Welcome to my personal blog.
Here you will find my musings, thoughts and observations, all inspired by my experiences as a full-time professional tarot reader.
Another Successful Psychic Foodraiser: Holiday Open House 2015
The Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup's Holiday Open House was a huge success! Read about it, and see the pictures.
On December 20, 2015, I was able to revive an old and favorite holiday tradition of mine, the Holiday Open House.
Early in my career, the Open House was simply a day during the holiday season when I would give free readings and holiday snacks to anyone who stopped by. I remember my young children (they are now adults) dressed up in their fanciest clothes to serve cookies and soda to the guests as they waited to see me for a holiday reading.
Eventually, as I started to build tarot community, the Open House became a group project for a great cause. My students and colleagues worked with me to raise toys, funds and food for the needy.
Over the years, I have held the Holiday Open House in a number of locations, including six locations in Connecticut and two in Pennsylvania. There were some years I held two Open House in separate locations, in order to serve as many people as possible
After moving to West Palm Beach, I held the event in the Harvey Building where I had my office. In the five years I kept my office there the event grew to an enormous size. Our 2012 Open House featured twenty-two readers and healers, and raised 600 pounds of food.
Our volunteer host, Brenda, organizing 600 pounds of food in the lobby of the Harvey Building at the 2012 Holiday Open House.
Now that I’ve opened my office in the Tampa area and founded the Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup, it seemed time to revive the Open House tradition. This time I chose a different kind of venue- the private room at Beef O’Brady’s in Land O’ Lakes. I hadn’t thought about the advantages of having food and libations available, but now I see it as a definite plus!
Regardless of Beef’s tempting menu, the snack table at the event was full of treats provided by our attendees. A number of people did enjoy a bit of holiday cheer from the bar during the afternoon’s festivities.
Our volunteers for the event were fabulous. We had amazing professional readers, including Beverly Frable, Michael Newton-Brown, Jan, Brenda and Lori, who read for folks throughout the day. These pro readers did a wonderful job sharing their skills with the many people who stopped by.
We also had a new student, Michele, working with Lenormand cards. She kept pace with the pros and received great feedback! There is nothing like reading for the public to let you know you’ve got what it takes to be a reader. Helping readers develop their skills is a definite side benefit of these Open House events.
Three wonderful readers made time to stop by to share a few readings during the day. We were honored to have Erika, Magda and Aria Sparrowsong with us for a few hours.
One of our tarot meetup members, Joy, offered a unique service. She is a calligraphy artist, and created colorful tags with special words for people. It was fun to see the words folks chose. Some did their name, or a concept or theme they wanted to keep in focus.
One person asked the Universe for guidance as to what words she should use. The message that came to her was “New Beginnings.” Then, she sat down to have an oracle reading. The first card drawn in the reading was called “New Beginnings!’
I was really happy with the level of support from our meetup members. Everyone who was available stopped by and helped out. Marianne and her daughter stayed all day to help me host!
The local community turned out in force, all ready to enjoy a day of fun and insight, and to help the needy.
Our crew of volunteers also included a coworker of mine from Origins Spa and Wellness Center. Rochelle did an amazing job giving ten-minute chair massages.
Our volunteers provided their services for free, in exchange for donations of food. The next day, I brought our collection of food and cash to Feeding America Tampa Bay. Our donations equaled 1,092 meals for local area families. It really feels good to make such a substantial contribution!
Afterwards, in the spirit of TarotCon, some of us stayed for a “Survivor’s Dinner” at Beef’s. The fellowship and fun continued, even after the Open House had officially ended.
The following week, I heard feedback from someone who had attended the Open House and taken the time to sit with each reader. A few readers mentioned a pregnancy around her. She is well past the age for pregnancy, and wondered why this message kept coming up. At Christmas dinner with her family, a pregnancy was announced. It became clear that my friend would have a special role in this child’s life, just as many of our readers had foreseen!
