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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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — How the Opening of the Key Spread was derived from the Golden Dawn http://youtu.be/1VBpRlTZjck?a

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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — thoth-magical-societies.wmv http://youtu.be/lXb4FK1wszU?a

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Tarot Masterclasses delayed

The Tarot Masterclasses are not happening as quickly as I expected. Problems are more technology related than anything else as I try to work on presentation and loads of other technical details.

I always try to do things in a new or different way, and the learning curve is steeper than I expected. So, it looks like I will do things in smaller, easier to attain goals. I am also having to think more about the content of the lessons – yes, the lessons are very different to what is already on Supertarot! So please have patience.

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Bankers bonuses and real tarot readers

This week I did a corporate event reading tarot for what turned out to be a division of a well-known UK bank. Read More »

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For entertainment purposes only

New EU legislation came into force on Monday requiring Fortune Tellers to display a disclaimer: “For entertainment purposes only”. Read More »

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I uploaded a YouTube video — …

I uploaded a YouTube video — rws-v-thoth.wmv http://youtu.be/F_lFFu4-0PE?a

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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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RWS Video

I have just uploaded a couple of videos to youtube that show the first part of my talk at the RWS 100th Anniversary celebration in London on 5th December with Mary Greer.

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Rider-Waite 100th Anniversary talk

Pamela Colman Smith

Image via Wikipedia

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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Thinking about the tarot talk tomorrow

Looking forward to meeting Mary Greer, Kim Arnold and  everyone else at the 100th Anniversary of the Rider Waite tarot deck tomorrow afternoon. I am booked to speak, not so much on the RWS deck – there will be too many experts who know far more than me on the subject.

What I will be talking about is the incredible influence of the Golden Dawn on the tarot, ritual magic, Wicca, Paganism, you name it in the esoteric world.

The GD has had its fair share of sex, drugs and scandal, not to mention the schisms and internecine wars that continue right up to the present day.

In all of this lay the birth of AE Waite’s Tarot deck, so I will try to put things into some kind of context, and assess what we  know about the deck in this light, and where we might see new directions.

Oh, and there will be one lucky winner of my new co-written book, Beyond the Celtic Cross. For everyone else I will be bringing copies…

See you tomorrow.

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