All posts by MQS

Living at the intersection of occultism, fiction and philosophy, I travel the planes at a moderately quick pace. I read, I do magic, I cook for hubby. Confused by the number of things I talk about? Good, confusion is a nice thing ;)
Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot, Uncategorized

The Great Spreads With the Bologna Tarot – The Bed Sheet

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The Bologna Tarot is typically read in large spreads. This is because each card has very simple meanings, so one cannot spend their time musing on them at length as often happens in contemporary tarot practice. The Bologna Tarot is closer to the Sibilla or to playing cards or Lenormand in this sense (or even to how regular tarot readings used to be).

Many general spreads done to tell a broad fortune use the whole deck. This is the case of the Lezuolata, or bed sheet spread. It is a 5×9 spread similar to the Lenormand or Kipper Grand Tableau (this is for the 45-card deck. If you use the 50-card deck just add a tenth row). Here is an example:

The Bed Sheet spread (Lenzuolata) with the Bologna tarot

This spread is typically used to “locate” the querent’s card (either the King or the Queen of Wands) and see how their general circumstances are. It is typical to start the reading by having a look at the four cards in the angles. In this case we have the Tower, the Hermit, the Ace of Coins and the Page of Cups. This could indicate money trouble relating to a young woman (maybe a daughter). If we interpret the Page figuratively, then it shows that the querent has no (bad cards) monetary (Ace of Coins) satisfaction (Page).

Let us suppose we are reading for a woman. The Queen of Wands is located in the second-to-last row and in the second-to-last column. She looks at the Moon, behind which there is the Ace of Cups (the house) and the Ace of Swords (relationships, or something close). Behind her is the King of Swords, a young man, and underneath her is the Juggler, which is a kid. So possibly she has kids (remember the Page of Cups), and she is worried about her financial situation at home.

Let’s look at the column where she appears. Broadly, this is a positive column, with a King and Queen of Cups possibly indicating figures in the family. Right above the Queen is the Chariot, which in this tradition indicates the sick bed, again reinforcing the idea of suffering (not necessarily physical). But the two figures of the Queen and King bring her the Ten of Cups, flourishing, and some minor good luck thanks to the Wheel.

Above the Wheel we find the Page of Wands, her thoughts, and the Seven of Cups, which also relates to the family, especially protection from the family. Possibly, therefore, the Queen is worried about having money for her kids, but her parents or another couple from her family are helping her.

As can be seen, this spread is not meant to let you talk at length, but it does give you a snapshot of the querent’s life at that moment.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards

In The Name Of Love (Example Pyramid Reading)

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Yesterday we had a nice reunion with some friends. One of them asked the cards if she has a shot with her dance instructor, whom she’s crushing hard on. These were the cards:

6♣️ – Q♣️ – 10♥️ – 9♠️
K♣️ – 10♣️ – Q♥️
A♥️ – 3♣️
8♠️

The first thing that jumped at me was that nasty Eight of Spades at the end, which literally says “it will end in tears.” If we take the three angles of the pyramid, they are the Six of Clubs, Nine of Spades and Eight of Spades. Bleak.

My querent’s card falls on the first line, together with the Six, the Ten of Hearts and the Nine of Spades. If we were to read this line as a literal sentence, it would be “Coming from a place of fatigue your happiness there’s not“. In other words, my friend is not just single, but lonely, has been for a while and she’s unhappy about it. This is interesting, because it shows that her crush is more like a compensation mechanism.

Then we come to him, the King of Clubs, who is on a journey (Ten of Clubs) with a loved woman (Queen of Hearts) that leads to a house (Ace of Hearts) of union (Three of Clubs). He is engaged. The final Eight of Spades does not say that he is unhappy about the engagement, but that the engagement brings tears to the querent.

MQS

Occultism and Esoterism, Spirituality and Psychology, Uncategorized

On Sacrifice

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Western occultism has an idiosyncratic relationship with the notion of sacrifice. On one hand we come from the Abrahamitic tradition, and especially the Christian one, where sacrifice plays a central doctrinal role (God sacrifices himself) and where the concept of sacrifice has often been used as a club against dissent or to elicit guilt and compliance.

