American Tarot Association

Summer 2012

ATA Quarterly Journal—Summer 2012

Table of Contents

President’s Letter Page 1—The Axis of Hexis: An Interview with Suzanne Treister Page 5—CrowStone Oracle Page 6—Tarot Symbols in the Practice of Vastu Shastra by Janina Renée Page 8—Companion Stones: Sustaining the Message of Your Tarot Readings by Nancy Waterstone Page 11—The Contract: An Interview with Jean Hamilton Fford Page 13—Timeless Classics: “The Esoteric Scene” by Danny Jorgensen, by Sherryl Smith Page 16—Stars & Cards: Tarot-Astro-Almanac for August to October by Elizabeth Hazel

Special Summer Review Section—New Dimensions in Tarot 2012 Page 20—The Hobbit Tarot deck, created by Peter Pracownik and Terry Donaldson Page 21—The Art of Life Tarot deck, created by Charlene Livingstone Page 22—Tarology: The Poetics of Tarot with Enrique Enriquez (DVD) Page 24—The Ghosts and Spirits Tarot deck created by Lisa Hunt Page 25—The Mirror of the Free written by Nicholas Swift Page 26—The Steampunk Tarot deck created by Barbara Moore and Aly Fells Page 28—HEXEN 2.0 created by Suzanne Treister Page 29—The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern Page 30—Learning the Lenormand Cards: A Resource Guide by Donnaleigh de la Rose Page 32—QJ Submission Guidelines End Matter—ATA Contact Information

On the Cover

This issue features the Nine of Wands from HEXEN 2.0 by Suzanne Treister. Images de-picting scientific, socio-political, governmental, and countercultural movements of the twentieth century transform the tarot into a forum for exploring the trends in mass population mind con-

trol, cybernetics, science fiction, and government and military institutions. In this space, "one may imagine and construct possible alternative futures."

The Nine of Wands focuses on the origins of the drug culture and the impact of LSD. The major players in the movement are noted in the psychedelic rainbow—Timothy Leary, Allan

Ginsberg, Abbey Hoffman, Aldous Huxley, Tom Wolfe, and related subjects like the Summer of Love, Acid Rock, Mysticism, and Haight-Asbury. The subtext of this card implies how LSD

can be used to expand the mind, as well as control it.

Cover image is used with the permission of Black Dog Publishing London UK, Hexen2.0 Tarot: by Suzanne Treister. ISBN: 978 1 907317 65 1. Copyright Suzanne Treister, 2012.

President’s Letter

It's that time again! How are you doing? When thinking about this letter, I drew the Six

of Fire from the Gaian Tarot. I see this woman dancing around the campfire as the

quintessential free spirit. She's engaged in the passion of the moment. She is doing

what brings her joy.

Something that brings me joy is the amazing people I get to work with on your Board of

Directors. I'd like to introduce you to last year's Member-at-Large who is now your Vice

President of Education.

Cindy Wilson, also known as Olympias, is VP of Education. Cindy has over 40 years of

experience in reading and teaching Tarot. She believes that Tarot is especially useful in

affirmations of happenings and choices in a person’s life, as well as giving the seeker

preparation time and warning of upcoming situations. The seeker can then plan and

decide how they will react and not being taken unawares. Cindy began reading pro-

fessionally in 1999. She took advantage of the anonymity of online in the 1990s and be-

came known as, “The Reader of Readers” on AOL. Cindy is ranked as a Certified Tarot

Grand Master through the Tarot Certification Board of America. She hosts a weekly

BlogTalk Radio show which in part discusses and demystifies Tarot. Cindy reads at fairs

and conventions throughout the Southwest, from her blogtalk radio show, and privately

by phone.

Cindy is working with our mentoring program. If you want to help others engage in their

passion for Tarot, won't you shoot her an email at vpeducation@ata-tarot.com so you

can get involved? And don't think you can't also ask for a mentor! I know I'm consider-

ing finding a mentor for the Marseille-style decks. I would love to delve into them more.

So what's your passion?

Seek joy, y'all!

Arwen

QJ: Greetings Suzanne! Your new tarot deck is

wildly different from other tarot decks in content.

What inspired you to connect with the tarot this

way?

Suzanne Treister: Well I‟m interested in ways that

things connect. A previous project, HEXEN 2039,

investigated links between the military and the oc-

cult. For a while I‟ve been curious about the tarot

but until recently I hadn‟t investigated its history or

how it operated. For several years though I had

been working with the idea of alchemical drawings.

