Tarot in the News

[HudsonGray]

Tarot the real deal at conference of cards
By Larry Schwartz www.theage.com.au
June 14, 2005

Jean-Michel David splits the 78-card deck and shuffles. "This particular pack was designed in Marseilles in 1760," he says.

The Paris-born mathematics teacher, who migrated here with his family as a child, invites you to split the pack into three small stacks, then put them together again. He places three cards alongside one another on the large wooden table in his house in the Dandenong Ranges.

Mr David is an organiser of next month's Melbourne International Tarot Conference. More than 200 aficionados of the cards that have been used for centuries as a game, for divination or meditation are expected at the conference from July 1 to 6 at Victoria University's city campus.

Local enthusiasts hold a monthly "tarot cafe" from 2pm to 5pm on the first Saturday of the month at Dante's in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.

Australian and international psychologists, artists, philosophers, historians and others will attend the conference. Mr David is among several speakers. One of his talks is titled "Sacred Geometry".

He will also speak on the appearance of 12th and 13th-century Gothic stone carvings in some images on tarot cards. A do-it-yourself tarot book by Linda Marson, for people who want to know how to read the cards, will be launched.

Mr David has known the cards since his childhood in Paris, where his father was an engineer and professional gambler. "My grandfather's library was quite amazing in terms of what I now recognise as a more esoteric library," says Mr David, who teaches at the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School in Warranwood.

The origin of tarot cards remains obscure. Some say they appeared in Italy and France in the late 14th century. Mr David says the word tarot was first used about 1500, but the tarot "contains much symbolic wisdom from far more ancient times".

There are several decks with varying numbers of cards, though the most commonly used these days has 78, divided into two groups. The first, has the 22 symbolic picture cards that include images of the Fool, the Juggler, Magician, Hermit and Hanged Man. The second group has four "suits" (batons, cups, coins and swords) and includes four court cards (jack, knight, queen and king).

"They remain very much a spiritual tool," Mr David says, "a religious artefact, one that, through reflection, through meditation, through study, may do precisely what one's own religious tradition will also bring forth: a 'binding back' to the spiritual home."

 

[HudsonGray]

This one's interesting in the slant it puts on things. How many 'readers' went into retirement???? When did this happen? AND they misspelled Llewellyn! LOL
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Tarot's Popularity Pushes Reader Ed Hubbard Out of Retirement
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/4/prweb367698.htm
Tarot Cards hold a mystery and allure that has captivate us for centuries. In the 21st Century tarot popularity is pushing experienced readers like Ed Hubbard back to service.
Hoopeston, IL (PRWEB) April 4, 2006

Tarot is the ancient art of reading cards, with powerful symbols that are meant to tell of past and future events. Popular for hundreds of years, the art of Tarot became extremely popular throughout the 20th century. In the 90’s one of the most popular readers Ed Hubbard of Chicago saw thousands of clients. By the mid 90’s Tarot’s popularity wore off with a move towards conservative attitudes on one side and deeper spiritual awakening on the other. Tarot lost a bit of it’s glamour and like a lot of popular readers, Ed left the reading circuit in the 90’s.

Today Tarot has become so popular that companies are making new decks as fast as they can. US Games lead this revolution along with Levelly and dozens of smaller companies. They come in hundreds of styles and colors but there is not enough readers and teachers willing to work with them. People who are learning Tarot are looking for experienced readers to show them how to read, or be read by these cool decks.

Well On 1:23 am April 5th, 2006 Ed Hubbard plans to come out of retirement to lead a new generation in the arts of Tarot. Yes, at 1:23 4/5/6, Ed will begin the experiment of reading and teaching tarot via the World Wide Web. Now with modern tools, Ed plans to reach further and provide even deeper prophetic visions. His intuition and skills are entertaining and like Tarot itself, a bit mysterious.

The simple act of getting a Tarot Reading, or learning to give one, has become popular once more. Ed Hubbard is just the first of many experienced readers to come back to public reading. If you never had a reading you simply have not had one of the most mysterious experiences that everyone is talking about. Tarot is back and as popular as ever.
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[HudsonGray]

Psychic tells all
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20060701/NEWS/107010079/-1/rss02

Maria Sanchez-Traynor
July 1, 2006


Amid vendors selling hot tubs or jewelry, Adam Marks sits patiently in his psychic tent and waits for people who want to plunk down $10 for a chance to see their future.

