Sunday at TABI 2008
Elizabeth Hazel led off Sunday’s workshops with Tarot and Astrology. Even going at breakneck speed (I haven’t written that fast in a class since my Roman History seminar at university!), we weren’t able to cover everything before lunch. Elizabeth covered astrological associations with Tarot, focusing on the major arcana, and talked about incorporating knowledge of your client’s birth chart into the reading. Even if you’re not a professional astrologer working with a full chart, just knowing your client’s Sun, Moon, and Ascendant signs adds depth to a reading and gives the client additional information to work with.
A short break for lunch – everyone was quite eager to start again – and back to it! Elizabeth had prepared charts for some attendees who had volunteered their information prior to the conference. She gave a detailed reading of the chart, along with suggestions on how to use the chart information to provide more detail in a Tarot reading. She didn’t have time to go over all of the charts she prepared, but the ones she was able to do were fascinating.
Michaele Wynn Jones finished the afternoon with a talk on Numerology. She explained how she’d come to it, and how to figure out one’s birthday number (the numbers of one’s birthdate added together), destiny number (add up the values of the vowels in your full name), personality number (add up the values of the consonants in your full name), expression number (add up the values of all the letters in your name), and maturity number (the reduced total of your full name and birth date numbers). She goes by the Pythagorean system, which uses only 1 – 9 (with a few master numbers). The correspondence chart is very easy – A = 1, B = 2, and so on, repeating the 1 – 9 sequence throughout the alphabet.
Knowing those numbers, one can then be aware of them when they turn up in a Tarot reading – or note when none of those numbers are present. She emphasized that one should use the full legal name on one’s birth certificate. If for some reason it isn’t known, then the person’s current full legal name can be used, although the result will be somewhat different. She said that for women who changed their last names upon marriage, using their married name to figure out their numbers would give them insight into what they took on with their husband’s family when they married. Since I kept my maiden name when I married, I didn’t do those calculations – although I might, just to see what comes up!
However, due to a legal name change, my birth name and current name are different, so I ran the numbers for both names. My destiny number changes from a 6 to a 3; my personality number changes from an 8 to a 6; the expression number changes from 9 to an 11/2 (11 is a master number with extra meanings, and also reduces to 2). I’m going to have to work with this some more to figure out what this really means. (And then redo the numbers with my husband’s family name to see how that turns out!)
We then had a bit of time for talking about the workshops, exchanging addresses, and saying leisurely good-byes. Mark the Friendly Cab Driver appeared promptly at 4:30 to whisk me off to the train station. I spent the 2-1/2 hour trip to London contemplating the weekend and all I’d learned (and, of course, admiring the beautiful green countryside rolling by). Off the First Great Western train on Platform 5 at Paddington, onto the Heathrow Express train on Platform 7 (so convenient!), and off to the hotel for the night.
Wanting to be as near as possible to the airport for my morning flight, I spent the night at the Yotel in Terminal 4. It’s a very clever idea – compact rooms, available by the hour, and with all the basics a traveler needs – shower, bed, internet connectivity, and lots of outlets for charging electronics. The Yotel offers room service – food, beverage, and Muji items! (If you’ve never had the opportunity to shop at a Muji store, you must check it out online – it’s a whole new way of approaching utilitarian objects for everyday use.) Yotel was perfect for my purposes – I didn’t need a gigantic hotel room for the 10 hours between arriving and leaving again – and much more reasonably priced than a traditional hotel (especially in London, and especially near an airport). While I wouldn’t recommend it for a long stay – which it’s not designed for, anyway – for purposes of a layover, it is perfect!
A quick 74 hours total in the UK- but the conference was worth it!
I’m writing this last post on the plane, and will upload it once I have connectivity. And back to work tomorrow!