This morning I dreamt that I was at a Thai restaurant with my family. While the waiter was taking orders, I turned around and noticed the party behind me. Each person at the table had a poster-sized tarot card attached to his or her shirt. The deck and the cards were unfamiliar but clearly tarot. The man closest to me wasn’t wearing a poster-sized card but had a Rider-Waite Nine of Wands tucked behind his ear.

It’s not easy to tuck a tarot card behind one’s ear. I gave it a try the second I woke up!

If you haven’t been, imagine walking into a huge room filled with tarot enthusiasts and vendors selling baubles and all kinds of tarot goodies. You pick a random tarot card from a cauldron—a personal theme to touch upon throughout the day, you reach into another cauldron and pick a random deck—a generous gift from Lo Scarabeo, and you pour over the program trying to decide which of the two to four workshops you will attend each hour.

Below are the workshops I settled on. They were all fabulous.

First there was Joseph Martin, creator of The Quest Tarot. Joseph started by passing around various psychology/self-help books he was reading. He encouraged readers to assign their clients good, relevant books as homework. He then taught us The Lovers Weave Spread that he created. The cards are literally woven so that they lock together. Check out the photo below—No tape! I swear!

Next I attended Mary Greer’s fascinating talk on Waite and the Secret Tradition. (Mary’s talks are one of the things I most look forward to at BATS each year.)

Then I attended Ellen Lorenzi-Prince’s workshop, “Full Moon Fire Magic,” which gave me a chance to use the cards to reflect on my inner demons. There was a healing exercise followed by a guided meditation. She also gave us new, thought-provoking correspondences for each of the suits:

• Swords—Fear
• Wands—Anger
• Cups—Grief
• Pentacles—Shame

Next I went to deck collector Holly Voley’s presentation. She started by giving tips on what to look for in early editions of the Aquarian Tarot and the Morgan-Greer Tarot. The heart of her presentation  focused on Rider Waite Smith clones. She put out a call to deck creators to come up with new interpretations that challenge us. She cited Wheel of Change Tarot, Shining Tribe Tarot, Tarot of the Crone and Voyager Tarot as examples of original decks.

Next I attended a workshop by my dear friend, Carole Pierce, who took us on a wonderfully literary exploration of  W.B.  Yeats’ poems of the tarot. Carole was worried that her attendance might be low, but the room was packed and the discussion was inspired! Someone commented at the end, “We need another hour!” Indeed!

Carole and I both were disappointed that her workshop was being offered at the same time as Leisa ReFalo’s workshop on Tarot Florigraphy. We drooled over the description, and I’m hoping she’ll do a Tarot Connection podcast on it. I did, at least, get a chance to say hello to Leisa and ask her about The Tarot Connection, which seemed to have been on hiatus. I was delighted to hear that she had posted a new episode that very morning. Be sure to tune in here.

Carole and I had to flee to a party for the staff at the school where we teach and missed Thalassa’s closing remarks and raffle prizes. BATS continued all day on Sunday with a panel which focused on the work of Pamela Colman Smith, in honor of the Rider Waite Smith deck’s centennial. Was sorry to have missed it.

Cards:

Nine of Pentacles from the World Spirit Tarot

Two of Pentacles from the Rider-Waite Tarot

Eight of Pentacles from the Victorian Romantic Tarot

The Fool from Eclectic Tarot

The High Priestess from Tarot of Baseball

The Empress from Deva Tarot

In June, I let go of tarot-table-talk.com. I had signed off in November and let the domain expire. Yesterday I tried to get it back but it was snatched up by one of those domain-snatching agencies, and I’m told by an agent that I probably wouldn’t be able to get it back for less than $500.00. Well, I’d rather add $500.00 in tarot decks to my collection, thank you very much! Tarot-table-talk.net will do just fine—lucky for me they hadn’t snatched that up!

So what inspired me to come back to TTT? New York City. I’m vacationing in the big apple, and have just spent two days wandering through the Met. Tarot was everywhere:

There were knights…

and the Nine of Cups…

and The Chariot…

and Lorenzo di Credi’s Portrait of a Young Woman…

which immediately brought to mind Kat Black’s Two of Swords in The Golden Tarot. Or was it the Two of Swords in Kat Black’s Touchstone Tarot? Hmm. Let me consult my Touchstone Tarot iPhone app…

Nope. It was the Golden Tarot after all…

There were, of course, lovers everywhere…

Even on the streets…

I started thinking how fun it would be for a group of  tarot enthusiasts to get together and do a scavenger hunt through a museum in search of tarot images. They could snap photos and make a slide show to share, and then I thought, a blog would be a good way to do something like that! Hey, I had one of those!

