Tarot Organizations

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

augursWell	12 Jan 2004
I'm interested in putting together a list of "Tarot Organizations" or societies which exist anywhere in the world. Has someone made such a list? I did a search of this forum for previous discussions and found this one on "certification": http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8734 I'm not necessarily looking for organizations having certification, just organizations that are specifically for Tarot Readers, either amateur or professional. I think one could easily include Aeclectic Tarot in that list :) but I am more interested in organizations which feel, rightly or wrongly, that they represent Tarot Readers as a group. Thanks.

jmd	13 Jan 2004
Associated with the organisation of the 2005 Conference is the Association for Tarot Studies (<- this link is to a pdf file). The 2005 Conference site is also hosted by the Tarot Guild of Australia. Regretfully, the wonderful International Tarot Society folded its doors last year... Other organisations include, alphabetically, the American Tarot Association, the Canadian Tarot Network, and the Tarot Association of the British Isles... Hope this helps a little...

augursWell	13 Jan 2004
Thanks much, jmd. I will have to check these sites out. Interesting that they are all in existing/former British colonies. :)

jmd	16 Jan 2004
I suppose this is an Anglophonic site ;)... and even the way we, in Alnglophonic countries, interact may have something to do with the way 'organisations' form... I had earlier also linked a French organisation which, amongst other things, also catered for Tarot readers, but have since misplaced it. There are also other 'organisations' - the term is somewhat changing in meaning with the rise of the Internet - in the sense that many are members of Tarot discussion groups. If the purpose of an organisation is to link and connect people, and have them discuss the item of mutual interest (Tarot in our case), then, of course, it may be deemed that there are numerous such organisations. Another which also comes to mind in the francophonic world is Hadar's site... as this, unlike what appears from either letarot.com (which I would highly recommend) or the Camoin house, also has an active community.

augursWell	17 Jan 2004
I suppose I might as well just explain a little more... If this was just for myself then I am pretty much limited to the English language anyway. At various times in my life I've studied French, German, Japanese, and Chinese languages. But, as the saying goes, use it or lose it. I am not currently proficient in any of those languages. :( So I am pretty much anglophonic in my perspective anyway. I understand what you say about how the Internet has changed the nature of "community" or "organization". To be more specific, I was considering eventually trying to determine if any "organization" had developed any computing standards for storage, transmission, etc. of Tarot data. In other words, a possible file standard for a tarot reading for example. Something along the lines of an XML file, if you are familiar with that term. Anyway, I thought well known or well recognized Tarot organizations might be a good place to start, also some of the Tarot card publishers. I haven't really gotten to that point yet but I wanted to get a sense of what was out there. Thanks for your help. :)

jmd	17 Jan 2004
I see... You may be interested in contacting those associated with either the development of the orphalese software, or even talking to people at Tarot.com, as each, effectively, already stores in some ways past readings. I'm not sure how helpful this is to your research...

The Tarot Organizations thread was originally posted on 12 Jan 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.