Tarot Tips: Breathing Fresh Air Into Old Tarot Habits
Published: Sun, 06/01/14
It's good to be back in the saddle with... You're receiving this email because you expressed interest in The Tarot School. PLEASE DON'T MARK IT AS SPAM. You can unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of this page. If you have trouble reading this issue of Tarot Tips, you may see it and other back issues at http://tarotschool.com/Newsletter.html
![]() Vol. 6 #5 / June 1, 2014
In this Issue: - Welcome
- Tarot Tip: Breathing Fresh Air Into Old Tarot Habits
- Tarot School Aphorism
- What's Gnu?
- Tarot Card Showcase: The Empress
- Best Practices: Buying and Selling Tarot - Lessons and Classes
- Featured Tarot Blog: Ace of Stars Tarot
- Upcoming Events
Welcome to a new issue of Tarot Tips!
And a warm welcome to our new readers. It is good to be back in the saddle with the Tarot Tips
newsletter, bringing practical tips and insights for the
tarot enthusiast. Thanks to all of you who have given us
wonderful feedback on this newsletter! It is great to know
how much you appreciate and value our hard work.
In the last issue the focus was on freshening up your
spreads. In this issue we would like to discuss freshening
up the study of tarot. Some of you have ways you like to
study and practice with the cards that work quite well for
you, while others may be challenged in maintaining the
discipline to practice or even retain what they have learned
about the cards. This issue's tip will help you consider
some interesting ways to revive your tarot study.
We are pleased to feature a blog we think you'll find
interesting. We welcome the Ace of Stars Tarot to our
ongoing lists of tarot blogs. The 'Best Practices column
weighs in on the business of selling tarot.
And one more thing...
We were delighted to see many of you at the recent
sold-out Readers Studio. Thanks to those of you who
blogged and took pictures! Here are a few that we
know about. Please email us at [email protected]
with any we missed!
BLOGS:
PHOTOS:
If you have a Facebook account, these photo
albums are full of friendly faces!
For commercial shots of the banquet,
these photos are fabulous and fun!
FYI: 16 people have already registered for RS15!
You can get on the early-bird payment plan, too
by going to http://ReadersStudio.com Yours truly on the tarot path,
Ruth Ann, Wald & Gina Tarot Tips is here to help you with the practical side of your Tarot journey. In order to take the greatest
advantage of this newsletter, please send us your
questions regarding any aspect of your tarot study
or practice and we'll do our best to answer them
in an upcoming issue.
Spread the experience of tarot - share this newsletter with other Tarot Enthusiasts! Tarot Tip
BREATHING FRESH AIR INTO OLD TAROT HABITS
You may feel it takes discipline to study tarot and to
make it an ongoing daily practice. It may be a daunting
undertaking or even a challenge to learn just 78 card
meanings and interpretations.
Do you ever feel when you take a "break" from tarot
that you are not committed enough to learning, or that
you feel disconnected from your deck or study? There
are no standards or hard rules that say you have to
immerse yourself in daily tarot study. However, deep
immersion in the study of tarot has its own reward for
some practitioners.
While structure and discipline in study are useful,
versatility and freshness are beneficial, too. So how
can you give your study of tarot a breath of fresh air?
Here are some things you can do:
1. Back to Basics. Revisit some of the first books
or old notes from when you were first introduced to
tarot. You may discover things long forgotten or get a
refresher on some things you would like to incorporate
in your readings now.
2. Review. Take stock of what you have learned
recently and over the years. Consider what has worked
for you and what hasn't or what needs more practice
and examination.
3. Overhaul Your Deck Collection. Go through your
decks and separate out the ones you frequently use from
those you hardly use. Worn and tattered ones can
perhaps be replaced. Using the ones you hardly touch is
one of the easiest ways to revive your tarot study.
4. Use Complex Spreads. Try alternatives to spreads
you have already perfected.
5. Global Communities. Join online groups from
around the world and learn tarot from a larger global
perspective. It is fun to see how tarot has such a
global impact!
Tarot School Aphorism ![]() Do you want to be invited?
From time to time, we hold weekend
intensives on specialized topics (we're
planning one on Birth Cards for July).
Seating is very limited, so we usually
fill them from a private invitation list.
Would you like to be on this list?
The intensives are held in Forest Hills,
NY on a Saturday and Sunday from
11am-7pm. We've had students come from
out of state, so it's not essential you live in
the area if you're willing to travel.
These intensives require an investment of time and money ($250 for the
weekend), and are for serious students. That said, if you would like to be
included on the invitation list, send your name, email address and phone
number to [email protected].
