Monday at PantheaCon 2008
Monday morning, I awoke to find that the cold had settled in my throat, giving me a voice that more than one person told me sounded like Tallulah Bankhead’s. This is not an entirely bad thing – if one is making movies – but wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for teaching.
Digging around in my traveling medical kit, I found some cold medicine from my last trip to the UK, and washed it down with coffee at breakfast. Mistake! About five minutes later, I felt kind of funny. Checking the package after I returned to the room, I (re)discovered that the cold medicine contains caffeine, which I’d managed to forget in the intervening months. I did some deep breathing and had managed to regain some equilibrium by the time I reached the room to teach my class.
I was delighted to have a good crowd of people show up while I was still setting up. We chatted and had a good time. My podcast co-hosts – Rosered, Artemis, and Andrew – arrived, wearing polo shirts embroidered with the Tarot-To-Go logo, just like the one they’d given me on Saturday! What a wonderful surprise!
In spite of the excess caffeine and the Tallulah Bankhead voice, I managed to make a coherent and fun presentation on the topic of “Tarot by the Numbers”. We talked about the meaning of numbers in the Tarot in our familiar western European system, and also compared meanings across a variety of philosophical/cultural orientations. The time flew by, people asked great questions, and suddenly the room monitor was popping in to give me a five minute warning! People came up afterward and continued to ask questions, and we talked as I packed up. I felt quite good about the workshop, and am planning to present it again (in a somewhat expanded version) in April in San Francisco – I just have to confirm the venue, and then I’ll announce it here. Stay tuned for details!