I’m delighted to announce that the fabulous DVD – 21st Century Tarot, featuring James Wanless, produced by our sister company, Tarot Media Company, is now available via Amazon.com!

The Tarot-To-Go crew (me, Rose Red, Andrew, and Artemis J) were scheduled to read at the Valhalla Renaissance Faire in South Lake Tahoe the first two weekends of June.  This is a wonderful event for us – reading Tarot in one of the most beautiful places on earth, having fun, and making money!  Really, what more could one want?

The faire – and our booth – had good crowds both weekends.  The weather was perfect (okay, it was really cold at night, but we stayed at a local hotel, so we stayed warm!), the crowds receptive, and we did some greart readings.

I did a reading for two young women (probably around 15 years old) who wanted to know if they’d be BFF. I’ve spent enough time trying to explain the internet to my grandmother that even I knew that means “best friends forever”.  I explained that the cards had so much more to offer than just yes/no answers, and suggested we look at how their friendship would grow as they grew.  Marcy started with a cup and ended with a wand; Kelly started with a wand and ended with a cup; and they both had a major in the middle.  My interpretation was that they had complementary strengths and skills, and common interests, which provided a strong foundation for their friendship.  I also told them it seemed to me that the cards were suggesting that as they each grew and changed, they would experience personal transformations which would allow them to better understand each other and add richness to their friendship.  They seemed very pleased, and wandered off, arm in arm, to see what further adventures awaited them in the day.

I received a follow up visit from a client who’d had a reading last year and who was not happy with the outcome – she had received the Hanged Man as the outcome card, and was terrifically distraught that there wasn’t a quick, easy answer.  She came back this year to tell me that the cards had been right, even though she hadn’t wanted to hear it – that, a year ago, there really wan’t anything for her to do but wait until the situation changed.  The situation has changed, and while it’s not ideal, it’s changed sufficiently that she has been able to action to create further improvement.

The other reading that stood out for me was one for a man who was wondering about his love life (his phrasing, not mine!).  The cards turned up a lot of masculine energy – Kings and Knights, swords and aces all over the place – and no feminine energy. Not a Queen or cup to be seen.  My suggestion to him was to consider what was creating this resistance to feminine energy – after all, if you want to attract a woman into your life, you have to be receptive to feminine energy – and to be honest with himself whether now was really the time to be looking for a relationship, or if he needed to do some work to clarify what he really needs at the moment.  He then acknowledged that he’d just come out of a bad relationship, which in turn had been a rebound from a messy divorce, and that maybe his brain was running ahead of the rest of him in looking for a new relationship.

All in all, it was a pleasant and successful (both artistically and financially) event, and well worth the time!

Pagan Tarot

Gina M. Pace

Lo Scarabeo Publishing

A friend of mine who has been looking for a deck recently found the Pagan Tarot. She had tried other decks but this one jumped out at her. She wanted to share it with me and thought it would be a great deck to review for Tarot Pathways.

It is a Lo Scarabeo deck so every card has a border with the title of the card in 4 languages, one version in each corner of the card. The focus of the art in this deck is on learning and becoming a member of a Wiccan Coven. The Major Arcana follows a young woman on her path to gaining understanding and enlightenment through her Wicca studies and Coven members. The Minor Arcana focus on the trials and tribulations the young witch faces in her daily life. Each card shows how the different symbols set the scene for her and help her deal with the situations shown.

I looked at this deck as a good way to show how one might incorporate the dealings of one’s spirituality into one’s daily life. It is focused on Wicca specifically but can be used by any reader. I enjoyed how the artist focused on single individual throughout the deck to tell the story of one woman’s spiritual journey. It gives a new view on the “Fool’s Journey” as seen in other decks.

The special edition set includes a satin bag and book which discusses the cards and their meanings. It also includes a few spreads such as the Short and Sweet Pentagram Spread (5 cards) and the Wiccan Cross which is a 20 card spread.

