A

Astral light
A subtle, non-physical “medium” or field that is believed, in 19th–20th century occultism and Theosophy, to record impressions, images, and forces, and to transmit influences between mind, spirits, and material events.

Aesthetics (emanationist aesthetics / philosophy of art)
A branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste; in an emanationist or esoteric context, aesthetic value is often understood as reflecting degrees of participation in, or expression of, higher spiritual realities rather than merely subjective preference.

Avery Woodbury (Seldom Dreams)
A tarot reader and spiritual advisor who works under the name Seldom Dreams, offering tarot readings, psychic trainings, and classes with an emphasis on developing personal insight, occult practice, and practical divination skills.

Alchemy (Western esotericism)
A symbolic and practical discipline concerned with transformation, classically framed as turning base metals into gold but, in Western esotericism, more centrally about the purification and elevation of matter, soul, and spirit through stages (nigredo, albedo, rubedo, etc.).

Astrology (traditional / occult)
A system that interprets the positions and movements of celestial bodies (planets, luminaries, signs, and houses) as symbolically reflecting conditions, tendencies, and timings in human life and terrestrial events, structured through dignities, aspects, and cycles.

Aura
In occult cosmology, a subtle “field” or emanation said to surround all things. In popular usage, focuses mainly on humans and living beings. Sometimes described in terms of colours, layers, or intensities corresponding to physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual states.

B

Barbara Moore
A prolific tarot author, editor, and deck collaborator, known for clear, beginner-friendly explanations and for helping shape many modern guidebooks and decks.

Benebell Wen
A Chinese-American occultist and tarot author best known for the almost 900 page book, Holistic Tarot.

Brigit Esselmont (Biddy Tarot)
Founder of a major online tarot education platform, known for approachable, keyword-based teaching and a practical, intuitive approach to reading for self and others.

BOTA Tarot (Builders of the Adytum Tarot)
Black-and-white tarot deck designed by Paul Foster Case for the Builders of the Adytum, intended for colouring by students as a meditative and symbolic attunement exercise, rooted in Golden Dawn correspondences.

C

Cause & Effect (occult science)
Hermetic principle (from the Kybalion) stating every phenomenon has antecedent causes on multiple planes. Observable through divination as patterns of probability, karma, and spiritual law rather than mere “randomness”.

Charging (deck)
Ritual exposure of a tarot deck to specific spiritual influences, intelligences, or planetary hours to imbue it with focused divinatory power, distinct from general consecration.

Clarifier card
Additional card drawn to provide context, detail, or resolution to an ambiguous or complex position within a tarot spread.

Compatibilism
A position in philosophy of action and free will which holds that human freedom and moral responsibility are compatible with some form of determinism (for example, a universe ordered by fate, providence, or causal necessity).

Consecration (deck)
Magical purification and dedication of a tarot deck to a higher, Divine Will. Perhaps involving prayer, or invocation to remove profane influences and establish sacred purpose.

Editor’s Note: though the ritualized forms are exoteric.

Correspondences (practical)
Systematic symbolic relationships between tarot cards, astrological decans, Hebrew letters, Qabalistic paths, elements, planets, and zodiac signs used to deepen interpretive accuracy and spiritual alignment.

Court de Gebelin
18th-century French occultist whose Le Monde Primitif (1781) first proposed tarot as an ancient Egyptian wisdom book, launching modern esoteric tarot. That idea is debunked.

Cosmogony
A theory or narrative of the origin of the cosmos, often involving primordial principles, emanations, or creative acts by deities or intelligences.

Cosmology
A systematic account of the structure, laws, and large‑scale order of the cosmos; in religious or esoteric usage, this often includes hierarchies of worlds, planes, and beings, not just physical astronomy.

D

Dignified/Ill-dignified
Traditional tarot interpretive modifier where cards gain strength ("dignified") or weakness ("ill-dignified") based on elemental harmony with surrounding cards or astrological timing.

Divination (communication with the Divine)
A set of practices intended to obtain knowledge or guidance that is normally inaccessible, by means believed to mediate the will, knowledge, or messages of Divine or trans‑human intelligences.

Editor’s Note: within the context of this site, Divination means communication with the Divine to obtain occulted knowledge. This includes predictive readings when contextualized within a greater spiritual scheme (i.e. RHP occultism, Emanationism and perennial philosophy).

E

Elemental dignities
Golden Dawn system evaluating card strength through elemental interactions (Fire strengthens Air/Water, weakens Earth/Fire), used to modify meanings in relationship to spread position and neighbors.

Emanationism
A metaphysical view in which all things originate by a graded outflow or “emanation” from a primary divine source, so that lower realities are dependent expressions or unfoldings of higher ones rather than creations ex nihilo.

