Wednesday Webshare: Bad Mages, Divination, and Lack of Angel on Man Action

Cultural appropriation is rampant in a lot of occult circles, and generally irks me. So have an article on cultural appropriation of Lukumi. What I find interesting is the difference between “innocent” cultural appropriation, and people who blatantly steal and make shit up, I always wonder about the second group.

Non-invisible bank robber caught because his sorcerer for hire didn’t come through. Always investigate people you’re buying your magick from before important service purchases.

Speaking of which, an alleged psychic steals thousands from a client.

I grew up believing that early Christians were a horribly persecuted group, and that their strength of faith sustained them. Hell I was also told how tough it was for modern Christians. Both are bullshit though. The myth of early Christian persecution covers just that.

Polyphanes tackles divination related disorders. Worth considering for those of us who give, or receive divinatory services. Personally I don’t let people get multiple readings from me in a short period unless I know they actually followed through with the advice. If it’s been less than a month, and you haven’t done anything, nothing much has changed, I’m not supporting your need for an illusion of control through knowledge.

Shifting gears on divination. Psyche gives a run down of the top five foundational books on tarot. Those I’ve read I would say are good to work through even if you’re very familiar with the tarot.

Om Mani iPadme Hum. Buddhists and technology. During my chöd training I remember going to a cemetery with my lama and another student. I pull out my pecha, he pulls out an iPad with a stand, with the text as a pdf. The only i is the Pad.

A reader responded to my review of Yoga Body with a small talk countering the text, suggesting there was a posture tradition before the modern error. I didn’t find it as convincing, but that may be just due to the difference in length, but it was worth a read. So give it a once over if your curious about yoga, and the relationship/nonrelationship to posture.

Lastly, because I love me some angels…and I mean love (wink)… Why didn’t female angels have sex with men? Just a short look at that wonderful scene in Genesis, the language, and the physical (so to speak) sex of angels, and their sexuality.

Mala Divination

I was trying to find a website explaining Tenmo (mala divination or ‘phrengbamo for Wylie fans) for a friend of mine to save me having to write up this entry. While I found many pages talking about it, they all seem to have been copying from the same errant source. I don’t mean it’s a different system and thus can’t work in a spiritual sense, I mean the source they’re copying doesn’t physically work. What does this mean? It means I’m writing this entry when I was trying not to.

So I’ve talked about malas once or twice before but I didn’t talk much on the divination side of it. I don’t use it much, I’d rather stick with my dice or my tarot, but on the other hand I always have my malas on, so if I really need an answer quickly when I’m out and about I can turn to my mala, and for that purpose knowing how to do this is a great help.

To begin the divination say the mantra of the figure you want to ask the question to for a complete japamala (108 times, a complete count on the mala). Traditionally that’s Manjushri being the Buddha of Wisdom, though any figure you work with who may be more relevant may be used. Personally I perform the permutations of the Divine Name (IAOAOIOIAAIOIOAOAI) and say a quick prayer to my Holy Guardian Angel.

Once this is done ask your question, when you see how the responses are formulated later you’ll get a sense on how to phrase the questions, but it is largely yes/no. Then hold the mala between your hands and grab two beads at random, and stretch the section without the guru or triple gem bead(s) out. There are two methods from here (and this is where other sources have messed up), you count the beads toward the centre by groups of three until you are left with one, two, or three beads. The left hand represents wisdom, so in some traditions you only count the beads by three with the left hand. Others have you alternate left, then right, repeat until you have three or less beads left. I use the left hand only method, the point is to count off three beads toward the centre until you can’t do so anymore.

One bead is called ‘The Falcon,’ two beads is ‘The Raven,’ and three is ‘The Snowlion.’ From here the answers are quite simple. When you receive the Falcon it means that the God/Protector/Spirit you called on approves of the action and give it their blessing. It also symbolizes good luck and favourable circumstances. The Raven means they don’t approve, will not help, and there will be obstructions. Raven can also be a sign of sickness and weakness. The Snowlion means you have some support, but it is more passive/neutral, results will be slower coming. To oversimplify Falcon is Yes, Raven is No, and Snowlion is Maybe…but.

You can adapt this with other number systems. For instance I use this for elemental divination. I use the same process, but instead I count by fours, leaving me with a result 1-4 and each number relates to element and that gives me the theme of my answer. This can be made more complex by combining multiple elemental readings or mixing elements and qualities, or elements and planets.