Thanks to everyone who volunteered and to everyone who participated. We’ll continue the tradition next year.
Enjoy the pictures from the event below, and, if you are in the area, make sure to join the Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup!
Learning about Lenormand at the Tampa Bay Area Tarot Meetup
There is always more for us to learn about divination and cartomancy!
Cards from Pixie's Astounding Lenormand by Edmund Zebrowski.
One of the things we are doing in our (still relatively new) tarot meetup is asking our members to share their knowledge in little ways, and in big ways.
Everyone shares their knowledge in little ways during discussions, and when we read for each other.
Many of our members are agreeing to share in big ways by teaching sessions on tarot, astrology, Lenormand and other areas of interest to our group.
Yesterday, Bridget Fortune Burns led a session on Lenormand.
I’ve been a tarot reader for more than twenty years. However, my skill with tarot does not necessarily easily translate to Lenormand – it’s a very different system. I’ve been struggling for a while to add this skill to my toolbox. Yesterday’s class with Bridget really resulted in some breakthroughs for me.
At the end of the session, I was able to perform a nine-card Lenormand reading for myself that was accurate and insightful, and I was able to help another group member interpret her spread.
Bridget helped us make Lenormand flash cards, and taught us to understand the court cards.
Here are some things I learned.
It is important to memorize the number associated with each Lenormand card.
Although there are not suits, as in tarot, the numbers are still important. That’s because the Lenormand cards also become the “houses” of the grand tableau.
In Lenormand, as in astrology, houses are essentially departments of life. So the first card in a grand tableau is the house of the Rider, the second is the house of the Clover, and so on. I had known this, but it hadn’t really made sense until yesterday.
This reminded me that Marcus Katz taught us a similar technique with tarot at TarotCon (Florida) 2015. In this technique, we used three tarot cards to create spread positions into which we drew other tarot cards at random.
Bridget also stressed the importance of memorizing key words. I am a huge fan of tarot key words, so that makes sense to me.
Next, we learned about the Court cards of Lenormand. We discussed the people that the twelve Lenormand Court cards might represent, and the general meanings associated with the suits.
Finally, Bridget shared her method for performing a nine-card reading with Lenormand.
By the end of our two hours at Panera, I was feeling a lot more comfortable with using the Lenormand for divination. I can see a time when I will incorporate these cards into my professional readings.
One of the best parts of gathering together with tarot friends is the opportunity to learn from each other. Fostering a cooperative environment of learning and sharing among readers is an important part of building community.
If you are in the Tampa Bay Area, please join our meetup!
What if Waite and Crowley had Social Media?
For the tarot blog hop, some thoughts about Waite and Crowley, and our online interactions.
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The Wheel has turned, and it's time again for the Tarot Blog Hop. In keeping with the theme of Samhain/Halloween/Day of the Dead, our wrangler, Arwen, has asked us to write about a loved one or historical figure in spirit, and make a connection to tarot. We are to use tarot to “commune, communicate, commemorate those who have gone before us”.
I have many beloved family members and friends in spirit, but it is not to them that I turn my attention in this post.
Recently, I’ve had a bit of a renewed interest in tarot history. Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin are primarily to blame. Their book, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot, shares a lot of previously undiscovered primary source material that really piqued my interest.
It says something (perhaps unflattering) about my personality that the nugget of historical wisdom I enjoyed most in that book is that Crowley often referred to Waite as “Dead Waite”.
We all know that Waite and Crowley had an adversarial relationship. Crowley’s writings are filled with eloquent insults toward Waite, and others.
![Photo of Crowley, by Magikritualnacht [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e7e9fce4b0f3bb3d243a94/1446302761051-A9YGHQ4ICSUZJK3KPXWG/image-asset.jpeg)
Photo of Crowley, by Magikritualnacht [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons
When I first came to tarot, I had a hard time understanding Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot, because I didn’t realize that some of the text was directed against Crowley and his philosophies.
