A Lesson in Intuitive Tarot: December Tarot Meetup at Panera in Lutz

I expected a small group for our second-ever Tampa Bay Tarot Meetup at Panera Bread in Lutz on Sunday, December 7^th.  I had received a ton of emails; holiday parties, home renovations and seasonal sniffles were going to take a toll on our turnout.

I had a problem, too. Seasonal allergies had taken away my voice – literally. I woke up with laryngitis.

There were five of us at the meetup. Since things are rarely “accidents,” I interpreted my ailing throat as a sign I needed to let the students do the talking. Today, I wasn’t there to teach, I was there to listen and support.

This experience really taught me something important about teaching in general, and about teaching tarot in specific.

You see, I am an interpretive reader. That doesn’t mean I don’t use my psychic ability, or communicate with spirits, in a reading. I just believe that a solid knowledge of tarot archetypes and key words help to stimulate the intuition by giving us the language we need to accomplish the communication.

That means my tarot teaching is associative and interpretive. I ask my students to make associations between the Four Elements, numerology and astrology as they learn the cards, and I ask them to memorize key words.

As it turned out, none of my four attendees had memorized key words in their tarot toolbox. Worse, a few of them felt badly about that fact, sheepish that they hadn’t done their homework.

The theme of our meeting was “techniques practice.” Clearly, the only technique we could practice was intuitive reading.

Each person performed a short reading for another attendee. Then we did some group readings, where each person pulled a card and put them together to form a comprehensive answer. Finally, each person performed a seven-card reading for themselves.

This meetup had a lot of aha moments for everyone, but perhaps especially for me. In watching the students struggle with, and then master, the basic skills of intuitive reading, I realized the following important points to be true.

Whether from intuition or from past study, students know a lot more about the cards than they think they do. The anxiety of being “on the spot” in a reading, and of not having a solid memorized list of key words, seems to shut down the intuition.

Even beginning students need to focus on grounding, centering and breathing in order to tap in to the intuition and leave anxiety behind.

We can encourage students to notice different things about the cards by asking questions, such as “What color do you see most predominately?” or “What is this person doing in this image?” or “How does this image make you feel?”

The next step is encouraging the student to say what they feel.  Two of our student readers reported strong feelings that had turned out to be accurate. They were embarrassed to share those strong feelings at first.

After each person used their intuition (and whatever knowledge of the cards they had) to perform a reading, I had them look up the meanings of the cards in their books. They were pleased and surprised to see that their intuition had led them to give accurate readings, and that what they said about the cards was in fact extremely close to the book meanings.

I will continue to teach the importance of memorized meanings, archetypes and tarot study. At the same time, I will add some new teaching methods to my own toolbox.

Anxiety – the fear of being wrong – may be a new tarot student’s biggest enemy. Allowing students to look at the cards and simply say what they see very quickly helps them to see their own abilities, as well as the cards’ astounding abilities to give us truth.

Once that anxiety is gone and students feel free to communicate with their cards, the acquiring of the larger body of knowledge should come somewhat less painfully.

Sometimes I say the prayer, “Lord, put your hand over my mouth.” Well, this time the Lord did in fact silence me. In that silence, I learned something new about teaching tarot, and my students learned something about their own ability to read tarot.

Today my voice has returned.

Our next meeting of the Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup is February 1. Join us!

A Review of Chrysalis Tarot

Chrysalis Tarot

by Holly Sierra and Toney Brooks

Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Of all the decks published in 2014, Chrysalis Tarot was the one I anticipated most hotly. I love Holly Sierra’s artwork. Indeed, each of the seventy-eight cards that make up Chrysalis Tarot is a delightful piece of collectible of art.

The deck is medieval and ancient feeling, with pastel colors and many scenes from nature. Each card has an antiqued tan marbled border. When you put the cards together side-by-side, the borders blend in to one another, making a connected picture.

The card images are rich in texture and imagery. The colors and characters are cheerful, but not sticky-sweet.  Some of the scenes are fanciful, but not overly childish. Each image stimulates the imagination and the intuition.

Chrysalis Tarot is a standard-sized deck, packaged in the usual U.S. Games box with a 59-page Little White Book. The cards have a matte finish, and are on quality stock. The card backs are lovely, colorful and reversible, picturing two butterflies; one of the only obvious references to the “chrysalis” title of the deck.