His booth competes for attention from the next-door Navy recruiters who are blasting country music and handing out sunglasses. Marks doesn't have anything so snazzy to get people to come by. His booth has three simple tables and a couple of decks of Tarot cards. He's dressed simply, and he's soft-spoken and quick to smile.

People amble by and stare and occasionally groups of teenagers will laugh and yell out questions like, "Am I going to die soon?"

Even if they are being obnoxious, Marks resists the temptation to shout back: "Yes!"

He waits.

Most of the time it takes about an hour for one of those kids to break off from the group and sneak back for a reading.

"The ones who make fun are usually the most curious," he said. "One hundred percent of my clients start off as doubters, but 85 percent come back another time."

Marks, from Loveland, has been in the psychic business for 15 years but says that he has had the gift all of his life. Psychic power, apparently, is as hereditary as hair color. Marks is a ninth-generation psychic in a family that traces its roots back to eastern European countries like Romania and Hungary.

He suspects his 3-year-old daughter is also starting to get some psychic power. While most parents will turn on the television to get their kids to calm down, Marks usually hands her a pack of Tarot cards.

"She'll be quiet for a few hours," he said. "It looks like she has the gift, too."

Marks studied metaphysics at Duke University and set up his shop, Rocky Mountain Psychics, in Loveland. Most of his clients are repeat visitors but about three times a year he sets up a tent at local events like the Greeley Independence Stampede to have some fun, and hopefully find a few more repeat clients.

"It's a source of entertainment," he said.

The psychic business has been good to him. It supports his family and gives him a chance to interact with new people every day.

He says to just think of him as a therapist who has the advantage of being able to see your life like a television show.

"I have the ability to see things, and I give advice based on those visions," he said.

 

[HudsonGray]

From Heritage Malta: The Cards of Destiny: Gambling, Luck and Magic
Jun 28, 06 | 12:02 pm
http://travelvideo.tv/news/comments.php?id=P9111_0_1_0_C


Heritage Malta will be exploring tarot cards and their mystical explanations of life and destiny in an exhibition at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa. The exhibition will open on June 17th and the agency is expecting its magical and religiously-tabooed theme to attract a large number of visitors.



Titled ‘The Cards of Destiny: Gambling, Luck and Magic’, the display will be divided into six sections, namely Playing Cards, Tarots, The Allegories of the Tarots, The Game of Tarots, the Book of Thot, and Cartomacy. Besides exhibiting a wide variety of playing cards, incisions of famous artists, rare books on the subject and other material related to card games, Heritage Malta has also put together illustrations on the history of this mysterious and intriguing ritual, including large scenographies produced by the famous Leonardo Scarpa, who works for renowned Italian film producers such as Pupi Avati. One of the scenographies represents Hell, while there is also a gigantic castle of cards.

The exhibition is being organised in collaboration with the Italian Associazione Culturale ‘Le Tarot’ under the patronage of the Ministry for Tourism and Culture of Malta and the Ministry of Culture and the Environment of Italy, with the cooperation of the Biblioteca Classense of Ravenna. All displayed material forms part of an immense collection that the Associazione Culturale ‘Le Tarot’ collected throughout the last 25 years.

The oldest references to tarot cards in Europe date back to the 14th century. By the 15th century these came under attack and denounced as the works of the devil. Since the game of tarots was regarded as a gambling game, from the 16th century onwards the Church started to repress it. At the end of the 18th century, after the birth of occultism, a vast production of fortune-telling games started to develop. These developed even further in the 19th century and by the 20th century their success led cards manufacturers to turn to famous painters and illustrators for the images to be printed on new packs.

The display of these rare and history-laden artefacts will be open until the 29th October with tickets costing Lm2 for adults, Lm1 for students and senior citizens and 50c for children aged between 6 and 11 years.