Emanationist aesthetics
An approach to art and beauty grounded in emanationist metaphysics, where artworks are valued according to how clearly and powerfully they manifest, symbolise, or participate in higher intelligible or spiritual forms.

Editor’s Note: Visually, Emanationist art involves bright colours, strong use of tone, smooth lines and elitics higher, positive emotions (e.g. joy, peace, love). It avoids jagged edges, dark and the elicitation of lower passions or negative emotions (e.g. fear, anger, lust).

Esoteric / Esotericism
Esoteric refers to knowledge, teachings, or practices intended for an inner circle of students who are prepared, initiated, or willing to do serious work, as opposed to general public consumption. Esotericism is the broader field of such inner doctrines and symbolic systems across religions and magical traditions, treating myths, rituals, and symbols as vehicles for deeper, often initiatory, spiritual understanding.

Esoteric correspondences
Various sorts of conformity, agreement or proportion between different levels or domains of reality (for example planets, sephiroth, elements, tarot trumps), such that features in one domain are thought to reflect or influence those in another.

Editor’s Note: For example, if an Emanationist white magician uses a deck with corresponding aesthetics, it could theoretically assist him in divinatory work.

Eliphas Levi
19th-century French occultist (Alphonse Louis Constant, 1810–1875) whose Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie synthesised Kabbalah, tarot, and ceremonial magic, establishing tarot's Major Arcana as keys to the Hebrew alphabet.

Etteilla
Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738–1791), first professional tarot diviner who created the first esoteric tarot deck (Grand Etteilla), emphasising predictive fortune-telling over mystical symbolism.

F

Fate
A pattern of events, constraints, or tendencies seen as fixed or given by cosmic order, karma, providence, or other supra‑human factors, and not fully alterable by individual human choice.

Free will
The capacity of agents to choose or act in ways that are not wholly determined by prior causes or external constraints, and for which they can be held genuinely responsible (understood differently in libertarian, compatibilist, and various religious frameworks).

H

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
A late 19th‑century British initiatory magical order that systematised a large body of Hermetic, Kabbalistic, Rosicrucian, and related esoteric teachings and ceremonial practices, and which has had major influence on modern Western occultism.

Hermetic Principles (from The Kybalion)
A set of seven abstract principles attributed (especially in modern occult literature) to Hermetic tradition. Namely: Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and effect, Gender).

Mainstream scholars now consider the likely authorship William Walker Atkinson and the inspiration to be New Thought rather than (classical) Hermetic.

Hermetic qabalah (Hermetic Qabalah)
A Western esoteric adaptation of Jewish Kabbalah that integrates the Tree of Life, sephiroth, paths, and Hebrew letter mysticism with Hermetic, astrological, alchemical, and tarot correspondences, often as a symbolic map for magical and mystical work.

Higher mind / higher self / higher manas
In Theosophical and related esoteric psychologies, a relatively stable, trans‑personal or spiritual level of consciousness associated with intuition, altruism, and potentially with direct insight into spiritual truths. Contrasted with the everyday ego or lower mind which includes the physical brain and body as well as the principles of intelligence and instinct.

Editor’s Note: Within the context of this site, the higher mind is the incarnating soul as opposed to the Divine Soul which never incarnates.

Lower mind / lower self
In Theosophical and similar systems, the personality‑level mind and ego, associated with discursive thought, desire, and attachment, which can either be purified and aligned with the higher self or remain dominated by selfish and reactive tendencies.

I

Indicator Card

INTR (Indication Not To Read)

J

Jumper card
Card that literally "jumps" from the deck during shuffling. Some tarot readers select them whilst others consider them a result of messy shuffling.

Editor’s Note: Within the context of this site, jumper cards include ones that jut out slightly from the rest of the pack. I also add, for the purposes of the Tarot Apprenticeship, a condition to their selection for the reading. Namely, that they catch the diviner’s attention when sticking out.

K

Kabbalah (Jewish Kabbalah)
A body of Jewish mystical and theosophical traditions, especially from the medieval period onward, concerned with the nature of God, the process of creation, the structure of the divine worlds, and the path of the soul, often using symbolic systems such as the Sefirot and the Tree of Life.

Kabbalistic Tree of Life (Tree of Life)
A central diagram in Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah consisting of ten sephiroth (emanations or attributes of the divine) connected by twenty‑two paths, used as a symbolic map of the cosmos, the soul, and the stages of spiritual development.

Karma
In Theosophy and many Eastern traditions, the principle that actions (including thoughts and intentions) generate corresponding consequences, shaping future experiences and conditions in accordance with moral and causal law.

Kybalion (The Kybalion)
An early 20th‑century occult text, presented as a summary of Hermetic philosophy, which articulates the “Seven Hermetic Principles” and has been highly influential in modern New Thought and occult circles, despite not being an ancient Hermetic work in a strict historical sense.