On the other hand, the occult revival of the XIX century, especially but not only in its Crowleian branch, was incapable of integrating this concept in a positive way, largely as a form of juvenile reaction against the previous tradition. If the universe is pure and blind bliss there can be little place for sacrifice except in the most illusory sense. As long as occultism remains largely the occupation of misfits and oddballs, it must retain this juvenile attitude toward sacrifice (which largely explains the philosophical paucity of so much of the occult world).

But sacrifice comes from the Latin ‘sacer facere’, ‘to render sacred’. As such, there can be no spiritual path without sacrifice. Even the most atheistic and chaotic paths must render something sacred, whether it’s themselves and their ego or some abstract philosophical concept. Once something is made sacred, the rest is sacrificed to it as a means to an end, and thus also rendered sacred as a consequence.

In magic (and in religion as well), power can come from two sources: from formulas that have been solidified into a metaphysical building over the years (or centuries) or from contact with a direct source. In reality even the former path, if it is functional, must have had some direct contact at least at the beginning.

Therefore, much of one’s magical training consists in bridging the gap that exists between oneself and the source, that is, between micro- and macrocosm, between individual and universal. The aim is always to be able to embody the universal within oneself. To do so, we must necessarily sacrifice our singular nature, that is, we must empty ourselves of the decades of junk that have been filling our individual vessel since we were born, so that a higher power may come down and occupy it: after all, a pitcher must be emptied of muk before it can be filled with water.

This process necessarily implies sacrifice. As we grow up, we accumulate big and small vices, big and small dysfunctions and illusions, and anyone who has lived long enough and has developed enough self-reflection can probably recognize at least some of them as they keep reemerging.

All this needs to be purged from the system. In other words, it needs to be sacrificed, to be rendered sacred. One of my teachers’ mantras was “Offer it to the Divine“. It took me some years to understand what she meant. Whenever some of my vices, some of my illusions, pains, dysfunctions presented themselves, it was easy to simply abandon myself to them, to live them out in the solitary confinement of my individuality as a sort of chosen doom.

But “Offer it to the Divine” was the key to leaving that solitary confinement, of bridging the gap between the small world and the large world. It went beyond despair and guilt and all the typical associations of the word ‘sacrifice’. It required no judgement. It only required for me to stand back, allowing the sun to shine on that lower part of me.

This, I later learned, is the inner equivalent of what happens during rituals, when we sacrifice something to whatever power we are working with. It is part of what allows that apple offered to that spirit to be more than just a tip of the hat to a recipe found in a dusty grimoire.

MQS

Creativity, Fiction

The Scarecrow

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From the Microcosmicon, 34:

I was born with only two arms, and I grew into a scrawny, spindly lad, ridiculed for my grotesqueness. Nor would anyone give me a job—not with my face, not with my weak body.

So I did what I could to make ends meet—I started following space pirates. They knew what to do with my ugliness. They sent me out to scare gullible folks of distant planets into handing over their goods without fighting.

Soon, my reputation began to precede me. “Watch out, they are sending the Scarecrow!”
There is no acceptance for me in it. Only peace.

MQS

the scarecrow

Card Combinations, Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot, Uncategorized

Bolognese Tarot – Connecting the Cards

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I’ve recently talked about understanding the order of the cards when using the Vera Sibilla and playing cards. The Bolognese tarot, being a traditional fortune-telling system, follows similar rules, and as such it is important to understand whether the cards add their meanings together or contradict each other. Example:

Page of Coins + Queen of Coins

The Page indicates words, while the Queen represents the truth. Therefore, in this case, we get “true words”, “trustworthy words”, and similar combinations.

Queen of Coins + Moon

The Queen of Coins is the truth, but it is followed by the Moon, which indicates negativity, falseness, secrets. Therefore the combination talks about hidden truths, and thus of potential lies to cover the truth.

Moon + Sun

In the Bolognese tarot, the Moon is the card of negativity, while the Sun is the card of positivity. Traditionally, the Sun and Moon together are called “the two red cards” (due to the color of the two celestial bodies in the card) or the sorrow combination. Since here the Moon comes first and is followed by the Sun, the sorrow is passing, the problem will be solved.

Sun + Moon

In this case, the Moon more decisively blocks the Sun, so the sorrow doesn’t stop, or at least will last longer.

Tower + Justice

The tower can represent a large building one would rather avoid. Justice represents the law. Together, the two cards can represent a courthouse (but they can also indicate that justice or fairness is impeded, if the reading is not about a trial).

