Category: tarot

30 Day Tarot Challenge Meme (Questions 11-15)

On By benebellIn personal, tarot, tarot community5 Comments

It is Day 3 of the meme, which should correspond with Days 11 through 15, since each question is supposed to take up a full day of contemplation. Instead, I’m truncating it down to 5 questions per day to finish off the challenge.

See previous postings:

Questions 1-5 (Day 1)

Questions 6-10 (Day 2)

11. What spread do you use most often/prefer and why?

I used to have a strong preference for the Celtic Cross, but really the only reason for that was habit. I knew the spread like the back of my hand and it was comfortable. My practice has evolved and now there is no single spread that I use most often. I listen carefully to the client’s needs and usually custom-tailor a spread for that client.

12. Have you ever created your own spread? If so, how effective is it? (Feel free to show the spread.)

Yes. All the time. If it would serve the client, then I will incorporate the client’s religious beliefs, faiths, traditions, culture, or just his or her specific inquiry needs into the spread that I devise. My spreads are generally based on some sort of cross or sigil. I have found that these tailor-made spreads are astonishingly effective when applied in the most precise way to both the client and the question.

Here is one example of a spread I recently devised, called The Insight Cross:

Insight_Cross_Spread

13. Is there a card that continuously stumps you when it is drawn? Why do you believe this to be so?

Key 18, The Moon often stumps me. When it is the only card drawn, I get the meaning. However, when I need to understand it in the context of other cards, or even in the context of a client’s specific question, it is often difficult for me to explain The Moon as it pertains to our everyday life. Intellectually most of us can understand The Moon, but extrapolating its application is a little more elusive for me.

14. For what purposes do you usually use the Tarot?

These days, only to read for others. I do not read tarot for myself. Instead, I will patron another professional tarot practitioner for a reading. It supports their tarot business and I feel it’s more objective than me reading for myself.

15. How much emphasis do you put on the textbook meanings for cards, and how much stress do you place on the “feeling” you get from cards through their artwork/symbolism, etc. Do you do both, or one or the other?

My analysis begins with the classical meanings for the cards. However, I cannot stress enough how important it is to look at the overall landscape of a spread and see how the cards relate to one another. From there, exercise intuition to truly understand the holistic meaning of the card as it directly pertains to the client’s inquiry. How that can be done artfully and accurately is learned only through practice, practice, and more practice. You need to gain a great deal of experience before you understand the depths of intuitive reading.

Subsequent Updates:

Questions 16-20 (Day 4).

Questions 21-25 (Day 5).

Questions 26-30 (Day 6).

30 Day Tarot Challenge Meme (Questions 6-10)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, personal, tarot5 Comments

I’m having fun with an internet meme that’s been circulating among tarot bloggers, and that is the 30 Day Tarot Challenge, though I’m blazing through it in 6 days, 5 questions each day. Perhaps that is defeating the original purpose of the meme, which is to ponder thoughtfully on each inquiry. I’ve adjusted that purpose a bit.

This is Day #2.

See previous postings on the meme:

Questions 1-10 (Day 1)

celticcross

6. What was the first spread you learned?

The Celtic Cross. For many years, it was the only spread I used. That was the old school way of teaching beginners. Thankfully, tarot tutelage has changed these last few decades and students are now beginning with a more manageable number of cards.

7. What is your favorite card (both in terms of deck’s artwork and divinatory meaning)?

Ace of Cups. Upright, that is.robinwood_aceofcups

8. Which card do you dread pulling the most?

I’ve reached a point where I don’t dread any of the cards, but that comes with acquiring wrinkles and lines on your face, in other words age. After a while, life simply stops unnerving you. Tragedy and comedy will come as they come. You learn to roll with the punches, as they say. However, when reading for people who are not familiar with tarot, I dread pulling the Death card, because I have to be really artful about explaining the card to them and calming them down.

9. What card do you pull the most often? Why do you think that is the case?

Two of Pentacles or Ten of Wands, with seemingly equal frequency. It is the way of our modern world, I suppose. Everyone’s busy. Everyone is overburdened and juggling a bunch of responsibilities at once.

10. What card best represents your personality (or, is most often pulled to represent you in a spread)?

Queen of Swords.

Subsequent Updates:

Questions 11-15 (Day 3).

Questions 16-20 (Day 4).

Questions 21-25 (Day 5).

Questions 26-30 (Day 6).

A Tarot Meme: 30 Questions (Questions 1-5)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, personal, tarot7 Comments

I first came across this meme by way of Calamity’s Child on her blog post here, “30-day Tarot Challenge.” The meme seems to have originated with 78 Keys (link here), but just google “30 Day Tarot Challenge” and you’ll pull up many tarot bloggers who’ve taken on the challenge. Fascinating reads, so I suggest you read all of them. I’m a little late to the game, but the questions intrigue me and I would like to explore my answers via this blog, 5 questions at a time.

Instead of 30 days, I’ll wing them in 6 days. So here’s #1-5.

MajorArcana_Key_1_The_Magician1. What introduced you/got you involved in Tarot?

