Is the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot (SKT) for Beginners?

While lurking I recently saw a comment that made me smile and chuckle. A person had asked whether the SKT would be a tarot deck suitable for total beginners. This person also e-mailed us at abelldelivers (which only the hubby J checks with any frequency, and I only respond back to emails delivered there if J has nagged me at minimum five times to sit down and reply to the querent to answer the question goddammit). Other times J will come in to my room, rephrase the person’s question, get my response, and I guess rephrase my response to answer that person directly. This turned out to be one of those other times.

In that thread, the commenter writes that we had replied to their inquiry and said that “yes, there is no reason why this deck could not be used as a beginner’s deck.”

My first thought was, wait, did I really say that?

Okay, here’s what happened. I totally remember now.

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Changes to the YouTube Channel and Access to Past Videos

In an effort to curate the publicly visible videos on the Benebell Wen YouTube channel, many past videos are now unlisted but still publicly available via the Playlists tab.

For a ballpark sense of how many videos are now unlisted, as of this posting only 129 of 405 total videos are publicly visible in the general Videos tab and thus only those 129 videos are searchable on the YouTube platform.

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Revelation Purchasers: Please Check Your LWBs!

A batch of the printed LWBs (Little White Booklets) have a pagination error. After page 22, it jumps to page 55. Fortunately it’s just a small batch. Most of the LWBs should be fine and when we did our QA-check, none of them turned up with this problem, so we think the impact should be fairly minimal.

In the mishap, after the 22 to 55 jump, the page jumps again at 86, jumping back to 55. (Total page count of the LWB is 88 pages.)

As far as we can tell, only a small batch of LWBs were printed with this mishap, and it’s the same mishap in all of them– after page 22 it jumps to page 55…

…then it continues from 55 to 86, and then after 86 it jumps back to page 55 again…

If you received a Little White Booklet with this page 22 to 55 pagination mishap, please e-mail us at abelldelivers (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as possible. We’ll gladly replace your LWB if you notify us of the issue within 30 days of receipt of your deck, if you purchased it directly from us. For this issue, we can even extend it to 60 days.

We are trying to assess the scope of the problem before contacting our factory. So please check your LWB. Also, if you have any friends who purchased an SKT Revelation second printing, please tell them about this issue and have them check their LWBs, too.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

About the Eight Immortal Orders (SKT Revelation)

7/30/2023 UPDATE: There was a typo in the previous download. If you downloaded prior to 7/30, please re-download the below-linked handout.

Profiles of the Eight Orders & Their Attributes

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.

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SKT Deck Deliveries Status Update

Apologies for not sharing a deliveries update sooner, as I know many of you are waiting anxiously for info on the status of your pre-order.

We are now almost two weeks in to having started packing and shipping the decks out. It feels like we’ve done a lot and have made a lot of progress, except then I look at how far we are down the list of pre-orders and we haven’t even finished the first 200 yet. Eeps! So I guess the progress is not as fast as it feels to us! =)

I write up these status updates assuming you are like me and would want all the info that I would want if I were the buyer, but if it’s more than you care to know, no worries, just scroll, skim, and skip around.

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Comparing the First and Second Printings of SKT: Revelation

The current version of SKT open for pre-orders is the second print run of the full-color Revelation Edition. For ordering information, please click here.

Also, there continues to be confusion around the editions, print runs, etc., so I’ll try to clarify again.

In 2018, I printed a limited edition black and white SKT, with a print run of 1,000 copies. After those copies were sold, that’s it. Hence, limited edition.

In 2019, I printed a limited edition sepia-toned SKT Vitruvian, with a run of 2,000 copies, where each and every one of those 2,000 decks was given a name.

Both the black and white First and the sepia-toned Vitruvian are out of print. If and when you see them on second-hand markets going for astronomical prices, that’s not me. That has nothing to do with me.

In 2021 I released the third and final full-color Revelation edition of SKT. The Revelation is open edition. That means there will be various print runs. A first print run of 3,507 copies came out in 2021.

Now in 2023 there is a second print run of 3,168 copies.

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SKT: Revelation 2nd – Printing Status Update

Tarot Uncut Sheets

On our production milestones, we’re at the stage of cutting. The uncut sheets have all been printed. After cutting, the next stage will be gilding.

Our factory informed us that they are projecting May 7 for delivery outbound, which means we hope to receive it on our front doorsteps by July 15.

Card back design for the Certificates of Authenticity (noting assignment of Orders)

Interspersed throughout this status update post will be photos our factory sent to us. They’re really good about keeping us in the loop and providing full disclosure of the process, so for that I’ve been grateful.

Just love catching the partial glimpses of the printing machinery!

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SKT Revelation 2nd Print Run: Production Begins

Our printing company in Shenzhen heard our concerns crystal clear and immediately kicked into action to address those concerns. We got new samples printed and they’re great.

I’ve already approved them and production has commenced. We received the physical samples yesterday on the March equinox and production begins today with the new moon in Aries.

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