Justice + Sun

The Sun affirms the positivity of something. Together with Justice, it shows justice, fairness, equilibrium, etc

Justice + Moon

This is the opposite. The Moon negates justice.

Justice + King of Coins

The King of Coins is an important person, usually one with a degree. With Justice, he becomes an attorney, a notary, someone who is competent in some area of law or bureaucracy.

Love + Hanged Man

The Love card indicates, of course, love. In the Bolognese Tarot, the Hanged Man represents betrayal (being hanged upside down was the punishment for traitors). Together, they can indicate some kind of dishonesty connected to love (with the figure of a third party, it would become a triangle).

Love + Ten of Cups

The Ten of Cups brings feasting and jollity, so this combination would describe a happy-go-lucky love that is blooming, and if we add the Fool, that’s obviously a very fun love with not much commitment.

Love + King of Coins + Justice + Tower

We’ve seen that the King of Coins with Justice indicates a lawyer, and Justice and the Tower indicate a court of law. Connected with Love, this combination could show a divorce.

World + Eight of Wands

The World card means “around the world” or journey. The Eight of Wands indicates a road or path. Clearly, the two cards together strengthen the idea of a literal journey.

World + Page of Cups

The Page of Cups can indicate a younger woman, while the World shows “from afar” or “from around the world”. So this young woman probably isn’t part of the querent’ life: she’s a stranger.

All in all, combining the cards of the Bolognese tarot is a relatively intuitive process, although there are some traditional combinations that we’ll need to talk about in a future post.

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Uncategorized

On Avoiding Food Poisoning (Example Reading)

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As Christmas draws near I recently bought the ingredients for my home-made 5-hour lasagna sauce. Yesterday I set about preparing it, and I started noticing an odd smell coming from the minced meat, even though it was supposedly fresh.

At first it was barely detactable, so my Christmas spirit decided to interpret it as just a figment of the imagination. The immediate red flag was seeing my husband emerge from his den asking what the strange odor was. Hubby is extremely sensible to smells. Whenever I see him curling his nose I know something is off.

What’s worse, around three hours into the preparation the subtle whiff had turned into a miasma. So I did a geomancy reading, asking if the sauce would be safe to eat.

Before casting the reading I had some doubt on how I would interpret such a question: what astrological house rules food?

In old astrology and geomancy books, when a king asks if the food served at the banquet has been poisoned, usually the diviner consults the fifth house of parties and fun. On the other hand, astrologer John Frawley makes a compelling point that your food is what sustains your person and goes into your throat, which is the second house. I decided that it was useless to worry about these distinctions, and that the chart would find a way to show me the truth.

Is the sauce safe to it? Geomancy reading (app used: Simple Geomancy)

And show me it did. This is  a reading that requires very little interpretation. Tristitia is in the first house, portending trouble, and it springs into the sixth house, which is the house of sickness: neither the second house nor the fifth house were involved. The sauce is definitely unsafe.

True, the court is not negative, possibly showing that it wouldn’t cause any major trouble. On the other hand, the Way of the Point goes from the Judge Via to Cauda Draconis in the eighth house, and Cauda is a negative figure, but I doubt the sauce would be the end of us.

I still decided to dump everything out and start from scratch, meaning today I had to run to the market to get new ground meat.

MQS

Card Combinations, Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Sibilla della Zingara, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Understanding the Order of the Cards

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One thing that I often receive messages about is how to understand the order in which the cards fall. Whether it’s the Vera Sibilla or playing card, there is one fundamental rule that applies in the majority of cases: later cards modify those that fall before.

Keep in mind that divination with cards is like the reading of a book, so the cards build the equivalent of sentences with their own grammatical structure. This is why I prefer to read the cards together rather than in isolation, as would happen in many contemporary positional spreads, where to each position corresponds one card.

In the tradition I come from, there can be positions, but there are always at least three cards, and sometimes five, covering one position. When we have two or more cards together, it becomes possible to “agglutinate” their meanings.

“Boy” and “run” becomes “the boy is running.” “Boy” and “friend” becomes “the boy is with a friend” or “the boy is a friend.” “Boy” and “Australian” becomes “the boy is Australian.”

