Outline of the first session of my Tarot class, for your consideration.

[Rasa]

Hi everyone... In a few weeks, I will be teaching a Tarot class for the first time! It is geared towards beginners, and will be four 3-hour classes. I want to try to promote both a willingness to read intuitively, and an understanding of some of the underlying structures of the Tarot. The first class, I want to be very participatory, and focus on intuitive exploration, based on the images, and how people respond to them. For day one, I want to encourage freedom of interpretation, and promote the idea that the same card can mean many different things. I want to contrast that the second day with a little more structural understanding of things like the elements, the numbers, and Qabala, and work with developing keywords. The third day will be about the court cards, and the last day we can play with other spreads, reversals, Tarot in magick, and a synthesis of anything else that people want to work with. I want to do a lot of practical work with readings in the classes, and also delve into some of the more esoteric bits of Tarot as a sort of spiritual map.

I wanted to post an outline of day one here (perhaps I will post the rest in the near future as they get finalized), and welcome feedback from any of you. Am I trying to fit too much into too short a time? Is something missing? Is anything seeming confusing or out of place?
I have done workshops before, but never a longer class spanning several days like this, so it is a learning experience for me, too... I would love any advice or suggestions that those with more teaching experience can offer!

Warning- I know this is a loooong post. sorry!

Intro to Tarot Class - Day one- Intuitive responses to cards.

10:15 am: Introductions.
Sharing names; how much experience they have had with the cards. What do people hope to learn?

10:30: Discussion.
Brief overview of Structure of a Deck (Majors, suits, courts), Tarot History (*very* brief... will hand out a timeline with significant people/decks on it, and some recommended reading if students are interested in learning more.), and explain some of the differences between decks. I will bring a number of decks, and have a bit of show and tell. Anyone else who has brought decks can share as well. I will talk a little about the main types of decks (Marseilles/RWS/Thoth/etc.), show examples of different variants, and offer pointers on choosing the best one for the individual.

11:00: Activity- Telling a story with the cards. This is an excercise in beginning to interpret cards, and also in seeing how different cards connect with each other. It will help later in doing spreads, and is a 'safe' way to jump into reading, because it's fictional and not personal.

I will talk a bit about different levels of interpreting a card. ie: what are the literal details? (her dress is red.), emotional response (she seems angry), symbolic (red is for fire.), and interpretive (I am angry because there's so much stress now.) Will do this with a couple cards as a group, and see what meanings we can initally derive from them.

We will then pass around a deck (Something with good, detailed imagery, strong scenes. Probably RWS or something similar. Perhaps I will give a few choices and let the class choose one they like.); each person can shuffle and draw a card, and say as much or as little as they want about it, letting a story take shape from the cards that are drawn. (ie: First person draws the Fool card, "Once upon a time, there was a man standing on a mountain with his dog". Next person draws the Moon and says, "it was at night.", the next card is the 2 of cups, "he was on his way to a friend's wedding.".. etc.) We will keep going until the story seems finished, going around the circle a couple times. Cards will get laid down on the floor in front of everyone, making kind of a spread for our imaginary main character.

After, we will do a brief bit of feedback discussion... Was it easy or hard to connect the cards to each other? Were some cards more difficult to interpret than others- which ones? What might alternate storylines have been, using the same cards? Does the story itself, or anyone's particular cards remind them of anything in their own lives?

11:30ish.. break for 10 mins. or so.

11:45 - Trance-journey!
Everyone can draw a card (major arcana), and then get comfy. Will do a brief guided meditation into the card to meet with their archetype. (What does this archetype say? what does the place look like they are in look like? What do they feel? What lessons does this card have to teach them? What are the 'good' and 'bad' aspects of this symbol? Invitation to welcome the energies of that card into their life during the week.

Homework is to look for examples of that card in their lives during the week, and share what they might have learned about the card, or how it manifested in their life, at the next class. Recommend starting a Tarot journal.. If they are ambitious, they can begin to draw cards daily (or as they get around to it), and keep track of how it applied to their day, how they saw it in other people, or if they saw situations in books/tv/movies/etc that may fit the card. We can share bits from these Tarot journals at the beginning of each class.

12:15: 3-card readings in pairs.
I will get everyone to partner up with someone they don't know, and try a 3 card spread. I will suggest a few different spread choices (past/present/future, situation/action needed/outcome, one choice/other choice/3rd choice, etc.), and encourage them to ask a specific question and share it with their partner. Then, together they can try to interpret each other's cards, looking at them individually in relation to the spread positions they've chosen, as well as how the cards might interact with each other. They can journal about their readings if they like, or make a drawing showing the interaction between the three cards. I will flit about and help as needed, and hopefully there will be time to have some sharing discussion about how these readings went before we leave.

and that's it for day one!

Things I have to do to prepare:
*Write trance
*Make handouts on
-history timeline
-3 card spread variants, and the different levels of interpreting a card intuitively
-The homework explained. (keeping a Tarot journal, and doing daily or weekly draws)
*Be sure to bring
-several more decks than I need
-paper and pens for participants
-some cushions for those that would like to sit or lay on something during the trance journey.

 

[Kahlie]

Dear Rasa,

While I love the idea of the trance, I'm wondering if this is isn't a bit much for a first lesson.

You are counting on the students willing to explore, and work intuitively, and there are a lot of people who aren't willing to work with that at all, or not in a group setting. They can't get anything to flow and they get uncomfortable.

