Shuffle | Corrine Kenner's Tarot Blog

The Readers Studio: Color Your World

Every year, I go to the Readers Studio tarot conference hosted by the Tarot School of New York City. This year, they've asked participants to create animoto videos that describe the experience. Here's my video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-87ZpKTddbY]

Readers Studio Report

Last week, my husband Dan and I made our annual pilgrimmage to the Readers Studio tarot conference. I've attended them all, ever since the Tarot School of New York started organizing them in 2002, and Dan has only missed a year or two. This year's Studio was bigger than ever, and in a brand-new location to boot. Like a band of traveling gypsies, we left our old conference home in Queens, and became readers in residence at the Airport Sheraton in Newark, New Jersey. The change between the two locations changed the event in ways I didn't expect. Also, I tried my hand as a vendor for the first time, and that changed the event for me, too. Because the new location could accomodate more people, this year's crowd was huge. There were 140 people at the conference, as opposed to the 78 readers who used to max out the event when it was in Queens. I really noticed the difference. There were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, of course, but there were also dozens and dozens of new people to meet. In other years, I used to table hop so I could get to know the other participants. That didn't work this time around ... the audience was just too big to meet everyone simply by changing seats. What's more, a lot of the attendees seemed to have come as part of a group, and some of them didn't seem to take well to the idea of musical chairs. During one session, one woman almost had a tantrum when someone new joined our table ... she complained until my husband jumped up to bring in an extra chair, and we assured her there was room for everyone. Still, she kept giving me the evil eye for the rest of the weekend. (Aieee!) Did that keep me in my assigned seat? No! For one thing, I'm a little thick when it comes to social subtleties, and it took more than a few people grumbling and muttering under their breath to make me notice the shift in attitude. Actually, it took me until midday Saturday to realize that my old way of circulating through the room was interfering with other people's plans to stick together all weekend long. That felt a little cliquey to me. Why would you go to a tarot event only to sit with people you already know? Why wouldn't you want to meet everyone? But then again, maybe I'm just jealous ... I assumed that the whole room would be my "group," and when that turned out not to be the case, I felt a little left out. This was also the first year that I actually brought books to sell, which further removed me from the feel of the crowd. I felt like I should be at my vendor's table during the breaks, so I wouldn't have to haul 100 pounds of books back through the Newark Airport, and return sadly to Minneapolis with unsold inventory.  That meant I didn't mingle in the lobby or in the bar, which I missed. I didn't sit with any groups at lunch or dinner. And that, I'm sorry to say, was a mistake on my part. I'm not sure I'll rent a vendor's table next year. I don't like selling my own work. It makes me feel self-conscious, like that software guy on TV who says, "Try my product." It's hard to keep track of the money, and it's worrisome to wonder if the endeavor will lose money, make money, or break even ...  But then again, I should point out that the vendor's tables were very reasonably priced. (My half of the table I shared with Julie Cuccia-Watts was just $100.) I loved being in a room filled with luminaries: Julie, and Joanna Powell Colbert, Robert Place, Crystal Sage, and Jeannette from the Tarot Garden. Actually, the down times in the vending room were some of the best moments for me. How often do I get a chance to visit with Bob Place about his artistic inspirations, or revel in Joanna's Gaian Tarot imagery? Not often enough, I tell you! Maybe I will be a vendor again! I just have to learn how to deal with change.

Buy My Products

Julie Cuccia-Watts just sent me this picture of our table at the Women and Spirituality Conference. I was so excited to find hand-made witch hats for sale there; the one I'm wearing in the photo is a replica of Professor McGonagil's hat. It's good inspiration for my Book of Shadows Tarot and The Republican Witch.

My Tarot Road Trip

I spent the past weekend at a Women and Spirituality conference with Nancy Antenucci and Julie Cuccia-Watts. It was good to have some quality time with my tarot friends. In fact, I think this was my first road trip ever with other tarot people, rather than my husband and kids. I learned a lot, of course. You always learn things when you travel. For example, I learned that:

• Julie is addicted to green smoothies, which are surprisingly tasty -- as long as they're not made from wilted romaine lettuce or slimy rotten kale.
• Just before bed, Nancy likes to roll around on the floor with a little ball under her back. She makes old-lady noises when she's down, but when she stands up she's young again.
• I am generally the gassiest person in any room.
• Julie and Nancy are not the world-class navigators they claim to be, but since Mankato's not a very big town it doesn't really matter.
• Neither Nancy nor Julie happened to notice that we went over one of the world's most frightening bridges. I was the driver, so I noticed enough for all of us. In fact, my knuckles were white, my jaw was clenched, and my eyes were riveted to the dangerous roadway as we crossed what seemed to be the River Styx. While I was fighting for our lives, however, Nancy and Julie were charmed and enchanted by the fact that there was an empty boat floating down the river -- and they were looking for bodies in the water. (If I hadn't been so focused on preserving our corporeal existence, I would have explained it to them. There are no bodies in the River Styx, kids! There are only spirits on either side!)
• And now, after reliving the trauma of that bridge, I have to take a few deep breaths and calm myself down.
• Okay. I'm back.
• We also learned that at the Mexican restaurant in Mankato, the coin-operated Zoltan machine gives everyone the exact same fortune. Nancy and I both blew a quarter, but it was worth it -- because we all enjoyed hearing Zoltan's digitally recorded voice shouting, "Wait! Wait! Something is coming to me now!" In fact, we all got pretty good at emulating it during our tarot readings for each other.

