Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
Tools and Teams
When we have the right people and the right skills, there is nothing we can't do.
They say that no person is an island. As much as we like to feel self-sufficient, we all need help sometimes. In fact, most of the time we do better when we have a good toolbox and a good team.
What is in our toolbox and who is on our team can depend on who we are, what we need and what we are trying to accomplish. Tools can include anything from technology to cookbooks to tarot cards. Team members can be friends and family, co-workers, collaborators, coaches, healers, or therapists.
It’s likely that we all need a number of different toolboxes, and a number of different teams.
Sometimes those tools and helpful people make themselves known to us even before we go looking for them. Sometimes they are provided to us by our school, our workplace, or the Universe.
The more we are conscious of the tools we have, the better we will do. The more we understand how to be proactive about assembling our tools, the further we will go.
Teams of people can be even harder to assemble than sets of tools. There is an old spiritual adage that says, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. The same may be true for all team members, some of whom may indeed be teachers, others of whom may be healers, helpers, friends and associates.
Sometimes it feels like we are not even playing on our own team. Sometimes we don’t feel able to release an unhelpful team member.
Sometimes we don’t understand the tools we need, or don’t know where to look to find what we need.
It is in those moments that we must take a personal accounting of our needs, our behaviors, and our assets. Then, we must find a way to manifest what we need. We learn that faith in ourselves, faith in our path, and faith in the Universe is our first and most important tool.
No matter our goals in life, once we have that faith, the very first step is in accumulating the tools, and the people, who will help us on our journey.
The StaarCorner
One thing you will notice in our growing list of presenters for StaarCon is the wide variety in topics and in the experience of the presenters. Each presenter is eminently qualified to share their knowledge. We are taking pride in presenting some of the best-known teachers on the planet. At the same time, we are equally excited to share some emerging talent with you.
The field of divination and mystical arts is always growing, and always helping us grow.
Plan to grow with us at StaarCon.
StaarCon Presenter Mary Ellen Collins
Intuitive and Life Path Messenger
Tarot is such an amazing tool to help you find your right tools and team members, and to help you learn to work with them well.
The key in this pursuit is to learn to ask the right questions.
Here are the sorts of questions that can be very helpful.
In what way is this a good tool for me?
How can I learn to use this tool?
What tool should I learn now?
How can this person help me?
How can I work best with this person?
Join me on Thursday, May 21, from 7 to 9 pm EDT on Zoom for a tarot class appropriate for readers of all levels of experience.
What is the best way to give a general reading? How can you use tarot to interpret a dream? What spreads can you use to make a decision?
There are so many techniques for working with tarot! In this hands-on workshop we will explore spreads, interpretations, and techniques for reading for yourself and others.
Grab your tarot deck and get ready to expand your skills and understanding!
Class fee is $37.50. Register now!
Did you miss a prior Zoom class? Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana and The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane are available now on Card and Craft Academy. Just $35 for each class.
The Week in Review
Tonight at 7 pm EDT, join me on my Facebook Business Page, Christiana Gaudet, for Global Tarot Circle.
Last night I was happy to teach a free Oracle Card class on my YouTube channel.
I always have a lot of great videos, live and in archive, on both Facebook and YouTube. Make sure you like and subscribe!
This week I shared a meditative technique to transform anger into motivation on my Dark Forest Blog.
This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. My Roots and Wings tarot spread is always a great way to consider your connection with your mother.
From Around the Web
I will be joining a stellar list of speakers for this online divination conference. Please plan to join us!
Here is a group dynamics tarot spread from Barbara Moore.
From Psychology Today, here are Five Skills to Add to Your Emotional Toolbox.
Cards for Your Consideration
The tarot deck itself is such an important tool. On a spiritual level I think we sometimes feel that tarot connects us to our team of human and angelic collaborators.
One of the cards I most associate with the idea of finding and using your tools is the Magician. When this card appears, we are encouraged to take an accounting of our tools, skills, and abilities. Perhaps we need to engage in focused study.
In the Minor Arcana, both the Three and Eight of Pentacles can speak to the use of tools, and the need to acquire the ability to use tools well.