M

Magic (occult)
Intentional ritual, symbolic, or imaginative practice aimed at influencing events, states of consciousness, or subtle planes, typically by aligning the practitioner with spiritual forces, correspondences, or intelligible patterns in the cosmos.

Editor’s Note: Within the context of this site, it is to be distinguished as white or black based on the motivation (not intention) of the operator.

Major Arcana (Rider Waite Smith tarot)

Mary K. Greer
A renowned tarot teacher and author known for a psychological, exploratory approach to tarot. Known for works like Tarot For Yourself.

Mysteries / mystery religion
Ancient or esoteric religious traditions in which initiates participate in secret rites and teachings that promise transformation, salvation, or deeper knowledge of the divine, often reenacting mythic narratives through ritual.

Mysticism
Religious or spiritual currents that emphasise direct experiential or contemplative knowledge of the divine or ultimate reality, often through practices of prayer, meditation, or interior transformation, rather than primarily doctrinal or ritual conformity.

N

Neo‑Hermeticism
Modern and early‑modern revivals, reinterpretations, and systems inspired by Hermetic texts and ideas. Often synthesising Renaissance Hermetism, Kabbalah, alchemy, and later occult and philosophical developments.

Neo‑Platonism (Neoplatonism)
A late antique philosophical and religious movement rooted in interpretations of Plato, emphasising a hierarchical, emanationist cosmos that proceeds from “the One” through Nous (Divine Intellect) and Soul, and a spiritual ascent of the soul back toward its source.

O

Occult / Occultism
The occult refers to teachings, practices, or phenomena that are framed as “hidden,” “secret,” or outside mainstream religious and scientific discourse, often involving topics such as magic, divination, astrology, or invisible forces. Occultism is the organised study and practice of such subjects within specific traditions or schools, treating them as a coherent body of knowledge and method rather than as isolated curiosities.

Occult arts

Practical applicatications of magical knowledge, such as tarot, astrology, alchemy etc. Occult science uses the occult arts but only after the purification of selfish motive and not as an end in itself.

Occult Science
In 19th–20th century Western esoteric discourse, a term for systematic, often quasi‑experimental investigation of subtle forces, spiritual planes, and hidden causal principles. Conceived as parallel to or continuous with empirical science but applied to non‑physical realities. Exists today, but largely underground.

P

Paul Foster Case
American occultist (1884–1954), founder of Builders of the Adytum (BOTA), who refined Golden Dawn tarot teachings through The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, emphasising meditation and colour symbolism.

Perennialism (perennial philosophy / ancient wisdom tradition / sophia perennialis)
The view that there is a single underlying, universal metaphysical or spiritual truth—often called the “perennial philosophy”—that is expressed in different forms in the world’s religious and mystical traditions, beneath their surface doctrinal differences.

Pips (tarot cards)

In a tarot deck, the Numbered (Ace-10) cards of the four Minor ArcanaSuits.

Pre-Shuffle (reading technique)

Before a tarot reading proper, the mixing and selection of up to a few cards for the purpose of gaining initial insights.

Pre-Spread (reading technique)

Used for vague questions or by intuition. Before the tarot reading proper, cards laid out in a spread to give flavour to the reading.

Probability (occult view)
Divinatory understanding that apparent randomness in shuffling and card selection reflects higher-order spiritual causation, synchronicity, and weighted probabilities guided by divine intelligence.

Pro bono reading
Supervised, unpaid public tarot reading performed by apprentices as vocational training, developing skill under mentorship while serving the community.

Q

Querent
The person seeking divinatory guidance through tarot reading, distinct from the reader who interprets the cards as mediator of divine communication.

R

Rachel Pollack (1945-2023)
A highly influential tarot author and teacher, best known for the book Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Pollack’s work blends myth, mysticism, and down-to-earth guidance.

Reversal / reversed card
A card selected so as to appear upside-down in a reading. Reversals have modified meanings compared to cards that are the right way up: “upright” cards. How the meaning is modified depends on the system being used or the personal practice of the reader. But common modifiers are: blocked, delayed, internalized and opposite energies in comparison to the upright.

One recent, influential reversals interpretation is from Benebell Wen and is called WIND: Weakened (overpowered by other things), Inverted, Negative and Delay (in card’s outcome).

Editor’s Note: For example, if the 5 of Pentacles is financial struggle then the 5 of Pentacles reversed may indicate that this struggle can be overcome with personal effort.

Note that many modern interpretations of the RWS 5 of Pentaacles attribute this to the upright meaning i.e. they take the RWS 5 of Pentacles to be a victim mindset which is just an illusion. This is of course a psychologized, victim-blaming and incorrect interpretation notwithstanding the involvement of the planet Mercury in the esoteric correspondences that lead to the RWS images. It is akin to saying that poor people, repressed by outside circumstances far beyond them (think Pluto in astrological terms) simply need to take personal responsibility in order to solve their own issues. A statement as ridiculous as it is offensive.