So as mentioned it’s a simple system, but it’s handy because if you wear or keep a mala with you, you can get an answer anywhere on the go. Though as mentioned it’s also something you can customize with other number/symbol systems if you want to use the idea but the Falcon/Raven/Snowlion symbolism doesn’t appeal to you.

Pendulums and Finding Focus in Magick

So before I get into this entry proper, I’d like to thank everyone for their support of my new esty store, both in their purchases and sharing the word. The first set of orders have already begun arriving at their destinations and I’m enjoying some of the immediate feedback. As mentioned in the the post announcing the store two of each pendant I consecrate have to be given away, one to someone who I think needs it, and one to someone random. The Medicine Buddha Pendant was given to one of my best friends who had a depressive/suicidal episode just as I finished making them. The recipient of the random one is Robert, husband-to-be of a twitter follower of mine, whom I had received prayer requests for while doing my initial Medicine Buddha training. The Chöd / Machik Labrön Pendant was given to a family friend who has had ridiculously bad luck with getting things moving in their life. The winner of the raffle I announced last time is L. D. Taylor, one of the small army of reviewers writing for Spiral Nature. So again, thank you all for your support.

A while back The Unlikely Mage posted about finding your direction in magick. I see two problems with many occultists: too focused and/or not enough work, or too unfocused and/or trying to do too much. I tend to be the latter, even though I’m limited to two systems, they are both huge traditions, so between study and daily practice I can often be doing too much. Something needs to give, the trouble is what.

I’ve posted before about dropping non-beneficial practices or “Don’t use what doesn’t work” but it’s hard sometimes. This is where The Unlikely Mage’s technique comes in handy, read his entry if you want, I recommend, but I’ll explain what I did cause I had to tweak it.

I’m no good with pendulums, or I might be, I don’t know, I don’t trust them. They are far too easy to manipulate, and this was my problem with TUM’s technique. The mode of a pendulum is perfect for it, but it’s too easy for my mind, conscious or otherwise to influence the pendulum to say what I wanted it to say. So I took multiple slips of paper, identical in size and shape, and on each one wrote a magickal practice that I was doing, or considering. Chöd, Enochian Skrying, Mahakala sadhanas, Deharan magick, Genius Loci work, and so on were listed. Then they were folded so I couldn’t see what said what and shuffled around. As long as I can’t see them, I can largely trust myself not to influence the pendulum. (Yes, it could be argued that I’m psychically perceiving what slip says what and nudging it how I want anyways, but the chance of that is less compared to me seeing and nudging.)

Then tapping on each slip one at a time I asked “Is this something I shouldn’t do? Is this neutral? Is this something I should postpone? Is this something I should do? Is this something I should do right now?” Whenever the pendulum gave me an answer I’d put it on the back (I numbered the options to make it quicker to note) and move onto the next one. In the end I had three things I was told “Do right now!” and three that I was told to do. The rest I’ve dropped until maybe the next time I look at what I need to do.

For those curious the three things I must do right now, it is my chöd practice, the Strategic Sorcery course, and the “Other” option I put in the mix, which has come to represent a return to my own Path, rather than the systems I’ve assimilated for structure and validity. In my Nike (Do It) category I have my work with Vajrayogini, White Mahakala, and Genius Loci work.

I did this about a month ago, and I’ve enjoyed it, but already I’ve felt a need to clarify even more. So rather than larger areas of study I put down very specific daily practices, some that I do, some that I’m considering doing, same format as before. This time though it was just Do or Do Not (there is no try category). What impressed me again, was that stuff I considering more central and important I’ve been told to do, such as my daily evocation of the planetary Angel and my ongoing prayers to Cosmos, while stuff that was less important I was told not to do, like my daily Refuge Tree, Vajrasattva practice, and mandala offering which I only began doing daily in order to learn the Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali by heart for use in Temple and larger rituals. Unfortunately (in a snarky way) what I’ve been told to perform are my longer practices, no matter how I try to cull my spiritual practice down to a more manageable time frame, it seems to resist it.

We will see how it goes, it feels good so far, being more focused. Over the next few months I’ll learn other things that will become parts of my daily practice for better or worse, but maybe I should make a habit of every three or six months just checking in what I should be doing.

