Welcome back to Jack’s year-long deep dive into the Tarot de Marseille system. Today, we’re tackling the Fours of the suit cards. Per the numerological system I’m using for this project, the significance of the Fours is given by two of the trump cards: The Emperor and Temperance. Where it proved rather difficult to find […]
Read more "A Year of Tarot de Marseille: The Fours"Tarot is riddled with alchemical symbolism. Particularly in decks influenced by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn or other high forms of high magic (Etteila, Papus, etc.), we find that the Tarot deck is a series of symbolic, allegorical depictions of the same spiritual, magical, and psychological forces at play in the Great Work […]
Read more "After Temperance, the Devil: The Great Work is never done"There are plenty of ways to draw connections between the cards of the Major Arcana. You can do it through numerology, through astrology, through the septenaries or visual cues in their symbolism. One of the simplest ways to find the connections between the cards, though, is simply to fold the sequence of the Major Arcana […]
Read more "Pairing the Major Arcana, Forward and Backward"I’m coming at you with another YouTube video! In this video, I talk about the thematic relationship between Death, Temperance, and the Devil as they’re placed on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. I spend some time thinking about the Qabalistic theme that unites them, and then the individual way in which each card manifests that […]
Read more "Video: Death, Temperance, and the Devil on the Tree of Life"Welcome to Part 2 of my James Bond Tarot series, where I match up one James Bond movie to each of the cards of the Major Arcana in the Tarot. If you missed Part 1, which ran from Casino Royale as the Fool to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as the Lovers, feel free to go check it […]
Read more "The James Bond Tarot (Part 2)"I miss Tarot. That’s a bit of a weird thing to say, considering that I’m a Tarot reader and a regular Tarot blogger. I have more Tarot decks than any reasonable person should (yet still, I covet more). It’s not like I have a dearth of Tarot in my life. But this summer, my Tarot […]
Read more "Rediscovering Tarot"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"[If you haven’t read Part 1, you can do so here.] In my previous post, I talked about the idea of having a Tarot patron, a card that represents me and what I do as a reader. I think of this card as different from a significator, representing something aspirational (outside of and higher than the self) as […]
Read more "On Tarot Patrons, Part 2: Pulchritudo in Omnia"Some cards have always felt to me like they go together. Like they represent complementary aspects of the same idea, and are therefore significant when they show up together in a reading. One of these pairings, I’ve already discussed with my talk about Death and the Hierophant. Today, I’d like to talk about the Lovers and […]
Read more "Integrating Opposites"
Jack Chanek 