I recently came across what was described as an "Italian Romany" method of dealing the playing cards to form a spread. That approach uses 15 cards culled from a larger set of 32 as the result of a preliminary reading. It includes the idea of three "Surprise" cards and a "Consolation" card revealing lessons learned … Continue reading The Romany Cut “Wisdom or Folly” Situational Awareness Spread
Divination
Carpe Momentum!
Recently, on the Tarot Professionals Facebook page, Marcus Katz mentioned the aphorism "The oracular moment is sacrosanct." This got me thinking about the instant in time when each tarot card is randomly drawn from the deck to populate a spread. These linked cards are imprinted with the subtle influences inherent in that temporal interval, whether … Continue reading Carpe Momentum!
Here We Go Again!
There is no subject more mystical (and in my opinion, more overstated) in the art of "guided" divination (as distinct from purely psychic prescience) than that of intuition. It's often touted as the "gold standard" by which to read the signs in the tarot cards, but I think that advice is misleading, especially for those … Continue reading Here We Go Again!
“Who Ya Gonna Call?”
In Chapter 18, Part IV of Book Four: Magick in Theory and Practice, Aleister Crowley gives a brief summary of his understanding of how divination "works." "The theory of any process of divination may be stated in a few simple terms. 1. We postulate the existence of intelligences, either within or without the diviner, of … Continue reading “Who Ya Gonna Call?”
Hobbled and Hamstrung: The Scientific Fallacy
It has struck me that all past efforts to legitimize psychic phenomena have attempted to play by the rules of conventional logic in trying to apply established quantitative benchmarks to unknown phenomena. Making the observation fit the intellectual hypothesis is a time-honored practice by which theoretical discoveries are brought under the umbrella of academic acceptance. … Continue reading Hobbled and Hamstrung: The Scientific Fallacy
“Psychism with Props?”
While rereading Robert Wang's The Qabalistic Tarot, I came across the following statement that got me thinking about my own assumptions regarding the proper use of tarot for divination: "The Tarot is best used for divination about mundane matters. It is not particularly well-suited for furnishing answers of an important spiritual nature because it is … Continue reading “Psychism with Props?”
The “Big Three”
As I frequent the more popular Facebook tarot pages, I notice a number of patterns beginning to emerge in posts by those new to divination. Almost every day, someone (or several "someones") asks one of the following questions, even though it may have been posed just the day (or the hour) before. There doesn't seem … Continue reading The “Big Three”
The “Hedge Mystic”
In a recent post I characterized myself as a "garden-variety mystic" in that I don't identify as a "psychic" (much less an all-seeing one) or a "sensitive" in my professional pursuits (nor as an "empath" either, but that's a subject for a different post), I just "read the cards." Today I hit upon the even … Continue reading The “Hedge Mystic”
Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Upon entering the ranks of the professional diviner, we inevitably encounter the question "How much is enough?" Time, that is, or effort expended for value received.I was once advised that, in rural New England where I lived at the time, the going rate for a face-to-face tarot reading was a dollar a minute. This was … Continue reading Time Bites: The Value of a Minute
Bridging the Gap Between Magic and Meaning
You will often hear me say that, at least in my own work, divination is a subliminal process rooted in the unconscious (or, if you like, "Higher Self") that relies heavily on imagination, inspiration and ingenuity to tease practical messages from evocative symbolism that is typically shrouded in rather obscure "magical" imagery. In the best … Continue reading Bridging the Gap Between Magic and Meaning