With this focus I hope to perhaps start revealing and discussing more of my practice that is less on the beaten path, and more personal. Onwards and upwards we shall see where the Starry Path leads.

Review: Watcher Angel Tarot and Guidebook – Michelle Belanger and Jackie Williams

Watcher Angel Tarot Guidebook: Myth, Meaning, and Creation – Michelle Belanger and Jackie Williams
Emerald Tablet Press. 2011. 312pp. 9780983816911.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Genesis 6:1-2

Such a little innocuous line, often overlooked and forgotten, yet containing the seeds of a beautifully deep myth expounded upon in the Book of Enoch. Watcher Angels, the sons of God(s), fell to the Earth and took up human mates, and taught the secrets of heaven. That is the theme of this deck. I’ve talked about this deck before but it is time for a proper review.

In the introduction Michelle says “I didn’t want simply to design another Tarot built on the bones of the Rider-Waite-Smith. I wanted to revision the Tarot entirely, allowing the symbols to speak through me and to find expression in some vital and personal myth.” (12) And that is what you find with this deck. It isn’t a Rider-Waite-Smith clone with angel wings drawn on it, it isn’t a clone with some of the images and settings shifted around, it is a fairly different beast altogether.

The deck was designed from the ground up. Looking at the overarching traits of the Major Arcana a parallel from the Enochic myth was chosen, for the most part one of the Watcher Angels themselves represents the Majors, each assigned according to what they did, and what they taught. For instance you have Kasdeya who taught “all the wicked smitings of spirits and demons, and the smitings of the embryo in the womb” as Death, and Shemyaza the leader of the Angels in the Fall as The Fool.

Seven of Pentacles. RWS: A man leaning on his hoe. Watcher Angel: A man leaning on his...

The Minor Arcana form an entire story of their own; from Ace to Ten, Pentacles, to Cups, to Wands, to Swords, they lay out the entire tale. Pentacles are just after the Fall, the struggle to learn and build a world. In Cups they have established themselves and enjoy the world. With Wands they show their children the mysteries of heaven and magick. Finally with Swords their children turn upon each other. Since each suit contains its own story arch it is a remarkably easy deck to learn, though initially I was wary of the differences, because even if you have a moment of uncertainty when you place the card in the story it becomes clear what it represents. The meanings, the keywords of the cards are standard, but they way they play out in the Enochic myth is quite different.My only complaint with this system is it falls into an earlier interpretation of the Tarot, since the Swords are about the war among the children, the majority of the Swords are negative and challenging cards. Something many decks do but I dislike.

The artwork in this deck is phenomenal. The images are deep and complex, without being cluttered, in a lifelike and detailed painting style you’re not likely to see in a Tarot deck. Colours are rich and vibrant, and thematically carry between the suits. Jackie has a wonderful talent and her skill really brings the images to life. For me it is the settings, wings, and faces that really get me. The backgrounds are evocative, be they a shifting patch of colour or an elegant city vista. The wings just look better than most angel depictions –it’s a personal gripe of mine. Lastly the faces are very engaging, haunting, and real. The entire deck is viewable here on Jackie’s site and will show far better than I can describe.

The companion book was refreshingly honest. “I won’t lie and say that this deck was merely the product of detached academic research. There is a great deal of vision and inspiration, myth, dream, and magick woven into this work.” (19) Or as Jackie says it is “a deck designed by two psychics with input from the universe.” (29) All things considered it’s something I’ve found odd that so many deck creators shy away from discussing. In fact the companion book is remarkably complete, perhaps too much for some cases, but as it says you can skip the sections that don’t interest you. The book contains Jackie and Michelle’s stories for making the Tarot, the years of planning and research for Michelle, the years of painting and living the cards for Jackie. Michelle leads you into the research and struggles, Jackie even gives interesting advice on paper and paint types. Their stories are followed by the myth of the Watchers, how it relates to Campbell’s Monomyth as well as to the Book of Enoch and related texts. It moves into tarot history, where it came from, how it became part of the Western Mystery Tradition, beliefs about the tarot, and then finally the interpretations of the cards. If you’ve never dealt with the tarot before this book covers pretty much all the basics you’ll need, and if you’re familiar with the tarot and don’t care about personal stories you can skip to the back where you can learn about the cards and understand why Michelle and Jackie made the choices they did in illustrating the deck.