Similarly, if we put two playing cards together such as the Three of Clubs (Union, marriage) and the Ten of Hearts (Happiness) they say: the marriage is happy. In the Sibilla, if we put the Ace of Club (Marriage) and the Four of Hearts (Love) together, it becomes “a loving marriage” or “a marriage of love.”

These are the first steps only. There are many more nunaces. However, the basic thing we must ask ourselves when interpreting two or more cards together is whether they add to each other or they contradict each other.

When they add to each other, the sequence in which they fall doesn’t matter that much (though it may add shades of meaning). “A beautiful girl” is roughly the same as “A girl who is beautiful.” But if we have “War” and “Peace”, saying “Peace and then war” is very different from saying “War and then peace”.

In the Sibilla, Fortune + Death is the end of fortune (literally, “the fortune meets its end”), whereas Death + Fortune is an end that brings fortune. Generally speaking, the cards falling after have the power to modify those that fall before.

That being said, divination is an art more than a science: we should never apply our rules so rigidly that we stop thinking about what the cards are saying. In most cases, in the Sibilla, Thief + Marriage has a similar meaning as Marriage + Thief: someone or something is interfering with the marriage.

Ultimately, each spread is a world in itself and the specific key to it must be found by following the clues that the cards leave behind.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Five of Pentacles or Coins

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(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)

The Five of Pentacles from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is the first decanate of Taurus, under the rulership of Venus, April 20 to 29. Meanings:
Well-Dignified: labor, toil, the cultivation of the land; building, and plans concerning it; some anxiety over money.
lll-Dignified: toil unrewarded; loss of money; poverty; trouble for the Querent through lack of imagination and foresight.
Keyword: Uncertainty; material trouble.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

Two mendicants in a snow-storm pass a lighted casement. Divinatory Meanings: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated–that is, destitution–or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers-wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized. Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Five of Disks is in equally evil case. The soft quiet of the Four has been completely overthrown; the card is called Worry. [See Skeat, Etymological Dictionary. The idea is of strangling, as dogs worry sheep. Note the identity with Sphinx.] The economic system has broken down; there is no more balance between the social orders. Disks being as they are, stolid and obstinate, as compared with the other weapons, for their revolution serves t9 stabilize them, there is no action, at least not in its own ambit, that can affect the issue.

[…]

The Number Five, Geburah, in the suit of Earth, shows the disruption of the Elements, just as in the other suits. This is emphasized by the rule of Mercury in Taurus, types of energy which are opposed. It needs a very powerful Mercury to upset Taurus; so the natural meaning is Intelligence applied to Labour.

The symbol represents five disks in the form of the inverted Pentagram, instability in the very foundations of Matter. The effect is that of an earthquake. They are, however, representative of the five Tatvas; these hold together, on a very low plane, an organism which would otherwise disrupt completely. The background is an angry, ugly red with yellow markings. The general effect is one of intense strain; yet the symbol implies long-continued inaction.
(From The Book of Thoth)

A peasantly mystical AI-generated illustration for the Five of Pentacles

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiant Angelic Hand issuing from clouds, and holding a branch of the white rose tree, but from which the roses are falling, and leaving no buds behind.
Five Pentacles similar to the Ace. Above and below are Mercury and Taurus.

Loss of money or position. Trouble about material things. Labour, toil, land cultivation; building, knowledge and acuteness of earthly things, poverty, carefulness, kindness; sometimes money regained after severe toil and labour.
Unimaginative, harsh, stern, determined, obstinate.
Geburah of HB:H (Loss of profession, loss of money, monetary anxiety).
Herein the angels HB:MBHYH and HB:PNYAL rule.

Etteilla

Lover
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Lover [man], Lover [woman], In love, Gallant man, Gallant woman, Husband, Wife, Groom, Bride, Friend, Friend. – Lover. – Loving, Lovingly, Adoring. – Harmony, Agreement, Convenience, Concordance, Good manners.
Reversed. Disorderly, Contrary to order. – Debauchery, Disorder, Turmoil, Confusion, Chaos. – Damage, Devastation, Ruin. – Dissipation, Consumption. – Unruliness, Libertinism. – Discord, Disharmony, Discordance.

MQS

Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy

Robert Fludd’s Geomancy – Book I Pt. 4

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Fludd explains how a full geomantic shield is derived from the initial four mothers.

