Benebell Wen, Tarot author extraordinaire and creator of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, made a blog post and video today with prompts for seven philosophy-themed Tarot readings. Naturally, this was something I simply could not pass up—philosophy and Tarot! Two of my favorite things, together in one place! So below are my #7philosophicalreadings. The way Benebell […]
Read more "Seven Philosophical Readings: A Response to Benebell Wen"In my previous post on the metaphysical commitments required of (a certain kind of) Tarot reader, I hit two main points: the non-identity of mind and brain, and the non-linear nature of time.* One comment I got on that post was to the effect that both of those commitments seem uncontroversial; they’re the kind of […]
Read more "The Metaphysics of Tarot, Part 2"What do you have to believe in order to read Tarot? Well, technically, nothing. Tarot is a practice, not a dogma, and you can learn the interpretive skill without any prerequisite beliefs. But at the same time, the ways in which many readers use Tarot do entail certain metaphysical presuppositions. When I say “metaphysical” here, […]
Read more "The Metaphysics of Tarot"Is Tarot natural? Is it supernatural? Where does it fit in the Great Cosmic LEGO Set of our universe? I ask these questions largely out of an idle sense of curiosity and a childish desire to use a LEGO metaphor on my blog. But I think these questions are worth asking, because the Tarot community–and […]
Read more "On Nature and the Natural"This is going to be a Wicca post. If that turns you off, I completely understand, seeing as how this is actually not a Wicca blog, and I promise my next post will be 100% Tarot.* For anyone who’s relatively new to my blog and doesn’t know this about me, I am a onetime atheist […]
Read more "Magic and Mental Causation"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)"Yeah, yeah. It’s April Fool’s Day and I’m writing a post about the Fool. Sue me for being topical. Readers of this blog may recall that I recently subjected myself to the hellish process of applying for Ph.D programs in philosophy. (Truly. Hellish.) Well, application season is over, and acceptance season is drawing to a […]
Read more "It’s Okay to Play the Fool"A while back, I wrote a post arguing that philosophical determinism is compatible with Tarot reading. You’re welcome to go read the original post yourself, if you haven’t already, but the general gist of the argument was this: I think that a lot of Tarot readers rely too heavily on the idea that “the future […]
Read more "Determinism Revisited"Walking home today from the undisclosed location in New York City where I spend most of my days, I passed a woman from Amnesty International who was very intent on stopping passers-by to discuss human rights. I smiled, avoided eye contact, and waved her off with a polite “not today” before I continued my walk […]
Read more "The Cardinal Virtues, Value, and Justice"