Searching information on Rolla Nordic

Hi

I am searching biographical data on Ms Rolla Nordic. Especially I would like to know when she was born / died. And I hear she was a student of Madeline Montalban (aka Dolores North). I wonder if it is true.

Any information is welcome

regards,
Kenji

Some quick finds...she was 92 in 1998/99, last mention

1940's: Great Britain:

lf some accounts can be believed, wartime London was teeming with 'witches'. Rolla Nordic, a tarot designer and occultist, has claimed: ' During the war there were two hundred of us [witches and we met every Tuesday in a certain place in London and always sat at the same place and we sent color rays to where was the worst fighting. And we could see by the newspapers it would slacken off.' (Enchante 1993) Nordic claims she was a student of the 'Witch of St Giles', Madeline Montalban (aka Dolores North) and also met Gardner. It is however hard to believe that there were 200 witches active in wartime London!

http://www.thewica.co.uk/MH2.htm
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1960s:

1961: Tarot shows the Path by Rolla Nordic published

http://www.tarotpassages.com/mkgtimeline.htm

Celebrity status notes in this review of her deck/book:

"Rolla Nordic was an old woman in the 1960 dust jacket photo which names her permanent home as London. It says she conducts classes in New York and throughout the U.S. and Canada on Tarot and Runes. It says she appears on TV!"

The excerpt from her writings are noted in this review...seem old fashioned, but maybe on par to a 1960's collection of old tales on tarot...

http://www.wicce.com/cjrose5.html

http://www.wicce.com/cjrose5.html

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1970s: U.S.:

1974: Taught six week tarot course that Wald Amberstone of the Tarot School took early in his tarot training.

http://www.tarotschool.com/Interview.html

1978: US:

Rolla taught Mia's Father how to read the Astrorunes, who then taught Mia in 1978.

http://members.aol.com/miaart/miarunes.htm#TAG1
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1981: US:

U.S. Games published the Rolla Nordic Tarot

Sample pictures:

http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/rolla.htm

Deck review:

http://www.tarotpassages.com/rolla.htm
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Rolla Nordic's tarot is mentioned on pages 268-269 of History of the Occult Tarot by Decker and Dummett in Chapter 18 titled (Frank) Lind and His Followers...a known tarot writer that preceded her called Frank Lind had offered lessons by mail through the Insight Institute around 1952 (originally in Surrey, England--hard for Cerulean to tell from the separate citations how Frank Lind first came to New York)....

Frank Lind reference in the Insight Institute within Great Britain:

http://www.wopc.co.uk/tarot/index.html

From Dummett and Decker's A History of the Occult Tarot:

... and later, by 1968, Frank Lind offered the course through the Society of Metaphysics, from Hastings, New York.

Here's a small excerpt of Dummett and Decker's section of "Rolla Nordic's Tarot":

(Rolla Nordic's)...extensive travels...she collected Tarot packs and studied Tarotism, Rolla K. Nordic eventually settled in New York City. (Frank) Lind's Tarot book ends with the sentence, "The Tarot points the way': one of Rolla Nordic's books is The Tarot Shows the Path (London and Phoenix 1960; New York 1990). It is efficiently organised, with chapters treating of individual Arcana. Their numbers and names mostly accord with Lind's, including the Priestess, Hierophant, Enchantress, Reaper, Angel of Time and Black Magician. Arcanu X is now 'The Wheel of Life.' The Fool becomes 'The Magus,' but is still pictured as a jester about to step off a cliff. Nordic gives its divinatory meanings, deriving mostly from Lind's How to Read the Tarot. As she proceeds to more detailed commentaries, she echoes many of Lind's terms and ideas. She is fond of quoting Scripture (Cerulean's note: Western Bible Scripture), and frequently urges us to be optimistic and charitable She fails to mention her debt to Lind and his schools..."
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1998/1999: Goddess in U.S.A tape cassette program

And both my seven-year-old daughter and I were captivated by Rolla Nordic, a 92-year-old British witch, who was initiated into Celtic traditions by her own grandmother. Nordic tells a tale about her coven, which met in a cathedral provided by a sympathetic churchman(!) in London during the blitz, to try to throw up their own circle of protection and mess with the weather. Nordic adds that a lot of witches worked hard and long to summon the freak storm that defeated the Spanish Armada -- which was, among other things, determined to bring the Inquisition to England.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n74/ai_11906192

Hope this helps to start! She seems a fascinating, old-world personality

Cerulean

P.S.:

Undated antedote:
The late Rolla Nordic, a British "traditional" Witch who lived in New York City, and did a lot of work with Tarot and runes, was once a guest on a Halloween TV special with Geraldo Rivera. He was very nervous around all of these occult-type people. When it came time for him to talk to Rolla, he said, "Are you going to turn me into a toad?" She drew herself up to her full four-foot-ten, and said, in a marvelously English accent, "Of course not - you're not a prince!" And as soon as the audience's laughter died down, she added, "Besides, it would be redundant!" (Quick, cut to a commercial!)

http://elfs.livejournal.com/484891.html

A HAPPY NEW YEAR in a Japanese style

Hi Mari,

AKEMASHITE OMEDETO GOZAIMASU

Thank you very much for your help. I will go on this research.

