertainty over which tarot trump card represents which of the four cardinal and three "theological" virtues is a continuing source of on-line debate. As a non-religious person I don't bother much (or at all) with the Christian virtues in a tarot reading, but I am intrigued by … Continue reading Virtue Is As Virtue Does
