I had a great time at this last week’s Readers Studio in New York City, and enjoyed seeing all the great folks again.  The featured speakers (Heatherleigh Navarre, Sasha Graham, and Barbara Moore) were so rewarding on themes broadly, and specifically, pertaining to facing our fears as individuals, as readers, and in dealing with ‘difficult’ cards, and extending out from there in far-ranging tarot fashion.  The presentations and exercises were all very worthwhile and I felt I learned a great deal from each of them.  I am excited to use these exercises later again for myself and see what new learning arises.

I got a kick out of speaking with a few folks and giving them ideas and having several of them (um, from different publishers, but that’s okay, because they were completely different ideas on different subjects!) be excited about ideas I gave them and decks/projects I suggested.  I love getting back in touch with the tarot community in such concentrated doses.

I bought and was given a number of new-to-me decks, and especially love The Raven’s Prophecy Deck and book, by Maggie Stiefvater–the book alone is worth a read for a different perspective on the cards, and it works so well with the deck.  I love it and have been using it a great deal.  I got a great deck bag for it handpainted by Rachel Paul, creator of The Dark Carnevale Tarot and other decks, who also gave me a fantastic deep reading one night.  Thanks so much, Rachel!  Since her decks are of cultures so unfamiliar to me, I chose the one that I knew least about, and she used that, and it worked great.  What a great experience to have a reading from the creator of the deck used!  I recommend it to anyone.

 

Oh, speaking of which, some of us were given the excellent opporunity to have a one-card reading by the excellent Rachel Pollack with the majors of the new deck she is creating with Robert Place.  I had not spent time with Rachel before, but it is like sitting down with a wise rabbinic teacher, to listen to all the stories and midrashes and origins of the cards.  The art is gorgeous too, and I have my eye on some  of the prints Robert is selling, as gifts and for myself–

 

I also love the various Visconti-Sforza deck sizes, and have been using those a lot as well.  I was fortunate enough to get a large version of the Visconti Sforza tarocchi deck from the 1970s with the Stuart Kaplan book from 1975 in it–such a treat to see the cards at that size.  Speaking of that gentleman, it was such a priovilege to meet him this weekend and to chat quite a bit about ideas for decks and projects: he has such a sharp intellect and view of the big picture, and how it is made up of details and currents.  His daughter Leslie (and I apologize for name errors if I made any!) was also acutely insightful and very friendly, and open to hearing about and discussing concepts and projects.

 

I was fortunate to have a private reading from the perceptive and helpful Andrew McGregor of The Hermit’s Lamp, up Toronto way.  He lead an intriguing class on the uses of trickster energy in tarot readings which got a lot of people excited and contributing their experiences of this.  The private reading, about some very serious subjects, was helpful, seemed very accurate, and gave advice on options to follow.  I really appreciated the opportunity to gain from his wisdom and special skills, and I look forward to working with his new book, A Tarot Of You.

 

So much went on at the event that I have hardly processed it, and will most likely detail more here at another time.  I simply wante dto get back to this blog and keep a brief record of some highlights and ideas for me to follow up on in future posts.