A deck was given to me from a friend as a gift, which is what first sparked my interest. I floundered with it for a bit, until I met a seasoned tarot reader who taught me the basics. From there my interest developed into a serious study of the art.

2. What was your first deck and why/how did you get it?

Technically my very first deck was a used Marseille deck obtained at a garage sale when I was a kid, but I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was a deck of playing cards (well, which it is, but you know what I mean) with random extra cards. I just didnt think much of it, probably because I was 9. In junior high a friend gave me the Tarot Nova. That’s when I began to learn about tarot and nurtured my interest. Later on I realized that the old deck of “extra cards” I had stashed in my family basement was the Tarot de Marseille.

3. Do you have more than one deck that you use and if so do you have a favorite? If not, why do you like the deck you have chosen?

When reading for others, I use the Rider-Waite, the Robin Wood, or the Goddess Tarot, selecting the deck based on the seeker’s particular inquiry. I may also from time to time use either the Marseille or the Thoth, usually upon request. When reading for myself, I gravitate toward the Marseille. Also, who am I kidding, I’m an avid deck collector and love to play around with the deck du jour, so at any given time I am probably fascinated with a different deck based on what I recently got my hands on.

4. How long have you been reading the Tarot?

About 15 years.

5. When and where did you give your first reading?

My first reading for someone else wasn’t until very late in my practice, and it was kind of an accident. I was meeting a sorority sister and her new boyfriend at her place, and then we were all headed out somewhere. When I arrived, she wasn’t ready yet, so she asked me to sit in the living room with her boyfriend. The two of us sat there awkwardly waiting for her. To break the silence, I asked him if he’d like a tarot reading, since I happened to have a deck in my knapsack. He said sure. The reading turned out to be eerily accurate, to the point where he thought my sorority sister and I were a fraud, and that she had previously told me all his deep family secrets (which she hadn’t!) and I was using the info to prank him into believing I was psychic (which I’m not!). Actually, in retrospect, it was pretty funny and the accuracy of that first reading definitely gave me pause.

Subsequent Updates:

Questions 6-10 (Day 2).

Questions 11-15 (Day 3).

Questions 16-20 (Day 4).

Questions 21-25 (Day 5).

Questions 26-30 (Day 6).

In Defense of the Rider-Waite

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, tarot, tarot symbolism3 Comments

riderwaitedefense

I am grateful that I did not access the Internet during my formative years of learning tarot. Communities of self-proclaimed advanced tarot practitioners have brought into being the supercilious notion that the Rider-Waite or Rider Waite Smith (RWS) tarot deck is a “beginner’s deck” and that a high level practitioner will have moved beyond the RWS into another more specialized deck.

What hooey.

These practitioners need to revisit the RWS and re-evaluate for themselves how well they truly understand the RWS. Are they really using the symbology contained in the deck to its full extent? Do they understand the elemental influences, astronomical, seasonal, and the nuances of every last bird in the sky, leaf, and blade of grass?

As I have said, as of the present there are three prevailing tarot deck systems. The Marseille with the pip cards, the RWS, and the Thoth. The three are very different from one another and every practitioner should be fluent with reading all three. From there, you will find that you gravitate more toward one of those three. That will most likely become your primary reading deck.

The three systems have inspired numerous contemporary derivative decks. These decks are generally based on one of the foregoing three systems, or are a hybrid. Most of these derivative decks are created to reconcile an omission in one of the three main systems. A basic example of that are the fancy, beautifully illustrated RWS decks that are aesthetically more pleasing to the eye than the original RWS. There are decks that attempt to better flesh out the interpretive methods of the Golden Dawn. Others fuse the foundation of the tarot with imagery that is more specific to a particular faith, philosophy, or culture. All of these decks are legitimate reading decks and if you find yourself connecting to one more so than the RWS, then that’s really great for you.

However, it does not mean you’re now more advanced. People start with the RWS not because it’s a beginner’s deck, but because it is a traditional system. The Marseille is another traditional system, but not everyone has developed and honed their intuitive abilities to a point where they can read pip cards meaningfully. The RWS is like Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major while the Thoth is like Stravinsky and the classical musician will have attempted to master both, but neither one is hardly considered “beginner” stuff. Playing Vyacheslav Artyomov or Gheorghi Arnaoudov doesn’t make you more advanced than the fellow working on the Tchaikovsky piece.

So please do not listen to the snobbery, my dear RWS reader. If that was your first reading deck and still remains your only reading deck, then that is what works for you. That shouldn’t even be said in a patronizing way. Seriously. RWS is an incredibly complex deck and anyone who thinks it’s the training wheels of tarot is someone who still has a beginner, rudimentary understanding of the study.

The Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson: A Powerful Divination Deck and a Suggested Triquetra Spread

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot23 Comments

bellwen-HermeticTarot2

hermetic

The Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson is a masterpiece. The tone of the deck and Dowson’s artwork invokes the full spectrum of powers within the tarot practitioner for spiritual divinatory work. As a Golden Dawn study deck, the card images are fundamentally focused on alchemical and astrological references such as the decans in the Minor Arcana, with the deck outfitted for theurgy. It can be integrated into personal rituals, meditations, and ceremonies and in fact is probably far better suited for such work than, say, the Marseille, Rider-Waite-Smith, or even the Thoth decks.

bellwen-Hermetic-KnightGodfrey Dowson draws heavily from elemental dignities and affinities, Western astrology as interpreted by the Golden Dawn, and the Qabalah. Corresponding alchemical symbols for the four elements and astrological symbols are embedded into each card to denote the attributions. In the Major Arcana, the Key’s corresponding Hebrew letter appears on the top left corner. In the court cards, the alchemical symbol corresponding with the classical element that the card itself represents appears on the top left and the symbol for the element corresponding with the suit appears on the top right. The Knight of Swords, for example, represents Fire (for the Knight) on Air (for the suit of Swords). For practitioners who adopt interpretive methods reliant on elemental dignities and affinities, that is a godsend. The backs of the cards are illustrated with the Hermetic Rose and hexagrams. As they are non-reversible, it may not be an ideal deck for reading with reversals. That being said, the little white booklet that accompanies the Hermetic Tarot provides the meanings of the cards in the “ill-dignified” position, as reversals are called in the booklet, which suggests that the deck is nevertheless intended for reading with reversals.

The anatomy of the Hermetic Tarot is the same as the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) (e.g., VIII is Strength and XI is Justice or their equivalents) and there is substantial crossover of subscribed card meanings to render the Hermetic Tarot user-friendly for anyone familiar with the RWS. At the end of this deck review are correspondence tables that compare the RWS with the Hermetic Tarot. Note the card titles assigned to each card in the Hermetic deck. The essences of the cards as denoted by the titles are almost transferrable onto the RWS.

Continue reading “The Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson: A Powerful Divination Deck and a Suggested Triquetra Spread” →

A 10-Week Independent Study Course with Paul Foster Case: A Review of Oracle of the Tarot (1933).

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, free download, tarot12 Comments

Paul_Foster_CasePaul Foster Case (1884 – 1954) is one of the most influential American occultists on modern tarot studies. His approach to tarot is influenced heavily by Western astrology and the Hermetic Qabalah, as evidenced in his tarot divination course, Oracle of the Tarot, and other writings, such as An Introduction to the Study of Tarot (1920) or The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages (1947). Oracle is keyed to the Knapp-Hall Tarot, which was first published by J. Augustus Knapp and Manly P. Hall in 1929. The Knapp-Hall Tarot differs significantly from the Marseille, Rider-Waite-Smith, or Thoth interpretive traditions, so the card meanings in Oracle, in particular from the Minor Arcana, are not readily transferrable to the Marseille, Rider-Waite-Smith, or Thoth systems. Nonetheless, Oracle offers the beginner and intermediate student a strong foundation in the basics and anatomy of tarot.

Case opens the book with a strong statement: “TAROT divination is not fortune-telling. The practice of fortune-telling is based on the false notion that human life is governed by luck, chance, or fate–by obscure powers at work outside the personality. True divination rests upon the occult truth that the causes of all events in human life are really internal.” He thus begins by distinguishing divination from fortune-telling. Divination is an inward reflection process of using tarot to tap into the superconscious. The tarot utilizes imagery and symbols that communicate in the language of the superconscious and thus understanding tarot is in its essence the learning of a new language.

The introductory Lesson 1 warns the tarot practitioner to take tarot divination seriously and reviews a few ethical guidelines, in particular the practitioner’s duty of confidentiality and impartiality. Practitioners must remain non-judgmental when conducting tarot readings. Lesson 1 also subdivides tarot decks into exoteric and esoteric decks. Case provides the Knapp-Hall Tarot as an example of an exoteric deck, or one that operates in the realm of public knowledge, with imagery that more closely resembles the tarot deck originally used for playing games, and contrasts that with the Rider Tarot (or Rider-Waite-Smith), which he refers to as an esoteric deck. Esoteric tarot decks are the versions of tarot re-interpreted by occultists and used specifically for divination or other spiritual exercises.

Note that it is unclear and somewhat contradictory as to why Case expends the first half of the Introduction to describe tarot divination as an internalized process, but then applies an exoteric deck to teach divination, rather than an esoteric deck, which would seem to be more aligned with the internalized process of tarot divination. What’s more, the subsequent lessons in Oracle repeatedly reference esoteric tarot traditions.

The 10 lessons of Oracle are meant to be studied over a course of 10 weeks.