I will fully own up to a triple bias with this deck, Michelle and Jackie are friends, and personally I love the Enochic mythology. That being said, I don’t believe it is my bias speaking when I say this has quickly become one of my favourite decks; the beautiful art, the compelling myth, it just makes this a wonderful and unique deck.

Review: Geomancy – Franz Hartmann

Geomancy: A Method of Divination – Franz Hartmann
Ibis, 1889. 2005. 222pp. 0892541016.

Geomancy is one of my favourite methods of divination, there is something beautifully elegant in the way the figures change into each other, the flux and flow leading from a handful of simple dots into a complex reading of twelve or more figures. Yet it is also a system that is often overlooked, and the reprinting of Geomancy will hopefully help with that. Using a stick and sand, paper and pencil, or even dice (my preference), and a bit of practice and you can quickly be engaged in some very deep explorations of the world.

Hartmann’s Geomancy was originally published in 1889 but despite being an excellent book and still being relevant today it never saw much circulation. This edition, published 115 years later, is the original book but the contents have been reorganized to make it easier to use and navigate. This book starts off with the basics of geomancy as a system: the symbols, the casting, the associations, and quickly moves into detailed examples. The layout, with the previous one unknown to me, is a very useful method building up in complexity as you read, as well as being logically laid out for later examination.

The method and style of geomancy in the book is an older form, the astrological and planetary associations taken from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy. This might be confusing if you’re used to a newer system like that shown in John Michael Greer’s The Art and Practice of Geomancy (which is still an excellent book), and I’m not sure how to synthesize them. The book also gives a new order for the planetary hours that I’ve never seen before and I do find confusing, the order of the planetary days.

The book has a structural position that I enjoy, it starts off with saying it is “recommended to keep a book for the purpose of entering the result of one’s calculations in practising Geomancy concerning future events.” (4) Without recording and analyzing your results you’ll never know how good you actually are, how helpful your reading is. Simple, and a dead horse I beat, but I love seeing authors stress the importance of recording your readings.

Related perhaps to being so structural is how much detail is put into the examples of the book. These examples explain what everything means according to the position/house they fall in when using an astrological cast. To get even more detailed 16 questions are asked and every possible outcome of the Witnesses and Judge is detailed so you can learn that reading as well as to begin to understand how it all comes together. These 2048 answers aren’t Hartmann’s original work, but are translated from a German text from the sixteenth century.

In order to be complete, the book (now) ends with a section on astrology, detailing the traits of the planets as well as their sympathies/antipathies with each other, and an explanation of the zodiac. The book’s appendix gives several different geomancy charts that the reader can photocopy and make use of to organize their readings.

If you’re looking for more information on this relatively unappreciated system of divination then this would be the book you’d want. If you’re looking to combine it into more of a magickal practice I’d suggest pairing it with The Art and Practice of Geomancy. Some of the attributions are different, but the rest of the procedures will work well together, especially with the deeper divinatory insight from Hartmann’s book.

Divining Direction: Planning Magick

Recently I’ve been talking with an occultist from the city; he asked me about my “occult odd-jobs” as mentioned on my About page. He asked me hypothetically what I’d do for someone asking about wealth magick. There are two “levels” of service I provide. One is a very simple one size fits all; granted what it is changes from time to time but it’s usually a charm and a short petition, no real depth or detail. The other is more in depth, rather than just tossing wealth magick at someone I investigate the source of the issue and work out how to solve this case specifically. More time intensive, but I prefer it. So I couldn’t really answer…until about a week and a half after that someone contacted me for some financial work. With her permission I’m going to talk about the process of the investigation and how I decided what to do. For people who are used to just tossing magick blindly at problems hopefully this will show a bit more about narrowing down and focusing the aims. Sometimes it is a very narrow and clear cut process, sometimes like this it is a bit more intuitive and open-ended.

To start off with I generally use a Mo divination. It is very clear in regards to what is causing a problem and how to solve it. So I cast the die and received Ah Tsa – The Bright Star. This lists the various types of wealth coming your way. I was actually very confused by this, the person is having financial problems and the first step of the divination essentially said “Don’t worry about it, money is on the way.”