The theme of Chrysalis Tarot is Otherworld Journeying.

The Major Arcana of Chrysalis Tarot belongs to the modern tradition of tarot I call “archetypal assignment.” In an archetypal assignment deck, the deck creator finds characters within a theme to fit the archetypes of tarot. In Kris Waldherr’s Goddess Tarot, for instance, each Major Arcana card is associated with a Goddess. In Lisa Hunt’s Ghosts and Spirits Tarot, each card is associated with a ghost story. Hunt and Waldherr each drew from cultures all over the world to find the right elements to fit the tarot archetypes. Other well-known archetypal assignment decks include Mythic Tarot, by Juliet Sharman-Burke, which uses characters from Ancient Greek mythology, and Ancestral Path Tarot, by Julie Cuccia-Watts, which uses four different world cultures to provide characters for the four suits.

The Court cards (in this deck, the Troupe) are my favorite illustrations. Each troupe character stands in a doorway of sorts. The doorway adds an extra border, which Sierra has decorated with flowers, flourishes and remarkable little scenes.

While the art of Chrysalis Tarot is simply outstanding, and the author, Toney Brooks, is clearly an excellent wordsmith, Chrysalis Tarot is non-traditional enough to present a few problems for some tarot traditionalists. I will be clear about my reaction to these problems in an effort to get Chrysalis Tarot into the hands of the people who will appreciate it, and to save the time and money of those who won’t.

The artist and author of Chrysalis Tarot, Holly Sierra and Toney Brooks, both claim some prior knowledge of tarot and metaphysics. They have intentionally created a deck where few of the old rules apply. Tarot traditionalists be warned, Chrysalis Tarot could make you angry. There could even be some argument over whether Chrysalis Tarot is indeed a tarot deck at all, or whether Diane Wilkes’ term “taroracle” (that is, an oracle loosely based on tarot) is more fitting.

I think there is a value to the study of non-traditional tarot decks. For example, Chrysalis Tarot re-imagines the Page of Pentacles as “The Acrobat.” For me to step out of my tried-and-true idea of who the Page of Pentacles is, and to try to imagine the Page of Pentacles as an acrobat, is a good tarot exercise. Either it will expand my understanding of the card to include these new ideas, or it will solidify my understanding of the card in a way that clearly defines what the card can and cannot symbolize for me.

Toney Brooks and Holly Sierra are working on a full-length companion book for Chrysalis Tarot. This is good news; if any deck ever needed or deserved a full-length book, it is this one.  The ways in which Brooks and Sierra see the cards might make more sense if we had more background information.

Very often in the LWB, the stated key words and interpretations for individual cards are quite different from any classic or accepted meanings in any tarot tradition with which I am familiar. That’s fine, but little effort has been made to explain the inspiration behind the change, or the filter that was used to decide which traditions would be honored, and which would be changed. I am hoping the full-length book will clear up a lot of this for the many tarot traditionalists (like me) who truly want to love this deck.

As it is, I have a very hard time understanding how the Knight of Pentacles could be “spontaneous” and “confusing,” or why Major Arcana 14, Temperance, is called “Golden Flower.” The assignment for Major Arcana 12, the Hanged Man, is “Celtic Owl.”  The owl, in Celtic lore, fits the theme of the deck as a keeper of the Otherworld. I’m not sure, archetypally, if this Celtic owl is an appropriate stand-in for the Hanged Man. Does this owl carry the same energy as Christ on the cross, or Odin on the tree, or yoga, or any of the other traditional associations for this card? I hope the book will answer the many thematic questions this deck presents.

It feels like an oxymoron that the artwork of Chrysalis Tarot is intricate and specific, and the thematic elements of the deck seem haphazard. While many of the characters in the Major Arcana are deities, some of characters are plants and animals that may be specific cultural symbols, but are not explained as such in the LWB. For instance, I had to Google on search terms “Golden Flower”, “Celtic Owl”, and “Divine Child” to make any sense of the Major Arcana at all. I learned that “Golden Flower” is an obscure cultural reference from the I Ching, but I am still not sure why it is the assignment chosen for Card 14, Temperance.

