I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — Tarot: Beyond the Arrow of Time http://youtu.be/ojfEwaa3taQ?a

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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — Advanced understanding of the tarot meanings with card counting http://youtu.be/kwBmdinm2UE?a

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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — Advanced Card Counting – Court Cards change direction http://youtu.be/yvqQhMvZ6Mk?a

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Rider-Waite 100th Anniversary talk

Pamela Colman Smith

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At last the day arrived. Held at the Devereux Pub just around the corner from Temple in London, where so many esoteric talks have taken place. Mary Greer spoke eloquently on the spiritual and religious dimensions that Waite incorporated into his tarot deck, and interpreted by Pamela Coleman Smith.

Mary demonstrated how the Minor suits closely followed Masonic rituals, particularly the murder of Hiram Abiff for the Swords. After my talk on the influences of the Golden Dawn on Waite, we cut a beautiful cake featuring the Magician. Mary then spoke on synesthesia, the ability to experience senses in a different way, and how Pamela Coleman Smith was able to use this ability in her art. Mary led us through an exercise to ’step inside’ a tarot card to gain extra insights, probably the way Pixie Smith did it.

The evening was for socialising. I was surprised how many people had seen me speak before, and it was great to catch up with everyone.  Any more anniversaries coming up?

Photographs of the 100th Anniversary of the Rider-Waite deck in London

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Gordon Brown’s nail biting habit – a palmist’s view

LONDON - JUNE 27:  Newly appointed Prime Minis...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

More than ever politics is obsessed about spin and presentation. A lot of time and thought goes into the style of clothes, haircut, voice – the list is endless. Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair, who clearly used make-up and anything else to improve how he looked. Gordon is the antithesis of Tony, a man who likes to be seen as solid, heavyweight, no gimmicks. Read More »

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Delving into the magical powers of the Tarot

My first ever appearance on stage to talk about the tarot was with the help of Jon Tapsell as a precursor to speaking at the Occulture Festival in Brighton a few years ago. As part of my talk, I did some three  card readings for some members of the audience, which was very entertaining (many said it was the best bit).

Jon has kindly asked me to come back to the re-launched Occulture Festival on the 23rd May 2009 in London. This time I am really going to push the boat out, as I explore the powerful spiritual forces associated with the tarot, and how they can benefit or influence your life. The nature of such an enterprise makes it live, immediate, and just a bit scary, as I have no idea who I will be doing the readings for, what cards will turn up, and which spirits will want to make themselves known.

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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — Seeing the alligators in the everglades http://youtu.be/MUD9zpuAEMU?a

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Women in Tarot e-book

Just read a great little gem on women who have contributed to the tarot in recent times, by Bonnie Cehovet,  including an interview with Catherine Chapman on her experiences writing her first book with me, and her views on where tarot is going.

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Soaking up the rays in Florida

Now I am over the jetlag, I am really starting to enjoy Florida – first real break in over a year. Apparently it has been pretty cold here, but now it is warming up. I watched the promo video of Florida on the long flight over, and instantly decided Disneyworld, and all the other tourist attractions are not for me

There are a few hassles – Facebook instantly noticed the change of location, and have decided not to allow me to login, so if you want to become a friend, or expect me to reply something on FB, I apologise in advance. This post should appear on FB…

Also, I decided not to allow roaming on my mobile phone – a pound to receive a call, what a rip off! So, if you want to contact me, I am still available on Skype, or you can email the old-fashioned way. I am available for doing the odd tarot reading too.

I am staying in Fort Lauderdale right close to the sea, and while it is too cold to swim, walking barefoot on the beach has been great, and  I am here long enough to get a good tan.

I have noticed there are quite a lot of ‘Psychics’, but there is never one with someone in, so I guess the lights are on but nobody’s at home. If you want a tarot reading in Brighton, my office has a guest reader! Asuf Mann is a relative of my teacher Punditt Maharaj, so pop in and say hello.

Went out to the swamp the other day, well, what’s left of the swamp, didn’t see any alligators, but there will be a trip to the Everglades. Birdlife is impressive, even in the city. I have seen loads of pelicans, herons, hawks, and even a flock of ibis (sacred to Thoth). Vultures are everywhere.

Paul with blues guitarist Poppa "E"

Paul with blues guitarist Poppa "E"

Found some great blues too. We were at the Downtowners last night, and Poppa “E” was playing. We walked out amazed to discover it was nearly 2am – where did the time go?

I took the webcam with me, and I plan to get on and do more videos on the tarot, so plenty to do. Watch me go red, and then brown.

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Meeting Catherine Chapman

Catherine and I wrote “Beyond the Celtic Cross” via email. It was nearly six months after she contacted me about her tarot reading that we finally met on a wet, wintry, windy day on Brighton seafront – it was the longest day of the year – but the few hours in her company flew by.

Since then she has gone on to bigger and better things, in particular her tarot blog which I thoroughly recommend. When the book finally came out in December 2009, Catherine was having all kinds of problems with her computer and internet connection, and other circumstances, while there were all kinds of delays to the book launch. These things are sent to try us. Writing a book on tarot means that suddenly people are interested in booking me for speaking engagements, and I was very pleased to accept an invitation from TABI to do a workshop on Beyond the Celtic Cross at their conference in July this year in Birmingham. I suggested a Facebook page for the conference would be a good idea, which now exists as you can see. Catherine has been in TABI for many years, and I am very pleased to see she is an administrator for the conference. This will only be our second face to face meeting in two years. We will have a lot to talk about.

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Tarot workshop at TABI in July 2010

I will be speaking and giving a workshop at the TABI Conference this summer. This will be a great opportunity to talk about my new book co-written with Catherine Chapman, Beyond the Celtic Cross. I will talk about the powerful divination techniques of Card Counting and Elemental Dignities, and how they played their part in the creation of Beyond the Celtic Cross.

I will also discuss a very interesting thread that runs between this and my earlier book, Tarot and the Magus, whereby the use of the divination techniques results in spiritual development and insight.

Way back in 2004 I spoke at the TABI conference in Birmingham, and I had a great time, and I am sure I will again. Looking forward to seeing you all again.

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New Tarot Lessons

Today I uploaded some videos to youtube. The videos are the beginning of a series of lessons on reading the tarot using Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and the Opening of the Key Spread. Elemental Dignities, card counting and card pairing will be upcoming subjects.

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Reviews of “Beyond the Celtic Cross”

Book cover of Beyond the Celtic Cross

It is still early days since Beyond the Celtic Cross was published in December 2009, so not many reviews to comment on.

Amazon 5 star

This review also appears on Lori Green’s blog. I think the interesting point Lori makes is that she did a reading using the Celtic Cross, and then read the cards using the techniques Catherine and I describe, and she found that:

“The Celtic Cross spread that I laid out was OK but a bit ambiguous in places and I didn’t gain much insight from the interpretation. I then re-did the reading using the card counting technique and the reading came to life and made absolute sense – I was amazed and so pleased that it actually “worked” for me.”

Clearly the proof is in the pudding.

If you have come across a review, or you have written one yourself, please let me know.

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