Psychologically, victim blaming is often done because people want to believe that bad things cannot ever happen to them. It is an egregious act to claim that you wish to service people in a spiritual manner before blaming them for their own issues. Even in Western Esotericism where a person’s destiny is ultimately at their disposal in the long-term, the ignorance which supposedly prevents one from controlling their own fate is not to misappropriated for the purpose of blaming people for their issues.

Also, I read reversals in a broad modifier of peculiarity to the upright meanings. For example, The Sun reversed I have seen as

Rider Waite Smith Tarot (Deck)
Landmark 1910 tarot deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith under A.E. Waite's direction, featuring fully illustrated Minor Arcana, universal symbolism, and Christian esoteric framework.

Right Hand Path (Western occultism)
Forms of occult and magical practice oriented toward ethical alignment with a perceived Divine good, spiritual purification, and service. Values cooperation with higher intelligences or Divine Will over the pursuit of power, domination, or antinomian transgression.

Rosicrucianism / Rosicrucians
A complex of early modern and later movements inspired by 17th‑century manifestos about a secret Christian esoteric brotherhood (the Rosicrucians), blending alchemy, Hermeticism, Christian mysticism, and reformist ideals; also used for later groups claiming Rosicrucian lineage.

S

Sasha Graham
A tarot teacher and writer whose work blends storytelling, shadow work, and magical practice, encouraging readers to use tarot as a tool for transformation and ritual.

Shadow card (tarot)
In a tarot reading, an extra card that has been chosen during or within the reading. Generally representing subconscious influences, hidden factors, or spiritual undercurrents affecting the reading.

Significator (Card)
Card chosen to represent the querent, question, or central theme of a tarot reading. Placed at the heart of spreads to anchor interpretation and establish personal connection. When used, the significator is not necessarily the querent, but the querent is always the significator.

Editor’s Note: For example, if I do a celtic cross spread for myself then I am the querent and the significator will represent me. If I get stuck on the last card (the culmination), I can make it the significator of a new reading, for which I am still the querent. The significator has then changed from the person asking the question (in the first reading) to the topic of the reading (in the second one).

Significator line
Series of cards laid horizontally above or below the significator to show influences affecting the querent's past, present, and future states.

Skandhas (skandhas)
A term from Buddhist psychology adopted in some Theosophical and Western esoteric contexts, referring to the “aggregates” or components (such as form, sensation, perception, consciousness, habits) that together constitute the psycho‑physical person and are subject to change and karmic conditioning.

Spread (tarot card layout)

Synchronicity (Jung/tarot)
Jungian principle of “meaningful coincidence” where external events (e.g. card draws) appear from perception to correspond to internal psychological states.

T

Tableau (Tarot Card Layout)
A grid of tarot cards such as 3x3 or 5x5. Unlike a spread, there are no fixed positions (e.g. “advice”) for each card. Instead, interpretation often emerges through positional, dignitary, and correspondent relationships.

Theurgy
Esoteric practices aimed at communion with, or transformation by, Divine or higher intelligences. Intended to elevate the soul and unite it with higher realms. Distinguished from thaumaturgy: the attempt to produce merely instrumental or worldly magical effects.

Editor’s Note: In general occult discourse, theurgy often implies ritual actions. But within the context of the site, that implication should not be taken.

Theresa Reed (The Tarot Lady)
A professional reader and teacher who focuses on making tarot accessible, ethical, and grounded, with a strong emphasis on real-world application and business practice.

Thoth Tarot (Crowley)
Aleister Crowley's 1944 deck illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, synthesising Thelema, Egyptian mythology, astrology, and Qabalah into a complex system based on his 20th century religion, Thelema.

T. Susan Chang
A tarot and occult author who specialises in correspondences, symbolism, and magical applications, often focusing on the intersection of tarot with astrology and Qabalah.

Toby Skibinski
A neo-Hermetic mystic and tarot mentor. Creator of Toby’s Tarot Apprenticeship (this very website/project).

Toby’s Tarot Apprenticeship (tarotapprenticeship.com - this website)

A five year mentorship programme in the magical/occuult art of tarot divination (communication with the Divien). Designed for Western Occultists on the Right Hand Path (e.g. Hermeticists, Rosicrucians, Theosophists), it emphasizes selflessly motivated service over creating a full-time spiritual business.

W

Western Esotericism / Western Esoteric Tradition
A scholarly umbrella term for a set of historically connected religious, philosophical, and magical currents in the Western world (such as Hermetism, Gnosticism, Kabbalah, alchemy, ceremonial magic, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and related movements) that emphasise hidden knowledge (gnosis), symbolic correspondences, spiritual transformation, and often initiatory transmission.