 “Divine Child” for Major Arcana 5, the Hierophant, is another problem for me.. “Divine Child” is certainly an archetype; it’s just not the same archetype as the Hierophant.

Likewise, Merlin and his cat for the Fool (in this deck, the Hero) makes me want to give up and go home. First, yes, technically, the Fool is a “hero” in that he is the protagonist of an epic journey. However, the Chariot is usually associated with the archetype of “Hero”. Generally, the Fool is an explorer. Any heroic actions on his part would be by virtue of being in the right place at the right time, rather than intent. Merlin’s age, and his role in legend, also makes him a poor choice for the Fool, in my opinion.

In the LWB, the first line to describe the card reads, “Merlin’s cuddly cat draws you at once into his mystery and magic.” Sierra and Brooks had all of world mythology, history and literature from which to draw an Everyman character and the best they could find was “Merlin’s cat.”

My favorite assignments are Kali as the Tower, Phoenix for Judgment and Ma’at for Justice (Card 8).  My favorite Major Arcana images are Gaia, the Empress and Golden Flower, Temperance.

The Minor Arcana suits of Chrysalis Tarot have standard elemental associations.  The suits are gently color-coded, which will be a boon for newer tarot students.

 The Water suit, traditionally Cups, is Mirrors. I like the idea of reflective mirrors for Water, although some of the images, though beautiful, are not terribly evocative of their traditional meanings.

For instance, the Ten of Mirrors is a colorful bird with ribbons. Attached to the ribbons are ten mirrors. The key word given in the book for this card is “Peace.” You have to stretch to make a connection with the traditional “love, family, friendship, home” meaning of the Ten of Cups. Those things are “peaceful,” but they are not “peace.” Traditionally, “Peace” is the key word of the Crowley Two of Swords, by contrast. It is many things like this that make Chrysalis Tarot feel a bit intellectually sloppy to me, an unhappy contrast to its precise and detailed artwork.

The Earth suit, traditionally Pentacles, is Stones. The pip Stone cards are quite appealing to me, especially the Four of Stones,  an ornate bejeweled treasure chest, too large to fit through a door, and blocking the path.

The Fire suit, traditionally Wands, is Spirals. The Air suit, traditionally Swords, is Scrolls. I love the art in the Wands suit; Holly Sierra’s style is curvy and curly, with flourishes and details. The spirals feel textured and tactile. What I don’t like about Spirals and Scrolls for Wands and Swords is how very feminine the icons are. Traditionally, the masculine suits have phallic icons for a reason. Their absence weakens the energy of the deck for me.

Not all of the pip cards bear pictures of people. Some are animals, or forest scenes. Each of the pips is evocative enough to tell a story. Sometimes the obvious story easily matches the standard and familiar interpretation of the card, sometimes not.

The Court of Chrysalis Tarot is called the “Troupe”. Each of the sixteen characters has a unique name, like “The Acrobat” for the Page of Pentacles, or “The Sojourner” for the King of Cups. Again, I would love to know more about the process Sierra and Brooks used to find these particular names. My favorite images in the deck are the “Troupe” cards, but until I know the reasons behind their transformation, it is hard for me to embrace them. Many of their names don’t feel like a natural fit for me. For instance, why would a King “sojourn”? I would think, archetypally, “sojourning” would be the realm of Knights.

Chrysalis Tarot will be a wonderful deck for intuitive readers who don’t work with set interpretations, and for anyone who loves beautifully illustrated card oracles.

A new reader could easily work with the LWB and find Chrysalis Tarot a wonderful tool for divination, magick and personal growth. However, they would not be able to make an easy leap to any standard tarot deck without having to learn the traditional tarot associations.

Serious tarot readers may love the artwork enough to ignore the smarmy teardrop on the Sun (and many other annoyances) and find ways to work with Chrysalis Tarot. I’ve already done a few successful readings with this alluring deck.

Chrysalis Tarot is the perfect tarot deck for someone who doesn’t completely resonate with tarot, but wants a structured card oracle.

This deck proves it possible to love tarot and not care at all about the archetypes, just as it is possible to love tarot and not delve into the Kabbalistic or astrological associations. If you aren’t attached to the tarot archetypes, and don’t use them in your readings, you will very likely love Chrysalis Tarot.