Lesson 1 then proceeds to describe the anatomy of the Major and Minor Arcana (referred to as the Major Trumps and Minor Trumps in Oracle). Case claims that his Hebrew letter attributions for the Major Arcana are the “correct” attributions and that preceding claims by such authors as Papus were wrong. Case sources his attributions from Eliphas Levi (1810 – 1875), a French occultist and influential writer on tarot. Case claims that his Hebrew letter attributions are better aligned with the standard astrological attributions of the Major Arcana, which he provides as follows:

Case’s Hebrew and Astrological Attributions in the Major Arcana

Key

 Major Arcana Hebrew Attribution Astrological Attribution

0

 Le Fou (The Fool) Aleph (A) Air; Uranus

1

 Le Bateleur (The Magician) Beth (B) Mercury

2

 La Papesse (The High Priestess) Gimel (G) The Moon

3

 L’imperatrice (The Empress) Daleth (D) Venus

4

 L’empereur (The Emperor) Heh (H) Aries

5

 Le Pape (The Hierophant) Vau (V) Taurus

6

 L’amoureux (The Lovers) Zain (Z) Gemini

7

 Le Chariot (The Chariot) Cheth (Ch) Cancer

8

 La Justice (Justice) Lamed (L) Libra

9

 L’ermite (The Hermit) Yod (I) Virgo

10

 La Roue de la Fortune (Wheel of Fortune) Kaph (K) Jupiter

11

 La Force (Strength) Teth (T) Leo

12

 Le Pendu (The Hanged Man) Mem (M) Water; Neptune

13

 La Mort (Death) Nun (N) Scorpio

14

 La Temperance (Temperance) Samekh (S) Sagittarius

15

 La Diable (The Devil) Ayin (O) Capricorn

16

 Le Feu Du Ciel (The Tower) Peh (P) Mars

17

 Les Etoiles (The Star) Tzaddi (Tz) Aquarius

18

 La Lune (The Moon) Qoph (Q) Pisces

19

 Le Soleil (The Sun) Resh (R) The Sun

20

 Le Jugement (Judgement) Shin (Sh) Fire; Pluto; Vulcan

21

 Le Monde (The World) Tau (Th) Saturn; Earth

He attributes the Minor Arcana as follows:

Attributions in the Minor Arcana

Suit Divinatory Representation

Elemental Attribution
WANDS Work, enterprise, ideas; the energies of the spiritual plane or archetypal world (Plato’s world of ideas)

FIRE
CUPS Desires, hopes, wishes; emotional activities; the states and forces of the mental plane, the creative world in which mental patterns are formulated

WATER
SWORDS Action, and therefore conflict of forces; the states and activities of the astral plane; the formative world of unseen forces, which build the conditions of the physical plane

AIR
COINS orPENTACLES Things, possessions; the concrete objects and bodies of the physical plane; the objectification of the energies and forces of the higher worlds or planes represented by Wands, Cups, and Swords

EARTH

As for significator cards, Case’s approach is to simply use Key 1: The Magician for male seekers and Key 2: The High Priestess for female seekers. That differs from the more popular modern approach of using the court cards as significators.

Oracle also teaches an initial divinatory method called the First Operation, which seems to be an antiquated practice now, as few modern tarot practitioners adopt the First Operation. It is nonetheless a method that the serious tarot practitioner should be familiar with. The First Operation is to be performed prior to a question. The significator card is shuffled in with the full tarot deck and then cut into four piles as follows:

case4

The tarot practitioner then proceeds to locate the pile that the significator card is in. That pile, be it I, H1, V, or H2 (reading right to left respectively), will indicate the nature of the seeker’s question. The four piles correspond with the Hebrew letters Yod (I), Heh (H), Vau (V), Heh (H), which is a transliteration of the four constants forming the Hebrew name of the Supreme Being, again showing the strong influence of Qabalistic tenets on Case.

The four piles of the First Operation correspond as follows:

I

 Personal Development; Health & Wellness. Seeker is asking about matters of personal development, such as work or career. Could indicate an interest in beginning a new venture or carrying out a new idea. Pile is also associated with the physical, such as body, health, or wellness issues.

H 1

 Love, Marriage, Family. Seeker is asking about emotions, feelings, personal relationships, or desires. This pile pertains to the domestic sphere and interpersonal matters.

V

 Politics, Ambitions, Social, Intellectual. Seeker is asking about ambitions and high aspirations. This pile could also pertain to conflict resolution, imbalances or disappointments. This is also the pile that corresponds with the Seeker’s intellectual faculties.

H 2

 Money, Business, Property. Seeker is asking about a material matter, finances, property, or wealth.

If the significator card is in a corresponding pile that is consistent with the seeker’s question topic, then the First Operation has confirmed that the subsequent tarot reading will be accurate as applied to the question at hand. If, however, the significator card appears in a pile during the First Operation that is not consistent with the seeker’s question topic, then it shows that right now is not an appropriate time for the tarot to answer such a question.

Lessons 2, 3, 4, and 5 deconstruct the Suit of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Coins (Pentacles) respectively, keyed to the Knapp-Hall Tarot. Contained in the lessons are also simple 3-card spreads for divining past, present, and probable future influences.

Lesson 6 on the Major Trumps (Major Arcana) can be applicable to the prevailing tarot interpretive systems used today, though note that the Key 8 referenced in Case’s Oracle is “La Justice” (Justice) and Key 11 in Oracle is “La Force” (Strength), which is similar to the Marseille, but the reverse of the Rider-Waite-Smith (Key 8 is Strength and Key 11 is Justice).