But the conference itself was merely okay. Let me explain that I didn't go for the conference workshops and events, which probably would have been fun. I went to sell books, so it was a work event for me ... and selling books is pretty dull work, at least at a conference. Julie and I shared a table. She had all her decks on one side, and I spread out my books on the other. And then, we sat. And sat. And sat. Some people bought, from both of us. Julie's deck got ooh's and ahh's from everyone who walked by. My books got looked at. Most people were surprised when I told them that I had written them all; when they're spread out on the table, it kind of looks like I'm just selling a range of tarot books. That actually embarrassed me a little, and I think in future shows I'll just feature my newest book, rather than giving equal prominence to everything I've done. The three of us did lead a workshop together, on tarot and the wheel of the year. That went well, I think, and afterward our table was buzzing with customers. In fact, since Nancy and Julie had both done workshops at previous conferences, our table was buzzing with their fans. They were like spiritual rock stars! So it was a fun weekend. I was glad to go ... and I was glad to get home again when it was over. Especially after we made a return trip across that scary bridge.

Ten tips for traveling with kids who puke

Yes, it's an indelicate subject, but I have indelicate children.

Ever since my daughter Katherine was born almost 17 years ago, I've had to deal with children who get carsick. I don't think I've ever taken a trip where one of my kids didn't throw up -- or at least threaten to throw up -- along the way. In fact, our road trips get so bad sometimes that my sister refers to us as the "Viscous Bodily Fluid Family."

Yesterday's seven-hour drive home from North Dakota did not disappoint. Little Julia, age four, threw up four times in the car.

Even so, I'm proud to report that we were basically unfazed. And in a minute, I'm going to tell you how you can travel with a carsick child -- if you must.

First, however, let me hold Social Services at bay by telling you that Julia didn't seem particularly sick. We weren't torturing the poor child by strapping her, feverish and impaired, into her booster seat. She wasn't complaining, or whining, or moaning. She was in a good mood. In fact, she talked and laughed and pointed out birds and power lines all the way ... but occasionally, she would just happen to urp up whatever she had eaten or had to drink 20 minutes before.

So assuming that no one will schedule a home study as a result of this post, here is my advice for traveling with kids who puke.

1. Don't travel alone. If you don't have an assistant to help a sick child, stay home. You really can't drive and keep your eye on a carsick kid for any length of time. (Yesterday, 16-year-old Katherine was my designated aid. Having her along for the ride seemed like karmic justice, considering that I developed most of my travel-sick techniques on her behalf.)
2. Carry not one, but two ice cream buckets with you, and line the ice cream buckets with plastic grocery bags. (And have lots of extra grocery bags along for the ride ... dozens of them, more than you think you could ever possibly need.)
3. Keep one of the buckets near the sick child, and train him or her to throw up into the bucket. Keep the other bucket near your assistant, so they can hold a bucket for the sick child, too. (If your kids can't throw up into a bucket, none of this advice is all that practical.)
4. Have a full roll of paper towels in the car, along with wet wipes, old towels, and washcloths that you will be willing to throw away. (The old towels can double as blankets, which will also help protect your car and your child's clothes.)
5. If your child does throw up into one of the buckets, use the paper towels and wet wipes to help them clean up. Throw the used paper towels into the bucket to absorb free-ranging fluids, tie the bag closed, and then transfer the whole works into the backup bucket, so the mess is double-bagged and less likely to drip.
6. Pull over at the next gas station or rest stop, and throw the used bags into an outside trash can.
7. Go into the bathroom, and use a wet washcloth or towel to make sure everyone is neat and tidy. You may need to throw them away when you're done. The towels, that is, not the kids.
8. Keep several changes of clothing accessible, for everyone in the car. You never know when someone might miss the bucket, or find that it leaks.
9. Try to limit the sick child to clear fluids like water, 7-Up, or Sprite, along with "unscented" foods like crackers. Avoid technicolor beverages that will leave fluorescent stains on your car upholstery or your clothes.
10. Remain cheerful, and remember that traveling with children is fun. It's fun, I tell you! Fun! And the fun doesn't last forever, so treasure it while you can. As I said, I personally have been enjoying my family travels now for 17 years, and apparently, I can look forward to at least another decade of ice-cream bucket adventures. Hooray! Good times.

Road Trip

Today I'm driving from Minneapolis to North Dakota to pick up Katherine and Julia -- our two daughters, 16 and 4, who stayed with Grandma while we set up the new house. If I'm not too tired, I'll drive back tomorrow, but it's a long trip: seven hours there, and seven hours back. Plus it's raining, and it's supposed to keep raining tomorrow, too. Sigh.

I'm not looking forward to the drive, but maybe it won't be so bad if I listen to one of the Tarot School's audio courses in the car.

Once, my husband Dan had been listening to a Tarot School CD in our van. When I got in later and started driving, I assumed he had left the radio tuned in to a talk station ... and the people were talking about tarot cards! I was so excited. I was even happier when I recognized the people who were talking ... Wald and Ruth Ann!

Sadly, it was just a CD, but if there were a tarot talk show, I'd listen.

Illustration: The Chariot card from the Robin Wood tarot.

Hell Guardia

I just have to tell you how horrible La Guardia was yesterday when I passed through it on my way home. Oh. My. God.

First of all, the whole place seemed to be running on auto pilot. (Get it? Auto pilot. At the airport. Heh.)

No one was working -- not even the self-service check-in kiosks at Northwest. And while there were a couple of strangely disassociated types there to slap bar codes on our luggage (when they weren't  busy yelling at people in line), we had to pull our suitcases off the platform ourselves and walk them back the way we came to send them through the big X-ray machines.

It was incredibly inefficient, and I had no clue what to do once I saw my bag leaving me for parts unknown. Luckily, the X-ray guy was able to spare a moment of his time to point me in the right direction.

I found the security line, but the security guard who checked our IDs and boarding passes was training another guard. The two of them did look at my paperwork ... but I'm not sure they looked at my face.

