Evolver.net is hosting a teleseminar titled Divination: How to Read the Future Now.

It will feature talks by Rachel Pollack, author of one of the most comprehensive books on tarot divination, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom; VerDarLuz, an astrologer; Stephen Karcher, who’s authored several books on I Ching, including Total I Ching: Myths for Change; and John Michael Greer, a Druid and author of many books on diverse esoteric subjects, including The Art and Practice of Geomancy.

Erik Davis (TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information) will be hosting the seminar.

Two free entries have been offered to Plutonica.net readers, so:

The first two people who e-mail me here at Plutonica.net will get this series for free.

Update: Only one spot left!

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May 15th will mark the 53rd anniversary of Austin Osman Spare’s death. A short video depicting a posthumous “interview” with Spare has been produced by Jamie Gregory & Neil Dineen in commemoration.

The video is comprised of photographic stills and images of Spare’s paintings and sketches are interspersed throughout. Philip Glass‘ ‘Spaceship’ provides the soundtrack.

The “interview” is conducted via oracle, with a dice, playing cards, Beck’s and Zos Speaks!, and related through scrolling text on the screen. Questions are posed in places Spare had a connection with: the Royal Academy in Piccadilly where two paintings were exhibited in Spare’s youth, the British Museum which inspired Spare’s imagery, and the Goat Tavern he frequented with Kenneth and Steffi Grant.

For all that, the responses calculated to the questions are interesting, though this may be attributed more to Spare’s enigmatic style. Repeat answers, however, dull some some of the potency of this method for the spectator.

Amusingly, the oracle declined to answer the question “What really happened between you and Aleister Crowley?”

Following the “interview” two “new” automatic images are produced “via the menstruum of undines”, and a thankful toast of Budweiser is offered at Spare’s grave.

The twelve-minute video can be downloaded from LaShTAL.com at “An Interview with Austin Osman Spare – a commemorative video“.

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The Almanac of Precariomancy is a set of tarot trump cards appealing to an anti-corporate sentiment.

A few cards retain their usual title such as the Chariot and Justice, others are more creatively and thematically retitled: the Magician has been renamed the Intern, the Empress is the Operator, the Emperor is the Manager, and the Start has been renamed the Chain (pictured here).

We are precarious because our choices are limited by the blackmail of the companies, coming by the day with new and surprising shapes: the housing issue, the income lack, the job torture, the self-awareness of our body and soul, our educational system, the possibility to learn and share knowledges and technologies.

–Why Precariomancy

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In a recent discussion on AIM I was asked about tarot’s role in decision-making. We’ve looked at tarot and accuracy, and sharing bad news with a client, but what happens when they want you or the cards to make a decision for them?

SPJ asked:

I’ve heard it’s not “good” practice to expect the tarot to make decisions for you and it may be better to only ask it what the outcomes to things might be if you continue down the same path?

Many will suggest that the mere fact the querent is aware of new possibilities may alter the outcome, but past experience has demonstrated that Continue reading »

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A woman who reads playing cards recently acquired her first tarot deck, and made inquiries on a forum I participate in as to the difference in accuracy between the two, and the “difficulty”.

Frankly, such questions are frustrating as they are not terribly meaningful in and of themselves, but as someone who reads cards semi-professionally myself, I can attest that they are common. It might help if we first separate fortune-telling from divination. Continue reading »

Popularity: 13%