Case claims that the timing of events can be revealed by looking at the astrological attributions of the cards, and the lessons in Oracle set about explaining how the 12 astrological houses can be used to divine the timing of events. From there, Lessons 7, 8, 9, and 10 teach complex tarot spreads, most notably combining astrology, the Tree of Life, and tarot, and further provides an overview of elemental dignities. Lesson 10 also provides an overview of numerology and its application to tarot.

Though some of the historic references in the book have since been disproved as myth, Oracle of the Tarot is still a work that every serious tarot student should have read. Not having read Paul Foster Case if you are a tarot practitioner is like not having read Anton Chekhov if you are serious about writing literary fiction. Though written over 80 years ago and keyed to a tarot deck that is, as of this writing, long out of print, Oracle nonetheless holds relevance today and every practitioner, no matter how advanced, will find at least one nugget of new information from Oracle.

So. Can Oracle teach tarot in 10 weeks? An operable foundation in tarot, yes, probably, though generally I am doubtful of any program that claims it can teach tarot in anything under 10 years. Learning tarot is nothing like learning to ride a bike. It’s really more like learning to play violin. In 10 weeks time you can probably learn no more than just how to properly hold the bow.

NOTE. You can download a PDF copy of Oracle: Oracle of the Tarot by Paul Foster Case (1933). Download by CLICKING HERE (Source Credit: TarotWorks).

UPDATE (6/2/13). Read more about the First Operation: The First Operation: Adapting a Traditional Method in the “Opening of the Key” to Contemporary Tarot Applications.

Charging Fees for Tarot Readings

On By benebellIn personal, professional tarot, tarot10 Comments

Whether it is appropriate to charge fees for tarot readings and other similar spiritual or divination services is a divisive and controversial topic, even though I don’t think it should be. The conclusion seems rather simple and unequivocal to me: yes of course one may charge fees for tarot reading just as one may charge for any sort of professional service, though when it comes to tarot, due to its more spiritual nature, we must be even more cognizant of ethics.

Yet indulge me for a moment while I reflect.

When I was a child, I met several Buddhists with an inexplicable empathic or intuitive connection to the universe and none of them charged fees when they interpreted their visions for seekers. At most they would accept donations. They would be conscientious of how they used the money from these donations: only for necessities; only for further helping others.

Their approach has always stuck with me, perhaps because of how impressionable my young mind was back then. Couple that with growing up in a Puritan society and that is probably why I feel intense bouts of guilt when I charge people for tarot readings.

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And so I don’t. Instead, I insist that I’m okay with giving the readings free, but will accept donations of any amount. I say this with the hope that the donation amount will be proportionate to their satisfaction with my work. If I provided zero insight and could not have been more wrong about their situation, then truly I am okay with nonpayment. If, however, they left feeling inspired, enriched, and empowered, then I hope they’ll show their gratitude by giving money that will reaffirm to me that I’m doing something right and continue on with my tarot reading adventures. Do not let my offer of free readings “for donations” fool you: I am very, very human, and very, very capitalistic. It is impossible for me to not measure the value of my tarot readings to others by the dollar amount I find in the coffers.

So when I get nothing, I feel like that’s my value. Imagine how that must feel after diligent focus on a tarot reading. Performing a one-card reading, thinking about it thoroughly, and writing up an assessment for the seeker takes 20 to 30 minutes, and that’s just for one card. I am very meticulous about how to apply that one card to the seeker’s question. Most of my readings are through written e-mails now, so then I need to write up something coherent. That, too, takes time. Ten plus cards can take up to an hour plus or minus. Many times, especially after repeat exploitation from seekers, I literally want to stop offering tarot readings altogether. I don’t think I even expect that much.

When you dine out at a restaurant, you expect to pay for the food and services. So when you request a tarot reader and the reader offers them “free, but accepting donations,” at least consider donating the cost of one restaurant meal. Isn’t that reasonable and the very least one can offer for another person’s time? In fact, when you request any kind of professional service at all, you expect to pay. So why would anyone go out of their way to seek a tarot reading and not expect to pay? Why would anyone take the initiative to contact me for a tarot reading and then not even consider how much time it must have taken me to do a reading and how much money they would want from a stranger if they put in that kind of time, commitment, and diligence for someone they didn’t even know? The more I advance down that line of thought, the angrier I get at the selfishness and lack of consideration of others. Is my time free? What makes them think I do not need to be compensated for in any way whatsoever for the work I do? Especially when I devote so much of myself to my work?

And that is when I start to think that the professional readers who charge $100 for their readings got it right. What is something I often say to seekers? Do not ever let others determine your self worth. You define your own worth. And yet here I am, a hypocrite, letting others determine the worth of my tarot readings rather than defining it myself.

Yet before I can change my mind and start charging for my services, that guilty conscience kicks in. I don’t know where it comes from, but I wish I could send it back.

More than that, though, I wish others applied the golden rule. I know I am.

