tarot/bibliomancy combo reading

Occasionally I supplement one type of divination with an additional one. It can help break open a narrow reading/interpretation, sometimes broadening perception or sometimes confirming the exisiting. I did this with a recent Tarot reading. I used the "World" spread from Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings, my favorite book on the subject. My question was in regard to my current writing project. It's like I'm trying to drive cross-country in a constantly stalling lawnmower.

For each Tarot card I selected, I used the Bibliomancy Oracle for a corresponding response. Below is what I got (with brief interpretations of the cards):




Card #1 (High Priestess position) – What’s the inner truth?: Empress (passion, embracing life with all its messiness & horror)



Corresponding Oracle #1:

There is nothing that controls our thoughts
more than what we think we see,
which we label “we.”

from “If a Garden of Numbers” by Cole Swensen

Card #2 (Star position) - What hope does it promise?: The Chariot (success, movement, persona)


Corresponding Oracle #2:

When will the sky quit falling?
(That’s our motto.)

from “Pathetic Pathetic Fallacy” by Patty Seyburn

Card #3 (Moon position) – What journey must I make?: 7 cups reversed (act on fantasies)


Corresponding Oracle #3:

My religion makes no sense
and does not help me
therefore I pursue it.

from ”My Religion” by Anne Carson

Card #4 (Awakening) – What great thing awakens?: 8 of Cups reversed (the lack of connection between head & heart)


Corresponding Oracle #4:

Ask a good question:
You’ll have success immediately.

from “How can we know the journey from the path?” by Kathleen Ossip

Card #5 (Gift of Rivers) – What is the gift: Ace of Pentacles reversed (problems around security, new phase in life)

Corresponding Oracle #5:

A little piece please. Cane again to the presupposed and ready eucalyptus tree, count out sherry and ripe plates and little corners of a kind of ham. This is use.

from “Tender Buttons [Apple]” by Gertrude Stein

Yeah, nothing like Gertrude Stein for clarity. With Ace of Pentacles reversed and this Getrude Stein quote, I interpret the "gift" as my moving out of my "safe" zone that I've been inhabiting for the past couple of years. I've been restricting myself, sticking to what I know. Perhaps it's time to count out the sherry, ripe plates and ham -- finding use in letting go of comfort. The gift is taking risks. I admit I have not been embracing messiness and horror, I've been kind of avoiding it.

One of the things I like about Bibliomancy in general is that it can give an answer with another question because sometimes we're not asking a "good" one and need to focus our direction elsewhere. Often it seems that I focus my attention in a tunnel vision sort of way under the guise of will and determination. I keep expecting it all to eventually "make sense." I decided I'm going to let myself get lost, the more lost the better, for how ever long it takes. To hell with the blueprints and map. I'll make that up when I'm done.