Photo of Waite in 1880, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The fact is, Waite and Crowley differed on many points. Both felt compelled to not only point out the differences, but to do it with ridicule and derision.
Many years later, the images conceived by Waite and Crowley comprise the world’s two most popular tarot decks. We who use these decks, both personally and professionally, often find ourselves embroiled in arguments of philosophy and ethics, just as, apparently, Waite and Crowley themselves did.
I often tell my students that “your tarot friends are your best friends.” I actually believe this. Your tarot friends understand you in a way no one else can. At the same time, we all know that the online tarot community is filled with name-calling and rude behavior. It’s possible that you not only have tarot friends, but also tarot enemies, or perhaps “tarot frenemies”.
We hear whisperings that a certain organization is at odds with another, for example, or that a certain tarotist is not welcome at another tarotist’s event.
This sort of behavior, much like the “witch wars” of the Pagan community, happened in local communities long before social media was a thing. In the 1990s, I had a local competitor who would call hotels into which I had booked psychic fairs, pretend to be me, and try to cancel my events.
Years later, I’m still in business, and I’m not sure what became of her. Now I can laugh at her petty antics. At the time, they hurt my feelings and made my professional life more difficult.
Often we lament the contentious aspect of our relationships with each other in the tarot world. Often, we blame the nature of the internet, and social media, for the fact that we seem to enjoy picking at our differences more than celebrating our commonality.
History shows us that this behavior is not new. Social media has not turned us in to monsters. Social media has only magnified our natural monstrous behavior.
Let’s then, for a moment, dream of a world in which A.E. Waite and Aleister Crowley had Facebook accounts. Imagine the memes, the stories and the blog posts that might have flown back and forth between them.
Would Crowley tell folks on his friends list that they must not be FB friends with Waite? Would Waite write disparaging reviews of Crowley’s work, and hit “like” on all the agreeing comments? Would they write "open letters" to each other in their blogs?
Perhaps it is just human nature to mock and taunt those who think differently than we do. Perhaps the passion it takes to be a tarotist, or a magickal person, necessitates this behavior in some of us.
Often, we compare the online antics of some of our tarot community with the social media bullying that influences teens to take their own lives. Certainly, lies, disrespect and insults can be hurtful. Sometimes, in the tarot world, that hurt can even be financial. That’s hard to ignore, especially for tarotists who are supporting children with their tarot income.
At the same time, maybe Waite and Crowley were guilty of taking themselves a bit too seriously. Maybe, sometimes, we are, too.
The next time I find myself saddened by our infighting, or hurt by a comment on social media, I will try to remember this, and laugh.
When we rudely fight with each other over dogma, doctrine and belief systems, we are unwittingly following a proud tarot tradition. In a way, we are honoring by imitation those two men without whom, none of us would be tarotists.
Perhaps the psychic energy of those two magickal giants, Waite and Crowley, works its way into our itchy keyboard fingers.
Maybe, at this time of the thinning veil, we can use the energy and example of Waite and Crowley in a different way. Rather than channeling their desire to insult each other, we can channel their desire to divine.
Perhaps those itchy keyboard fingers are happier when they are shuffling cards.
Florida TarotCon 2015: Topical, Tropical, and So Much Fun!
TarotCon Florida 2015 was wonderful! Read the story and see the pictures!
Florida TarotCon was my first tarot conference since WATTS in 2007. Well, I also participated in Tarot Masters in Brazil a few years ago by Skype, but, as cool as Skype is, it doesn’t count as a conference experience.
So when Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin reached out to me with their idea of bringing TarotCon to Florida, I was thrilled to be their “boots on the ground” and help organize a fabulous event.
It took me a while to find the right venue. The DoubleTree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens turned out to be the perfect place, so much so that we are already booked to return next year!
