A while back, I wrote two posts about the connections between Tarot and the Tree of Life. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here. The general idea behind them was that I liked mapping Tarot to the Tree, but was dissatisfied with the exact way in which it was done, so I came up […]
Read more "The Structure of the Tree of Life"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"[This turned into a really long post. If you just want to see my correspondences of Tarot cards to the Wheel of the Year, without a lot of rambling context and explanation, skip to the list immediately after the picture of the Tree of Life.] Those of you who have been reading this blog for a […]
Read more "Mapping Tarot to the Wheel of the Year"If you don’t know about the way the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is used in conjunction with Tarot, check out my previous piss-poor attempt at an introductory Kabbalah post. The Kircher Tree of Life (pictured above) is the one used by just about everyone who’s interested in Kabbalah these days. Especially those influenced by the […]
Read more "Tarot and the Tree of Life, Part 2: My Way"I’ve been trying to write one version of this post or another for almost as long as this blog has been running, but I’ve always struggled to get it into words. What I really want to talk about is the modified version of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life that I use in my own Tarot […]
Read more "Tarot and the Tree of Life, Part 1: The Real Way"On big days, when I need to be confident and in control, I wear a red necktie as a reminder of the Emperor. On my Tarot altar, I have a large blue-green stone that marks the presence of Death. I sometimes use a violet reading cloth, to signify the cosmic forces of the Wheel of […]
Read more "Colors and the Major Arcana"This is going to be a bit of a strange post. Quite a while back, I posted about the Tarot altar I have set up in my apartment. I think that setting up such an altar is an excellent idea for any Tarot reader, and I’m actually not the only one to have had such an […]
Read more "Tarot, Polytheism, and a Sprinkling of Nietzsche"The Hermetic Tarot, by Godfrey Dowson, is a black-and-white deck inspired by the traditions of the (in)famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It’s a lovely, thoughtfully dawn, symbolically rich Tarot deck reminiscent of the Thoth, and indeed, I think readers who are comfortable (or at least roughly familiar) with the Thoth deck will have a […]
Read more "A Review of the Hermetic Tarot"In my previous post on this subject, I examined the typical five-element structure of a Tarot deck and argued that actually, this system makes more sense if we reduce it to a four-plus-one system, with the fifth element of “spirit” somehow separated from the four classical elements of earth, air, water, and fire. Really and […]
Read more "How Many Elements Are There in Tarot? (Part 2)"It seems like a simple question at first. There are five elements in Tarot, each represented by one of the five suits: Pentacles for earth, Swords for air, Cups for water, Wands for fire, and the Major Arcana for the mysterious quintessence that Wiccans tend to label “spirit”. The first four are the classical elements […]
Read more "How Many Elements Are There in Tarot? (Part 1)"
Jack Chanek 