live from the tarot school’s reader’s studio

Back in the day, before writing became the main focus of my non-work time (you know, when I’m not finding a husband or moving house), I studied Tarot. I studied Tarot a lot. Dare I say hardcore? Well, let me read for you sometime and you can decide.

In pursuit of these studies, I spent an awful lot of time with two wonderful friends, Wald and Ruth Ann of the Tarot School. And I attended events. Lots and lots of events, usually one or two a year, featuring some of the best Tarotists, writers and occultists around. I’ve met quite a few other hardcore folk, including the Ciceros, Diane Wilkes, Donald Michael Craig, Rachel Pollack, Robert Place, and, of course, Lon. Those last three are the guests of honor here, the first Tarot event I’ve attended since Wald & Ruth Ann’s wedding at the New York Tarot Festival in 2002: the Reader’s Studio.

My peoples! I’m swooning! No, really. I’ve missed these things, so much. It’s a little hermetically sealed (ha! I kill me!) antichamber of esoteric like minds all romping around for thirty-six hours straight. Cleanses the palate, clears the mind, plugs me in, you name it, and reminds me of how much there still is to learn after a decade of practice. I’ve barely begun.

Anyway, we just had the first session. Corrine Kenner, a lovely lady who recently wrote a book on Tarot journaling that I wish I’d written, sat in the back the entire time with her laptop out, typing away. I figured she was just taking notes like a madwoman, which I tend to do at these things, only I succumb to the feel of pen on paper, as writing very fast in longhand is one of my favorite things to do in this world. Alas, no, not quite. What was she doing? Blogging, of course. Check it out for the literal play-by-play; or read on for some of my favorite bits:

1. Bob Place got a contract from St. Martin’s for his vampire tarot, something he has been working on for some time now (I saw the early samples back in 2002; I think I might even have a print of one of the majors at home). Holy frickin’ smokes, people, if there is one person in the world who can do a vampire Tarot and do it right, it is the man who wrote this book.

Bob is also the only man who can do a Celtic tarot and do it right. Guess what else he has in the works. C’mon, guess.

2. “Tarot works because it’s perfect,” says Lon. “It evokes a perfect version of the truth.” But whether or not you can see it, well, that’s another matter entirely.

3. Rachel has an upcoming trip to Greece to study and experience the Eleusinian mysteries. Needless to say, we’re all insanely jealous. She also has two upcoming projects with those folks who do the Tarot of Prague (and Bohemian Cats tarot, and the Fairy Tale tarot, which I apparently missed, hello, it’s out now, hello), including a book of Tarot fairy tales.

Breaks are short and I need a sandwich, before three and a half full hours of Robert M. Place fun starting at 4:30. And she’s off!