UPDATE: I’ve since changed my mind on this topic, but instead of deleting the post, I’d like to leave it up and simply add this note. The tarot reader offers a very specific form of guidance and provides insight in a way that I have not seen any other service be able to do. On a certain intellectual level, I do not believe in charging fees for healing (as in doctors, medicine) or advocacy (as in lawyers and the practice of law). Generally the idea of commodifying social service is, again on a certain philosophical level, loathsome to me. However, in the reality we live in, money is the current that keeps society thriving and what governs the quality of our lives. So a tarot reader charging for services is no different from a doctor or lawyer, restaurant owner or plumber charging for their services rendered. If anything, given the nature of the work a tarot professional does, this should be an occupation held in high esteem, at the same level as other high professionals.

Tarot: The Path to Wisdom by Joseph D’Agostino – A Review

On By benebellIn book review, tarotLeave a comment

Tarot: The Path to Wisdom

Author: Joseph D’Agostino

York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1994

ISBN: 0-87728-819-4

117 pages

tarot-path-to-wisdom-dagostino

D’Agostino’s Tarot: The Path to Wisdom is a book that I have owned since the 90s when it was first published. As a beginner’s book, it leaves a lot to be desired, and that would be my fault since Path is not intended as a beginner’s book. The intermediate tarot practitioner who has a strong foundation of the card meanings and can read with several card spreads will find Path to be an excellent companion for studying the Major Arcana. Path focuses on the Majors and provides a comprehensive overview of symbolism and interpretation of each major arcanum. D’Agostino draws from psychological sciences, historical context, esoteric philosophies, and general Western symbology to interpret the Majors. The book is keyed to the Rider-Waite deck and offers practical applications for using tarot.

An entire chapter is devoted to each of the twenty-two cards and at the end of each section are exercises for meditation. A table on the following page briefly summarizes D’Agostino’s suggested meditation exercises for each Major Arcanum. The meditation exercises can be further developed as creative writing exercises. One could conceivably use the meditation purpose concepts proffered by D’Agostino to free-write, e.g., meditate on The High Priestess to free-write about memory, use The Chariot to write on the theme of willpower, The Devil card to write on the theme of adversity, etc.

D’Agostino’s Meditative Applications of the Major Arcana

Major Arcanum Meditative Purpose
Key 0 The Fool To dispel frustration or depression
Key I The Magician For attention to detail; Power of concentration
Key II The High Priestess To improve memory
Key III The Empress To improve powers of imagination
Key IV The Emperor To increase ability to see reality
Key V The Hierophant To amplify receptivity to inner self
Key VI The Lovers To increase ability of discrimination
Key VII The Chariot To expand willpower
Key VIII Strength To expand influence and power of suggestion
Key IX The Hermit To enhance confidence
Key X Wheel of Fortune To accelerate synchronization of the person with the universe
Key XI Justice To establish greater degree of equilibrium
Key XII The Hanged Man To reverse undesirable habits, thoughts, or action
Key XIII Death To gain insight into emotional and reproductive instincts
Key XIV Temperance To accelerate the transformation of the personality
Key XV The Devil To understand adversity
Key XVI The Tower To dispel undesirable personality patterns
Key XVII The Star To improve powers of meditation
Key XVIII The Moon To reorganize the subconscious aspect of personality
Key XIX The Sun To regenerate the mind
Key XX Judgement To inspire a great awakening
Key XXI The World To know thyself

What is most compelling about Path is the insight and detail D’Agostino offers for each Major Arcanum. He writes on the planetary influences on each card, Biblical references, angelic depictions, and describes each card’s imagery in detail. The reader will surely pick up on elements of the Rider-Waite that he or she might not have noticed before.

The latter half of the book explains how tarot is used for divination. The book also provides concise divinatory interpretations of all 78 cards, although the glossary is too basic for an intermediate or advanced student, but too sparse for the beginner. Thus I found that particular section generally unhelpful.

As D’Agostino writes, “Each tarot card is constructed to evoke only positive states of consciousness, therefore daily meditation upon its symbol will stimulate your consciousness with the most creative aspects of your being.” So consider the above table and try a few of the suggested meditation exercises. Jot down your impressions in your tarot journal.

For an intermediate level text that focuses on the Major Arcana, the tarot practitioner can reach for Path. It is a welcomed addition to my reference library, but I would not recommend it to the beginner and much of the text may be seen as too simplified to the advanced practitioner.

——–

Joseph D’Agostino is classically trained as a musician, having graduated from Julliard in Clarinet and Composition. He worked with the Mascagni Opera and toured the U.S. and Europe.

I Ching Dead Moon Oracle Deck: Gothic Asian?

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, oracle deck, tarot6 Comments
Name of Deck : I Ching Dead Moon Oracle Deck
ISBN : 978-0738732602
Publisher : Lo Scarabeo
Publication Date : March 5, 2012
Card Size : 2.5” x 4.5”
Authors/Illustrators : Luis Royo
Total No. of Cards : 64

I love the I Ching Dead Moon oracle deck by Luis Royo… As a collector’s item, that is.