Finding the right helpers and collaborators is a theme that can appear in many tarot cards, including Major Arcana cards such as the Lovers and Temperance, and Minor Arcana cards such as the Two of Cups and the Six of Pentacles.
In any reading, we could see references to the need for a good team and a good set of tools, because these concepts are so important to our success in life.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 20
May 13, 2020
Finding the Gifts
Tarot is the gift that keeps on giving.
One of the creative things I have been doing during this time of social distancing is reconnecting with the ladies I used to play music with when I lived in the Tampa area. Now, we are not only socially distanced, we have many miles between us. Yet, we are finding ways to play songs together. It’s been fun, inspiring, healing and a little bittersweet.
The song we are working on right now is an updated version of the old Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts”. I sang a version of this song with my church choir when I was a teen.
It seems appropriate for this time.
So often when we think of gifts, we think of packages with bows wrapped in shiny paper. I love to give and receive those sorts of gifts! Yet, there are many gifts that don’t come with giftwrap, and weren’t purchased at a store.
One spiritual survival technique is to try to find the gift in everything, even during very difficult times. During this pandemic I have seen this in clients’ readings. Even though this is affecting everyone, we are all going through different challenges. As part of that, there seems to be a unique spiritual gift, that is, a lesson or an opportunity, that is available to each of us.
To find that gift, and to nurture it and treasure it, is helpful.
We also use the word ‘gift’ to discuss our talents. Often, we don’t identify our own talents because they come so easily to us. When something is easy for us to do, we assume everyone can do it as well as we can!
‘Gifts’ is also a word that we use to discuss our psychic and spiritual abilities. Sometimes I find this an unhealthy nomenclature. Fraudulent professional mystics often use this word to describe their talents as a way of suggesting that they are aligned with spiritual forces to which average people have no access.
At the same time, if we recognize the word ‘gifts’ as another word for ‘talents’, we recognize that we can always work to develop our gifts, be they spiritual, artistic, or technical.
We often admire gifts of exceptionality. That is, talent that is unique and unlike what most people can do. On an amateur level, we need to know that even if our talents don’t set us above others, what we can do well, and what we enjoy doing, is still a gift to ourselves and to those around us.
Being able to find the gifts in our situation, and to find the gifts within ourselves, is a survival tool in difficult times, and a tool that can help us thrive in life.
The StaarCorner
What happens at a tarot conference? At the Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers Conference, you can expect a wide range of workshops and classes on tarot, Lenormand, Kipper, psychic development, meditation, and all things magical and mystical.
You can expect to meet some of the best artists and authors in the world of cartomancy and divination. You can expect to explore a vending hall filled with high-quality tools and art.
You can also expect to spend time making friends and connecting with like-minded people, sharing ideas, readings, techniques, and experiences.
Learn more about StaarCon, and register to attend, on the StaarCon website.
StaarCon Presenter Kim Danbert
Tarologist & Spiritual Educator
Finding the Gift with Tarot
When you find yourself in a difficult situation, simply ask the cards a question such as, “What is the gift for me here?”
When you are struggling to grow in your life, or to understand yourself better, ask the cards to show you a hidden talent that you could develop.
It is easy to ask questions like this and pull a single card, or a small group of cards, in answer. You can also ask questions such as, “How can I develop my talents?” or “What do I need to do the find the gift in this difficult set of circumstances?”
When we dialogue with the cards about the gifts within and around us, we take responsibility for our growth, and for our positive and productive response to challenges. We learn about the tools we have, and how to better use them.
Practical Tarot Techniques on Zoom
Join me on Thursday, May 21, from 7 to 9 pm EDT on Zoom for a tarot class appropriate for readers of all levels of experience.
What is the best way to give a general reading? How can you use tarot to interpret a dream? What spreads can you use to make a decision?
There are so many techniques for working with tarot! In this hands-on workshop we will explore spreads, interpretations, and techniques for reading for yourself and others.
Grab your tarot deck and get ready to expand your skills and understanding!
Class fee is $37.50. Register now!