Tarotists who work with archetypes may wish that Sierra and Brooks would use their astounding talents to create a tarot deck that more fully respects time-honored tarot traditions, or that more clearly and understandably defines a new tradition.

Chrysalis Tarot has enough substance to make you think. Some folks will enjoy the pretty pictures, some will get angry about the blatant disregard for tradition, and some will enjoy the opportunity to stretch a little.

Watch the video to see the deck images.

Christiana Gaudet Reviews Chrysalis Tarot

Video of Christiana Gaudet Reviews Chrysalis Tarot

How Sacred are Tarot Archetypes?

A question comes up often amongst tarotists about what denotes a tarot deck. Tarot author Diane Wilkes has created a helpful term to describe card oracles whose structure is tarot-based, but whose adherence to the traditional archetypes is too loose to be tarot. She calls them “taroracles.”

There are many opinions, and many arguments, about whether there is a “one true tarot,” and, if so, which tarot tradition that might be. When we look at the three primary tarot traditions, Crowley-Harris-Thoth, Rider-Waite-Smith and Tarot de Marseilles, we see that, although the differences between these decks are vast, the basic concept of each archetype remains fairly consistent.

In contrast, many modern deck artists and authors rename the Major Arcana cards. The Devil becomes “Chains” or “Materialism.” Judgment becomes “Rebirth.”  Death becomes “Transition,” or “Release.” The Tower becomes “Life Experience.” The Hierophant becomes “Faith.”

Some deck creators may have a desire to replace words that are not in our daily vocabulary, like “Hierophant,” with words that are. To me, this seems like an unnecessary “dumbing down” of tarot. It should not be a stretch for a budding tarotist to have to learn a few new words.

Some deck creators are “softening” the darker images. They may want to appeal to tarot readers and clients who would prefer not to see dark and dire images, or have to confront words like “death.”

There are two questions we need to ask.

Does the dumbing down or cheering up of tarot make tarot less effective? 

Does the re-imagining of tarot archetypes make a deck any less a tarot deck?

I think the answers to both of these questions are entirely subjective. Different tarotists will have different opinions. Perhaps acquiring enough tarot knowledge to formulate an opinion is what qualifies us to claim a title like “tarot expert.”

I find value in the darker cards, and in the traditional titles. I wince a little when I see a tarot deck that seems watered-down, or that clearly does not adhere to traditional archetypes.

However, I do not think that such decks harm the body of tarot overall. I worry that new readers may get a skewed understanding of tarot if they begin with a non-traditional deck. On the other hand, I think non-traditional decks bring some people to tarot who would not have otherwise been open to the cards.

In the end, I think every tarot deck, even those I don’t personally enjoy, brings value to the body of tarot knowledge, and to our community.  The tarot archetypes are indeed sacred. However, no true damage is done when an artist chooses to express them in an unusual way. There will always be enough traditionalists in the world to preserve the historic and original integrity of tarot.

That some people are inspired to create a next generation of tarot art is testament to tarot’s ability to be a constant and fresh source of creative and spiritual inspiration. There are decks I don’t like. There are decks of which I do not approve. However, there is no deck that could be created that would not, in some way, add value to the world of tarot for someone.

A Review of Japaridze Tarot

Japaridze Tarot

by Nino Japardize

Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Review by Christiana Gaudet

From Franco-Georgian surrealist artist Nino Japaridze, art dealer Steve Lucas, and U.S. Games comes what may well be the most interesting and important tarot deck of 2014.

The Japaridze Tarot, by Nino Japaridze, joins the Dali Universal as a serious contribution to the tarot world from a popular surrealist artist.

The first thing you will notice about Japaridze Tarot is its exquisite packaging and presentation. This deck and book set come in an artistic keepsake box. The 175-page accompanying book is no simple little while book.  Art dealer Steve Lucas, who collaborated on the tarot project from its beginning, wrote the Japaridze Tarot book.  Color images of each of the seventy-eight cards illustrate the book. The book includes two original tarot spreads by Lynn Araujo and Jody Boginski.

