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
Spirituality
A Curious Contact
I very seldom have memorable dreams that stay with me long after waking, but the following is a noteworthy exception. Although I'm of divided mind on the existence of “spirit guides,” this certainly seemed to represent that kind of contact. It's something I should probably pursue more purposefully, since the last time I had such … Continue reading A Curious Contact
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!
The Myths of Tarot: Sacred Cows and Tin Gods
I haven't had a good rant in a while and this topic has come 'round again with a vengeance. As I cruise the Facebook tarot pages I keep encountering the same old tired myths related to the tarot, usually brought up by neophytes who haven't been told any different. Not all of these folkloric superstitions … Continue reading The Myths of Tarot: Sacred Cows and Tin Gods
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”
Other Worlds
I have to admit that I'm not much of an astral traveler or "scryer." Of course, I do have an intellectual understanding of parallel-universe theories, bilocation and the "illusion of time," as well as more than a little experience with Astral Plane phenomena, but trying to approach the latter from a disciplined rather than totally … Continue reading Other Worlds
Jodo’s New-Age “Art” Films
Before he became a tarot star (of sorts), Alejandro Jodorowsky was a maker of exquisitely (or excruciatingly) surrealistic experimental films. I was 24 in 1972 when I first saw El Topo at a midnight drive-in theater screening in Connecticut, and it left a lasting impression (or stain?) on me. A couple of years ago, I … Continue reading Jodo’s New-Age “Art” Films
Chord Changes
File this one under "How Stuff Works." I'm a firm believer in the assumption that very little that is truly definitive in life happens by sheer coincidence, or in complete isolation; formative impulses and nascent events crowd the background of our personal drama, waiting to be propelled into prominence by invitation (ours or others) or … Continue reading Chord Changes
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
“Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
The Pythagoreans held that Number is sacred and embodies the root of all Existence; the measure of anything whatsoever can be taken in its ten formative principals, which ascend from an embryonic origin in the Monad or Point (1) to mature perfection in the Decad (10). (Note that this isn't the mathematical perception of Pythagoreanism … Continue reading “Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
