Category Archive

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be teaching live “webinars” through Linda Marson’s Global Spiritual Studies program, beginning with a 2-part seminar on “Cartomancers in Western Art.” It features a power point presentation of the documentary evidence of 500 years of card fortune-telling—the best of my more than 300 picture collection on the subject. The talk will expand on the images with an analysis of  characteristics and themes and with accounts of the lives of professional readers. Our profession has a long history that has been hidden from view for too long. Participants can ask questions and make comments via text and possibly audio, and I can respond live in the seminar, so interaction is encouraged. This webinar format is designed to emphasize visual presentations, which is perfect for this particular talk. I look forward to learning what you see in these amazing images. This is an updated version of what has become one of my most popular presentations at conferences. I talk a little about my cartomancer’s research project in a video interview here.

• Part one: Thursday, 31 March, 6pm-6.50pm, USA Pacific time

• Part two: Thursday, 7 April, 6pm-6.50pm, USA Pacific time.

Other timezones:

• USA East Coast: 9pm-9.50pm
• Sydney Australia: 1pm-1.50pm, Friday 1 April  and 12 noon-12.50pm Friday 8 April
• Perth Australia: 10am-10.50am, Friday 1 and 8 April
• UK: 2am-2.50am, Friday 1 and 8 April.

Sign-up information is available here. Other tarot webinars are listed here.

Little is known about cartomancers before the 20th century: who were they, who were their clients, where did they practice, what decks were used? Written information is scarce beyond basic instruction books and accounts of Mlle. Lenormand, who was famous for doing predictive card readings for Napoleon and Josephine in the 17th century.

An historical record does exist in genre art that depicts ordinary people going about their everyday work and recreations. In this slide presentation and talk, Mary analyses the visual content of paintings, prints and postcards showing cartomancers from the 16th through early 20th century. She brings to light both the professional and recreational characteristics of those people who practised cartomancy and reveals their largely unseen and under-acknowledged role in everyday Western society.

It’s an empowering experience for card readers to see themselves as part of a long-lived profession that ultimately goes back to the oracles and diviners of ancient times.

Click here for a video clip which shows just a few of the many images I will be presenting and discussing.

All you need to participate in live webinars is a broadband connection. Only 23 places are available in the room, so sign up now to participate in the live sessions where you have the opportunity to ask questions or make comments through the room’s text chat function. Depending on the number of participants, audio interaction may be possible. If so, this requires you to have a headset and mic plugged in before you login into the room.

Many of you wishing to join us on the much anticipated Tarot Art & History Tour of Northern Italy (September 26th – October 7th 2011)—see my post here and on the EVENTS page—have asked for a ballpark figure of  what it is expected to cost. Arnell sent me the following:

Going over the various expenses of the tour package with our Italian friends at the Tarot Museum, a reasonable estimate at this time is (USD) $2500 for those wanting double-occupancy hotel rooms (it will be $3000 for single-occupancy travelers). She can try to help people find a roommate. Air travel in and out of MXP Milan Malpensa Airport—or elsewhere— is not included.

As mentioned in Arnell’s webpage, all hotels will be 3-Star or above and will have private bathrooms. Breakfast will also be included. Dinners and special meals will be at fabulous restaurants (many of which are personal favorites from previous trips) and will be covered in the tour package (any alcoholic beverages are on you and could really add up fast! ha ha)  All travel expenses within Italy during the tour will be covered as well as special events and admissions to the various places planned.

Let Arnell know by e-mail (arnell@arnellart.com) if you are interested in attending this tour. If you can no longer make the trek (but told her you would like to), also please drop her a line. When they get a more accurate head count of those that will join us on this wonderful adventure, Arnell will send those interested a request for a non-refundable deposit (in order to secure hotel rooms and discounts)—due at that time. The total amount for the package will be due March 25th, 2011 (6 months prior to the tour), but a discount will be offered to those that can pay the full amount by January 15th 2011.

If you are coming on the trip, let us know in the comments!