The Week in Review
This week saw the end of April, and the beginning of May. The first day of May is an important day on many calendars around the world. I led an informal ceremony on Facebook Live which featured a four-card tarot spread. I wrote about the powerful cards that appeared on my 78 Magickal Tools Blog.
You can see the ceremony in archive, as well as the other live events I do every week, on my Facebook business page and my YouTube channel.
From Around the Web
Check out the Tarot Blog Hop for May First. Start with the Master List to to see the topic, and follow the links to read what six different blogs had to say.
Read your tarotscope for May, from Starcana.
You can always count on the Tarot Lady, Theresa Reed, for great monthly astrology forecasts. Here is what Theresa has to say for May 2020.
Cards for Your Consideration
It was impossible for me to find only one card, or a single set of cards, that speaks to the topic of finding the gifts within a situation and within ourselves.
Certainly, the Aces and the Pages come to mind as the beginning of a journey of learning and discovery.
The Aces, too, in the Waite-Smith depiction, show the heavenly gift of each element, and speak of heaven as the source of all gifts.
The Star easily depicts the gift of healing, while the Ten of Pentacles shows the gift of family wealth.
Perhaps it is easier to say that, just as we can find a gift in any situation in life, we can find a gift in each of the seventy-eight tarot cards.
The gift here is tarot itself. Tarot is a simple game imbued with the magic of fortune-telling, divination, spiritual exploration, storytelling, and creativity. Each of us may find different ways of understanding and connecting with tarot.
Each tarot card teaches us something about life, and about ourselves. The more we learn these lessons, the better our lives will be.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 19
May 6, 2020
Tending the Inner Flame
The solar plexus, the Ace of Wands, and our inner light.
In metaphysics, we see the element of Fire as related to our passions, our creativity, our humor and our motivation. Fire also fuels our athleticism, our spirituality, and our anger.
During these difficult times, we may not be able to do the things for which we are normally motivated. We may not be able to follow our passions. The stress of our uncertain situation may cause us to feel tired, as if our inner flame has been extinguished.
For many, the internal flame is ignited, but its current expression is anger. We are angered by the limitations of our situation. We are irritated by the demands of our momentary new normal. We are frustrated with our cancelled plans.
For many of us, spring and early summer is usually a time of gathering with friends and family around campfires, bonfires, and barbeque grills. The community fire has been a sacred place for many of us. This has been true since the dawn of time. This year, many of us are missing these gatherings.
The element of Fire is connected to the solar plexus, the third chakra. This is the center of will and motivation in the human body.
Now more than ever, we must each take time to tend our own inner fire. We can do that by doing chakra meditations that focus on the third chakra. While we can’t gather around a fire with friends, we can burn a candle and hold our loved ones in our hearts.
When we feel anger, we can work to transform that anger into humor, creativity, or physical activity.
Years ago, when our soldiers went off to war, civilians were asked to ‘keep the home-fires burning’. Today, we are in a different kind of war. To fight this war and win, we must keep our internal flames burning, and direct that energy to our well-being.
This week try to take time to nurture your inner flame with fun, humor, and creativity. These are not easy times, but we will get through them. Your internal fire will help you survive and thrive through every challenge you face, now and in the future.
The StaarCorner
Tarot conferences and conventions have been a part of our international community for decades. Even before iconic annual events like Reader’s Studio and Northwest Tarot Symposium there were the American Tarot Association Tarot Conventions, the World Tarot Congress and the Bay Area Tarot Symposium.
As much as we enjoy meeting together online, our community has always been one that finds value in gathering together.
We have faced challenges in the past. September 11, 2001 caused the cancellation of planned international tarot events.
This past weekend would have been one of the most anticipated events of every year, Reader’s Studio, presented by the Tarot School. We are grateful to hear that Wald Amberstone is recovering well. We look forward to future events with Wald and Ruthann. We hold them in our hearts during this difficult time.
StaarCon, our own international tarot conference to be held in South Florida, is something many of us have been dreaming of for a while. We are planning to hold our first conference in January 2021.
We know that whatever may transpire in the moment, our community is strong, and our community loves to gather together to share energy and information.