I got into line to be X-rayed myself, but for some reason there were no bins for our shoes and carry-ons. People were lining up behind me, so I laid my little bag on its side and put it on the conveyer belt.

Then I started to step through the radioactive portal, thankful that at this stage in my life, I really don't want any more children. If I were at all protective of my fertility, knowing the level of competence I had experienced so far, I would have been worried.

From the other side of the tube, a security guard came rushing up.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said. "I told you to wait a minute, but you didn't wait." (I hadn't heard him.) "So now you know what I'm gonna have to do?"

I sighed. I figured I was in for a full-body wanding or Homeland Security arrest or something.

"I'm gonna have to fight you," he said, and then he laughed.

Ah! He was joking. He waved me on through, but when I got to the other side another guy had pulled my bag out of the X-ray machine.

"Maam," he said. "You have a laptop in here."

I nodded.

"You always need to put your laptop in a bin and send it through separately."

"There were no bins," I said.

"Then you just need to wait for them," he said. "Now I have to put your laptop through special screening."

He pulled out one of those little bomb-detector pads and wiped down my laptop, which was fine, because it needed a good cleaning anyway. All in all, he was friendly enough, and I was on my way in a minute or two.

On my way to Hell, that is.

It had rained in New York, and apparently when it rains the runways melt and the Union goes on strike, because every gate had people waiting for planes that had been delayed.

In some cases, the passengers waiting for two or three outgoing flights were all crowded into the same waiting area. Every seat was full, and people were sitting against the ticket counters, the pillars in the middle of the room, the main corridor, and the walls. Some Japanese tourists were sprawled out across the floor, napping. And napping tourists are so very attractive, aren't they? I did a few laps around the area and finally found a vacant spot to sit under a bank of pay phones.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there was no air moving in the terminal. No. Air. The place must have been about 80 degrees. I was really glad that all of my sweaters were dirty and I was traveling in a light T-shirt.

Normally, I would have dressed in layers that I never take off. I hate to undress in public, for fear that I'll wind up looking like a disshevled, overtired tourist about to pass out in the middle of an airport terminal.

My plane was an hour late -- because of the rain, don't you know -- so I read, and chatted with the people around me who were all planning to miss their connections. I also took some photos of Hell-G-A, solely for your amusement.

You'll find the photos here, and they're archived for future reference in this photo album: http://www.corrinekenner.com/photos/life_at_laguardia/

Semi-Live Blogging from the Readers Studio: Session Two

Here are my notes from Robert Place's seminar on innovative three-card spreads.

Readers Studio: Session Two
Robert Place

Volunteers begin passing out handouts.
Is there anyone here who has never done a three-card reading my way? 2/3

The three card readings I do is not a typical three-card reading. Past, present, future. If I was going to do that reading, I

would have 3 cards for past, 3 for present, 3 for future. Like one to me. I look at the cards like hiroglyphs. During the

1400s, it was a whole art form, making hieroglyphs. Understanding how you use hiero., it intuitively came to me that they

should be used this way. Most of my work comes to me from my intuition, combined w/research. The idea is that you want to put

three cards out that have one message. I noticed there were patterns, in the direction or the flow of the figures, so you

have a basic structure to your story or your sentence. There's a certain subgroup of the linear, face to face, maybe that

should be a separate group. I like the number 7, integral to the tarot ... 7 a unifying magical number. I put so much time

into putting in the books that there should be six that I was reluctant to change. But now is the time.

Look at papers. Let's discuss what the patterns are.

LINEAR: [From handout: The cards could show a story, which begins on the left and ends on the right, or the action could

start on the right and proceed to the left. The figures will tend to be facing in the same direction, left or right.

Sometimes, the end card may be facing forward or the opposite way -- meeting the action.] If we look at 3 cards

1   2   3

If you just look at the figures on the cards, suppose you had a person on 3, the same kind of thing, another person on 2,

looking this way (profile), and then on 1, the most obvious ... this is linear. But it's not always so obvious.

1   2   3

CHOICE: [The central figure may have his or her back toward the back of the figure on one of the flanking cards, When two

figures are back to back, it indicates that the central figure is moving away from one side and all that symbolizes toward

the other -- choosing one direction and rejecting the other.] Suppose this one is looking at us, this one is looking left,

and this one is like this ... one might have a little gesture, pointing. With these faces, we could end up where there's a

definite change of direction.

1   2   3

MEETING: [The central figure may be face to face with the figure on one of the flanking cards. When two figures are face to

face, it indicates that the central figure is moving toward one side and receiving new ideas, help, or companionship.]

Suppose someone looking right, and someone looking left, a back to back situation. The third one could be continuing left, or

looking straight at us. It doesn't really matter. The thing is, the back to back really stands out. The action could go in

logical progression, or it could start with the back to back. In pictorial action, the action is in the rejection.

There's this famous med. relief of adam and eve, shows god standing pointng at adam, adam is pointing at eve, and eve is

pointing at the snake. God, Adam, Eve, Snake, you just follow the action and it tells the whole story, through gestures.A new

pattern is the meeting. this is a subgroup under linear. Basically the meaning is when somebody  meets face to face. This

face to face is the opposite of choice. So there's a direction from one card to another, and then a meeting. We're going

along, and another entity is coming in to meet us. There's help coming, or a confrontation. Usually it's some sort of aid.

Suppose the third card next to a face to face pair was someone looking the other way. Now we have a culminanation ... a

combination of choice and meeting. 

The first thing you want to look at is structure, pattern. Then we look at the significance of the card ... story, history,

archetype. Then we plug ourselves into it, the individual meaning for the person having the reading. By allowing your

subconscious to structure the pattern, you open yourself. You don't know which way it could be going.