Royo’s artwork in Dead Moon is what I’ll describe as East Asian post-punk gothic rock that borrows imagery from Japanese samurai culture and imperial China, altogether with lots of blood, wild black hair, and intricate tattoos. And the consistent depiction of inclement weather in the backdrop.

In other words, awesome.

Sure, there’s some hypersexualization and exotification of Asian women in there, but let’s just agree that post-colonial social politics will be beyond the scope of this deck review.

Without question Royo’s Dead Moon deck is one of the best on the market when it comes to art. It is an oracle deck, however, and not tarot in the traditional sense. As it is based on the I Ching, the oracle deck has 64 rather than 78 cards, each corresponding with one of the hexagrams from the I Ching. However, the Dead Moon I Ching deck is haphazard with the illustrations. They don’t necessarily correspond with the hexagram it’s supposed to represent. Other I Ching oracle decks, such as the I Ching Tarot by Kwan Lau, depict images that the illustrator believes represents the meaning of the hexagram. If that was Royo’s intention, then it may have failed, at least for me.

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For example, Hexagram 2, Kun, or Earth, represents stability, support, strength, fertility, nourishment, etc. It’s a hexagram that reminds us to be calm and receptive to the natural world around us. In other I Ching oracle decks I’ve come across, Hexagram 2 is usually represented by a tree or a Mother Earth type figure. In the Dead Moon deck, we’ve got a half-naked forlorn looking woman who is kneeling, looking down. There may or may not be a waterfall in the background. It’s an incredible work of art, no question, but perhaps not the most comprehensive image to symbolize Hexagram 2. Not to mention there are no words on any of the cards to suggest what the hexagram you’re looking at is, other than the number. So either you know it or you don’t. No hints, anywhere.

As a result I found it difficult to use. When the I Ching is used on its own for divination, you consult the book after yarrow stalks or tossing coins or what have you. When the tarot is used on its own for divination, you interpret the meaning through the imagery and symbolism on the cards. A divination fusion of I Ching and tarot, one would think, would mean the ability to interpret the meaning of the hexagram via the imagery and symbolism on the oracle card. For Dead Moon, not so much.

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For instance, Hexagram 9, Shiao Chu, is about restraint and propriety. I just don’t get that from the card’s imagery. In fact, the woman on that card looks sexually inviting. Hexagram 11, Tai, is about reaping the fruits of your labor; success. Stunning artwork in Hexagram 11, but it makes no sense as applied to the meaning of Hexagram 11. Hexagram 22, Bin, is about grace and beauty. The image of the woman depicted therein kind of works for me but also kind of doesn’t. If I didn’t know the meaning of Hexagram 22 prior to encountering that card, I would not have guessed “grace and beauty.” Maybe melancholy.

The deck did not work for me when I applied traditional I Ching divination techniques and it did not work when I applied it to my go-to tarot and cartomancy spreads. I know I said that that post-colonial social politics is beyond the scope of this review, but the scantily clad, sexually objectified Asian women were offensive to me. Aren’t we beyond that kind of antifeminist and racist behavior yet?

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What’s more, to use Dead Moon as an oracle deck, the practitioner would need to be quite advanced and highly knowledgeable already of the 64 hexagrams. With no keywords, no card titles, illustrations that for the most part have little to do with the hexagrams, none of the symbolism of the original I Ching, and a barebones booklet that offers a shallow interpretation of Tao, if you don’t know the I Ching going into the Dead Moon, you won’t learn much about it after using the deck. Truth be told, I found the artsy-gothic-lots-of-sexy-Asian-women-and-hot-warriors deck of cards unappealing as a representation of the Tao, which I deeply regard.

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Dead Moon is not a tarot deck in the traditional sense and will be a leap for tarot readers to use. So from a marketing standpoint, who exactly is Royo targeting?

Collectors.

The I Ching Dead Moon is going to be a favorite in any tarot/oracle deck collection. The art is beautiful and the dark ambiance of the deck is altogether thrilling. However, for me, that is where the Dead Moon’s purpose ends. It does not work for divination under either of the two esoteric paradigms it claims to be inspired by, tarot or I Ching. It is pretty to look at and that is about it.

Eden Gray’s Mastering the Tarot

On By benebellIn book review, tarot8 Comments

edengray

Mastering the Tarot: Basic Lessons in an Ancient Mystic Art

Author: Eden Gray

New York: Signet, 1971

ISBN: 0-451-16781-3

221 pages

My first books on cartomancy came from the public library, which segued into my introduction to tarot, but after acquiring the Rider Waite to begin my serious study, the book I picked up was Eden Gray’s Mastering the Tarot. Mastering, Gray’s fourth publication, is now considered one of the seminal modern works on the tarot. Concise, comprehensive, and timeless, Mastering has remained one of my go-to references from my personal tarot library. In spite of my many new book acquisitions over the last fifteen years, I find myself returning repeatedly to Gray’s book.