 

[HudsonGray]

Talking tarot By Liz Nartowicz
http://www.kansan.com/stories/2006/apr/06/jp_talkingtarot/

Thursday, April 6, 2006

In high school, Alysse Doane, McClouth sophomore, started planning her week with tarot cards. Every Sunday afternoon, sitting cross-legged in her room, Doane would shuffle and cut her deck of cards. Selecting five cards by their “vibrations,” Doane would eagerly flip them over to see what her week had in store.

For Doane, tarot card reading is less a practice of psychic powers and more a form of entertainment and family tradition. Tracing a tradition of Tarot readings as far back as her great-grandmother, Doane and her family have turned regularly to the cards for fun and direction.

“It’s more for guidance than fortune telling,” Doane says.

The ancient art of tarot — interpreting 72 cards depicting vices, virtues and other vital forces — is shrouded in misconceptions. Blaming religion and television, psychics deny rumors of witchcraft, scam artists and the idea of a fixed destiny. Instead, these specialists claim Tarot is about counseling and personal progress. But because this card-related custom is so diversified and personalized, its true purpose and powers ultimately are left to the individual to decide.

Miss Cleo, the late-night infomercial psychic-found-fraud, was not the first blow to Tarot’s credit. From the beginning, bad publicity has plagued Tarot, says Dawn Rothwell, card reader and owner of the Sacred Sword Spiritual Center, 732 Massachusetts St. Created during the Renaissance to help uncover life’s hidden truths, Tarot soon became a scapegoat for the Christian church. To deter people from seeking questions like the meaning of life, the church quickly launched a campaign that connected Tarot to witchery, Rothwell says.

While the demonic association has faded, recent incidents like Miss Cleo’s have once again jeopardized the credibility of Tarot. Swindlers and television are responsible for perpetuating psychic scams says Arachne, a psychic counselor in Merriam. Swindlers are not tarot readers, Arachne says; they are intimidators who continuously predict doom. By always reporting that a customer has a curse, swindlers cheat people out of money by offering to remove this fake hex, Arachne says.

As for public figures, Arachne says televised psychics such as Sylvia Brown and John Edwards hurt the psychic community through indistinctness and recklessness. They ask vague questions and give ambiguous answers, she says. They don’t care about the consequences of their predictions, she says. Instead, Arachne says, they’re in it for the money rather than setting the person on the right path.

Setting people on the right path is the true meaning of Tarot, says Lori Healy-Reed, an alternative healer in California. Because most people turn to Tarot to find out why negative things are continually happening to them, Tarot analyzes a person’s patterns and helps change them. Tarot does not reveal an unchangeable future, Healy-Reed says, it only shows the direction a person’s patterns are leading them.

Because of this, Tarot is more a means of meditation than fortunetelling. Tarot helps people see where they’re at and help them decide if they want to be there, Healy-Reeds says.

“It gives them the power to change,” she says. “Each time is a learning experience that enables you to know yourself better.”

But Tarot does not guarantee change, says Oma Lacey, psychic reader in Topeka. Because everyone has free will, people can choose not to change. Tarot, she says, is just the “kick in the butt” to encourage people to change and start on a path of improvement. And if that path is taken, improvement in decision-making skills, emotional states and relationships will follow, Lacey says.

As a form of healing, Tarot allows people to deal with past emotions such as anger or grief, Lacey says. Tarot perks up one’s emotional state by addressing unresolved issues still affecting their current situation.

“We’re not telling you anything you didn’t already know,” Lacey says. “We’re just helping you come to grips with it.”

Lacey says practicing Tarot also increases perceptiveness, which will strengthen relationships.

But not everyone believes in the healing powers of Tarot. Not even the frequent customers.

Erin Harveth, Tulsa junior, has had her cards read 12 times across the globe and says the best part of the readings is having exclusive attention for 30 minutes.

Caroline Malakis, Preveza, Greece, freshman, whose tarot hobby bordered on addiction, says it’s mostly fantasy and not worth placing faith in.

Yet, the power and purpose of the cards are still debated. As Doane says, if you have to put faith in something, why not Tarot?

 

[HudsonGray]

It's in the Cards -----
Learn tarot to tap into subconscious.

