2.27.2025

Opening the Divination Door . . .

Welcome everyone! And here’s a refresher/recap on where we are in the “Ten Doors” sequence of EP posts.

Access any or all from the EP home page!

And for good measure—here’s an overview of the (absolutely?) final order:

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So today we have arrived at Door #4: Divination. And as many of you know by now, this one is my personal favorite.

In fact, it is so much my favorite that I’ve decided on a special experiment. Briefly stated—I want to do free Tarot readings for three EP readers.

This idea came to mind after I received a very unexpected email from an old friend. As happens when you live quite a while, my friend and I had drifted into different lanes of life, and lost track of one another for more than a decade.

But one day last week, he suddenly thought about me, rummaged his book shelves, and pulled out the copy of History, Mystery, and Lore I’d given him when it was first published. Then he consulted Google, found an all-purpose website I keep up for occasional purposes, and filled out a contact form . . .

I hear from a real person via that website about once a year, or even less. Seriously.

But on that particular day, through that fairly obscure website, I not only heard from my time-distant friend—but also from the space-distant stranger who had come across my Tarot book in a Luxemburg shop, and wanted to shed light on the mystery of Facteur Cheval.

I took this to be a meaningful co-incidence . . .

By which I mean—synchronicity at work.

It’s not always obvious what to do with/about a meaningful co-incidence, so I mulled it over for a while. When I realized that today’s Door for the EP newsletter is Divination, the idea of doing some readings fell into place.

By “reading” I mean OG hand-shuffled real cards, not anything to do with AI.

I’ll send querents a picture of the spread (my own adaptation of the Celtic Cross), along with my interpretation/analysis.

The method I use doesn’t begin with a question, as my goal is always to find out something the querent is not already thinking about. But once I’ve shared my analysis, the querent can (optionally) schedule a 30-minute Zoom call to discuss, and I’ll answer questions based on the cards that appeared in the spread.

Although I’ve used this scenario a few times in the past, it’s been a while—so I want to experiment a bit, and see how it feels now. If you’d like to be a guinea pig, you can comment here, or send me a direct email (tarot@cynthiagiles.com). But don’t tell me anything about anything! The less I know, the better . . .

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My other takeaway from last week’s meaningful co-incidence event has to do with the “Mystery” part of my book. As you may recall, I’ve already revised /updated /expanded the first part into Exploring Tarot: History, and I’m publishing the chapters one by one on Tarot | In Four Dimensions. (If you’d like previews and updates, just become a free subscriber!)

Working on the “History” part was fairly straightforward—though I did find my views had altered in some respects. But to be honest, I’ve dreaded starting a revision of the “Mystery” part, which contains quite a bit of speculation that might not have held up well. And the chapter on “Tarot in the Light of Science” may seem naive today, or absurdly wrong-headed.

But I’ve started roaming around Part Two, which takes a deep dive into the what, why, and how of divination as a way of knowing. And so far, I’m cautiously optimistic about possibilities for evolving the original content . . .

So as I begin creating the new version (Exploring Tarot: Mystery), I’m going to post some excerpts from the existing version over the coming weeks—some here on EP, more on 4D.

Now I just need a colorful image to close the Divination Door for this EP!

The cover of a 1997 magazine from the iconic Bodhi Tree Bookstore

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As always, thanks so much for reading! More soon, C