Then you are stuck with a lot of embarrassed uncomfortable silent students...

In my first long lesson, I usually explain the difference between 2 Reading Styles (Keyword Based/Intuitive Based) and start with explaining that you can work with a mix, or only one of the two.

Then I work with the keywords first, by telling some of them, and letting the students write some of their own. That way, there is some intuitive part in it, but they don't have to defend why they chose certain keywords.

Maybe an idea?

Kahlie

 

[April]

I agree that the trance work might be too much (maybe save it for the last session?). How many students will you have? You might find that you are no longer on schedule by the middle of class. If that's the case you might have to skip something anyway. Other than that I think you've kept it simple and not too intimidating for beginners.

Peace,
April

P.S. Shouldn't the students be bringing their own supplies?

 

[AJ]

What fun! I'm thinking of myself beginning, other people are a lot smarter and faster than I am, but I think elements, the numbers, and Qabala are for 2nd stage students, not beginners.

I found when I was ready to advance on to those things I started noticing them in the cards, a sort of natural progression.

Very best wishes!

 

[Little Baron]

I agree. Great ideas, but maybe leave some for a follow up course. Open the doors and let them get a taste that they can use and put into action. And should they want more [which I am sure they will], you could give an intimediate course a little later on. If there is too much, it might overload them and be more harmful than good. I would use those four days to give a brief introduction, show them how to open up to the cards and discuss what they mean to you all, then put it all into practice. All the other stuff can come later, as if does for most of us.

Not saying they arn't great I ideas though, because they are. Just maybe a little too early for a beginners course.

LB

 

[franniee]

Hi Rasa

Great ideas!

I took a course a long time ago - it was over 2 semesters - I forget how many lessons there were but we were required to buy a deck set before class so that we had our own. I didn't see mention of that in your post - also it was a specified deck - in our case it was the mythic tarot. The teacher taught it rather traditionally going thru the majors first and doing a couple of 3 cards spreads with them....getting to know them and then she went onto the minors. The mythic tarot was easy to teach and learn because it revolved around a set of myths and characters - etc. Then we would pull spreads for each other and analyze them in class on the chalkboard etc. That did get sticky at times and the teacher was sarcastic and caustic to say the least but I was extremely eager to learn and I overlooked it as best as I could - but I am definitely a different sort - a lot of the students were too timid to get intuitive in public - I agree with Kahlie there. But you can figure out who you have and mutate the course accordingly.

Your telling stories, trance and journal ideas are spot on! I hope this feedback helps you!

Very best of luck to you!!!

 

[AngelDancer]

Rasa,

I would have loved to attend your workshop when I first started learning the tarot. If people will be open to your approach or not depends on where you advertise, as well as on the vibe you put out. The right people, the people who will benefit from your teaching style, will feel the pull. I'm a great believer in synchronicity.

Do let us know how you get on.

Blessings,

AD

x

 

[Rasa]

Thanks to all of you for the feedback... it is useful!

About students bringing their own decks... One of the things I want to cover in the first class is the difference between decks... How to choose the right one for the individual. Despite the fact that I am an overzealous deck collector, I do believe some decks are better than others, depending on how you read... One can read intuitively, by keywords, by the images, or by all of those things. And certain decks suit one of those ways better than others. Also, if one is interested in doing meditations or pathworking with the cards, or deepening their study by relating other esoteric systems, working with them in a spiritual context outside of readings, certain decks will be useful, and certain ones will absolutely not be.

In the information I have circulated promoting the class, I have said that they can use one of my decks for the first day, and then are expected to get their own to work with. I will bring decks to show, have a list of recommendations, and the store I am teaching in will carry the decks on that list, so they can buy them right after (or during) the class, if they wish.

About the trance... perhaps since I'm used to doing a lot of ritual involving guided meditations like this, it seems like a very straightforward and simple thing, but maybe not so for people that are not accustomed to it?
I'll try to get a feel for the group as we go along, and perhaps the trance will need to be dropped. I think I will just see how it's looking at the time. I don't want to do a bunch of feedback discussion about that in the class either, it's meant more as a lead-in to the students doing personal work outside of the class. In the last class, I want to talk about ritual and magick using cards, and I think this is sort of a good beginning to that bit. I don't intend for it to be anything long or complex, just an intro to the idea that archetypes have energy, and we can invite those energies to express themselves, if they wish.

One of the things that I want to do with this class is make it very broad... adress different learning styles, and different methods of reading and working with the cards. I expect that not everything I include will appeal to everyone taking the class, but that it will be a really diverse introduction to Tarot, so that they have many directions to branch out in if they choose to continue.... It's also likely that if this goes well, I will do some shorter, more specific classes.

soo...The focus the first day is on understanding that there are many different ways to see the same card, on gathering info from the image itself, and on seeing the cards as energy and trying to connect with that energy.
The focus of the second day is that there are underlying structures within a deck, and if you understand those structures, you can derive a meaning from a card even if you have a hard time accessing things from an intuitive angle.

I wanted to do something different than just starting to go through majors and minors.. I want this to be more of a 'how to -learn- to use tarot' class, than a 'how to use tarot' class, if that makes sense....
I would like to lay a context for exploring specific cards, before we start to explore them, and invite students to explore specific cards in a variety of ways on their own time, and then share what they discover.