A spectre is haunting my blog. It’s not the spectre of Communism, nor the SPECTRE of Ernst Stavro Blofeld; it is the spectre of the suit of Cups. I have learned about myself that I cycle through the Minor Arcana every five years or so. Although you wouldn’t know it to look at me now, […]
Read more "In Which I Am Terrified of Cups"I’m a Tarot purist. I have never liked oracle cards, and even Tarot decks that veer too far from what I consider traditional (i.e. RWS, Thoth, or TdM) make me squirm in my seat like a four-year-old who doesn’t want to eat his cauliflower. However, my reasons for disliking oracle decks are not the same […]
Read more "Why I Don’t Read Oracle Decks"I spend a disproportionate amount of time on this blog talking about the Major Arcana. This is, perhaps, unsurprising–the Majors represent the big, shiny, sexy themes of human existence, so they make for great blogging material–but it’s also a bit of a pity. After all, the Minors constitute 72% of the Tarot deck. There’s a […]
Read more "“Aristotelian” Shadow Work (And A Tarot Spread)"Of the various odds and ends I’ve posted on this blog, three of my favorites are on the relationships between the Hierophant and Death, between the Lovers and Temperance, and between Strength and the Star, respectively. These posts all take a similar approach: looking at the astrological correspondences of the Major Arcana and exploring the […]
Read more "Ugh, Fine, I’ll Talk About Politics: Justice and the Emperor"“In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won.” This is from The Art of War, but I first heard it in the James Bond movie Die Another Day. I quite like the advice. Whenever I start a project, I’m filled with fear that I’ll never finish it. This was one of […]
Read more "The Page of Wands and the Value of Unfinished Work"Let’s talk about darkness. The term “shadow work” gets thrown around a lot in Tarot circles these days, particularly by more naturalistic-ish readers like myself who use Tarot less for prediction and more for personal reflection. Many Tarot readers use Tarot in conjunction with psychoanalysis or other forms of counseling. And many of us are inspired […]
Read more "Reevaluating Shadow Work"There are a few major themes that recur frequently in Tarot. Perhaps the greatest of these themes is capital-C Change. The entire Tarot deck is threaded with motifs of cyclicality and perpetual change. Off the top of my head, I can think of ways that at least one third of the Major Arcana could be […]
Read more "Death, Judgment, and Change in Tarot"