BY BIANCA PHILLIPS | JANUARY 13, 2006

http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid:11868
Drive down any major thoroughfare in Memphis and you'll see the occasional storefront with a neon sign advertising "tarot readings" or "fortune telling." What you may not foresee, if curiosity gets the best of you and you find yourself inside one of these establishments, is that the price of learning what lies ahead can be steep.

But you don't have to pay someone to read your cards. According to local tarot expert Cindy McMullin, anyone can learn. She'll be teaching a beginner's class at the New Age bookstore Spiritual Freedom on Thursday, January 12th.

"Many people have been conditioned to think of tarot as a horror-movie kind of thing," says McMullin. "In fact, it's not so much a tool for fortune telling as it is a tool for self-examination and spiritual development."

So how does it work?

McMullin says the artwork on the cards contains universal symbols that tap into the human subconscious. These symbols can represent the elements (earth, wind, fire, and water), states of consciousness, or numerology. McMullin believes that deep down all people connect with these symbols.

"The symbols take us to the level where we are plugged into all things -- each other, the past, present, and future," says McMullin. "The symbols on the cards help access that pool of knowledge we already possess."

Before a reading, the seeker (the person whose cards are being read) focuses on a question. McMullin believes the energy of that question goes into the cards. That energy, combined with the symbols on the cards, results in a reading that examines one's life path.

In the class, students will learn the origins of the tarot, the various suits of cards, the meaning of common symbols, a few tarot spreads or layouts, and how to mentally prepare for a reading.

McMullin asks all students to bring a Rider-Waite tarot deck, one of the most common brands, because suits and symbols on other decks can vary. Spiritual Freedom will also be selling the decks in the store.

McMullin's tarot class is the first in a series of classes at Spiritual Freedom this month. The bookstore, which specializes in texts on alternative religions, spirituality, and conscious living, will also offer classes on drum-making on January 14th, the shamanistic practice of animal medicine on January 19th, and "indigo children" (a special group of kids believed to operate on a higher vibrational frequency than other humans) on January 28th.

"Spiritual Freedom is a conscious-living store that was created to enlighten humanity of evolutionary change," says co-owner Jack Armstrong. "We're here to help people who are searching for something."

Spiritual Freedom opened in April 2005 and began offering classes in October. It also has weekly Spiritual Cinema Nights on Saturdays, at which various films and documentaries with spiritual and conscious-living themes are shown.

Besides selling books and offering classes, the store doubles as a healing center. Called Maggie's World, customers can migrate to the back of the store for reiki or energy healing, a session in a massage chair, or an exercise session on a vibrating machine called the Power Pad. The Power Pad is said to work muscles as they'd be worked in a strenuous workout while the person using the machine remains completely still.

"One side of the store is more ethereal and the other is more focused on nature-based philosophy," says Armstrong. "We're hoping to appeal to people who are into New Age and psychic stuff and anyone interested in raising their consciousness -- anybody searching for something out-of-the-ordinary."

 

[HudsonGray]

Staffer teaches financial aid -- and tarot
Sasha Brown, News Office, January 11, 2006
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/iap-tarot.html

Since he started at MIT in 2002, Financial Aid Director Daniel Barkowitz has used the January Independent Activities Period (IAP) as a time to share his interests -- both professional and personal.

In "Financial Aid 101," which started on Monday, Jan. 9, Barkowitz walks students, staff and faculty through the mysterious and sometimes daunting world of financial aid for school.

Barkowitz shifts gears to teach his other annual IAP offering, "History and Mystery of the Tarot," which started Tuesday, Jan. 10, but is still open.

The tarot is an illustrated deck of 78 picture cards, which are examined for guidance on the future. Each illustration is of an archetype and each archetype means something in the reading. For instance, one of the 78 cards is the fool. Though each deck illustrates the fool in a different way, the meaning -- exploring new possibilities and beginning new journeys -- is universal.

For Barkowitz, a tarot enthusiast who started studying the cards when he was a junior in high school, the opportunity to connect with students, staff and faculty on a more personal level is part of IAP's appeal.

"IAP really gives everyone the chance to get out of the daily rut," Barkowitz said.