Note: Because intensives can fill quickly, sometimes the only way to know
about them is to be on the list. Wald will call you when seats are available.
Tarot Card Showcase
In this section we will feature tidbits on a specific tarot card. While there are many systems and decks to choose from in
the world of tarot, here we use the Universal Waite Tarot
images and symbols.
Copyright 1992 U.S Games.
![]() THE EMPRESS
Traditional Meanings:
Fertility, fruition, proliferation, creativity,
boundless energy. Combinations and
permutations; giving birth to an idea,
a form, or a body. Nurturing and protective,
playful and indulgent, soft and fierce,
loving with equal energy the beautiful
and the ugly, the well- and the mal-formed,
the good and the evil.
Archetypal Interpretation:
Mother, Earth Mother, Isis, Mother Nature, Madonna.
The doorway through which spirit becomes flesh. The
arms of the mother around the child. The nourishment
in earth, the freshness in air, the purity in water, the
energy in fire; the blood in every living thing; the will
to be in every created form.
Protect and nurture, encourage and enliven, help and
sustain all without distinction, as the sun shines and the
rain falls and the earth supports without asking payment
in excellence, beauty or virtue.
Esoteric Attributions:
Name: Empress - the first crowned figure in tarot,
the first to wear the visible symbol of Kether. The
Fool is androgynous, prior to the differentiation of
gender, and wears a wreath and a feather. The Magician
is male and wears the lemniscate and headband. The High
Priestess, the virgin female, wears the spiritual
precursor to a crown, a symbolic headdress. But the
first symbol of rule, the first imperial path,
expressed as feminine sexuality, is the empire of the
Mother.
![]() Key #: 3 (Major #4) - Key 3,
The Empress, finishes the structure
of the Supernal Triad. This is the
abstract triangle of concepts made of
three depths (numbers), and three paths (trumps), on which the solid reality of
manifest creation is modeled.
Hebrew Letter: Daleth - The number 4 in Hebrew.
Daleth means door, a reference to the qualities of its
intelligence and the nature of its path. The door of
The Empress is the threshold between force and form,
between male and female, between the hard and the soft,
between the explosive and the yielding. Opening this
door is what every mother warns her daughter about
when she starts dating.
Function: Wisdom/Folly - The sparkle of The Fool,
from which is everything is made, and the radiance of
Wisdom, the force that makes everything happen. These
two together pass through the door of The Empress.
There they are tamed by the imagination, (one of six
functions of consciousness, the one associated by
esoteric tradition with The Empress) and become all
the names, forms, and changes of the creation that
will emerge from the womb of Understanding.
Astrological Attribution: Venus - The goddess who
arose from the formless energy of the sea. Her beauty
is the essential beauty that can be seen in all things
that arise from the ocean of original force.
Path #: 14 - The experience of the journey between
Wisdom (#2) and Understanding (#3), joining the depth
of Beginning to the depth of End and finishing the
Supernal Triad. This path is the experience of
Imagination. In one direction, from Beginning (#2) to
End (#3), it gives shape to what The Fool has brought
into being and The Magician has brought to life. In
this direction, formless light creates an endless
shadowplay on the wall of infinite darkness.
In the other direction, from End (#3) to Beginning
(#2), the shadowplay is drawn back along the path
from the luminous darkness of created things and is
lost again in formless light.
Intelligence: Luminous - The radiance of wisdom
streams through the door of the imagination and fills
the creation to come with light.
Direction: East - The direction of dawn, the
excitement of beginning. This is the state of things
when the Supernal Triad is completed.
Title: Daughter of the Mighty Ones - of Wisdom
(the Father) and Understanding (the Mother).
Imagery: The Wheat: is sacred to Ceres, a Greek manifestation of
Venus, and also to Isis, the divine mother. The grove
of trees in the background are cypresses, also sacred
to Venus, as are the pearls around her neck. The orb
mounted on a scepter and crossed by the fingers of her
right hand are another symbol for Venus as is the plain
astrological symbol set in the heart beneath her throne.
The roses on her robe as well as the needlework in one
of the pillows supporting her continue this motif.
The Stars in her Crown: represent the signs of the
zodiac. It is also the crown of the Illuminating
Intelligence of Wisdom, linking her to that sephirah.
The Water: flowing downward at the right is the water
from which Venus is born, the continuous process
whereby the pristine consciousness of the High
Priestess flows into and gives rise to all the forms of
The Empress.
