Every deck from the second print run of SKT Revelation is initiated into one of eight lineaged orders, based on a synthesis of the Egyptian Ogdoad, the Taoist Eight Immortals, and the eight trigrams of East Asian metaphysics, though the cycle of eight is significant in Western occult and mystery traditions as well.
The docx file format is provided in addition to the pdf in case you want to cut and paste the text to integrate into your personal journaling or record-keeping.
Let’s make it unambiguously clear that nothing herein is science or evidence-based medicine.
For the last three years, J and I have been routinely applying this multi-purpose antiviral treatment (in addition to getting vaccinated, boosting up the wazoo, and making prudent judgment calls with regard to masking). I sincerely believe this treatment oil has kept us Covid-free throughout the pandemic.
Oh, and not to mention, it’s great for my scalp, controlling dandruff, and promoting hair growth. Just a totally random incidental benefit. =)
You can convert the basic recipe into a mouth wash. Historically a myrrh mouth rinse was used after tooth extractions because the myrrh oil kills bacteria and sanitizes.
The base recipe also makes for a fantastic cologne. I get so many compliments about the scent when I wear this as a cologne.
Everybody needs a vampire deck. Is a tarot collection even complete without a vampire tarot? 😉 And this one in particular is tantalizing!
The Tarot of the Vampires by Charles Harrington and illustrated by Craig Maher is sleek, modern, and cinematic. You might recognize Charles as the author of the Murder of Crows Tarot (2020), Tarot V (2021), or the Ferenc Pinter Tarot (2021). He’s also a frequent speaker at various tarot conferences.
In terms of a genre, this tarot is delectable blood-sucking dark urban fantasy horror. These illustrations reveal a secret world coexisting with ours– as Harrington puts it, “the world of the undead and their eternal dance suspended between Heaven and Hell.”
That world of the undead and eternal dance enthralls all the more in Tarot of the Vampires because of Maher’s art. Craig Maher is an impressively talented artist in the realm of fantasy and imaginative realism. His renderings of this vampire universe are masterful. The detailing in these illustrations is next level. Just you wait and see.
There was a TikTok video that kinda sorta went viral among tarot people. All my tarot friends were chattering about those “six ways” and so many feels got riled up. Heck, the fact I made my VR two weeks ago and am still talking about it right now with an addendum blog post shows I got a little riled up, too.
In my (probably misplaced) priority of trying to keep videos short and succinct, I didn’t flesh out the thoughts I had wanted to share. And then many tarot colleagues continued and extended the discussion, so now I have even more thoughts. =)
2019 Masters of the Tarot Conference. Left to Right: Me, Mary K. Greer, Terry Iacuzzo, Rachel Pollack, and Joanna Powell Colbert
I was first invited to present at the Masters of the Tarot Conference back in 2019. The Conference takes place every July at the Omega Institute in upstate New York, and was founded by Rachel Pollack and Mary K. Greer.
Opening ceremonies and introductions happen on Friday evening, with a starter workshop or master class as your night cap. Then the keynote speaker events begin first thing Saturday morning and go until Sunday noon. Interspersed throughout are discussion panels for Q&As and moderated topical conversations. The event ends with all of us having lunch together.
From the 2019 Masters of the Tarot Conference. Photo courtesy of Joanna Powell Colbert (IG: @joannapcolbert)
I’ve had an incomplete draft of a post-event write-up since July 2019 that I never got around to finishing and posting onto this blog. Sigh. And now the 2023 Conference has come and gone, which was the second time I’ve presented at Omega.
So this blog post is going to cover both the 2019 and the recent 2023 events.
Psychism vs. Psychology: Transcending the Binary Bias in Tarot
For the 2023 Masters of the Tarot Conference held at the Omega Institute, the theme is magic, mysticism, and neuroscience.
My presentation will be on practical reading methods for transcending innate binary bias. We’ll be talking about what that binary bias is in both neuroscience and the world of tarot and how to bridge the binary through assigned correspondences and guided imagery, a tempered method for bilateral cognitive stimulation.
Due to the layering of images to create animation effects, you’ll need to view the slides in Slide Show.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR VIEWING: Along the upper row of tabs, click on “Slide Show.” Then click on the icon “From Beginning” to start the animation.
You will have received a printout copy of the above downloadable handout. Here are the digital files in case you want additional copies, or you would like to integrate this information into your personal working journals.
7/18 REVISION: Please re-download the handout with the correct correspondence table. Recall there was a typo between the Water and Air columns under “Physical Body” correspondences.
This is a compilation of notable sources I found discussing brain lateralization, with bullet point summaries of the contents of each resource.
“Tarot’s Chinese sister, the I Ching.”
– Rachel Pollack, A Walk through the Forest of Souls
HOMEWORK
As an additional bonus step, and to further symbolically bridge the binary, combine your two card readings from the workshop to yield an I Ching hexagram reading. As Rachel Pollack notes, the I Ching is “Tarot’s Chinese sister.”
Begin by identifying the corresponding Ba Gua trigrams to the two tarot cards you pulled during the workshop.
Click on image file to download
The first card you had pulled, reading elemental correspondences per Body, Mind, and Spirit, will be the Lower Trigram (left most column).
The second card you pulled, for the guided imagery exercise, will be the Upper Trigram (top most row).
Here’s an alternate version of the table for your archives:
Click on image file to download
Use the below cross-reference table to identify the six-line hexagram that your two tarot cards form:
Click image file to download
Here’s the I Ching cross-reference table found on your workshop handout. It’s the same as above, but without the hexagram images.
Click image file to download
Once you’ve identified the resulting hexagram, look up its short form oracle message in the below download:
The above book of short form oracles summarizing the meaning of the 64 hexagrams is excerpted from my forthcoming book, I Ching, The Oracle, published by North Atlantic Books (September, 2023).
Continuing from what I said in the video chat, if this is something you seriously want to do, then start by getting that three-ring binder. Though I think organizing it into eleven sections is sufficient, I noticed you can’t buy packs of just eleven binder dividers. They come in sets of 12, so that’s fine. Having a final “Miscellany” tab is always a good idea anyway.
I wanted to put this out there in hopes that someone googling for this info will find my post. So yes, topically it’s a bit outside my beaten path here on this blog.
I made my own citrus peel powder + rice grains powder face treatment to deal with hyperpigmentation and texture concerns, applied it twice daily for 100 consecutive days, and am now sharing my thoughts.
I’m a huge fan of T. Susan Chang’s work. I loved Tarot Correspondences, which I’ve reviewed before here, have and cherish my copy of Tarot Deciphered, co-authored with M. M. Meleen, creator of the Rosetta Tarot and Tabula Mundi Tarot, two of my all-time favorite decks, ever.
So I’m thrilled about the opportunity to review Chang’s latest book, The Living Tarot published by Llewellyn Books. Unlike her previous publications, The Living Tarot is written with the beginner in mind, and more pertinently, how the modern reader can find personal, everyday meanings to the 78 cards.