I’ve put all the info that Arnell sent me here because so many people have asked about it. I’m planning to go on this trip as I know it will be extraordinary. Anyone who is a serious teacher or researcher of tarot will discover insights into the tarot that can’t be gained any other way! Plus, the photos & the shopping !!!! You can buy tarot decks at corner tobacconists shops, and I’ve met several people who happened onto rare and unusual decks in at these simple shops. My favorite find was not so glamorous—a day-glo “Antico Tarocco Italiano” deck that I’ve never seen elsewhere (pictured below). And Osvaldo Menegazzi’s magical tarot shop (see above) is a place you will dream about.

I chose these cards from my very unique “Antico Tarocco Italiano” deck to give you the best overview of its wild colors, but I also hope  the Tower will light a fire under you to get you all lit up and excited about this trip. By the way, you’ll see lots of towers—exactly like in the tarot—in every village and town we drive through.

The UK TAROT CONFERENCE is coming up very soon in London on the 8th & 9th of October. I’ll be doing a workshop and evening lecture on Friday and a workshop presentation on Saturday. Speakers include me, Kim Arnold, Hermann Haindl, Richard Abbot, Trudy Ashplant, Jonathan Dee, Laurent Langlais and Ina Cüsters-van Bergen.  Hope to see lots of you there! Check out the full programme & registration form here.

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I’m putting in a “surprise” guest appearance (guess it’s now not much of a surprise) at the TAROSOPHY TAROT Introduction Weekend Workshop taught by Marcus Katz on the 16th-17th October, in the UK Lake District, places available, contact tali@tarotprofessionals.com. If you are new to tarot or feel you could benefit from the basics as they are taught by two long-term lovers of the craft, then please join us.

Update: As of October 2010, a court in East Ridge, Tennessee, ruled that a woman was exercising her free speech in fortune-telling for the public – read it here.

At the same time as the ACLU wins freedom-of-speech rights for fortune tellers in Maryland, Michigan is cracking down on their fortune tellers. Even Time Magazine is reporting on this news.

Elizabeth Dias at Time Magazine begins her article with: “Starting this week, fortune tellers in Warren, Mich., must be fingerprinted and pay an annual fee of $150 – plus $10 for a police background check – to practice their craft. The new rules are among America’s strictest on palmists, fortune readers and other psychics, part of a growing push to regulate a business that has never been taken, or overseen, very seriously.” Read the whole article here.

What’s your opinion about regulation of any kind? Is it necessary? How should it be done? Please comment.

Here’s one way around such discriminatory practices as reported a year ago in St. Petersburg FL.

The second annual Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium (MATS) is scheduled for the weekend of August 20-22, 2010, at the Dakota Ridge Hotel in the Twin Cities suburb of Eagan, Minnesota.

Katrina Wynne, a psychotherapist who writes about tarot counseling, will be on Tarot Today Radio, sponsored by The Tarot Guild this Tuesday, August 10th at 6pm (PT). Catch the Tarot Today radio show twice a week—Sundays at 10am (PT) and Tuesdays at 6pm. You’ll find lots of great interviews and discussions at the Tarot Today Radio website. Also, check out Katrina’s blog post on “Tarot Counseling vs. Predictive Readings.”

Mike Hernandez has an intriguing blog post on Prediction versus Forecasting when answering questions about the future.

U.S. Games Systems, Inc. now has a blog, Fool Stop Tarot overseen by Janet, the USGS Social Media Maven, that showcases new decks and also has fun games and interesting articles. My favorite is the “Tarot CSI Case Series” in which you identify the crime based on the evidence of a couple of tarot cards. There’s also a fascinating interview with Stuart Kaplan by Dr. Stephen Winick, Folklore Specialist for the Library of Congress. What will be of great interest to many in the tarot world is Kaplan’s discussion of the controversy over the rights to Waite’s deck. Kaplan explains, “The copyright protection on the Rider-Waite Tarot runs to 2021, which is seventy years after the date of death of the artist [Pamela Colman Smith].” While many will want to argue this—that U.S. copyright places works around the world prior to 1923 in the public domain, or that the art was a “work for hire” and so copyright ends in 2012 (seventy years after the death of Waite)—Kaplan has sued twice and won both cases. The 2021 date and the creative rights of Pamela Colman Smith have yet to be tested in court.

