sapienza
This is probably not the right place to post this, but I wasn't sure where else it could go. I just wanted to share something.
Yesterday I ran a full day tarot workshop for a group of tarot students ranging from beginner though to experienced. They were members of my local tarot group who'd been asking me to run workshops for awhile. I really wanted to share my enthusiasm for the history of tarot in a practical way. We spent the morning going through the trumps. I gave each participant copied sheets with the Marseille trumps which they compared to their own decks (mostly RWS). We talked about the symbolism and traditional meanings and they loved it. We had lots of 'ah-ha' moments as finally they seemed to 'get' the cards. In the afternoon we looked at the number cards, talked about where the meanings came from, looked at Etteilla, Golden Dawn and then I started talking about decks with non-scenic pips. The room went dead, I could see everyone shifting uncomfortably in their seats, avoiding my eye contact. So, I thought I'd rip them all out of their comfort zones and get them to do some reading with some non-scenic pips. We'd talked about looking at the suit symbols and considering what they mean, considering the numbers etc. Anyway, they loved it. I had comments like "this is so much better than pictures, the pictures have always made me feel quite blocked", and "this is rather liberating, isn't it". I had one lady saying she wanted to buy a Marseille deck right away, another keen to get a copy of the Visconti, and two others keen to acquire the Ancient Italian. I was really thrilled that I'd been able to get them so excited and connected to the historical decks. When we went back to working with their own decks it was as if another layer had been added to their understanding that wasn't their before. It was as if the pictures had to be taken away before they could see it. I think I'm going to repeat the workshop again next year. So exciting!
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with someone who might actually 'get' why I was excited and that's why I've posted it here
Yesterday I ran a full day tarot workshop for a group of tarot students ranging from beginner though to experienced. They were members of my local tarot group who'd been asking me to run workshops for awhile. I really wanted to share my enthusiasm for the history of tarot in a practical way. We spent the morning going through the trumps. I gave each participant copied sheets with the Marseille trumps which they compared to their own decks (mostly RWS). We talked about the symbolism and traditional meanings and they loved it. We had lots of 'ah-ha' moments as finally they seemed to 'get' the cards. In the afternoon we looked at the number cards, talked about where the meanings came from, looked at Etteilla, Golden Dawn and then I started talking about decks with non-scenic pips. The room went dead, I could see everyone shifting uncomfortably in their seats, avoiding my eye contact. So, I thought I'd rip them all out of their comfort zones and get them to do some reading with some non-scenic pips. We'd talked about looking at the suit symbols and considering what they mean, considering the numbers etc. Anyway, they loved it. I had comments like "this is so much better than pictures, the pictures have always made me feel quite blocked", and "this is rather liberating, isn't it". I had one lady saying she wanted to buy a Marseille deck right away, another keen to get a copy of the Visconti, and two others keen to acquire the Ancient Italian. I was really thrilled that I'd been able to get them so excited and connected to the historical decks. When we went back to working with their own decks it was as if another layer had been added to their understanding that wasn't their before. It was as if the pictures had to be taken away before they could see it. I think I'm going to repeat the workshop again next year. So exciting!
Anyway, I just wanted to share this with someone who might actually 'get' why I was excited and that's why I've posted it here