CENTRAL ORIGIN: [Perhaps the central figure is looking directly at you or up to a higher plain. This may indicate that the

action starts in the center and moves out to both sides or to one side and not the other. Look at the direction of the

flanking cards. If they are moving away from the center, this is the central origin pattern.] We most likely have a center

card where the person is looking at us. What's the action doing on either side? We could have people looking in, or we could

have people looking out. So we have a goal, and people are either coming toward it or moving away from it. So we have to look

for gestures.

Q: What if you don't have a person?
A: Could be an animal. Any fiure.

The central origin means from one thing, two possibilities emerge, like a Y.

Just a basic pattern of activity.

Q: What about cards with a group of people interacting?
A: If you look, there is a general overall pattern to the direction of energy.

Q: The lovers card, for example, has three figures.
A: suppose we had a card with two people looking at each other ... From this meeting we could have people coming away, or

going in, arrows, or staves ... We're talking about abstractions, the way we look at artwork. It doesn't have any meaning

yet. But it has a structure. First we want the structure, then the meaning. But it will get ambiguous at time.

CENTRAL DESTINATION:
Reverse [When the central figure is looking at you, up, or down and the end figures are facing the center, the action may

start on both sides and converge in the middle. Thus, the middle has become the destination for the action.]

CENTRAL PROBLEM:
[At times, there may be no flow of energy. The central card may be blocking the action or dispersing the energy.] The five of

cups, the tower, nothing can get through. That has a lot to do with how you feel about the image. You're supposed to be

intuitive. It's not arbitrary.

THE CENTRAL TEACHER:
[The central figure may be instructional and commentating on or pointing to two possibilities illustrated by the cards that

flank it. The center card m ay be illustrating that two choices are available or recommending one choice over the other.]

There are very strong opposites going on. The cards on either side will be the central teacher teaching us about this.

Arbitrarily go through your deck, and pick cards that represent these seven patterns.

Then assess: Why did we put these out, and what does it say about us as readers?

. . . . . . . .

What I would like to do now, if someone did a really great linear reading, come up here and explain it.

When you interpret, it can be very simple. Try to come up with a key word or phrase for each card. For example, 5 of cups

could be "sorrow."

Gail: My friends volunteered me for this.

First, the Six of Wands. A very finely dressed man on a white horse, at the peak of his recognition. people are cheering him

on. He really deserves this.

In the next card, the Queen of Swords. I interpreted that as the love of his life, a very honest woman, delivers her messages

forthrightly and cuttingly.

In the last one, the Six of Cups. He wishes for a sweeter, gentler time, or perhaps that they were more loving.

Who had a really great choice reading?

Gina Jean: The page of pentacles turns his back on the fool and goes toward the hermit. We said the P of P was given a gift,

the choice he wasa making was to follow the hermit and go within intuitively and toward himself. He's turning his back on the

Fool. The hermit is more mature.

So we're learning a deeper wisdom, and not something so frivolous?

Exactly.

How about the meeting? Does anyone have a really great meeting spread?

Elinor Greenberg: The page of cups in the middle, and the fool, having a meeting with the High Priestess. Something new is

about to start. The page is starting on her life journey about love, and right away she encounters wisdom in its deepest

form. Sexual wisdom.

Bob: I like a happy ending.

Who had a good central origin?

Lynn: Ace of Wands, and the King of Pentacles, both coming out of the 10 of pentacles. The people in the 10 of Ps are

reaching out.

The way I see it is there is a choice between what you enjoy, what you love, or money. Or another way to put it is going for

something new, which is the ace of wands. If this were a more business oriented question, you would ask, should I go with the

new venture or the established corporation.

At this point, I had to go get some cookies ...

The central teacher.

The teacher is the magician, teaching us that we have everything we need at our disposal, if we are wise. At one side, all

issues need to be put in a boat and brought to our central wisdom. ON the other, how we use our strength.

15-minute break.

Phyllis bought my book and I signed it. Hooray!

And we're back.

Basically what we did at the beginning is we practiced laying out the cards. But what happens if we cut the deck. For this

exercise I want you to split into pairs, and ask the cards to give some advice to our querent. I never recommend riffling,

where you shuffle the deck like you're playing poker. I find that it's better to shuffle by picking them up and dropping

them, some at the front, and some at the back.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For the next exercise ... The basic reading I do is a relationship reading, and it works like this. Three cards representing

one individual, on the left, Three cards representing another person or issue on the right, and the three cards on top

represent the actual relationship between the two.

   123

123   123

We want to see how each card is changing as they go toward each other. Look for the direction the cards are facing. Energies

coming together ... Or energies going in different directions. Maybe one person is leading the other, or people who are not

really happy about their relationship. And then we go to read the individual cards. Keep it simple at first. Look at each

card, and say, what's a key phrase or word for this card? Energy, enthusiasm, naivete, love ... When we read the top cards,

then we want to see what the interaction is between the two. Are they meeting in the middle? Is there a nice balance? Then

you can do a lot of creative things. Where is this relationship headed? What will this look like six months from now? Put

additional cards on top to see, or to find a better way of interacting.  The cards on the left, the querent should identify.

The cards on the right, maybe not.

Empathy is probably one of the most spiritual of virtues. Empathy brings us out of ourselves, and helps us be more

successful, helps us see how other people think. You can see things from their perspective. That will affect their

interaction.

We're going to try this exercise.

In what order?

   789

123   456

Reversals?
I think reversals are confusing. I don't use them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Two minutes left. Does anyone have any last-minute questions before we leave?

What is the meaning of love?

I'm not going to handle that. I'll leave that one up to Wald.

I think everyone did really well. My applause to you.

Semi-Live Blogging from the Readers Studio: Session One

We just finished the first session of the 2006 Readers Studio here in New York.

Llewellyn's Lisa Finander and the Tarot School's Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone introduced the three speakers; I sat in the back of the room and took notes with my laptop ...