Simon Wintle‘s World of Playing Cards website features a timeline of Early References to Playing Cards and lots of other goodies.

Julia Gordon-Bramer reports that in the original manuscript of Sylvia Plath’s book of poems, Ariel, the poems were ordered according to the Tarot and Qabala. The first twenty-two poems are associated with the Major Arcana and the next ten with the ten pips and sephiroth, followed by the four ranks of the Court, and then the four suits. This ordering is apparent in Ariel: The Restored Edition (2004) as explained in an article by Gordon-Bramer for the journal Plath Profiles. Download a pdf of the article here. Listen to Sylvia Plath read “Daddy” with its tarot reference here.

James Wells created “An Empowerment Tarot Layout” (found at his always inspiring Circle Ways blog) based on the twelve resources for empowerment that I discovered through the life stories of Moina Mathers, Florence Farr, Maud Gonnne and Annie Horniman and explain in my book Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels & Priestesses.

James Ricklef continues his popular “Ask Knighthawk” tarot advice column on his new blog and invites readers to send in a question. “Ask Knighthawk” was the basis of James’ innovative and extremely helpful book Tarot Tells the Tale. Also check out his deck, Tarot of the Masters.

Tero Hynynen from Finland has created his own animoto video on the Book of Thoth. His Tarotpuu blog has articles on Tarot in both Finnish and English.

The latest issue of the Association for Tarot Studies Newsletter features an article on Rudolph Steiner and Tarot by Jean-Michel David.

Tarot Professionals has recently opened Tarosophy Tarot Town, a social networking environment. Membership is currently free. Also check out issue 7 of Tarosophist International. It has some of the best articles I’ve seen in a while: Robert Place: The Often Misunderstood Pamela Colman Smith, Dr. Angela Voss: Divination as Divine Revelation, Dr. Elinor Greenberg: Tarot & Psychotherapy: The Bad Cards, Katrina Wynne:  Tarot & Counselling, Jean-Michel David: Tarot & Certification, Mike Hernandez: Using Multiple Decks, Lucy Setters: Finding Your Intuitive Voice, Tero Hynenen: Tarot Walkabout [an amazing concept!!! mkg] and much, much more.

Donnaleigh and Storm Cestavani host blogtalk radio’s Beyond World’s—Your Tarot Tribe. They recently talked with Enrique Enriques about the Marseille deck, poetry and more. After their summer vacation they’ll return on September 11th with an interview with Robert Place on the Minor Arcana. And don’t forget The Storm Cestavani Show that covers the worlds of spirituality, pop culture, and celebrity via astrology, tarot and psychic insights among other things.

Leisa ReFalo‘s The Tarot Connection podcast has just celebrated its 100th episode with a discussion of tarot’s most controversial issues featuring Donnaleigh, Storm Cestavani, Ginny Hunt, and Thalassa [what a line-up of those-in-the-know!].

I updated my post on Mlle. Lenormand (see end) with the text from a novel about the French Republic by Alexandre Dumas that describes, in depth, Lenormand’s readings for both Josephine and Napoleon. Dumas claims, though, that this part of his book is not fiction: “I can guarantee the truth of this scene, for these details were given me by the friend and pupil of Mademoiselle Lenormand, Madame Moreau, who still lives (1867) at No. 5 Rue du Tournon, in the same rooms as the famous seeress, where she devotes herself to the same art with immense success.” Certainly the card reading itself, for Josephine, has the most detail I’ve ever seen describing a nineteenth century card reading.

Let me know what things I’ve forgotten and I’ll create a new Tarot News Shorts for all the things I’ve missed (& those that haven’t been created yet).