May 2021 – IsleVue

John Iacovelli May 14, 2021 Wheel, Wheel of Fortune

Tarot Wheel 2.0.0 beta – the RWS Spin

Those familiar with version 1.0 of the wheel may recall that version was focused on the Golden Dawn. This is version 2.0 (beta). I have redone everything, and consider it appropriate as an RWS “spin.” I have replaced the descriptions taken from the Book T with excerpts of the divinatory meanings from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. I’ve kept the Golden Dawn’s esoteric names for the minors.

The main reason for the update, actually, was to move the “source” document out of Microsoft Visio. It is now a scalable vector graphic (.svg). As such, free and open software such as InkScape can work equally well to edit the source document as proprietary software such as Adobe Illustrator. The Tarot Wheel carries the most liberal of the Creative Commons licenses (attribution type) expressly because I hope to see others pick it up and customize it. It would make a splendid platform as a “Little White Book” for a new deck. In addition to the finished wheel, I am making a completely “empty” one, i.e., no text, no colors, just shapes, available as well.

I hope that this will help those new to tarot, especially. If you’re in RWS land, i.e., the Waite-Smith tarot and other decks derived from it, you may find it of use.

Tarot

John Iacovelli May 3, 2021June 13, 2023 Hierophant, Major Arcana

The Power of the Keys

There is an essential tension between the Hierophant and the Pope of today: the papacy has shrunk in the centuries since the beginning of tarot, but the archetype underlying the card has not. Fortunately, Waite tells us in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot exactly how he wants those who use his deck to understand the Hierophant: "the Hierophant is the power of the keys." That happens to be an official Roman church doctrine. By looking closer at the doctrine, this article will focus on the approaches one might take in interpretation to compensate for the changes in the role of the Pope in every day life in recent centuries. We’ll also look at some of the other symbols in the Hierophant, namely, the two monks, the coin-like objects seemingly scattered on the platform at which the Pope sits, and even at the checkered designs in the floor of that platform. They all add nuance to how we should look at the card with the changeable name: Pope, Hierophant, High Priest, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe, let’s call the whole thing…