Here is the raw, unedited text, describing our first session with tarot luminaries Rachel Pollack, Lon Milo DuQuette, and Robert Place.

Readers Studio 2006: Notes from Session One

We are in the usual ballroom at the Courtyard by Marriott. The ballroom doesn’t chane from year to year. There’s a colorful oriental swirly carpet on the floor, and godess-style paintings on the wall.

Ruth Ann rings her bell … and welcomes visitors from England, Australia, Switzerland, Canada …

Wald asks how many have been here before, almost everyone raises their hand. It really is very much the same.

Created for experienced readers to improve their skills.

Great teachers … and the level of sophistication in this room is pretty intense. We’ve organized this gathering so that everything you learn will stay with you. When you walk away from this hotel, you will use what you learn.

Interviews … We asked the presenters what questions they would like to be asked.

After the interviews, we’ll do benchmark readings. ON Sunday, we’ll pair off with the same partner, armed with a whole new stack of things we’ve done, you’ll notice the difference.

Lisa Finander, tarot acquisitions editor, talks about Llewellyn …

Filling some beautiful shoes. Barbara loves shoes. I work with people and ideas. I try to put what they’re excited about into books. Where is your spark? What are you so excited about that the words just flow? What is really joyous in you that you want to share with other people?

Astrology, divination, kabala, shamanism acquisitions

This weekend, start the process, go from there.

Llewellyn in a state of growth. Almost a year in new facility. When we look at your projects we want you to succeed. There’s nothing that makes me happier than taking a new idea or new author and getting them published. One of the benefits of working with Llewellyn is it’s small but not too small. You can call me and I’ll call you back, or I’ll pick up the phone and answer. You can get ahold of your publisher. You get a personal response.

Lisa Finander introduces Rachel Pollack …

This is my favorite tarot event of the year, along with the workshop Mary Greer and I teach every year, because of the people and level of commitment.

As always, hypnotized by Walds genius and Ruth Ann’s incredible wisdom.

Q: What are wisdom readings, and how do they relate to personal readings, and what is their connection

A” Wisdome readings are something I started with my book The Forest of Souls developed it further. Two things: 1 is to base a reading spread on a spiritual tradition. For example, Beltane is coming up, how do I exuberate? I love to do New Year’s spreads for the difft New Year’s. Rosh Hashana, Persian New Year, for each NY a particular qulity of that wisdome tradition. Rosh Hashana starting a 10 day process days of awe leading up to day of atonement. How do I get m yself right with other p, the Goddess? For Sowhen, the wisdom is all about the veil between the worlds. 2. Another way to do wisdom readings is to ask the cards about spiritual and other matters that are not person. Here we have this great collection of wise understandings, 78 of them, and then we start shuffling down, why not use that to ask the questions that are morst useful. In my book Seeker, how can I get the attention of billy that cute boy in geography class. Very first question is “What is the Soul?” The card was the ace of birds from Shining Tribe, and the ace of birds is an owl in darkness looking intensely out at the reader. So the soul is the owl hunting in the darkness. So now when there’s a question that comes out about spirituality or life, I like to ask the cards. The wonderful part is that you can transmute it by putting yourself in it. “What is my soul?” Tomorrow in my talk talk bout wisdom readings and how they become personal readings. How do we connect to the Goddess? How do I connect to the Goddess? A personal reading on the wisdom level?

Q: What’s the diff between systems and stories in tarot, how do they work together, can tarot be used for storytelling and poetry?

A: Great question. I teach writing at a place called Goddard College in Vermont. Low intensity. People do it from their home. A week of high intensity residency to get a MFA in Creative Writing. Every year or so a workshop called tarot for writers. Instead of asking for wisdom of spirit, you’re asking for inspiration for stories. Understand your characters on a deeper level. You really come to wonderful things. One of the readings includes the questions what will the person risk? Great thing to look at in a story? What can your character get? The questions you might ask about life you might ask about a character in a story. You can use the cards to write story. Shuffle, 5 or 6 cards, what clicks. What flashes in story. Try not to keep to your knowledge of what the card means. Just look at the picture. The Rider deck: default setting for modern tarot. The nine of cups shows this man sitting rather smubly in front of a row of 9 cups. One story that I came up with by looking at that story … this man was an ancient magician who was a stealer of souls. Those cups were containers of souls he had stolen. I never wrote it, but recently the devil in a sotry. Use tarot to inspire poems. The other aspect of stories and systems is that a lot of us have learned about the tarot as a system. Correspondence. Fool = aleph = Uranus = various demons and angels … The whole system of thought. These are extremely valuable. The concept comes from the Rennaisance, the arit of memory. If you could know everything, you could be like God. Another way you could do tarot is to see what stories there are in the cards. Different meanings develop. Interesting to try to combine, to know what wonderful system meanings are, at the same time build upon that so you can play with it. Compared to books of knowledge, a text like the Bible, the thing that distinguishes tarot is that the pages are not stuck together. They’re numbered, but you can shuffle them. You can make a different tarot everyt time. It’s very daring. You can change it. The tarot is meant to be shuffled. So you have this idea, all that wisdom, see how it plays against each other.

Q: Tell us about your upcoming projects, Shining Tribe art deck, sea of logos, book of short stories, trip to Greece.

A: This is a really busy time for me. Really wanted to share with great group of peple. Mysteries of Elesuius, honor of goddess of Demeter, (Empress) daughter Persephone, queen of the dead, personally associate with the Star. Major Arcana as the Fool plus three lines of 11. Triads. Third triad is Empress, the Star, the turning wheel of the seasons. Going to

Greece to celebrate the mysteries: Athens, Delphi, serious oracle work, readings, spiritual purification, healing temple at Epidorus, Crete, work in caves, places you can’t get to as a regular tourist. Oct 1-12. Recently made an art deck, mini art prints of shining tribe tarot, selling individual copies to collectors. Colors are marvelously intense. Tarot of Prague, Bohemian Cats, the See of Logos, surreal, bizarre tarot deck. Comical. Extreme fortunes. Guaranteed 100 percent accuracy.