It is a deck readers can use to connect Tarot and their Wicca studies.

Today – May 25 – is World Tarot Day! If you don’t know about WTD, I recommend visiting Den Elder‘s site to find out the details.

Since we were busy finishing up the James Wanless video, we ran out of time to put together a World Tarot Day event this year – but stay tuned for 2009!

I hope you’re celebrating WTD in a way that’s fun for you!

Tarot-To-Go continued its tradition of reading at The Pagan Alliance Festival in Berkeley, California on May 10, 2008. The day dawned bright and early (suddenly, it’s summer!). Rose Red and Andrew met me at my house very early, we loaded up the tent and furniture, and off to Berkeley we went!

The festival is one of our favorite events, and we look forward to it each year. The crowd is always friendly and enthusiastic, and the people watching opportunities are unsurpassed – it is Berkeley, after all!

We set up in good time, with only a minor hitch (how is it possible to lose a box of 500 safety pins?!), and everyone did their warm ups, physical and otherwise, before the readings started. The event officially started at 10:00, but of course being in an open park, the public showed up earlier.

I realized I’d left our flyers at home (the hazards of packing early in the morning before I’ve had coffee!). Thing were pretty quiet, so I drove home to pick them up. I returned an hour later, and all the tables were full, there was a line and a waiting list! Andrew was managing it all quite calmly, and I took my place at the front table to catch up on the scheduling and payment tracking. A half hour later, it was quiet again. Artemis J says I’m making this up, but I swear it’s what happens at this event – when I’m at the booth, there’s not a client to be found; as soon as I leave, business picks up and the readers are constantly busy – until I return to the booth, and it dies down again. So, since it was quiet, I left the booth and wandered around to see who else was there and check out the altars set up for the event.

I returned to the very busy booth a half hour later, and then all was suddenly quiet. So I went for another walk. I did finally return to the booth so Andrew could have a break – holding down the front desk takes a lot of energy!

Things stayed busy as long as I stayed away – but I don’t take it personally. They also stay busy when I’m reading, which I was able to do a bit as well.

We had a great time, everyone read as much as they wished during the day, and we made a lot of new friends – definitely a day well spent!

Since all four of us have started blogging regularly, I’ve started to add article attributions in the title of each post. Yes, the name of the author appears in tiny type under the article title, but this way you can see the authors’ names more easily as you scan the page.

You can always pull up all articles by a particular contributor by using the handy links under “Categories” on the left side of the page.

I haven’t tagged my articles, since there’s rather a substantial number to go back and edit. So, if there’s no attribution in the post title, it’s one I wrote. I’d rather spend the time writing new posts than editing old ones!

If you have a suggestion for making it easier to indicate the author of each piece, let me know!

Anastasia

A friend of mine is facing a trip to visit her rather difficult family – during Mercury Retrograde. She asked me if I had any thoughts about using Tarot to help her deal with it. I came up with the following spread:

          3          1
               5
          2          4

With the cards face up, pull the following:
1. One card that represents your hopes about the trip (easy travel, nice time with your brother, etc.).
2. One card that represents your fears about the trip (being stuck overnight in the airport in Duluth, for example).

With the cards face down:
3. Shuffle the deck, thinking about how to overcome your fears. Pull a card – it will tell you ways to deal with them.
4. Shuffle the deck again, thinking about how to realize your hopes. Pull a card – it will tell you how to do that.
5. huffle the deck one more time, thinking about one thing you can do to take care of yourself *right now*. Pull a card, and do what it tells you.

Next time you’re facing anxiety about a trip, try this and let me know what you think!

We are delighted to announce that the first episode of 21st Century Tarot, featuring James Wanless, Ph.D., is now available through our affiliate, Tarot Media Company!

The video features an interview with Dr. Wanless, hosted by Anastasia Hayler, our Executive Director, and highlights from Dr. Wanless’ workshop at the World Tarot Day event hosted by Tarot-To-Go on May 26, 2007, in San Francisco, California.