Tickets are now available for StaarCon. Please plan to join us and share in our vision for the future of our community.
Tarot Spread to Support Your Inner Flame
Try this tarot spread to help you keep your inner flame ignited and burning brightly!
You can arrange the cards in any order. You try this with tarot and/or oracle cards.
Card One: What I can do to support my internal flame.
Card Two: What I must avoid in order to support my internal flame.
Card Three: The current state of my internal flame.
Card Four: What I can do to transform anger into productivity at this time.
Card Five: How I can support my creativity at this time.
Card Six: How I can support my vitality and well-being at this time.
Schedule a Zoom Psychic Gallery Party with Your Friends
By now you have probably been to a Zoom yoga class or cocktail party. While I am sad to have had to postpone psychic parties in Connecticut and Florida for a few months, I am available to gather with you, your friends and family for a very special experience.
You can invite friends from around the world to be part of a psychic gallery with me. Each person will receive a supportive, insightful reading in the powerful sacred space that we will create together.
This is an affordable way to share the enlightening experience of a reading with me with your friends, and a way to feel close with your loved ones during this time of social distancing.
Reach out to me now to schedule your Zoom Psychic Gallery Party!
The Week in Review
This week I shared a piece about the importance of the general reading as a time when we are completely open to the wisdom of the Universe.
On Friday, May 1 at noon EDT I am planning an informal online gathering on my Facebook Business Page where we will use the Ace of Wands to nurture the flames of spring for the healing of our communities.
You can find archives of all my live Facebook events on my YouTube channel. Check out the links for free live classes there as well!
Here is a Beltane Tarot Spread from my blog, from 2013.
From Around the Web
MagicOma is a wonderful source for wisdom. Here is a recent post I particularly enjoyed.
The dance students at Lawrence High School in New York have shared a second video. I find their work so inspiring and helpful in these difficult times.
Going all the way back to 2008, here is a timely tarot spread from Llewellyn Worldwide.
Cards for Your Consideration
The Ace of Wands is the source and essence of Fire.
When we see this card in a reading, we might interpret it as anger, sexual attraction, or creative inspiration.
When we need to stoke our inner flame, the Ace of Wands provides that energy. We can meditate with this card and use it to keep our inner fire alive and burning.
We can see the Ace of Wands as the solar plexus chakra.
We can use the Ace of Wands as a focal point and breathe its energy into our being. When we do this, we bring its power to us. That power includes vitality, motivation, excitement, creativity and well-being.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 18
April 29, 2020
It is Not Selfish to be Self-full
If we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take good care of others.
What is the difference between being self-full and being full of yourself? People who we consider to be “full of themselves” don’t tend to consider others. They always want to be the center of the conversation. They always act as if their priorities are the only things that matter.
Selfish people care more about their own comfort than the comfort of others.
Few of us want to be selfish. Yet, we all need to learn to prioritize our needs. Sometimes, we must put ourselves first. That’s an uncomfortable thing for many of us to do.
I often refer to the need to put ourselves first as “that airplane thing.” During the safety talk before the airplane takes off, we are always reminded that, should the oxygen masks drop, we must put on our own oxygen mask before helping someone else with theirs.
If we are traveling with children, or with the infirmed, this directive seems so counterintuitive. Yet, it is a metaphor for self-care.
It’s especially important to remember the need for self-care during these difficult times. Right now, the emotional demands on us may be greater than usual. And, our usual self-care practices might not be available to us.
My favorite self-care practices, other than tarot and meditation, involve spas, salons, yoga studios and live music. Clearly, I don’t have access to any of those things these days.
The challenge for all of us right now is to take care of our responsibilities in this new reality, and also to remember that we are responsible for our self-care.
My personal commitment to my self-fullness includes playing my guitar, spending time online with friends, attending online musical events and doing video exercise classes. When all this is over, I hope to keep some of these activities on my busy schedule!
Very often we feel guilty when we take time for ourselves, especially when we know that others in the world are suffering, and that there are people who are depending on us to meet their needs. That’s when we must remember that airplane thing. We will do a better job helping others when we have taken time to make sure our own needs are met.