Isis: The goddess Isis will put you on her mailing list. Hints and tips from Isis. You discover that you entire body is an engine of prophecy. Everyone you know is a magician who will come to study you. Also commissioned to do a book of fairy tales, 9 stories, not for children, for grown ups, one about a magician wanting to create the perfect tarot.

Q: Talk about class.

A: Which class?

Q: Here

A: Rescuing the tarot from psychology. What will Elinor Greenberg say? She’ll be cool. The basic concept is that I feel that 30 years ago a bunch of us rescued the tarot from fortunetelling. Formula meanings with everything no depth. Papus, incomprehensible to us. Occultist. We gave the tarot a deeper meaning through psychoclogy. Everybody was in therapy. It used to be you went to psychologist or therapist, went to be cured of the human condition. If you weren’t 100 % happy you went to a therapist. Now the tarot has become deeply entwined with psychology. I’m going to be talking about strategies and ways to open the tarot to a new level, not just back to fortunetelling or occultism, deeper new adventures in the world of tarot.

Q: James Wells. What is the question that would lead us to the essence of your work with tarot?
A: Ask the cards. Cut the deck, I get the 5 of Rivers, actually about grieving and sorrow. How to go deeper and deeper into our sorrows and emerge with wisdom. How do we use the cards to go deeply into our lives. Spiral down and come out with greater understanding. At the heart of everything I do is imagination and passion. The question I would think of for myself How do imagination and passion work with what I do?

Ruth Ann Amberstone introduces Lon Milo DuQuette ...

Bio: LMD is a star of unique and exceptional brilliance. “I told somebody else to [write that].”

Lon has a lot of impeccable magical credentials … ODO since 1975, deputy granmaster 1994, written lots of wonderful books … Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, My Life with the Spirits, new book The Key to Solomon’s Key, He married me and Wald. He and Mary Greer performed the ceremony.

Q: Talk a little bit about your class.

A: My class is sort of based on a concept that has opened up a new way of looking at the tarot for me, to treat the trumps as only facets of one greater reality. Each has an entire lesser arcana of their own. The fool’s three of discs different than the Emeror’s three of discks. 1332 cards in a normal tarot deck. Because of this arrangement we’ve made with S. Kaplan, we’ve had to pare it down to 78. All of the tarot cards live in the fool, but because of the deal we’ve made with St. Kaplan … Your relationship with the trumps, you may have a new perverse look with the trumps.

Q: How were you First introduced to tarot?

A: Weall come to tarot in dift directions, mine came from western maystery tradition. I belonged to AMWORK a long time ago. Ancienct Mysteries of Rosicruceans … I wanted to possess some of those ancient powers. I got into it for the chicks. Like freemasons with womn. They offered this kabbalah course. You could send off for the monographs. Sounded interesting. They sent them all at once. 16. The kabbalah couse was 16 monographs telling you why you shouldn’t be interested in kabbalah … everything the k wasn’t … one of those things was tarot. To connect with the tarot was blasphemous. I like bleasphemy. So I joined the BOTA. It was a wonderful tarot course. I went through their kabbalah course. I saw that this blasphemy was really good stuff. I was in Pickwic bookstore in Costa Mesa, and I saw the Crowley THoth tarot deck, and I had never heard of this character, but I liked those cards. I looked at that Fool card and I got scared. The first fool card I ever saw where the fool looked nuts, and he had horns. Some of them have bare breasts. Wow. I was impressed. But I was a little afraid. So beautiful they were disturbing. Pagannini who played the violin so well that they said it must be the Devil. I sort of thought, OH, I think these might be evil, because thy’re evoking such feelings in me. Little occult dictionary bought at the supermarket in the checkout, and I looked it up, A.C. famous Scottis Satanist. “I’m right. The devil did these carads.” I gave the cards away to my brother, because he needed a little possession. Good riddance. I’m a wild and cray heretic but Satanism wasn’t for me. A friend of yours shows up, hadn’t seen him 3 years, he’d been farming in Guatamala, and he was visiting. He said what have you been up to? Rosirucian, BoTA, deck by Schoottish Satanist … Man. I gave them away. He said, “You’re an idiot. I read this guy’s biography while I was in this cave, and I think that everything you’re looking for in these western mystery traditions, you’re going to have to come to terms with this guy. He’s brilliant.” Is he a Satanist? Nahh …. Well. Yeah. A good kind of Satanist. So I got the cards back, an early edition of Thoth. Most of it just went way over my head. I got enough to know this was a pretty briliiant guy. Had the mailin address to OTO, wrote to them after a while, the rest is history. I’ve been ruined by tarot.

Q: Why do you think tarot works?
A: Tarot works if you work. Otherwise it’s just pretty cards. Or just cards, in the example of my deck. Tarot works, when it works, because it’s perfect. Or as closely approaching perfection as anything can be. Beauty is perfect. Mathemastics is perfect. Bootles gin is perfect. A martini is perfect when there is no vermouth in it. Truth reveals itself in perfection and beauty. I came to tarot through kabbalah. I see that the tarot is constructed along perfect kabbalistic lines. Whether anyone chooses to incorporate that in your tarot practice, tarot is perfect. It has the ability to evoke in you a perfect reflection of the truth. You have to be ready to see the truth. That’s the trick that either makes it work or not work.

Q: Would you pleas shamelessly promote your newest books?

