Notebook: Page 4

A Tarot of Philosophers + an EP Onward update . . .

Hello everyone—and welcome to EP’s younger sibling, the Notebook.

For those of you just joining: EP is a long post that arrives on the 1st of every month for free subscribers. It’s typically made up of an essay and a deck review.

Notebook is a shorter post that comes twice a month for free subscribers—but the dates are a bit unpredictable, because I usually write a Notebook Page when (a) a new discovery charms me, and/or (b) I have something important to share.

This time, it’s both. The first part of a Page is usually “Tarot Everywhere,” in which I tell the story of some serendipitous journey that ended up with an interesting discovery. And I’m so enthused about this one that I’m going to jump right in!

Tarot Everywhere

Here’s an entry from the Daily Notes journal I keep in Capacities.

(By the way—I’ll be writing about Capacities and PKM soon in a post from Tarot-Adjacent.)

Active item in the note above is “Ayn Rand.” Most people still recognize her name, either from having read Atlas Shrugged, or having seen a 1949 movie version of her other big novel, The Fountainhead. Political junkies will know her as the High Priestess of certain ultra-conservative ideologies.

In case you are neither, here’s the short version. Rand was a Russian emigre who arrived in America in 1926, worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, and had a surprise success with Fountainhead. She and her husband moved to New York City in 1951, where she set up a salon and promoted social and economic theories that would be best described as capitalism-on-steroids.

Rand had a compelling personality, and over time gathered an intensely engaged following. Some people describe her circle of admirers as a cult, others disagree—but beyond those personal influences, she established herself in public as an intellectual superstar.

In addition to her literary (sort of) and political legacies, Ayn Rand also had a significant influence on 20th century psychology, through her collaboration in the 1960s with Nathaniel Branden. Branden’s “psychology of self-esteem” was an adaptation of Rand’s philosophical system, known as Objectivism.

That all sounds very dry—but as often happens, there’s a richer version of the story. Rand and Branden had an intimate relationship, modeled somewhat precariously on their philosophical views—and eventually came to a dramatic, very public split.

If that sounds entertaining, you’re in luck, because The Passion of Ayn Rand is an only slightly dramatized movie version. That’s the movie mentioned in my note above.

I hadn’t thought about it in ages, but it popped up in one of my streaming services, and I watched for a few minutes. As always, Helen Mirren gives a fantastic performance—almost matched by Eric Stoltz as Nathanial Branden and Peter Fonda as Ayn’s long-suffering husband.

The same day the movie turned up, I saw this in one of the (many) newsletters I subscribe to:

In the story, political journalist Jonathan V. Last talks about rethinking his youthful enthusiasm for Ayn Rand’s highly romanticized vision of capitalism.

But never mind that. Back to serendipity, and Tarot.

My “rule for serendipity” is that if some reference turns up unexpectedly in two completely different places on the same day, I should take a closer look. Since I hadn’t thought about Ayn Rand in ages, and these two references were in very different contexts, I did indeed take a closer look—using my tried-and-true method of Googling two terms together.

Tarot + Ayn Rand

What did I find? “Philosophers as Tarot Cards”—and Rand as Wheel of Fortune.

Things to know:

• This is from a sub-reddit called “Philosophy Memes.” Normally I avoid Reddit, but another rule is that you have to go where serendipity takes you!

• Several commenters objected to considering Rand as a “philosopher,” but didn’t object to other questionable inclusions, so as often happens, Ayn has a special triggering effect. But I only looked at a few of the 162 comments so far.

• No one objected to her as “Fortune”—a connection that makes no sense to me. Think I would have said “Chariot” (which went to David Hume for some reason).

• The card images are generated by AI, of course, and feature a typically garish palette, along with the usual bizarrely deformed hands. But the faces do resemble their historical models.

• My personal favorite, and closest to the mark (in my view):

If you don’t want to focus on philosophers for much longer (or at all), I have an alternative discovery—found from a link on the very same Reddit page.

How about cats?

No need to say there are a lot of cat Tarots, ranging in quality from delightful to dubious. But this one has a charm all its own . . .

This is the best photo I could find for this hand-made deck. But I love the feel of the illustrations, which are whimsical without being cute. And some convey a sense of the card meaning that resonates with my own perceptions.

These, for example:

If you’re captivated by this deck, the artist will make one for you!

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Tarot Timestream

“Tarot Timestream” is meant to share interesting ideas and opportunities from various sources. For example:

Over at 3 a.m. tarot, the inventive and prolific meg jones wall has several new offerings—including the personalized subscription service spread architect. Here’s the plan:

every month, you'll tell me as much as you like about what you're working through, thinking about, or eager to explore, and i'll create a custom tarot spread based on your needs, preferences, and chosen topics. for folks who want

In addition to the subscription, 3 a.m. tarot (a really handsome website!) offers quite a few free spreads—and their Etsy shop sells an assortment of intriguing worksheets.

I look forward to highlighting more sites, courses, newsletters, and events in future Notebook Pages. But for now, a little about my own course, Tarot | In Four Dimensions.

I’ll start by saying that my approach differs from most others, in many ways. One way—the polar opposite of 3 a.m. tarot!—is that I use only one spread, and focus on deepening the mastery over time of a complex system.

Needless to say, that approach won’t suit everyone as a core practice. But I think anyone can gain from learning about it. It’s meant equally for beginners in search of an in-depth methodology, and for experienced practitioners who want to explore new ideas.

Here are some basic things to know about the course:

First, it’s focused on divination—not self-care, meditation, or any of the other perfectly good ways to use a Tarot deck.

Second, it doesn’t spend a lot of time on the symbolism or interpretation of individual cards. My approach is based on the spread as a matrix of meanings.

Third, it explores the personal aspects of being/becoming a Tarot reader, in addition to skills and methods.

Finally, there is quite a bit of information and suggested activity that’s preliminary or parallel to actually working with a Tarot deck.

Since there’s no shortage of online Tarot courses available, I gave a lot of thought to whether I have something differently valuable to offer. And from that perspective, I decided the method of divination I developed during years spent working with the Tarot, as a reader and as a writer, is worth sharing.

The 4D Course will become available to those in the Explorer subscription tier on September 23—this year’s Autumnal Equinox! After that, you can join at any point, and receive a new lesson-set once a month, along with access to related events and materials.

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Well . . . that would ordinarily be the last free Notebook Page for September, but I want to wrap up the month with more about the topics I have planned for the rest of the year. So I’ll be sending Page 5 to everyone in a few days.

As always, thanks for reading! C