Alchemical Symbolism: In Aleister Crowley's
alchemical references, the Magician is mercury, the
Emperor is sulphur and the Empress is salt. Mercury,
Sulphur and Salt are the alchemical elements of
creation. Salt has the qualities of the solid, passive,
and fixed in nature; it balances the volatile element
Sulphur in alchemical processes.
Colors: The color gold of the background is the color
of consciousness. Green is the color of all that lives
and grows, as well as being the color of Venus; white
is the color of purity and spirit; red is the color of
blood and passion and implies the capacity to destroy
as well as create. Red is also the color of Binah in
Atziluth, (Understanding in the world of Emanation--
the 3 of Wands), another reference to the destructive
aspect of the Mother Goddess. The grey of the heart
and the throne is the energy of the unmanifest, reminding
us of the formless divinity at the root of all things.
Excerpted from The Tarot School Correspondence Course http://tarotschool.com/Course.html The Court Cards
The Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings...
The Court Cards are far and away the most complicated,
least understood and simplest-looking cards in the
whole deck. They are what you think they are, but just
barely. They are so multi-layered and serve so many
purposes that the first question in learning about them
is where to begin.
In the continuum of Court Card issues, we need to
choose a place to start and a focus for our attention.
1+1=Tarot is the name that shows us where the glow
of our attention will lie. We will talk about Court Cards
as energies. Court Cards are the energy of cycles, of
sexuality, of elements and of mysteries. 4 Thursdays, June 19, 26, July 3 and 10
9-11pm Eastern Time
Tuition: $95 for the series -- includes .mp3 recordings!
Earns 8 Degree credits for live participation
You'll receive the mp3 recordings even if you can't attend the classes.
Best Practices for Professional Readers
BUYING AND SELLING TAROT: LESSONS & CLASSES
By Gina Thies
From teleclasses, books and recordings to master
classes and coaching, there is no shortage of ways to
study tarot. It is undoubtedly big business and there
is no shortage of supply for those who want to learn.
When I was reviewing information for writing this
segment, I considered the potential end results or
goals of what students of tarot seek to understand and
what are the end results of what we offer as
teachers/mentors. In other words, what do tarot
students need and want to learn, how is the information
effectively delivered, and what might you say in your
marketing content to attract the right students?
There are many approaches to learning tarot and many
unique techniques to extract information for the
querent from the cards and spreads. When you decide
what you want to do with tarot and the best approach,
it becomes apparent that sometimes you need very basic
information and minor details. Sometimes you prefer
richer lessons, theories and other pertinent
information that makes and keeps tarot interesting.
Papa John's Pizza Chain Restaurants uses the tag line
"Better Ingredients. Better Pizza." If you are a
teacher, why not use the best of ingredients to produce
a better than average result. I'd like to think this
could be adopted as a platform in terms of developing
one's students, who eventually are the results of the
quality of the information or lessons imparted and
imbibed. We are creating future tarot readers and we
are creating our own tarot legacies at the same time.
When developing material to teach, or writing content
for advertising/marketing, here are some sample
questions to consider at the outset of developing or
revising your product, class, service, etc.:
1. Who are members of my target audience?
2. What is their experience level with tarot?
3. If I am promising that they can learn tarot in 30
days, will I meet that promise and how?
4. What will be gained from buying/participating in
this class (mentorship, coaching, etc)?
5. How can I under-promise but over-deliver?
6. What are the advantages of learning/studying/
participating with me compared with other teachers?
7. Would they be willing to recommend me as a
teacher? Why?
8. Am I teaching something original or am I recycling
material from another source?
This list can go on and on of course. The main idea is
to get the creative juices flowing as you think about
where you want to take your tarot practice as a reader
and/or teacher. Be sure to check future issues of Tarot
Tips for more articles on Buying and Selling Tarot.
Featured Tarot Blog ACE OF STARS TAROT Intuitive Tarot Guidance by Shonna
Tarot Reader Shonna uses her blog to answer questions
and share insights about tarot. Check out this wonderful
blog written by a very passionate and perceptive tarot
enthusiast.
Upcoming Events:
Tarot Salon Forest Hills, New York
Our popular Monday night Salons are the
hottest thing in tarot instruction!
June 19, 26, July 3 and 10 1+1=TAROT: The Court Cards
a phone # will be provided
Great tarot classes via your favorite phone!
Readers Studio Teleconference -- Free! Come hang out with us on the phone
at our monthly informal get-together.
It's a great chance to catch up with each
other and brainstorm new ideas.
Join our 5,716+ fans and join the fun!
Up to the minute news, mini lessons and more...
Do you have a question or comment on anything tarot?
Suggestions for future topics?
Contact [email protected]
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events and more, go to http://www.TarotSchool.com
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