Class members are required to bring a deck of tarot cards. Barkowitz recommends the Rider-Waite deck -- a popular learning deck. Each deck is different, which is part of what drew Barkowitz to the tarot in the first place. "It is neat to see how each artist designs the deck," said Barkowitz, who has collected dozens of the decks over the years.

Now in its fourth year, the popular four-session course offers a full history of tarot as well as instruction on how to read and use the cards.

In the first class, Barkowitz discussed tarot's possible origin as a card game. Subsequent classes will be more discussion-driven, he said. The class will explore different artist interpretations of the cards and will learn to use the cards as "fortune telling" devices.

Barkowitz's class attracts between 20 to 30 students a year and is filled with both experienced readers and beginners.

IAP offers Barkowitz a chance to share a personal passion with others and form new relationships, he said. "I see it as a way to have fun with a group of students."

He said it is the relationships he builds and the joy of helping students learn new skills that keeps him coming back to teach each IAP.

"It is a wonderful opportunity," Barkowitz said. "IAP really shows the diversity of what MIT can offer."

The tarot class meets Tuesdays at noon in Room 2-131 through Jan. 31.

 

[HudsonGray]

Area tarot card reader serves clients around the world

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14025530&BRD=1648&PAG=461&dept_id=11784&rfi=6

"I have a talent," said Newington native Karen Stenvall, who reads tarot cards out of her home and at the West Farms mall in the store Blue Moon. "I have made it into a life's passion."

Stenvall, who is also a member of the Wethersfield Astrological Society, owns 14 different decks of tarot cards. While working in the publishing industry for 20 years, she also built a list of clients during her pursuits as a reader (she also reads regular playing cards) that includes people in Japan and Hawaii.

"It's not as lucrative as publishing," said Stenvall, whose work experience includes a tenure as the advertising director for Connecticut Magazine. "I get by at what I do."

The cards, whose origins are still the subject of debate - some sources indicate the cards were developed in 14th century Morocco as a generic method of communication among representatives of different cultures - are used to describe the future through the psychic perceptions of the reader. The reader describes another person's life and possible future through the cards.

The cards are divided into two categories. The minor arcana contains 56 cards that are divided into four suits and generally parallel contemporary playing cards. The only difference is the presence of four extra court cards called knights.
The major arcana includes 22 cards that are numbered from zero to 21. They are marked by symbols such as "The Fool," "The Devil," "Strength" and "Judgement." The Tower depicts a building being struck by lightning, and generally indicates major problems.

The cards contain different meanings depending upon whether the reader deals them upside down. "Death," for example, means change in a normal position and stagnation when reversed. The cards can have different meanings depending on their position in a spread of cards, signifying possible past or future events.
"I tell people what I see," said Stenvall, who indicates that the actions of clients still determine their fortune. "I do not tell people how to run their lives."

She will lecture and read cards at the society's next annual psychic fair on Feb. 27 at the Keeney Center on Main Street in Wethersfield. She also teaches classes in tarot reading for the LifeLearn continuing education program at the West Hartford Continuing Education Center at Conard High School, where astrological readers who also participate recommended her.

She began by reading the cards of friends and family members for five years. She has read professionally for 15 years.

"During the past year, I began making money at it," said Stenvall, who moved back to Newington more than a year ago after spending 15 years in Denver, Colo. She does many readings over the phone, which she said still allows energy to flow between people for psychic purposes.

"In my opinion, she is one of the better psychics that you are going to find," said Virginia Randolph, a professional psychic that Stenvall credits as a mentor. "She's very realistic."

Stenvall began reading tarot cards from an art history perspective. Randolph, who lives in East Killingsly, taught her about the symbolism of the cards.

"She's good with relating to people and gets her ideas across very well," said Randolph, who has known Stenvall since the '80s.

Stenvall describes herself as an especially intuitive person with clairvoyant and clairaudient abilities, which enable her to see and hear events occurring in another place in the past, present or future.
Although she asks a client for a birth date before shuffling her cards, she uses her subconscious mind to accomplish the rest, she said. If she is reading incorrect information, she shuffles the cards again. She never needs to shuffle more than twice, she said.

Stenvall said some of her clients include prominent business people that she declined to name. Some of them ask her for insight regarding how to run certain aspects of their businesses.

"It's not just bored housewives," she said.