HONNEN MO YOROSHIKU ONEGAI ITASHIMASU!

regards,
Kenji

A few extra snippets of information about this fascinating lady.

Her real name was Muriel Doris Berulfsen, she was born c1900 in Britain and is believed to have died c1993-94. A lady of a tiny and frail appearance, she apparently used the magickal name 'Lady Boadicea' in public.


Her deck and accompanying book 'The Tarot Shows the Path' (with original illustrations by Paul Mathison) were first published by Regency Press, London in 1960, and then later by Esoteric Publications, Phoenix AZ. Regency Press was a 'vanity publisher' (the authors paid all the costs of printing and publication themselves) which specialised in esoteric and occult subjects, and may have been connected to a magickal collective known as 'The Regency'. Both book and deck were reprinted in the 1980s and 90s by Weiser and USG.


Rolla gives tips on colouring the cards, but no-one seems to ever have had a go at doing it, since the cards are fairly small and the line work quite intricate. However, digital techniques enable a view of what the cards might look like if coloured.


Her other published works were; 'The Adventures of Saymi' by Jennie Callahan & Muriel Doris Berulfsen, (1956). 'The Rune Stones In The Witch's Pouch' by Rolla Nordic & Frank Andrews, (1971) and 'Let's Talk About the Tarot: A Tarot Story for Children and the Young at Heart' (1992).

With regard to her comments about wartime London teeming with witches and her coven meeting in a cathedral, an article in 'The Daily Mail' in April 1934 does state that "...certain London Cults are flourishing and regularly celebrating the Black Mass on Christian sites" but whether this gives any credence to her comments or is merely journalistic sensationalism is open to conjecture.

Whilst being interviewed by Geraldo Rivera she commented;
"When the psychiatrists can't deal with anybody any more they send them to me. Knowing about your previous lives helps you understand certain fears about this one. It's a carry-over from the past, and once you understand it, you can let it go. New York is becoming a city of psychics, when I first came here in the 1950s people said not to mention Tarot or I'd be put in jail."

In 2008 Mrs J Sparke donated to The British Museum a pack of 1909 BP Grimaud 'Grand Jeu de Mlle Le Normand' which was from "Her aunt Muriel Berulfsen's playing card collection".

Hi Mycroft,

Thank you very much for the great info!

kenji said:

Hi

I am searching biographical data on Ms Rolla Nordic. Especially I would like to know when she was born / died. And I hear she was a student of Madeline Montalban (aka Dolores North). I wonder if it is true.

Any information is welcome

regards,
Kenji

Click to expand...

Oh my goodness, I've only just come across this thread. I was sent a horoscope delinated by her to co-incide with my birthday. Years & years ago. I'm sorry I know nothing of Rolla Nordic, although the name rings a bell. So thank you Mycroft (Sherlock Holmes brother )

Bee.

ETA: I mean sent by Madeline Montalban.

I learned to read Tarot cards from Rolla Nordic in N.Y. in the late 1970's, where she held classes in the Magickal Childe. She was a very sweet small grandmotherly type of lady with apple cheeks and white hair - a very cheerful person.

It seems that her deck is not listed in Aeclectic Tarot.

Mycroft said:

Rolla gives tips on colouring the cards, but no-one seems to ever have had a go at doing it, since the cards are fairly small and the line work quite intricate.

Click to expand...

I beg to differ. I am into my third set (the original thick cards) and painting the cards has always been a pleasure. If I could post images here, I would.

lf some accounts can be believed, wartime London was teeming with 'witches'. Rolla Nordic, a tarot designer and occultist, has claimed: ' During the war there were two hundred of us [witches and we met every Tuesday in a certain place in London and always sat at the same place and we sent color rays to where was the worst fighting. And we could see by the newspapers it would slacken off.' (Enchante 1993) Nordic claims she was a student of the 'Witch of St Giles', Madeline Montalban (aka Dolores North) and also met Gardner. It is however hard to believe that there were 200 witches active in wartime London!

http://www.thewica.co.uk/MH2.htm

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread and maybe not many are reading, but I'm feeling pedantically argumentative today, so thought I'd argue with the article author's statement:

It is however hard to believe that there were 200 witches active in wartime London!

Click to expand...

Considering London had a population of well over 8 million before World War 2, and still about 6 million after the exodus due to the soldiers going off to war and then many of the general population leaving to escape the German air bombing raids, I don't think that's hard to believe at all.

Maybe nobody's interested, but since there is no Rolla Nordic deck in the list of this forum, I thought that this may be a small addition. Here are some of the cards, which I painted over 20 years ago, so they are a little worn down (I hope it is ok to post this):

http://www.fengshuimestari.fi/Tarot.html