• Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The Hierophant & The Devil     Let’s look at an interesting pairing this month, and compare The Hierophant with The Devil. Not everyone is comfortable examining at The Devil, but there are interesting similarities between these two cards. First, let’s review some terms. If you’ve read my column before, you can skip the next two paragraphs. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck, with numbers from 0 to 21; the Majors usually deal with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in our lives. An archetype (pronounced “ark eh type”)…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The Emperor & The Hierophant     We have already compared The Empress and The High Priestess. This month, we will return to the Major Arcana, and compare The Emperor and The Hierophant. Before we begin breaking them down, let’s define and remind ourselves of some terms. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck, with numbers from 0 to 21; the Majors usually deal with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in our lives. An archetype (pronounced “ark eh type”) is a generic, idealized model of a person, an object,…

  • Reviews

    Tarot Deck Review – The Wayfarer Tarot by Stacy Salpietro-Babb and Margaret Shipman

    Tarot Deck Review The Wayfarer Tarot Guidebook by Stacy Salpietro-Babb Artwork & Design by Margaret Shipman Publisher: Self Published via Kickstarter Publication Date: 2018     The Wayfarer Tarot is created by Stacy Salpietro-Babb (guidebook) and Margaret Shipman (artwork and design), first edition 2018 ISBN: 978-0-578-42920-5. This beautiful deck was self-published via a Kickstarter campaign that ran during 2018. Stacy and Margaret began working together to create The Wayfarer Tarot during 2013, forming the ideas that would become the deck, and combining Stacy’s vision for the meaning of the card and Margaret’s visual interpretation. The Wayfarer Tarot comes in a 3 inch by 5 inch cardboard box with a matte…

  • Reviews

    Video Book Review – Doctoring the Devil: Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man by Jake Richards

    Video Book Reviewed Doctoring the Devil Notebooks of an Appalachian Conjure Man by Jake Richards Publisher: Weiser Books 288 Pages Publication Date: 4/01/2021   Bright Blessings, The Appalachian Mountains stretch from Canada, through New York, and into the South, clear down to the Cumberland region and cover over 200,000 square miles. This includes 420 counties in 13 different States and are home to more than 25 million people. It’s where tons of European settlers from mostly Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and parts of Eastern Europe set down roots to call home when they immigrated to The Americas. Many Indigenous Native Americans, and people of African descent made the Appalachias home as…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The King of Wands & The King of Swords     We haven’t looked at the Court Cards of the Tarot for a while, so it is a good time to compare two Court Cards. This month we will compare two Kings, the King of Wands and the King of Swords. If you have been journeying with me already, you can skip the next paragraphs that offer some foundational information. The 78 cards of a Tarot deck consist of 22 Major Arcana cards (dealing with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, and archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The Magician & The Chariot     I’m in a Major Arcana kind of mood again, so let’s compare two Major Arcana cards: The Magician and The Chariot. First, let’s review some terms. If you’ve read my column before, you can skip the next paragraph. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck, with numbers from 0 to 21; the Majors usually deal with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in our lives. An archetype (pronounced “ark eh type”) is a generic, idealized model of a person, an object, or a…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The High Priestess and The Hierophant     This month, we will stay within the Major Arcana and discuss a pairing that I briefly mentioned last month: The High Priestess and The Hierophant. First, let’s review some terms. If you’ve read my column before, you can skip the next paragraph. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck, with numbers from 0 to 21; the Majors usually deal with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in our lives. An archetype (pronounced “ark eh type”) is a generic, idealized model of a…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing The High Priestess & The Empress     We have done a lot of comparing of two cards in order to discover subtle differences that help with interpretation. This month, we will examine two cards that we already know are different, with the intention of discovering more subtle meanings. I’m in a Major Arcana kind of mood as this year comes to a close, so let’s compare two Major Arcana cards: The High Priestess and The Empress, two aspects of the Sacred Feminine. First, let’s review some terms. If you’ve read my column before, you can skip the next paragraph. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing the Ten of Wands & the Ten of Swords Many Tarot cards can seem similar enough to each other that interpreting them when they both show up in a spread can be challenging. One way to achieve a deeper understanding of a card is to compare it to another card. This month we will compare two Minor Arcana cards, the 10 of Wands and the 10 of Swords. We will explore similarities between these two cards and the differences. I will be using card images from the Rider Tarot Deck for this analysis. Both of our cards have the number 10. The number 10 represents the end of one…

  • Divination Articles

    Tarot Talk

    Comparing the 4 of Cups and the 4 of Wands     Many Tarot cards can seem similar enough to each other that interpreting them when they both show up in a spread can be challenging. One way to achieve a deeper understanding of a card is to compare it to another card. This month we will compare two Minor Arcana cards, the 4 of Cups and the 4 of Wands. We will explore similarities between these two cards, and then we will look at the differences. I will be using card images from the Rider Tarot Deck for this analysis. The basic messages or traditional interpretations of these two…