With his wisdom, humor, and insight, Dr. Wanless speaks to the value of traditional Tarot, with an updated perspective for the complexities of life in the 21st century.

As a special for Tarot Pathways readers, if you order before May 15, 2008, you’ll receive free standard shipping and no sales tax!

For more information, you can visit the Tarot Media Company website at www.TarotMediaCompany.com.

Or you can order it directly by clicking below:

The wake up call at 6:15 am Saturday didn’t register immediately as a signal that I was supposed to get out of bed. A few minutes later, the Darling Husband gently nudged me and asked if I was still planning to go to the Breakfast Roundtable with Robert M. Place – since “a few minutes” was actually a full hour later, leaving me 15 minutes to shower, dress, and hightail it downstairs to the class. I managed it in 25 minutes, still giving me 5 minutes to actually get to the class.

Except that the class was not in the Atrium, as scheduled. Nor in the restaurant. Nor in the main event room. Perplexed (how does one lose an entire group of Tarotists that early in the morning?), and in desperate need of food and coffee, I made my way to the hotel restaurant. Even though I didn’t find the group (they ended up meeting in the bar, as a more private area than the Atrium), I did find breakfast and coffee, and managed to be mostly functional in time for the first regular morning session.

The morning was devoted to a session led by San Francisco’s very own Thalassa. Always entertaining, Thalassa also provided a great deal of information and ideas about working with the difficult cards of Wheel of Fortune, Hanged Man, Death, Tower, and Judgment. She created a spread based on these cards, and we as a table did a reading for Andrew with the spread. I’ll let him choose whether to share the spread, since it was his reading.

Then a break for lunch and shopping – I browsed, but didn’t buy – so many choices, and so many decks and books at home that I haven’t worked with yet!

The afternoon session was led by James Wells, who is an excellent example for anyone who wants to make a full time living as a professional Tarot reader. James focused on constructing useful questions to improve the answers found in the reading. Everyone knows that the more focused and powerful the question, the more focused and powerful the reading will be. James suggested that “why” questions – one of the weakest ways to phrase a question – can be rephrased as “what” questions – to give them much more potential.

James led us through two excellent exercises. The layout for the first one:
5

3 4

1 2

1. What resources support you

2. What obstacles block you

3. Advantages of this path

4. Disadvantages of this path

5. What the wise self wants you to know about this.
Shuffle and pull the first card – and then move the first card through the entire layout. It was a great exercise for us as a table, seeing both the advantages and disadvantages in the same card, and really having to quiet the internal chatter to hear what was going on underneath.

The second exercise was to come up with a topic for a question, but not the question itself. Then we went around the room to at least three different people, told them our topic, and then they gave us five or so questions for that topic. You then ended up with 15 – 25 questions on your topic, from which you selected the five which most fit your situation. I received some great questions from my partners (and hope the questions I gave them were helpful!), and constructed a spread which specifically addressed my question and could also be adapted for general reading.

We were all energized by all this moving around and exchanging of questions and ideas, and then suddenly the afternoon session was over! The evening presented so many options – a pizza party with the Amberstones, evening sessions with other teachers, socializing in the Atrium – how to choose? I went back to my room for a bit of quiet time, treated myself to a nice dinner, a hot bath, and an early bed. The desire to be sociable was strong – but not as strong as the need for rest – after all, a full day on Sunday was still ahead!

While I had no clear recollection of the wake up call actually arriving, the Darling Husband assured me it had, “more than a few minutes ago”. Looking at the clock display of 7:15 confirmed he was correct. (Some day, I look forward to writing a post about a conference that does not include the words “jet lag”.) We managed to find our way downstairs for food and coffee, and then back to the room for showers. (I’m a danger to myself and others if I attempt to deal with running water and/or sharp objects before I’ve dealt with my blood sugar and caffeine levels.)

