{"id":9820,"date":"2018-09-24T17:36:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T23:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9820"},"modified":"2018-09-24T17:38:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T23:38:22","slug":"youre-using-too-many-cards-and-other-tarot-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9820","title":{"rendered":"You’re Using Too Many Cards and Other Tarot Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

You are using too many cards \u2014 and too many candles.<\/p><\/div>\n

The title of this post was inspired by a recent post by Thorn Mooney on Oathbound<\/em>: “The Celtic Cross is Kind of Terrible<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Near as anyone can tell, the Celtic Cross comes out of the assorted Golden Dawn materials and was propagated (if not totally invented) by A.E. Waite in the early 20th<\/sup>century. Waite was super into the Holy Grail\/Celtic religion thing and was, like many of his colleagues, invested in demonstrating how there was a great deal of commonality in the various schools of occult thought, intersecting with ancient religions, etc., etc. Nobody at the time was really above making weak claims as to the antiquity of assorted pieces of occult wisdom, and the Celtic Cross just sort of gently leached into the magical water supply as the tarot\u2019s popularity grew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like Thorn, I started with the “little white book (LWB) that listed vague keywords for each card, the usual bullshit history about the totally\u00a0<\/em>ancient art of divination with tarot, and instructions on performing a reading with the ubiquitous Celtic Cross spread.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

If you want to hear people doing cold readings with three-card spreads, listen to the consultation segments of the Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour<\/em> podcasts.<\/a> You might pick up a few tips on divination \u2014 and the card readers almost always all three-card spreads.<\/p>\n

Unrelated rant.<\/strong> I was watching the miniseries version of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell <\/em><\/a>recently and, once again, the candles! <\/em>Were there enough beehives in England to make wax for all those candles? Remember, back then the lighting choices were candles handmade from beeswax, high-end oil lamps burning oil rendered from whale blubber, or simple wick-type lamps burning some kind of animal fat or olive oil. That was all! Petroleum-based lighting did not start in a big way until the 1860s.<\/p>\n

But if you watch(ed)\u00a0 it, give credit to the costumers and set designers. Those were some of the most authentic-looking c.1800 men’s britches I have ever seen. Note how the men’s styles break on generational lines. You are seeing the 17th-18th century fashion of wigs suddenly ending (except in court) in the space of a few years, and also a total change in women’s styles with the Neoclassical revival.<\/p>\n

The interior spaces were done well in terms of furniture, colors, and the general level of crime. But too many candles.<\/p>\n

Childermass’s<\/a> Tarot cards were a treat though. Such a level of greasiness!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this post was inspired by a recent post by Thorn Mooney on Oathbound: “The Celtic Cross is Kind of Terrible.” Near as anyone can tell, the Celtic Cross comes out of the assorted Golden Dawn materials and was propagated (if not totally invented) by A.E. Waite in the early 20thcentury. Waite was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[190,21,36,159],"class_list":["post-9820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-divination","tag-england","tag-movies","tag-tarot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2yo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8366","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":0},"title":"Thinking How the Tarot Smuggled Paganism to the Present","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my twenties, the Tarot was about the most \"occult\" thing around that I could bring out in public settings. I learned to read the cards semi-competently and had some adventures thereby. When I made it through an evening of reading for casual strangers in a nightclub, I figured that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0715645722","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12961,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12961","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":1},"title":"The Woman Who Invented the Minor Arcana","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading a new article on Pamela Coleman Smith, the artist responsible for what is often called the \"Waite deck\" among Tarot users, this popped out at me: Tarot has been around since early 15th-century Italy , spun off from traditional playing cards. The 78 cards are split into two groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/two-of-swords-176x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5867,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5867","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":2},"title":"Tarot Cards \u2014\u00a0They Are for Catholics Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas L. McDonald, Patheos' \"Technology | Culture | Catholicism\" blogger has a five-part series on the history of the Tarot cards. It starts here. The real history of the Tarot, however, begins in the early 15th century in Italy, and their story is an important part of gaming and cultural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8581","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":3},"title":"A Haitian Take on the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of a Haitian artists' group are re-creating the Tarot designs of Pamela Coleman Smith, otherwise known as the Rider-Waite Deck. Photographed by Alice Smeets, they are calling it the Ghetto Tarot. They have lots of machetes to substitute for swords. Information on crowd-funding and purchase here.","rel":"","context":"In \"Haiti\"","block_context":{"text":"Haiti","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=haiti"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nine_of_cups_tarot_465_465_353_int-300x228.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3251,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3251","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":4},"title":"A Different A.E. Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mary K. Greer discusses a forgotten Tarot deck designed by ceremonial magician A.E. Waite, whose collaboration with artist Pamela Coleman Smith produced the Tarot deck probably most commonly used in the past fifty years, at least in the Anglosphere. A new publication with commentary is planned. The commentary will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"magick\"","block_context":{"text":"magick","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=magick"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14029,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14029","url_meta":{"origin":9820,"position":5},"title":"Tarot Thoughts — And Eden Gray’s Surprising Story","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I decided to get more serious about Tarot after all these years. Maybe some day people will see me as a wise old man, but I will need some props \u2013\u00a078 of them, to be precise. I actually learned to use the I Ching in a superficial bohemian way before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Tarot\"","block_context":{"text":"Tarot","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=tarot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eden-gray-doctor-x.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9820"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9826,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820\/revisions\/9826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}