Author: benebell

Tarot Skills for the 21st Century by Josephine McCarthy

On By benebellIn book review, tarot, tarot community9 Comments

Josephine McCarthy is one of the preeminent magicians of our time. She is the founder of Quareia and author of several incredible tomes, among which I’ve read The Work of the Hierophant and The Exorcist’s Handbook. I’m also a big fan of her deck, LXXXI, which I’ve reviewed here. I am now so excited to be sharing with you my thoughts on her latest endeavor, a comprehensive book on tarot that covers both the mundane and the magical meanings of each card.

The edition I received for review is hardcover, with a beautiful velvety matte book jacket. I love that the title anchors the book in the 21st century, while the book’s aesthetics feel Old World to me. I haven’t seen this quality and caliber of production value in a tarot book for quite some time now, so there is something quite exquisite about learning tarot from McCarthy’s text.

The book begins with a strong introduction, giving you a sense of who your teacher, the author, will be, and the context from which classical tarot interpretation sprang. Having read dozens of tarot books published in the last few years, this one is refreshing in its traditionalism, formality, and also its design as a handbook to teach tarot as a venerated practice.

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Simplicity Tarot by Emilie Muniz: A Tarot Deck for Everyone

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, tarot, tarot community12 Comments

The Simplicity Tarot by Emilie Muniz is this perfect RWS-based deck that checks all the boxes that people keep saying they want in a tarot deck, but don’t seem to notice that Simplicity Tarot exists. It flies quietly, humbly under the radar, and I have no idea why. Muniz’s deck features all the hallmarks for what our community keeps saying we want in a tarot deck, and yet this deck isn’t trending. Why is that?

Here is this deck with imagery that feels classic, timeless, not overly modern, with refinement and elegance, beautiful on any reading table spread, and has the diverse representation so many of us readers today want in a deck.

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Accessing Genetic Memory Through Tarot: Ancestral Connections and Past Life Recall

On By benebellIn conferences, professional tarot, promotional, tarot9 Comments

The first iteration of this course content was presented at the 2018 Tarot Readers Studio conference in New York.

About the Course

Recent scientific findings have established a link between genetics, inheriting memories from our ancestors, and those inherited memories being retained within our neurons.

In other words, a deep reservoir of untapped knowledge is resident within our own genetic and cellular memory.

This master class will address using tarot as a tool for triggering an altered state of consciousness, which can then facilitate retrieval of genetic memory from the unconscious.

We will be using ritualized tarot techniques to recall generations past, to have conversations with our ancestors through tarot, to find out who they were, where they were from, what their lives were like, and most importantly, what messages they have to share with us, for us at present and for their own future lineage.

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SKT 3.0, Second Septenary Walk-Through

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot12 Comments

Are you getting SKT fatigue from all my obsessive posts about this deck? =)

I apologize for being so single-track in all my postings at the moment, but that’s just where my mind is at.

I’m amused at how with each edition, I seem to change the same cards over and over. Like here in the second set of Major sevens, once again it’s the Hermit card I revise and the background of the Wheel of Fortune. However, this time around, I did change up my Temperance.

If you watch the above video on YouTube’s platform, timestamp links are in the video description box, so you can skip around from section to section.

This previous post is where you can find the video on the First Septenary of cards. This post is a pictorial walk-through of Keys 1 – 11.

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Walk-Through of Key 1 to Key 11 in SKT III

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot17 Comments

This will be a walk-through of Keys 1 through 11 from the Major Arcana for the forthcoming third edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. Please note that I don’t anticipate the deck coming out any time sooner than 2021, and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come out until 2022. I also won’t be doing pre-orders until the whole deck is done.

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Inspiration and Process for Coloring SKT III; The Emperor Revisited

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot11 Comments

Yeah, I’m going full-color (sorta– it’ll be a muted palette) for SKT the Third (I’ll be calling it something else, something fancy-shmancy, but for now it’s SKT the Third).

If you click into YouTube to watch the video on that platform, you’ll be able to skip around using the timestamps I’ve provided in the description box.

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SKT the Third, Experimental Trials: Trying Out Full-Color

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot15 Comments

I made a little video to showcase the evolution of my Lovers card from the SKT, laced with Bach’s Prelude in C Major. =) You can click on that YouTube logo along the bottom bar of the video to enlarge.

Experimenting with color…

Please understand that nothing has been committed to just yet. This is nothing more than an experimental trial, though I’m sharing it with you as an entry in my SKT progress diary. Your honest feedback is welcomed!

Actually, it’s very welcomed. Like the previous shitty-Emperor-card post. You all gave me really good critiques that were specific, detailed, and because of the collective you, I had something tangible to work with as I continued trying to draw a good Emperor card. (It’s still in the works. We’ll revisit Key 4 at a later time.)

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HALP ME WHY CAN’T I DRAW AN EMPEROR?!

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot49 Comments

Yeah. I needed the title in all-caps. Because I’m screaming at the top of my lungs and yanking at my own hair.

WHY IS DRAWING THE EMPEROR CARD SUCH A STRUGGLE?

For an irrational woo answer to that, I might say maybe it’s because our global collective culture is moving away from dominant-masculinity, and as a feminist I’m certainly not going to cry a river over that shift, but it does mean I’m really, really struggling with tapping in to that masculine energy.

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The Sevens: Tarot Card Meanings

On By benebellIn Learn the Tarot, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot community, tarot symbolismLeave a comment

New to this video lecture series?

Start Here

The above-linked Introduction page will give you an overview of what this series is about and provide a course contents listing.

The Sevens is the ninth of seventeen videos in this series. This is the realm of choice, mental reasoning, and philosophical discernment, where:

  • the Seven of Wands is the discernment between fight vs. flight;
  • the Seven of Cups discerns between vice and virtue;
  • the Seven of Swords is risk vs. control; and
  • the Seven of Pentacles/Disks is action vs. non-action.

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Drafting & Tinkering for SKT #3

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot36 Comments

To quell any confusion, yes, I’m at work on a third edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. No, not a new deck,  but a new edition of an already existing one, the SKT.

I have not yet arrived at a decision on coloring. Do I want it in sepia? Grayscale with accents of colors? Full color via digital applications? I don’t have any answers. I’m going to give all of the above options a few tries, compare, and see which path is right for SKT the Third.

The images in this post are sepia-toned only because my first order of business is to produce both a black-and-white and also a sepia-toned set of base images to work from. That way I can tinker with both and see which I want to work with when creating the full deck.

Continue reading “Drafting & Tinkering for SKT #3” →