I then turn the tarot, but usually I have a clear direction in mind thanks to the Mo, this time I didn’t. Using the Watcher Angel Tarot I began my spread. “What do I need to know to improve “Moni”’s finances over the next month?” XXI – The World – Metatron. Everything must be pulled together magick-wise, the answer will come from everything I’ve learnt. This wasn’t going to be easy, it’s a card about magick, but it’s about the completion, everything used along the way, whatever my method was to be it wasn’t going to be simple.

Understanding the cause is important in planning. If Moni was unemployed, just divorced, or recently robbed, each would require a different magickal path to help best. So what is the cause of the financial problems? IV – The Emperor – Azazel. The Emperor is a sign of the system, so I’m pretty sure the money problem is the government’s fault. Another problem would likely be giving others control and not being active enough.

How can the issues of the Emperor be overcome? Nine of Pentacles. Create, art projects, produce, accept the windfall that is coming and charge into it. I didn’t know what this meant.

After the first stage of divination was done I contacted Moni with the results and asked for more details. It felt very odd, I’ve never had to say “You want me to do some financial magick, but apparently money is already on the way.” Anyways, I got my clarification one of the main issues is the government recently recalculated her deceased husband’s pension and started sending her almost half what they used to. So it was a government issue, another smaller part of it, was Moni runs a hobby jewellery business on the weekends and in fighting with the government over the benefits she’s been too stressed to keep it up, even though it wasn’t a major loss it started to add up. I asked since apparently money was on its way if she wanted my services still, she decided even if it looks like it is improving she’d like some help so we began looking at this as financial maintenance magick.

Continuing the divination: What can I do magickally? Two of Swords – Stalemate. This just gets better and better. I wasn’t sure what to think about this, tossed around a few ideas in my head and none clicked, so I turned to the book and read “Opposing forces are locked in balance, for the moment.” That clicked. Mercury is Retrograde and turning stationary tomorrow. That’s the “for the moment.”

What can I do after Mercury goes Direct? VIII – Strength – Turiel. Okay maybe there was a bit of bias using the Watcher Angel Tarot, but aside from the meaning of the card I felt it was pretty clear it was to be an Angelic working. Strength is always about a subtle power to me, coercion, and grace, so this is going to be a gentle working. Not a strong evocation, but something gentle. I’ve sent Moni an Angelic Seal to use and she is to offer it water, bread, and a tealight candle each day along with a two sentence prayer. I’m doing the same thing on my end, except the Angel is receiving an eight-fold offering (a Buddhist practice) each day with a longer prayer and petition and a specially crafted honey jar filled with the usual things and a few offering ingredients specific to this angel. This will be done until at least January first, when Mercury it out of its shadow. Moni can continue it after that point, but until then is the only obligation on our part.

While checking the astrology of the situation I realized Jupiter is also Retrograde (people only complain about Mercury) and while not horribly transiting her chart, it could be better, but it’s almost over. So I asked what I could do once Jupiter goes Direct? King of Wands. This is a card about passion and strength, the ability to forge ahead, to pick a goal and trample over anything to get it. Don’t be deceived by how the King is lounging, he only looks so relaxed because he is so confident. King of Wands is also Fire of Fire. So lots of Fire and trampling obstacles, to me it was a pretty clear choice. Once Jupiter is Direct I’ll perform a Riwo sangchö (ri bo bsang mchod), a type of smoke and fire offering. Along with the traditional ingredients in the offering I’ll include several with Jovial attributes. This offering is accompanied by a ritual, in this case the offering will be dedicated primarily to Jovial forces, to help pick them up in Moni’s life as Jupiter comes out of Retrograde, to feed and prime these attributes, as well as to clear obstacles from Moni’s path. Also a request that Jupiter keep the path open, and an evocation to a Jovial spirit with the aim that Moni continues to get her benefits and the government doesn’t try to cut out any more.

So Moni is getting a variety of services, like the World indicated. Some Ceremonial Magick, some Hoodoo, some Buddhist rituals. As her problem apparently is taking care of itself this became more of a financial magick tune-up, rather than a rescue, which is unusual, but not a bad idea. Some work on keeping what is functioning working well, as well as work to try to call in some new life to these matters.

Mayhaps from time to time I’ll post these type of reports, just to show a little bit of what can be done about narrowing down your magick. As this was a tune-up it didn’t get as precise as I often would, but I think serves as an example of the process of figuring out what is to be done.