The cards themselves are equally impressive. They are oversized, and richly colored. The reversible card backs have a Celtic-feeling design and deeply textured coloring.

With the holiday season upon us, it is important to note that the Japaridze Tarot is a thoughtful and affordable gift for the art-lovers on your shopping list, even if they are not tarot aficionados. Japaridze Tarot will be great fun on anyone’s coffee table, and would be a great icebreaker at sophisticated cocktail parties.

The card images are beautiful, colorful, deep and evocative. The images span a wide variety of art styles and media. In some ways, this makes the deck feel a bit inconsistent. Some of the images are clearly recognizable as the cards they are, and slightly reminiscent of Waite images. Other cards are re-interpretations of the archetypes. Some of the images are incredibly clever.  The Three of Fire, for instance, is a hot air balloon.

Although neither Lucas nor Japaridze have a background in tarot, the images and text of Japaridze Tarot are deep, thoughtful and evocative. Steve Lucas’ writing style is personal and readable. Japaridze’s cultural experience may be evident in her interpretation of a few cards, but so is her obvious understanding of the tarot archetypes.

The Minor Arcana of Japaridze Tarot honors the Four Elements.  The names of the four suits reflect their element. Swords, the suit of Air, is Winds.  Cups, the suit of Water, is Tides. Wands, the suit of Fire, is Fire, and Pentacles, the suit of Earth, is Gardens.

The Court ranks are King, Queen, Stranger and Jester. I like the obvious lack of gender identity for the Knight and Page cards. It is interesting to consider the Knight, who travels from place to place, as the Stranger. To me, this may reflect the artist’s journey from the country of her birth to the country that became her home. I had never thought of the Knight as a stranger, but of course, he is.

I’m less happy with the Pages as Jesters, but appreciate the artist’s desire to present the playful side of the Pages.

There are some interesting changes in the Major Arcana, too.  The Emperor is colored primarily in black and white, a stark contrast to the lovely colors and textures in the other cards. The card is renamed “War.” This is Japaridze’s comment on authoritarian masculinity. To me, this highlights only a portion of the Emperor archetype. This seems to be a deliberate choice of the artists rather than a shallow understanding of the card.

The Hanged Man is oddly called “The Drowned,” to reflect the subconscious nature of this card. It’s true that the Hanged Man is associated with the element of Water, and does describe a subconscious process. Time will tell if the renaming of this card changes its impact for me in a reading.

The term “art deck” is often used in the tarot community to describe beautiful, artistic decks that aren’t exactly readable. Art decks are more of interest to collectors than to tarot readers. Japaridze is of the rare breed of art deck that is both collectable and supremely readable. The art of Nino Japaridze lends itself beautifully to the soulful and intuitive process of card divination. The lens through which Japaridze and Lucas see tarot brings a new depth to my own understanding of the Fool’s Journey.

Watch the video to see the deck images.

Christiana Gaudet Reviews Japaridze Tarot

Video of Christiana Gaudet Reviews Japaridze Tarot

A New Tarot Meetup is Born

The online tarot community can be an important part of a tarotist’s educational, professional, spiritual and social life. For tarotists who live in remote areas, the online community may be the only connection to tarot friends they have.

Nonetheless, there is something satisfying and unique about meeting with an in-person tarot group.

The Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup had its first meeting on Sunday, November 9, at Panera in Lutz.

Meetup is a wonderful website that helps us find things to do and people to do them with. It’s cheap for organizers, and free to join. Simply log in, enter your interests and your city and see what you find!

Organizing a tarot meetup isn’t a business decision, it’s a labor of love.

To begin our first meeting we each chose one card with which to introduce ourselves. The card could be chosen cognitively or at random, or could be a personal significator. The card could be who you are today, or who you are always.

As we went around the table, we each spoke about our own card, and then gave the group a chance to speak about each person’s card. In this way, we learned more about the cards, and more about each other.

One person discovered his personal significator as he did this exercise!

Of the nine of us who were there, three of us chose the Queen of Cups. Overall, the Queen of Cups perfectly describes the synergy, empathy, intuition, compassion and flow of our first meeting.

Our next meeting will be December 7^th. We’ve decided to focus on performing and observing readings to share practical reading techniques.

Join the meetup, and join us!