Has anyone ever heard of Brian David Phillips or "Tarot Trance?"

The reason I'm asking is because a friend sent me a link to a site about an upcoming seminar of his in Taipei. In the seminar he teaches people to "directly [access] the archetypes of the Tarot within the subconscious for introspective meditative learning through a form of experiential trance." It sounds kinda interesting, and isn't too pricey, but I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of or been to one of his seminars.

Here's the site if you want to take a look. http://www.briandavidphillips.com/workshops/tarottrance.html

I might go anyway, and check it out.

I haven't heard of him, but I wouldn't rush off and join because he sounded like he was ushering in a brave new world. He's just using esoteric language to describe the way the tarot archetypes have always been accessed.

Insofar as you're interested in theory, the theory is that if tarot "works," it works like this...

- The tarot images represent archetypes -- universal energies and constructs that exist in the subconscious (or collective unconscious...or astral plane...however you want to think of it).

- These archetypes can not be manipulated with the conscious mind. They exist only in that other place, where the subconscious mind also exists.

- In order to draw them out to be explored by the conscious mind, a "trance" must be entered, so we can tap into the power of the subconscious mind. (Or collective unconscious...or astral plane...however you want to think of it.)

- This draws forth the appropriate tarot cards to interpret a situation by virtue of the law of attraction -- that which is real in the subconscious is made manifest in the real world when we give it a path between realms.


It sounds like he has a good grasp of how tarot is supposed to work, and I don't think you'd be wasting your time to listen to him. But his "unique slant" is nothing more than good marketing, and is something every worthwhile tarot reader can tell you all about.

I should, in all fairness, say that this is "one of the theories" on how and why the tarot works, assuming it does.

It happens to be the one I subscribe to, and one I teach an elementary course on. So hey, color me biased.

He's the listowner of the TarotL Yahoo Group. I can't quite remember, but think he's also a hypnotherapist and/or psychologist.
The method he calls 'trance' involves (as regards tarot, anyway) stepping into the visualized card. As I understand it, anyway - no way could I get to Taipei LOL so I was really only skimming the post. It reminded me somewhat of Mary Greer's visualization stuff in ...'Tarot for Yourself'. I think it was LOL Age has purloined my memory <sigh>

ribbitcat