A: That was the best question I wrote for myself. I’m here because I’ve made no further provisions for my family’s future. W and RA have run this event like a well oiled machine. One mistake. They ordered too many of my books. I need your help here. If they don’t all sell, they’re going to have to send them back to Weiser. That’s going to make them look bad, me look bad. Truly, you don’t know how many people you’re hurting. I do have a new book out. The key to Solomon’s Key, Secrets of Magic and Mystery. Sort of something new for me. I’m a freemason. I’ve been very intrigued and entertained by this Dan Brown DaVinci Code … The Masons rule the world … and all that’s true. But I was asked at last year’s INATS to do something to take advantage of this Dan Brown phenomenon. And I said, “Hey, no way would I stoop to something just to make some money. But okay.” But even though of course I’m stooping, the book really is secrets of magic and masonry, really does have something to do with King Solomon himself, as it relates to this so-called secret that could bring down the Vaticanand Amway and everything. I’m bery excited. The more I worked on it, I opened communications with Thomas L. Thompson, professor at Copenhagen, began to border on some serious work. I do reveal a secret, and I probably will be shot. So I want to remind you how much an author’s signature increases in value once they’re assassinated. Also, fat people can go, just like that.

Q; Weren’t you already assassinated about 5 years ago?
A: I told them to wait three days before they buried me.

Wald Amberstone introduces Robert Place …

I didn’t even invite him up here: It’s Bob Place. He can predict the future. We were all provided bios for each of the presenters. I didn’t bring up the bio for Bob, because Bob and I go back 15 years at least. I met Bob at the open center. The Open Center had a lobby and a couch and a few chairs. The p who work at the OC thought I was with the CIA. I would just sit there and watch people. One day Bob walked in , sat down, we started talking. No, we started arguing from the minute he sat down. We’ve never stopped arguing, not for a minute, except for the fact that at this point we no longer care. Meanwhile, we have a lot of fun together. Bob is very very prolific producer of decks. One of earlier decks, Alchemical, a genuine classic. He’s done a lot of fine art. A jeweler, silversmith, goldsmith. Bob is a truly gifted artist, on paper, in metal, a number of other things. Shown in museums and a variety of locations where his art is appreciated. Ruth and I recently commissioned to do birth card logos. Bob has written books — five of them. He’s also a scholar. Bob has spent a great deal of time studying, learning, integrating what he’s learned. The work that Bob does is extremely interesting.

Bob: Did you choose to interview me?

A: Yes.

Bob: The class today will be on my three-card reading but I’m going to bring some new insights into it. The way I read the cards is I believe they should be grouped together. Each is a hieroglyph, each is best read like a statement, a sentence or a story. We’ll be learning my technique, but introducing new ideas. Six basic patterns I’ve found, in my books, but today I will change it: I will make it seven patterns, to confuse you and make you buy my newere books. Expand on the cards, underlie them, get causes. We’ll definitely have a firm grasp of the technique.

Q: In 1998, when we began to do teleclasses, we normally reserve cutting edge material. Bob was one of the presenters. He taught at that time a version of what he’s going to teach today. We were delighted. We had never seen anything like it. We didn’t have a title for Bob’s spread … I dubbed it the Best Three Card Spread in the World.

Q: Bob has done more decks than anyone else. How in the world do you find the inspiration for that many decks?

A: I just came up with these questions spur of the moment. But I really couldn’t think of an answer … I really don’t know where the inspiration comes from. It has to do with my feelings for the tarot in general. Basciaclly the tarot is not my first choice for divination. My first choice is Dreamwork. I had a dream in which I was told an inheritance would come to me and it was the tarot. My dreams are basically telling me that the tarot was a vehicle I could use like a drea. Letting the cards talk to me, my higher self talk to me, through dreams and the cards. As an artist, I was inclined to create decks. But I wondered, what did these images mean to the people who created them? As I delved into the history, background in art history, I could find that once I found decent histories, I could start to look at them as people looked at them in the Renaissance. Some of the original meanings got lost along the way, but as we recovered them, we recovered meanings. Right now I’m working on a vampire tarot. Saints, Angels, Bddhism, Alchemy, what do Vampires have to do with that? Antitheses? When I look at the vampire story, I see an ancient mystery, mythology. How we can find that.

Q: Renaissance a source of inspiration for a lot of the work that he does. The reopening the rebirth of mysteries that have fallen away. Endless in combinations, permutations, brilliance and beauty. To be able to see the world in terms of its mysteries is kind of the definition of a renaissance man. Quintessential renaissance man, DaVinci, would create household gadgets, detailed maps, war machines, dabbled in medicine, inventions, painted paintings of rust and dead leaves, found as much fascination in what was ugly as what was beautiful… Bob is like that. I don’t know if you would compare yourself to DaVinci, but qualified as a master craftsman in many ways, creates beautiful thins in ght puruit of beauty, mystery. How does that happen? How do you manage to bring all of these skills together in one life?

A: The first thing is the way I view it, I don’t see them as separate things. The neurosis of the 21^st centure is that we try to categorize … When I give my course on Pythagorus, everbody knows that he’s a mathematician, a little more astute a philosophper, but he’s a musician … we start putting him in more and more categories. Enlightened master and we put him in a box. Everything we do I don’t really think of it as separate things. When I was a little kid, I said I was an artist. I knew since I could talk that I was an artist. Being an artist led me to wonder about pictures, where they came from, what they meant. In renaissance, pictures were though to have body and soul. Body, the beauty, soul, the meaning. In art school, they taught me, don’t pay attention to the meaning, that’s literary, that’s dumb. I was just always attracted to both parts of the artwork. Being attracted led me to scholarship. It’s not enough to make the paintings, I want people to understand them, so I have to write. One thing leads to another because I’m not in a box.

Q: Do you do PowerPOint?