The StaarCorner
StaarCon, the Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers Conference, is scheduled for January 2021, in Palm Beach Gardens.
StaarCon will be an annual event, welcoming participants from around the globe, as well as those who live and work in Florida.
We have a four-point mission for our conference. You can read about our mission on the StaarCon website.
Ticket are available now. You can select from a range of options to meet your needs.
StaarCon Presenter Benebell Wen
Tarot Artist and Author
Three Tarot Practices for Self-Care
Tarot study and divination is always an act of self-care. Treating yourself to a reading with a great professional reader can help you find answers, gain new perspective, and feel better in difficult times. Your own personal tarot practice can offer healing, insight, humor, and growth. Here are three practices that will help you use your tarot deck as a tool of self-care.
Card of the Day
Pulling one card every day to be your ‘Card of the Day’ (COTD) is a great practice. Don’t think of this as a daily reading. Rather, think of it as a meditative and energetic focus for the day.
If you aren’t familiar with the card, spend some time researching it in order to learn more about it.
Notice the way the card’s energy appears in your day.
Tarot Collage
You can do this with scissors and glue, or digitally. Simply find images and put them together to create a tarot card. You will find that this process is fun and creative and helps you to understand the card in a new and deeper way.
You don’t have to make a whole deck, simply rendering a card or two can be soothing and enlightening.
Tarot Trade
We often say that your tarot friends are your best friends. Find a friend and trade readings with them! You can do this by email, text, phone or video. While not the same as giving or receiving a professional reading, the insights and fellowship that can come from discussing the cards with your friend should not be underestimated.
The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane Live on Zoom
Get your ticket now to join us for our next Zoom class!
On Thursday, April 23 at 7 pm EDT I will be presenting this interactive class which takes a deep dive into the twenty-two Major Arcana cards.
Whether you are a tarot beginner, professional, or somewhere in between, you will find this class enlightening and entertaining.
The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana are considered to hold the “Greater Secrets” of tarot. In this class you will learn their spiritual lessons as well as the information they may reveal in a reading. You will also learn which Major Arcana cards to use to manifest your desires.
The Major Arcana cards are here to assist in our spiritual growth and our divination. They can also be powerful tools in creating our future.
Register now for this exciting live class. Class fee is $37.50.
The Week in Review
This week I shared a blogpost entitled How Tarot Helps When We are Suffering.
Did you catch my free live webinar on YouTube, The Incredibly Versatile Two-Card Spread?
Keep your eyes on my Facebook Business Page and my YouTube channel throughout the week!
From Around the Web
I bet we are all watching more videos than usual right now! Here are some of my favorites on YouTube that I found and enjoyed this week. I hope you enjoy them too!
It’s been twelve years since the closing of the Broadway musical, A Chorus Line. The cast came together, in quarantine, to dance a number, separately, together.
There are so many coronavirus musical parodies. Although this is a serious problem, humor sometimes helps us get through it. Here is one of my favorites. It’s a Bee Gees parody, “Staying Inside”.
This spring, teachers all over needed to quickly move their classes online. Of course, some classes are easier to transition to the online learning environment than others. Dance students at Lawrence High School in New York look forward to their spring dance recital every year. This year, of course, it had to be cancelled.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are many tarot cards that can, in context, suggest the need for self-care and self-nurturance. This week, I would like to consider the four Queens as cards that can direct our attention to the need for self-care.
Each Queen can ask us to nurture something within ourselves. The Queen of Swords may ask us to nurture our intellect, to read a book, take a class or learn something new.
The Queen of Pentacles may ask us to nurture our body or our home. Perhaps she encourages us to exercise, to eat good food, to garden, or to rearrange our furniture.
The Queen of Wands ask us to nurture our passions and our creativity. Perhaps she suggests that we do something fun or start a creative project.
The Queen of Cups suggests that we nurture our emotional well-being. Perhaps she tells us to call a friend or connect with someone or something that we love.
Sometimes when the Queens appear in a reading they are speaking of specific women in our lives. Sometimes, however, they appear to remind us to be more self-full, and to nurture ourselves.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 17
April 22, 2020