Review: Mo: Tibetan Divination System – Jamgon Mipham

Mo: Tibetan Divination System – Jamgon Mipham, translated and edited by Jay Goldberg
Snow Lion. 1990. 156pp. 9781559391474.

While a lot of has been written on Tibetan Buddhism there is still a lot more to be translated and written about in English. This book covers one such area, Mo –which just means divination– in this case refers to a system of dice divination. This text is based on the version put forth by Jamgon Mipham (1846-1912), a renowned master from the Nyingma school, based upon his study of the Kalachakra Tantra and The Ocean of Dakinis, along with other texts and his own insight.

This system is deceptively simple, you role a die twice, and that gives you one of thirty-six possible answers. The die is rolled to make a pair, twice, the second two rolls being used to indicate how strong or weak the answer is, or how fixed or changeable it is. Each answer is split into eleven categories so that instead of a blanket statement you get information that is specific to family, money, enemies, spiritual practice, health, and the like.

One thing I really enjoy with this system (and there is a lot I enjoy) is that it is eminently practical. It is part of a religious system so when it says something is wrong it sometimes tells you what caused it, but it also recommends what sutras to read, or Boddhisattvas to work with, or what rituals to perform in order to increase your chances of success. I like having that answer right there, you may have to work out the physical side but this gives you the spiritual work to undertake. Of course the advice is specific to Buddhism, and some is specifically Tibetan Buddhist, which can limit the usefulness to non-Buddhists. Though some of the advice is simple enough that even someone without familiarity with Buddhism would be able to undertake, such as reading the Prajnaparamita.

Traditionally the die has six Tibetan letters on it, but you can substitute a numeric die or order a proper Mo die from the Snow Lion website. (This is where I felt a touch let down, as far as I can tell they don’t sell the die and book together, which I think is a mistake, and inconvenient). Also each letter has various attributes: directions, body parts, Buddha families, elements, and so on. These attributes can be used to give you more insight into the answers, and Goldberg mentions this but doesn’t explain how. While I’ve been cobbling together my own system of finding increased meaning it would have been nice to see more of it.

Also the nature of the advice/answers doesn’t allow for the same freedom of form in your questions that you would get with something like tarot. It took me a while to learn how to ask the right type of questions, which in many cases is just “Tell me about my health” “What’s going on with Frank’s job?” and so on. It’s a small thing but it wasn’t addressed and I wish it had been as I believe knowing how to ask the right questions is an important part of getting a relevant divinatory answer.

Regardless of my few quibbles I think this is an excellent book and essentially unique in topic, and as such I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in adding a bit more depth to their study of Tibetan Buddhism, or varying divination systems in general. I’ve experimented with the system many times in the last month and I’ve found the results very insightful as well as practical and synchronicistic to a degree that surprised me.

Review: Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set

Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set – Stuart R. Kaplan
U.S. Games Systems. Inc. 2009. 9781572816398.

Pamela Colman Smith is an unsung hero and artist in western occultism. She most famously illustrated the Rider-Waite tarot (I’ll discuss the naming convention later), largely based on Golden Dawn symbolism and teachings, and it is probably the most influential tarot deck ever. She was much more than this though, she was a quiet mystic, a member of the Golden Dawn, and a talented artist who received some recognition in her time and was sadly forgotten.

The Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set tries to bring this visionary woman back to our lives. The set contains two books, a tarot deck, and some artistic extras, which will all be discussed in their own time. This set was released in 2009 (somehow I missed hearing about it) on the centennial anniversary of the publishing of the Rider-Waite tarot and I think it is great collection to have.

Back of the Smith Waite Centennial Tarot

The first book included is The Artwork & Times of Pamela Colman Smith by Stuart R. Kaplan. This relatively small book of just over 100 pages is exactly what it sounds like. Kaplan tells the story of “Pixie’s” mysterious life. As you’re led through her life Kaplan also gives many examples of her art, in fact only once is there a spot where you can open the book and there isn’t some example of Pamela’s art. She lived a fascinating life; charmed, beautiful, sad, and lonely all at the same time. Most people only know Pamela as the Rider-Waite artist but she was far more than that, an accomplished artist who had shows in New York and London, an author and artist of folk tales from Jamaica, and a poet. The story is sad and the art is just beautiful. It was much to my dismay after reading the book I found out you cannot obtain prints of her artwork and my favourite painting from the book seems to have no presence on the internet at all.