Our two-day schedule was chock full of presentations. To begin our program, Marcus and Tali showed us some never-before-seen photos of Pamela Colman Smith, and shared with us some stories of her life. Most profound was the realization that, while Pixie drew the images that have become iconic and emblematic of tarot as a whole, she herself spent only five months of her life drawing them, and did not consider herself a tarotist before or after her “big job with very little money” with A.E. Waite.
The first workshop slot Saturday morning was mine. It was fun to try to set the tone for the conference. I was thrilled with the reception my talk received. My topic was “Talk with Tarot and Find your Flow.” I taught one of my go-to tarot methods, the “tarot dialogue” as I present it in my second book, “Tarot Tour Guide.”
Next up was Ciro Marchetti, always a witty and high-energy presenter. Ciro shared with us the new deck he has just completed, a deck of “Kipper Cards”. Will Kipper become the next Lenormand in the modern cartomancy world? Perhaps.
Ciro’s presentation included a terrific animated video. His talent as an artist, his vision, and his use of technology never fail to amaze me.
After lunch, we had to choose between “Tarot and Astrology” with Corrine Kenner and “Journeying into the Tarot of the Secret Dawn” with Derek Bain. Oh, how useful it would have been to be able to clone myself!
I chose Corrine’s class, and wasn’t disappointed. The ways tarot and astrology intersect make it easier to understand both modalities.
Next, we all regrouped in our general session room for a panel discussion of Tarot Artists and Authors moderated by Mary Ellen Collins. On the panel were Lisa Hunt, Corrine Kenner, Ciro Marchetti, Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin. They discussed publishing in the tarot world, from inspiration to copyright violation.
Our final presenter before dinner was Lisa Hunt, who showed us her artistic process by taking key words from the audience and turning them into a beautiful drawing right in front of our eyes.
Our delicious buffet dinner was held under a pavilion by the pool. What better way to share the Florida lifestyle with our international visitors than poolside dining?
Right after dinner, Jenna Matlin and I gathered folks to perform a “Tarot Trance Dance” with the intention of making tarot more accessible and acceptable to the world. Our vision is that we, as tarot professionals, might receive the same respect in society as professionals in any other field do.
Our magickal dancing event was both fun and powerful. Jenna and I had chosen twelve Major Arcana cards to dance, and found a song to go with each of them.
After the Tarot Trance Dance, it was time for “Beadstrology” with Corrine Kenner. Folks made bracelets with beads that represented each planet. I went for the wine and the company – I strung enough beads for a lifetime while following the Grateful Dead, back in the day.
The energy of that event was so lovely that a few of us didn’t leave until the cleaning crew kicked us out. It was there that Dan Horn showed me his “Tarot of Physics”. What a mind-blowing deck!
Day two of TarotCon began early, with a choice between a morning meditation with local author Margaret Ann Lembo and a round table discussion of tarot business. Of course, I sat on the tarot business panel so I missed the meditation. The comment about the business round table discussion was that, next year, it needed to be two hours, instead of a single hour. I guess that means people enjoyed it!
The highlight of TarotCon for many was the presentation from Russell Sturgess. Russell came all the way from Australia to present his findings and theories about the Marseille Tarot, and how the images and archetypes correspond with the culture and philosophies of the Cathars.
This suggests a new historical theory around the origins and meanings of the tarot symbols. At TarotCon it became clear to me that a great deal of new research and speculation about tarot history is happening right now. Spearheading that research are Katz, Goodwin, Bain and Sturgess. This work fascinates me. Somehow, understanding the past makes a clearer way for the future.
After lunch, we had to choose between learning about working tarot parties with Jenna Matlin, and relationship readings with Gina Thies. I floated between the two, and found them both fascinating and thorough. As a veteran of many, many tarot parties, I didn’t think there was much Jenna could teach me. Turns out, she has a solution for a classic party problem that I hadn’t thought to try!
I was impressed with how much Gina Thies has added to the art and science of tarot reading with her book, “Tarot Coupling.”