Of the Production of the Other Figures in the Geomantic Shield

It must be noted that from the said mothers,1 who constitute the first four figures of the geomantic shield, four daughters, constituting the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth figures, arise, taking separately the parts of all the mothers. In the previous example we take from the first figure / . / from the second / . . / from the third / . / from the fourth / . . / And thus these four parts, joined together, generate the first daughter occupying the fifth house, namely, the figure called Amissio. From the mothers’ shoulders the second daughter is born occupying the sixth house, from the legs the third, from the feet the fourth.

But first the niece is derived from the two first mothers, for her head is fused from their two heads, etc. And this is a general rule: that where two heads, shoulders, legs, or feet joined together produce an odd number, namely three, they produce a single; but when they are even, they produce two points. For example: since we find only three points in the aforesaid heads of the first and second mothers, we therefore express the head of the first niece who occupies the ninth house with a single point.

In the same way, since the mothers’ shoulders produce an equal number, therefore also the shoulders of the first niece will consist of two points. Equally, her legs must also be composed of the same number of points, and her feet will have only one point for the above reason. For this reason also, the second niece is fused from the third and fourth mother; the third niece from the first and second daughter, and the fourth and last from the two and last daughters.

In the same way, two Witnesses are produced from four nieces, just as a Judge is produced from two Witnesses. Finally, the sixteenth, the last figure in which the whole shield is summarized, is made up of the Judge and the first mother. And in this manner the whole geomantic shield and its houses must be filled, from which the judgment in this art is to be taken.

A geomantic shield, from Robert Fludd’s Geomancy handbook
Footnotes
  1. Referring to Book I, Part 3. This section requires no commentary, as it describes the usual technique of deriving the full shield from the initial four figures. ↩︎

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Geomancy

Cancelled Flights? (Example Reading)

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One pro of using more than one system of divination is that sometimes they clarify each other: sometimes one reading is somewhat obscure in one system but clear in the other, and we can use the clear one to navigate the one that has us scratching our heads. Granted, obscurity is in the eye of the beholder, being always a consequence of our own limitations, but it is still an occasion to learn.

I was at the airport yesterday, trying to catch a flight to get back home. Suddenly, and to my horror, I noticed that plenty of flights were being cancelled due to the heavy mist, including one flight on the same route I needed. My first instinct was to cast a Horary chart, asking if I’d be able to get back home.

Will my flight go as planned or will it be cancelled? Horary Astrology

This was my first interpretation. I am represented by Venus, ruler of the ascendant. The place I want to get is my home, which is ruled by the Fourth House and therefore by the Moon (Cancer is on the cusp). The Moon is approaching an opposition of Venus. Bam! The flight will be cancelled.

After a while, as I was waiting for information, I did a Geomancy reading on the same question. Here is the chart:

Will the flight go as planned or will it be cancelled? App used: Simple Geomancy

The first thing the struck me is the generally positive Judge, Conjunctio, which arises from Carcer and Via. It argues mobility more than stasis, and obstacles that are removed. The second important point is the figure that represents me: Laetitia in the first. Laetitia represents upward motion. It is an exiting figure, meaning movement. What a wonderful symbol for a plane taking off!

Even if we want to involve the Fourth house, we see that it is occupied by Puella, a mildly benefic figure, which is also connected to the ninth house of journeys (it occupies it). So the journey (Ninth) connects with the home (Fourth).

Obviously, two systems of divination cannot give contradictory answers if correctly interpreted, and the Geomancy seemed rather obviously positive. So I went back to the Horary Chart (again below)

Will my flight go as planned or will it be cancelled? Horary Astrology

I meditated on this chart quite a while (I had plenty of time, after all). Then it hit me. I am represented by Venus. Venus is in the Midheaven (up in the sky) in Aquarius, an *air* sign. Not only, but Aquarius is fixed: it doesn’t change. My being in the sky is fixed. So there will be a flight: I will be up in the sky as planned.

But what about that opposition by the Moon? Well, there was significant delay, so the Moon could show the flow of events causing trouble to my being up in the air.

Ultimately, the Fourth House didn’t need to get involved. The point of the question was not whether I would get home (I would have gotten home anyway at some point) but what would happen to me/my flight.

I managed to come home yesterday.

MQS