The second book is The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite. I feel there is little to say about this book, it was originally published in 1911 to explain the Rider-Waite tarot. This particular edition does not contain the images of the cards.

Centennial Strength

The set comes with The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition deck. This is not just another reprint of the Rider-Waite deck you’re used to seeing everywhere. First off, to clarify terminology, the deck you see everywhere, and probably have is properly called the Rider-Waite tarot; Waite after A.E. Waite and Rider after the publishing company that first produced it. Some people, myself included, refer to it as the Smith-Waite or Waite-Smith tarot in an attempt to remind people who gave us this deck. The deck included in this set is properly called The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition, firmly putting forth that Pamela Colman Smith was one of the creators and will not be forgotten. There is more to it than just the name change though, the Rider-Waite deck is filled with bright, almost jarring colours. No yellow is a muted yellow, it is a daffodil screaming yellow, and this is a product of how the earlier decks were reproduced from the original.

Common Strength

For The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition Kaplan has used a 1909 printing of the deck to restore the deck to its original colouring, something I find far more peaceful and elegant than the borderline cartoon colouring of the general deck. I find this makes the cards stand out more and the subtly of shading and symbolism easier to see and work with. Also, this deck has done away with that gawdy blue and white diamond pattern on the back of the cards; instead the back is adorned with Pamela’s monogram and a rose. It isn’t a reversible back due to the rose, but it is subtle enough that you still can’t pick out which way is up without turning the cards over. Without a doubt this version is replacing my Rider-Waite tarot.

Lastly the set comes with a few artistic extras. It contains six reproduced postcards with Pamela’s artwork, only one of which is an image from her tarot. It contains three 5×7 prints of some of her art and a 5×7 photo print of Pamela herself.

Everything comes in a handy box with packs away nicely. My only complaint about the set is one I’ve had with far too many decks I like and that is it contains a drawstring bag for the deck rather than a box. The box that the art, deck, and books come in is too large to carry around and I find decks not in boxes get damaged too easily so I have to find another storage device for my cards. Other than that small complaint, I found the set wonderful. It is great to see Pamela Colman Smith getting the attention she deserves and the deck, the art, and the books are just wonderful. Really a must have for any tarot enthusiast.

Retrojective Divination: Learning Systems though Hindsight

Recently I was helping two people with learning a divinatory system; two different systems, and two different circumstances and yet my advice was the same in both cases. If you’re having trouble learning the system, with making the symbols and process coalesce stop looking forward.

This seems counterintuitive to some people as divination is mainly used to look forward, why stop? The future is the vast unknown, so when you don’t understand a system and you’re looking forward it’s like looking at meteorological data for tomorrow. You don’t understand how all the data comes together to make a coherent picture and you’re stuck trying to project meaning forward into the unknown. In the same way you’re not sure how that Queen of Pentacles under a reversed Ten of Wands means anything for the coming day. Also, some people believe that the future is mutable, so the cards may be right in the present but the future can change and you’re looking for a symbol/meaning that may no longer arise.

Looking backwards you don’t have this problem. You can see all the data, you can see the result, the event won’t change and from there you can start to unravel a meaning. In one case someone was asking about using geomancy, as there are different systems for generating Daughters and Nieces, and how to lay them on a chart. The other case was just someone having trouble learning how to relate abstract tarot meanings to their life. In both cases I said to toss their gaze backwards and use that. If you’re not sure which of the methods of generations is accurate or more accurate, pick a big event in your life and divine backward. If one set says things are happy and fast moving, and the other says things are painful has an overtone of loss, well if you’re looking at your Grandfather’s death, assuming you liked him, you know which is accurate. Same with tarot, if you can’t see how to draw meanings from the cards pick an event you know and that is important to you and divine it like you would the future and then knowing how things were, you can see the relation. Eventually this will help you look forward.

I call this retrojective divination. To me calling it retroactive would be about looking back for meaning, using divination for the same purpose as usual, just backwards. Retrojective though is a term I gleaned from my history professor, it refers specifically (in historical study at least) to act of interjecting meaning into the past from the present. That I feel is more the point. You’re not divining to find the deeper meaning of why your cat ran away when you were nine; you’re divining to see how your system displays the events of your cat running away so you understand the system. So turn your cards, your transits, your holes in the ground, whatever backward, and look to the past. The past isn’t going anywhere and you know it so you can study it to your heart’s content, the future you have to wait for and create. Find information in your past, learn to interpret the future. Simple.