DH was off to Manhattan for yet more business meetings, and I was looking forward to a day of Tarot adventures. After a brisk round of emails, phone calls, and quotidiana, I once again found myself racing down in the elevator with 15 minutes to spare before the first class, hoping this would not become a theme of the conference. (It did.)

Rosered, Andrew, and Artemis J had explored the vendor rooms, and then found us a table with a good view of the speaker’s platform and good proximity to the beverage service. Rounding out our table were four women, all from the East Coast, and all returning from prior visits to the event. I found myself sitting next to the talented and charming Gail Wood, which was a delightful surprise!

After a warm welcome and introductions by RuthAnn and Wald Amberstone, each of the presenters was brought onstage for a short interview and overview of their class. First up was Kevin Quigley, who talked about how his job as an underutilized web designer was a significant boost to his Tarot career. Next up was San Francisco’s very own Thalassa, interviewed by the fabulous Mary Collin, riffing on Tarot as a subversive activity. Last, and certainly not least, was the delightful James Wells, priming us for his class on the construction of the question as the key to doing a good reading.

Wald then led us through creation of a foundation reading, which we would revisit during and at the end of the conference with the same partner to see what new meanings we found in it based on what we had learned each day. Artemis and I paired up, and he read for me first. I then did his reading, and, not being sure of the layout I wanted to use, I made up this one on the spot:

      5
2 1 4 3

1. Where you are.
2. What’s holding you back.
3. Where you want to go.
4. Obstacle(s) blocking your path.
5. Bridge over the obstacle(s).

Anticipating a lively session with Kevin in the afternoon, we adjourned for the lunch break. I raced back to the room to do a status check on the various things which had not quite been resolved the day prior, then back downstairs to eat before the next session.

Kevin’s approach to Tarot is delightfully eclectic and creative. He focuses his practice on becoming what he terms “The Empowered Person”, leading to an integrated, complete life.

With a fabulously colorful handout full of all kinds of information (who before Kevin had thought to create Luncheon Meat associations for each of the four Kabbalistic worlds?!), Kevin led us through several exercises. For me, the most interesting one involved a seven card semicircular spread based on Kevin’s “bathtub of life” to give us information about our style when reading for others. The first card represents Recognition – do you really see your client? The second card was about Welcome – do you truly welcome the client to your environment?

Card three is about interaction – how do you interact with the client during the session? Card four represents the Counsel phase of the reading – how (or if) you interpret the cards or advise the client.

Card five is about reflection – both yours and your client’s reflection on the session after it ends. Do you rite about your readings? Do you follow up with the client, especially if a difficult issue came up in the reading?

Card six represents the integration of the reading – for the client, into their life; for the reader, into their personal wisdom and their Tarot practice.

Card seven is completion; being able to take what you can from the reading, and achieve closure.

Kevin discussed the medieval concept of the Four Humors (or Four Temperaments) and how they relate to Tarot reading. Each table had a quiz, and by scoring one’s answers to the quiz, one could find out where one’s traits fell into the four groups. Our table discovered that none of us were any one thing – that most of us had two temperaments into which most of our answers fell, with a few outliers in one of the remaining two areas. Kevin thoughtfully provided stickers so we could add them to our nametags to let everyone know where we fell on the scale. (I’m predominantly choleric, with a touch of melancholic. I blame it on early exposure to Beethoven and Wagnerian opera as a child.)

After Kevin’s session, a bit of quiet time in the room to decompress and process the day was just the thing. Then dinner was *definitely* the thing – all that reading makes one hungry! After dinner was the cocktail party in the Atrium, and then a late night session with Elizabeth Genco on marketing your Tarot business. The workshop was great – everyone had so many ideas to share about what does (and doesn’t!) work, how to reach different types of clients, and how to present yourself ethically. Elizabeth really knows her stuff, and it was a pleasure to be in her workshop!

And then, it was 11:00, and as much fun as adjourning to the party sounded, being awake for Saturday’s sessions trumped the party, and I called it a night.