A: No.

Q: you need to. It’s just a version of multimedia.

Wald: Looking forward to vampire tarot. There’s a lot of other stuff out there in the world Bob. A lot of mysteries waiting to be elucidated.

B: I’m working on an art edition of the alchemical tarot. Out of print, I got the rights back. To make my own print, it’s more expensive, but it’s a high-quality art edition … an archival edition that you can see on the back table. Also working on two other books, on Shamanism and a basic book on divination, introducing the subject to teenagers.

Q: Enormous amount of research. How laterally do you mulch? Do you stray far afield? Working on alchemical, for example, do you also look into recipe books for the 15^th century?

A: Time restraints. My inclination is usually to let my intuition guide me to the best sources. I usually like to find what academia considers the most respected source … w/Alchemy, started with Jung … once I got into the pictures, I could read pictures faster than books. I got the Golden Grains, pictures from 15^th century, I just devoured them. That’s one thing that surprises other writers. I know things they don’t know because I can read pictures. I had an agent, I said I was working on Buddha tarot, he said, it’s not Buddhism, it’s not tarot, these things don’t go together. He didn’t know about Llewellyn.

Wald: All of us have made a life’s work out of reading pictures. We interpret pictures. We add things on, we interpret and we allow our intuition to work. What Bob is talking about is a little different from that. I think the art of reading pictures disappeared 500 years ago.

Q: I wonder if in the historical pursuit and study that you do, if you ever decided to throw out the history and just paint. Deviate from what you’ve learned.

A: I don’t look at history … I don’t want to be put into a box … If my intuition guides me to a different insight, I just go with it. Plato wasn’t trying to be historical. Modern scholars try to box everything up.

W: Nobody is just anything. All of us are more than we expect.

Wald: Practical issues. Procedures. First, right now, you’re going to be doing something called the benchmark reading. The word benchmark suggest what we’re talking about. A baseline. You already know how to read, and read very well, or you wouldn’t be here. Each one of you knows what the cards mean. Each one of you has a style. You’re all competent. But how much further can you go? We’re going to make you actually aware of how much you know and how well you can do. A lot of times you’re not all that conscious of how good you are. Pair you off. Find a partner. Each of you will do a reading for the other. Take notes of what questions you ask. Be sure that you clarify it so that both of you are on the same page. Make sure that both of you know what the question is. The reader will then do a reading, a standard three-card spread. Write down the cards that turn up. Let the person who is receiving the reading take notes. Then switch off. Take careful notes. Save those notes. When this benchmark reading is finished we’re going to be going to lunch. We will revisit those notes on Sunday. You’re going to be learning a lot of stuff, practice skills during classes, on Sunday find your original partner. Only this time the answer will contain additional information. You’re going to integrate it. You’ll walk away from this weekend knowing how much you’ve improved. This little room full of people is the tail that wags the dog. What you do spreads.

Medical Emergency

I'm in New York! I'm in my hotel room, comfortably unpacked, checking my email, and typing up a few notes so I don't forget to tell people all of my very important ideas.

There was some drama on my flight here, though. I was sitting in one of the exit rows, because I went ahead and paid Northwest $15 for their stupid exit-row upgrade. One flight attendent was sitting in the jump seat ahead of me; a second flight attendent, an off-duty guy, was sitting in the jump seat across the aisle.

Just as we started to push back from the gate, the attendent across the aisle from me started shouting ... Well, not shouting, exactly, but he looked and acted very alarmed.

"Sir," he said, loudly. "Sir, are you all right?"

I leaned over and looked at the man he was talking to -- a balding fellow in the middle seat. He didn't answer.

The guy flight attendent stood up and said, "Do you need some oxygen?" From somewhere, he grabbed a canister and a face mask and started strapping it on.

At the same time, the flight attendant on my side stood up, too, and grabbed the phone next to the jump seat.

The guy flight attendant filled her in.

"He's sweating profusely, and he's passed out," he said.

The female flight attendant relayed the information to the cockpit.

"We're going back to the gate," she said.

Meanwhile -- and remember, this was all happening very, very quickly -- the flight attendants were also talking to the sick man's wife, who was sitting next to me.

"Has he been sick?" they asked.

"Yes," she said. "He passes out and his heart stops."

Oh.

"It's very serious," she said.

Well, I could tell the flight attendants were seriously concerned. They relayed that information to the cockpit, too, but we were already back at the gate, and paramedics were on the way.

His wife, who was obviously flustered, had to go to the section ahead of us to find her husband's carry-on luggage and his medication. By the time she found it, the man seemed a little better. He wasn't passed out, anyway, and he was alert enough to tell the paramedics that he had taken his medicine this morning. Eventually, he was able to walk off the plane, but he bumped his head on the overhead bin on the way. Poor guy.

We took off about a half hour later. No one was upset.

Well, no one except the flight attendant who was sitting in the jump seat near me.

"I should have called for a doctor," she said. "I forgot to call for a doctor. This was only my second medical emergency in 27 years."

"No, no, no," another flight attendant reassured her. "You have to stay with your passenger. You did everything just right."

Of course, I chimed in, too.

"We weren't in the air yet," I said. "Help was really close. I think the paramedics were with him within five minutes."

"Really?" she said. "That was fast."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So here's the spooky psychic part of the story. Yesterday, when I was choosing my seat online, I could have chosen either 33-C or 33-D. My husband Dan was watching over my shoulder.

"Don't you want 33-C, for Corrine?" he asked.

Normally, I probably would have gone with my initial. But yesterday, I really didn't want to.

"No," I said. "I think I'l go with D, for Dan." And we laughed, because it was such a silly little exchange.

But if I had been in 33-C, I would have been sitting right next to the sick guy. Eeek! I was close enough as it was.