Mastering is subdivided into lessons. Lesson 1, Preliminary Steps, will help familiarize the reader with the cards. Basic structure is explained, as are logistical matters, such as caring for the cards. Lesson 2 sets forth general observations and patterns in the Minor Arcana. An overview of suit associations is provided. Then the subsequent Lessons 3, 4, and 5 provide interpretations for the pip cards, or Aces through Tens, in the Minor Arcana. A one page profile is devoted to each card, with a description of the card’s symbolism, a standard interpretation of the card upright, and a standard interpretation of the card in reverse. Gray’s interpretations seem heavily influenced by the Golden Dawn school of thought. The card lessons are organized in sets, by number (e.g., all four Aces side by side, all four Twos, all four Threes, etc.), deviating from the majority of tarot reference books, which group the cards by suits (e.g., the suit of Wands, Ace through King, then the suit of Cups, suit of Swords, suit of Pentacles). Gray’s organization worked for me because like Gray, I integrate numerology into my approach and thus chapters sectioned off by numbers helped to reinforce into my memory the numerological attributions of the cards. Lesson 6 reviews the court cards, Pages through Kings, and then Lessons 7 through 10 provides the interpretations for the Major Arcana, grouped in thirds. Gray seems to maintain a substantially literal interpretation of court cards, though she does gloss through a few figurative interpretations. Overall, card interpretations take up about 56% of the book, so in terms of reference manuals keyed to the Rider-Waite-Smith system, Mastering is the book to have.

However, for the beginner tarot practitioner with no prior experience, Mastering may leave a lot to be desired. As mentioned, the book comprises mostly of card interpretation. The basic learning steps from new tarot deck to reading spreads is rather sparse in Mastering. Lesson 11 does offer a chapter on how to read cards, shuffling, selecting significators, and synthesizing card meanings, but all of that is consolidated into a single chapter. For the intermediate practitioner or even the quick learner, that won’t be a problem; but it does make Mastering an ill fit for the true beginner.

The main tarot spread that the book teaches is the Keltic Cross Method, which Gray devotes an entire chapter to. Although Gray’s card interpretations are rooted in the Golden Dawn system, her order of the cards in the Keltic Cross spread differs from the Celtic Cross Method suggested by A. E. Waite, an adept from the Golden Dawn. The diagram on the following page of Waite’s Celtic Cross Method is from his book Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911). It is provided here to compare with Gray’s Keltic Cross. I have adopted Gray’s ordering of the cards.

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Waite’s order of cards in the Celtic Cross spread seems to be inspired by the Catholic sign of the cross while Gray’s Keltic Cross approach makes more chronological sense, i.e., lay down the foundation and past first. Gray also provides sample readings with the Keltic Cross, which help the reader understand the spread’s practical application. A few more spreads are explained in a subsequent lesson, though they seem to be added as an afterthought. One spread from Lesson 14 struck my fancy, though: the Three Aces spread. For yes or no inquiries, after shuffling, turn the cards over one by one facing up and stop when either an Ace is turned or the 13th card, whichever comes first. Once an Ace or the 13th card is drawn, move on to start a second pile to the right of the first pile. Again, stop at either an Ace or, if no Ace is drawn before the 13th card, then up to the 13th card. Continue until three piles are formed. If no Aces are drawn, the question cannot be answered. One upright Ace indicates a “Yes.” One reversed Ace indicates a “No.” If there are two Aces, the one to the left reveals the final outcome; the one to the right reveals the immediate outcome. Three Aces mean “Yes,” though reversed Aces suggest setbacks or delays. Gray’s Three Aces spread is one of my favorites for quick questions.

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Most tarot practitioners integrate an esoteric or philosophical paradigm with their approach to tarot and for Eden Gray, her approach is influenced heavily by astrology. The ending lessons in Mastering associate tarot and astrology, applying astrological concepts to tarot divination theory and additional spreads. The astrology enthusiast will find Lessons 15, 16, and 17 highly informative.

The final lesson of the book, Lesson 18, covers tarot ethics, “The Use and Misuse of the Tarot.” Her chapter on ethics, however, can be summarized into one rule: don’t read the tarot in a way that fills other people’s heads with negative ideas about themselves or their futures. She dedicates an entire chapter to convey that singular message, though indeed it is an important one.

My only negative criticism of the book is not even a fair critique. The opening pages present tarot as an ancient mystical art passed down to us from the Egyptians and gypsies, which most of us now understand to be an unverifiable myth. The tarot was conceived as a card game, one played predominantly by the wealthy, and though cartomancy generally endured throughout history, using the tarot for divination only became popularized in the 1900s, most notably by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. However at the time of the book’s publication, the 1970s, portraying tarot as an ancient mystical art was the trend. It is not clear that Ms. Gray would have had access to any kind of information or research that ran counter to that presupposition. Thus, the “historical” introductory overview of tarot in Mastering that frames it as having “ancient mystical origins” is more of a reflection of the times than it is of Gray’s work.

Mastering the Tarot has had a considerable influence over the formative years of my tarot education. As important as the works of Papus, Paul Foster Case, and A. E. Waite’s card interpretations are to tarot studies today, Eden Gray will undoubtedly join their ranks in 50 years time, if she hasn’t already.