Umbrae's interview with Robin Ator

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 02 Apr 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

zorya	02 Apr 2004
was just over at tarotgarden reading umbrae's wonderful interview with robin ator (aka rota ;)). http://www.tarotgarden.com/library/articles/atorinterview.html the interview reads like a comfortable chat with a couple of friends. they discuss among other things, robin's early tarot influences, growing up in montana, the ator tarot, and creating the international icon tarot. (which by the way, i now must have, lol. ) i was really impressed with robin's reply to being asked if the surmounting of obstacles had planted the seed for another deck, "I think the thing to keep in mind when doing tarot cards is always to let the tarot itself remain in control of the art." great answer rota!

Nevada	02 Apr 2004
Great interview, Umbrae. Thank you Zorya for guiding us there. :) Nevada

firemaiden	02 Apr 2004
Yup Zorya, thank you. Great interview. I loved hearing about growing up in Montana and toting bales of hay, LOL. What a juxtaposition to esoterica!

Alissa	03 Apr 2004
Reading the interview is like listening to two friend chatting away, it's so relaxed and Ator's responses were very generous and giving. Great work... are the interviews going to be a quasi-regular feature for TG now? This makes two... if I'm not mistaken... :D (And, I just have to say that I really REALLY like the fact that the IIT has a Happy Squirrel card....)

Umbrae	05 Apr 2004
What’s not included in the interview is that we had great Thai food and visited the 'New Renaissance Bookshop' (in Portland).

firemaiden	05 Apr 2004
Isn't someone going to explain to me what the Happy Squirrel means/is/does? (don't tell me to watch the Simpsons... it's not on here...) I notice the Victoria Regina site also has a Happy Squirrel Card, (although not the actual deck) I wish it had been included!

Alissa	05 Apr 2004
Umbrae posted the transcript for Simpson's "Happy Squirrel", but I'm not gonna dig it up right now..... So instead, firemaiden : The Happy Squirrel, in a nutshell.... Lisa Simpson goes to the tarot reader and cards like Death are drawn and she goes, "EEK!" The reader says, "No! Death is good!" (typical of them Tarot readers). The reader turns over the next card, it's the Happy Squirrel. Lisa smiles, "That's good, right?" Tarot reader runs screaming from the room in horror. The Happy Squirrel is the card that you wish Tarot had... the card for Everything's-hit-the-fan-I'm-not-even-kidding-fasten-your-seatbelts-you'll-be-lucky-to-survive. As I see it, it puts the Death, Devil, Tower trilogy to shame. It's the ultimately SPOOKY card (which I kinda think balances out the deck).

firemaiden	05 Apr 2004
LOL-- this is getting funnier. I missed the tarot reader running screaming from the room in horror bit. Now I get why Umbrae posted his birthday reading of the Happy Squirrel and the Tower in very tiny yellow writing. Now you've gotten me concerned for the Birthday Boy and everyone in his vicinity. What do we do, send Acme holes?

The Umbrae's interview with Robin Ator thread was originally posted on 02 Apr 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.