The final sessions of the day were Marcus and Tali. They presented their Tarosophy method of teaching tarot in just three minutes. I loved this method because it forced me to come to the cards with a beginner’s mind. I also loved being in a “hands on cards” workshop as a student. Usually, I’m the teacher. This reminded me that we are all always students.
At the end of the conference, Marcus and Tali treated us to an informal discussion of Lenormand. I will always remember a piece of simple wisdom from Marcus about the difference between tarot and Lenormand. Tarot speaks in metaphors, Lenormand doesn’t.
A wonderful TarotCon tradition is the “Survivor’s Dinner”. Those who are still at the hotel Sunday night meet for dinner at a local restaurant. A conference attendee who lives in Palm Beach Gardens helped me choose Rocco’s Tacos, which was perfect for our group.
They sat all thirty of us at a long table outside, amid the tiki torches and open fireplace. The area was resplendent with statuary that looked to us like representations of Major Arcana cards.
The food, fun and fellowship were a highlight of the weekend for me.
Every time we gather with our tarot friends, wonderful things happen. TarotCon Florida 2015 was no exception. In fact, this conference had more information, creativity, variety and fun than any I have previously attended.
TarotCon Florida 2016 will be October 8 & 9. Mark your calendar now!
Check out the following galleries to see pictures from TarotCon Florida 2015, and to purchase books from some of the presenters.
See some of our presenters in action!
Food, conversation, fellowship and fun at TarotCon!
Pomegranates, Persephone, the High Priestess and Poetry
For the Autumnal Equinox Tarot Blog Hop, a poem about the High Priestess as Persephone.
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It’s the Autumn Equinox/Mabon Tarot Blog Hop, wrangled by Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose. She’s given us quite a challenge. We must each create a tarot card, using imagery, words, or both, that answers this question.
"What does Mabon/the Autumnal Equinox/the Second Harvest mean to YOU?"
Being a complete devotee to the sun, and coming from the cold Northeastern US, the Autumnal Equinox was always a somber holiday for me. Now that I live in Florida, the approaching fall no longer fills me with dread.
On the other hand, anyone who says Florida has no seasons has never been to Florida. The shortening of the daylight hours is even more striking to me here than it was up north.
To celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, my community will reenact the abduction of Persephone. We will prepare for our own underworld journey, as the dark overtakes the light.
We will end our reenactment with the chant, “She changes everything She touches, and everything She touches changes”. We will think about how we ourselves are transformed by another turn of the Wheel of the Year.
The reenactment itself is always funny. I think it’s good to laugh in the face of oncoming darkness.
When I think about these themes, the tarot card that comes to mind is The High Priestess. In the Waite-Smith Tarot, she sits between light and dark. On her backdrop are pomegranates, the food of the land of the dead, whose six sweet seeds caused Persephone to become Kore, Queen of the Underworld.
Typically, the High Priestess is associated with Pope Joan, or Virgin Mary. I am excited to make a connection between Persephone/Kore and the High Priestess. Persephone's annual journey to the underworld seems akin to the High Priestess' journey beyond the veil and into the unconscious.
If I could draw, I know a pomegranate would figure prominently in my High Priestess image. I am a lousy artist, but I am a passable tarot poet. In fact, I am happy to be a contributor to the newly released anthology of tarot poetry, Arcana.
My goal is to write one poem for each of the tarot cards. I call it my "78 Poems Project". I've written thirty of the seventy-eight, and I've been stalled for a bit, until today. Perhaps from this trip into the Underworld I will bring back some poetic inspiration!
Here, then, is my tarot card for our blog hop, and a new entry to the 78 Poems Project.
Persephone as the High Priestess
Balancing mercy and severity
Dark and light, night and day
Holding secrets in silence
And serenity.
Seasons change
As she changes all she touches
And yet remains herself
Essentially the same.
The price women pay for wisdom
Can be counted
In her six sweet seeds.