Tarot Information As An Action Plan

Knowledge may be power, but that’s a simplification of matters. There is a lot of knowledge that is useless to most people, and there is a lot of knowledge that is useless on its own. Knowing that the mayor slept with underage sex workers isn’t power unless you know how to use that knowledge. Basic geometry and carpentry can be useless on their own unless you know how to apply that knowledge to make tables, chairs, buildings and more. So while knowledge may be power it, it is more the application of knowledge that is power.

This of course brings us to the tarot. A good tarot reading is full of knowledge but the trouble is to most people the reading is useless, informative, but useless. This is a problem that affects magickians and reading recipients alike. A reading provides them with the information they ask for, but they have no idea how to apply this information.
This is another one of those things in magick that I feel should be so obvious that it doesn’t need to be said, and yet when I look around I see the same mistake being made repeatedly. I used to make this mistake all the time, I still do occasionally. When rereading my magickal diaries I’m struck by how often my readings were accurate, and moreso how often I failed to do anything about it. The problem, if we want to go so far as to call it such, is that tarot readings are by their nature abstract, and even when they’re specific, there is a level of abstraction. People don’t know how to take the abstract and make it practical. The tarot gives ideas and advice, not action.

The cards may let you know that to succeed at work you have to stop reacting to your boss and keep the work place peaceful. Good idea, but it isn’t an action. The problem with ideas and abstractions is they aren’t remembered for long and make very poor guides. We have to turn this abstraction into something doable and memorable.

One piece of advice I got from a friend and mentor years ago, which I’ve adapted, is making plans from a reading. I always make two plans with any reading; one that can and will be started in the first 48 hours after the reading, and another that can be implemented over the following week. The first 48 hours after a reading are crucial, really the first 24 but some people find 24 too stressful to work with. The longer you wait to act, the less likely you are to act; that’s the major problem. The second issue is if you believe that the future is mutable then within the first few days after a reading then things can change, so in order to make the most of your reading you have to implement it as soon as possible.

The goals, especially the 48 hour goal, do not have to be anything large, they don’t have to solve the problem, and rarely will, but the point is to create a concrete action to get you started working with the problem. Say you need to stop reacting to your boss, think quick and small. Print a sign to put on your monitor or keyboard reminding you that after you read an email from the boss that bothers you, do something else for ten minutes, and then respond. This just gives you a little cool down time. Boom -a simple way of starting to handle the issue, and something small that gets you thinking right away about how to use your reading. You’re more likely to think of other ways to handle the issue if you’ve already having something small set into motion. The key is to do something. Other times my actions have been as simple as just writing out a pro/con list regarding the issue cause it hasn’t been thought through, anything that gets me to begin working on the issue.

So many people get readings and fail to use the information, they think just knowing what will help or hinder them will be enough. They think that in the heat of the moment they’ll suddenly remember what they should or shouldn’t do. They don’t and things don’t improve and the next reading just says more of the same, if not worse. It surprises some of my clients when after the reading I work with them to make a plan of action, some are confused, some are appreciative, and some are almost indignant that I assume they don’t know what to do with the reading. Yet pretty much all of my return clients who have seen other tarot consultants mention how helpful my reading was, if only because I gave them an avenue to make the abstract ideas of a reading into a practical plan of action.

When I see people involved with tarot reading, especially magickians, who are constantly doing readings and adding more cards, all I can think is that for all the information they’re turning up, they aren’t bothering to learn how to use it. If you’re doing large readings, constantly adding more cards, and doing lots of tarot spreads chances are you’re not really in need of all of that information, you’re just failing to put the information you have into action. Knowledge is knowledge, applied knowledge is power.

The key to turning the knowledge of a tarot reading into power, isn’t assuming that you’ll remember it, or know how to use it when the time comes; instead it is about taking the time during the reading to create a real plan of action, devising something you can do in the next day or two that begins to work on the issues of the reading. Without the plan and details you’re left with an abstract. Turn a reading into a roadmap and you’re far more likely to get the outcome you want.

Of course another part of the equation is knowing how to ask good questions, but that’s a tale for another time.