A Comparative Analysis of Fortune Telling and Divination, Chinese Perspectives, and Latin Tarot.

1. Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
A Comparative Analysis of
Fortune Telling and Divination,
Chinese Perspectives, and Tarot
benebell wen
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Bridge-Dickson

2. Fortune Telling
算命
Divination
卜筮
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler

3. Important:
No Community is
Homogenous
• One Tarot Reader
Can’t Represent All
• One Asian Can’t
Represent All
Discussion &
Opinion Sharing
Oswald Wirth Tarot deck used with permission of U.S. Games
Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902. All rights reserved.

4. suan ming
Fortune Telling
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
Seal Script
200 B.C.
1000 B.C.
800 B.C.
200 B.C.
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
200 B.C.
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/

5. P
Fortune Telling Theory
Seeker
Practitioner
(Tarot Reader)
S
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler

6. bu shi
Divination
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
Shaman
Witch
Sorcerer
Medium
“Spirit
Communicator”
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/

7. zhan gua
(Divination)
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/

8. gui
Image Source: Cornell University Library
Compare:

9. P
Divination Theory
Seeker
Practitioner
(Tarot Reader)
S
DIVINE
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler

10. P
Fortune Telling Theory
S
P
Divination Theory
S
DIVINE

11. “For five centuries or more Tarot cards
have been used in Europe, ostensibly for
games and fortune-telling…
…but really [the cards are] to preserve
the essentials of a secret doctrine…
…Tarot divination is not fortune-telling.
The practice of fortune-telling is based on
the false notion that human life is
governed by luck, chance, or fate—by
obscure powers that work outside the
personality…
Western
Perspectives on
Fortune Telling
vs. Divination
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler (Noreah Press
“For five centuries or more Tarot cards
have been used in Europe, ostensibly for
games and fortune-telling…
…but really [the cards are] to preserve
the essentials of a secret doctrine…
…Tarot divination is not fortune-telling.
The practice of fortune-telling is based on
the false notion that human life is
governed by luck, chance, or fate—by
obscure powers that work outside the
personality…
…True divination
rests upon the occult
truth that the causes
of all events in
human life are really
internal, proceeding
from the Cause of
Causes—the
Universal Intelligent
Energy or Life-
power.”
Paul Foster Case
Oracle of the Tarot (1933)
New Earth Tarot by Kate Silver & Charlene Delong (newearthtarot.com)
Fortune Telling
Future is the result of chance and fate.
It is beyond the Seeker’s control.
Divination
Dynamic Relationship between Personal Qi
(Microcosm) and Cosmic Qi (Macrocosm)

12. “I shall therefore confine myself . . . to giving . .
. instructions which will enable my readers to
utilise [Tarot] for fortune-telling. . . . I shall
now give several modes of laying out the cards
for divination.”
S. L. MacGregor Mathers
The Tarot (1888)
“These interpretations are comparable in
every respect to the divinatory and fortune-
telling meanings with which I shall have to
deal in their turn.”
A. E. Waite
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Dickson-Bridges
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
(No apparent
distinctions
made between
fortune telling
and divination.)

13. 966 A.D. Tablet Carvings
of the
Huang Di Ying Fu Jing [circa 618 A.D.]
(The Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman)
Image Source Courtesy of Special Collections
Fine Arts Library, Harvard University
“All manifestations in the universe can be
generated by the practitioner’s physical body,
through the hand.
“The function is determined by the will
of the practitioner.
“The mechanics is determined by the
practitioner’s mind.”
Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman
600-900 A.D.

14. Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne Towler
“All manifestations in the universe
can be generated by the practitioner
. . . through the hand.”
Determined By
WILL
Function
“The function is determined by the will of the practitioner.”
Fortune Telling Divination
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne Towler

15. Fortune Telling Divination
Determined By
WILL
Practitioner acquires Sight Practitioner acquires Connection
Practitioner is inserted
into the Seeker’s Path
Practitioner is a passive bystander
on the Seeker’s Path
Source of Knowledge:
Ego, Sentience
Source of Knowledge:
Divine
Perception Revelation
Transcending to Union
with the God Principle
Receiving and Submitting
to the God Principle
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne Towler

16. “The mechanics is determined by the practitioner’s mind.”
Determined By
MIND
Mechanics
Fortune Telling Divination

17. Fortune Telling Divination
Determined By
MIND
Intuition Knowledge Intuition Knowledge
Core, “Gut” Accounting Crown Signs & Omens
Projecting
Outward
Projecting
Inward
Direction Mediation
Bottom Heavy Top HeavyGiver Recipient
Induction & Deduction Invoking Spirit

18. Fortune Telling Divination
Determined By
MIND
Intuition Knowledge Intuition Knowledge
Core, “Gut” Accounting Crown Signs & Omens
Bottom Heavy Top HeavyDirection Mediation
Empathic PsychicGiver Recipient
Induction & Deduction Invoking Spirit
Image Source: Free-Pictograms.com

19. Fortune Telling Divination
Determined By
MIND
Intuition Knowledge Intuition Knowledge
Core, “Gut” Accounting Crown Signs & Omens
Bottom Heavy Top HeavyDirection Mediation
Empathic PsychicGiver Recipient
Induction & Deduction Invoking Spirit
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (Public Domain) via sacred-texts.com
“Kneeling before
the Hierophant”
- Richard Palmer

20. Fortune Telling Divination
“The function is determined by the will of the practitioner.”
“The mechanics is determined by the practitioner’s mind.”
Knowledge
Study the Self
To know the Universe. Study the Universe
To know the Self

21. New Earth Tarot
by Kate Silver & Charlene Delong
(newearthtarot.com)
What is the rationale for
making a distinction?
TAROT READINGWORDSTAROT READINGWORDS
Fortune Telling
The words you speak are
INFLUENTIAL
Divination
The words you speak are
A SACRED MESSAGE
INTENT
begets
THE WORDS
Crafted by Function
and Mechanics

22. “Before every event, there are
opportunities that Heaven avails
to the practitioner to exercise
metaphysical force to transform
the path of nature [or fate].”
Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman
600-900 A.D.

23. Fate
P
S
Free Will
P
S
S
P

24. Free Will
Fate
PS PS
Meeting
of the
Minds
Window of
Opportunity

25. Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
The Tarot
reader’s role
is to identify
that window
of
opportunity.
I possess the
ability to
See.
I know the
future. I
know you.
I am
Divine.
I possess the
ability to
Connect.
I read signs
and omens.
The Divine
speaks to me.

26. I possess the
ability to
See.
I know the
future. I
know you.
I am
Divine.
I possess the
ability to
Connect.
I read signs
and omens.
The Divine
speaks to me.
“Before every event, there are
opportunities that Heaven avails
to the practitioner to exercise
metaphysical force to transform
the path of nature [or fate].”
Huang Di Yin Fu Jing
“The causes of all events in
human life are really internal,
proceeding from the Cause of
Causes—the Universal Intelligent
Energy.”
– Paul Foster Case

27. Image Source: “N11B In Large Magellanic Cloud” [NASA] via copyrightfreephotos.hq101.com
Words are the metaphysical force.
Fortune telling or divination,
words are the practitioner’s craft.

28. Fortune Telling or Divination?
“Words and magic were
in the beginning one and
the same thing, and even
today words retain much
of their magical power.”
Sigmund Freud
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
(1916)
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (Public Domain) via sacred-texts.com

29. Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
Fortune Telling
The words you speak are
INFLUENTIAL
Divination
The words you speak are
A SACRED MESSAGE

30. Jiao Bei
Divination Moon Blocks
Most commonly found in
temples for communing
directly with deities.
Jiao Bei
Divination Moon Blocks
Theoretical Mechanics:
• Place yourself in a position
of passivity.
• Invoke a deity or Spirit
(“Divine”).
• Connect to that greater
Divine.
• Listen to the answer from
Spirit.
Feel the “connection” at your
crown, near the “third eye.”
Key Word:
Connection

31. Let’s Discuss.
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Bridge-Dickson