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"This deck has been on my radar for a while. A couple of weeks ago, I had family in town, and my mother and I went to see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Metropolitan Opera. (Lincoln Center is one of my favorite places in New York.) We arrived ridiculously early, because the only dinner reservation we […]
Read more "A Review of Kat Black’s Golden Tarot"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"Hmm. Turns out it’s spelled DruidCraft. I had always thought it was Druid Craft. Ah, well. Live and learn. I had planned to get this review out a week or two ago, but the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.* Truth be told, I just don’t have much to say about this deck. […]
Read more "A Review of the DruidCraft Tarot"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"Have I written this post before? I might have written this post before. If nothing else, I’ve probably touched on its content in a footnote. Nevertheless, this is an interesting way to approach the Court Cards, so I think it bears repeating. The sixteen Court Cards are widely recognized as the most difficult in the […]
Read more "Astrology and the Court Cards"