So, dear readers, feel free to send photos and captions to me at: susan (at) magicians-table (dot) com. No need to limit yourself to museums. Street shots are welcome, grocery stores, wherever you find them.

Dear Readers,

Last February, I posted an entry titled, “Tug of War: The Fool, Eight of Swords and Knight of Pentacles.” I was contemplating a new endeavor, one that involved some risk, and felt the adventurous tug of The Fool pulling me in one direction, and the cautious tug of the Knight of Pentacles pulling me in the other direction. The Fool won, and what a experience it has been.

I’m at a new juncture of the journey and have made another hard decision—this time to let go of this blog so that I can further focus my energy on this new path. No doubt, if you are a regular visitor, you have noticed that I haven’t been posting, so this may not be a surprise.

I want to thank you all for your visits and comments, which have meant so much and have brought me such joy.

Susan

The Bay Area Tarot Symposium was this past Saturday. What a blast! There were many fabulous presentations to choose from—three each hour. After much deliberation, I attended the following:

The Three-Card Drawing by Mary K. Greer and Nattacia Zeviar.

The Cosmic Tarot of the Spirit by Pamela Eakins.

Self-Publishing Tips and Tricks by Leisa ReFalo of the Tarot Connection.

Samhain and the Tarot by  Carole Pierce.

Evelyn Pine and I did a presentation on using the tarot to write a list poem. It’s always fun to present, but that meant having to miss RuthAnn and Wald Amberstone’s presentation: The Tarot Horse.

Evelyn and I started our presentation by having the group collaborate on a list poem inspired by the Two of Swords. Here’s what resulted:

I see a flying owl.
I see blue sapphire break light into facets.
I see tumbled clouds shadowed blue below.
I see a woman at arms.
I see a clashing of minds.
I see two interconnected spirals.
I see with my hands.
I see with eyes that do not see.

Ronda Kisner has graciously allowed me to publish the poem that she wrote during the presentation. She was working with the Alchemical Tarot deck.

I found home in the tragedy of death
I found home atop the pillar of life
I found home in the silence of night
I found home wading in the waters
I found home in the journey of strength
I found home wearing a purple dress

I found home in the giving of myself

-Ronda Kisner

If you ‘d like to listen to the podcast that Evelyn and I did on writing list poems, click here.

The Bay Area Tarot Symposium is less than a month away—Saturday October 4, 2008!

Evelyn Pine and I will be doing a Writing with the Tarot workshop. We’d love for you to come write poetry with us!

There are going to be, as always, a lot of fabulous workshops and presentations. I’ve got the inside scoop on Carole Pierce’s Samhain workshop—it will be a wonderful opportunity to engage in self-reflection with the cards. Other presenters include Ruth and Wald Amberstone of the Tarot School, James Wanless, Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, Arnell Ando, Holly Voley, Corrine Kenner and more.

Kay Stopforth has a new tarot blog, Quantum Tales, which writers will love! Here’s how she describes it:

“Quantum Tales is a five-part story development process for writers. I’ve evolved it to make my own storytelling process more conscious and I hope it will help you to do the same. I suggest that using the tarot may help you to build a bridge between the analytical mind and the protean realm of the imagination. With the cards providing a firm symbolic foundation, you can hone your imaginative instincts and analytical edge, getting them communicating with each other, reaching a better understanding of the story you’re trying to tell.”

In addition to explaining the process clearly, she also demonstrates how she is applying the process to a novel she is working on.

There are a lot of writers out there who will appreciate having a new method for using the tarot to stimulate and develop story.

You will also want to visit Kay’s blog, Quantum Tarot. I love her writing on each of the major arcana cards. She includes a list of questions, quotes, things to do, and movies that correspond with each card, and her interpretations are great.

Kay is the co-creator (with Chris Butler) of the Quantum Tarot, which is due out at the beginning of September. I pre-ordered a deck a while ago, and my heart skipped a beat the other day when I got an email with the subject: UPS Quantum View. I saw the words “UPS” and “Quantum” and leaped to the conclusion that my deck was on its way. Closer examination revealed that this was an email from UPS, who calls their tracking site Quantum View. My Chimes Ginger Chews are on their way. Nice, but I’ll take the Quantum Tarot over the ginger chews any day!

Let us know which card you chose—post a comment!

Images from The Victorian Romantic Tarot are reproduced with permission from Magic Realist Press.

This morning I asked the cards what I needed to know to make 2008 a good year. Here’s what they had to say:

Had I gone through the deck face up for my selection, I couldn’t have picked better cards! I’ve got a challenging goal for the year, and each of these cards represent aspects of myself that I must cultivate to be successful.  They will serve as good reminders.

Best wishes to all of you!