I made a series of works which transcribed front

pages of international daily newspapers into al-

chemical drawings, as a way of reframing the world

as if animated by strange forces, powers and belief

systems, redeploying the languages and intentions

of alchemy: the transmutation of materials and es-

sences and the revealed understanding of the

world as a text, as a realm of powers and corre-

spondences which, if properly understood, will al-

low man to take on transformative power. So in that

sense making work with and about the tarot was a

natural next step.

QJ: How do you envision people working with or

studying this deck?

ST: I familiarised myself with interpretations for

each of the cards in order to decide which historical

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 1

figure, event or

organisation etc. to

use for each, be-

cause my intention is

for the cards to be used to look at interpretations of

history and for the imagining of possible futures,

rather than for individual personal readings. I think

this is feasible if the reader or a group of readers

working together are prepared, if necessary, to carry

out a little research into some of the subject areas

they may not already be overly familiar with. The

HEXEN 2.0 book is useful in this sense in that it

maps out broad histories connecting together all the

material featured in the cards as well as additional

information on Macy Conferences attendees as well

as some background reading material in the form of

reverse-drawn book covers, more of which are

online on my website. I have tried to put as much

relevant information into each card as possible and I

guess I have a crazy hope that the sorts of ideas

that might come through a traditional interpretation

using a more traditional tarot in a personal reading

might also apply on a more general level with the

HEXEN 2.0 tarot. At the very least I hope the cards

may have an educational function. Having said that I

sat around last night with a couple of London art

world luminaries and at the end of the evening we

got out the cards and did personal readings which,

due to the nature of the cards, ended up being more

about where these people were in terms of possible

“…the Greek word hexis means coherence or cohesion, not just understood as a structural

unity, but the source of all qualities in a body. Thus hexis is defined by producing tensional mo-

tion in a body or across several bodies.” (Lars Bang Larsen, introduction, pp 6-7)

Welcome to the fascinating world of Suzanne Treister, the creator of HEXEN 2.0. This deck is

different than anything you’ve seen before. Make yourself comfortable and let your mind roam

into the clouds of possibility as you read this interview!

conflicts with their personal/

political values, than issues in their

personal/private lives.

QJ: The Tarot is an approximately

500-year old card game that later

became used for divination.

HEXEN 2.0 takes the Tarot in a

new direction. Do you see the pos-

sibility of the tarot being used for

new and innovative applications

besides divination?

ST: Yes, I can see its potential to

be used, as I have mentioned

above, as a means towards a dis-

course on the past, present and

future of the world. Obviously I

haven‟t been able to include the entire universe or

all of human knowledge in the HEXEN 2.0 deck (I

look forward to seeing someone have another go at

that), and I have chosen to focus on selected tra-

jectories of history, but given the nature of the tarot

one could say that a universalism is already inher-

ently implied in the gaps between information pro-

vided, the names of the cards, and their traditional

interpretive texts. I‟m hoping that the cards can pro-

voke unlikely starting points and ways of short-

circuiting preconceptions and ingrained paths of

discussion. The HEXEN 2.0 cards are meant to be

used as a tool, allowing thought to take unexpected

turns and directions and perhaps result in ideas for

„positive‟ action in the world. I know to many people

I will sound like a crazed idealist here.

QJ: In one of the introductory essays in the book,

Lars Bang Larsen describes your placement of

“unwritten genealogies” in an “epistemologically

virgin format.” The theme of HEXEN 2.0 revolves

around the results of the Macy Conferences held in

New York City from 1946-1953. Please explain to

readers why this event is the anchor of HEXEN 2.0,

and what kind of enlightenment can the individual

seek when examining the deck?

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 2

ST: The Macy Conferences, which were

sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foun-

dation in New York, evolved in the after-

math of WWII. They aimed to generate

new connections between engineering,

computing, biology, mathematics, psy-

chology, psychiatry, and all the social

sciences. The Macy Conferences atten-

dees consisted of leading figures of post

-war science and social science, some

of whom had contributed to the con-

struction and use of nuclear weapons,

some of whom went on to carry out CIA

funded military research into the psy-

chological effects of LSD and its poten-

tial as a tool for interrogation and psy-

chological manipulation in such projects

as the CIA's MKULTRA program, and

others who later rejected military funding of their

work.

Macy Conferences attendees were responsible for

the development and dissemination of the idea of

cybernetics, „the science of control and communica-

tion in the animal and the machine, in society and in

individual human beings‟ (Norbert Wiener), as a

model of understanding and controlling the world.

The idea was to avert another world war, and an-

other programme of mass human extermination. But

as with any new scientific theory or invention the

uses of cybernetic ideas have been both positive

and negative and the outcomes are with us now and

ongoing. This in particular is one of the things I had

been thinking about and that I wanted to raise in

HEXEN 2.0 for a broad audience, not just an art

world audience.

Cybernetics is a really hard concept to explain in a

short space because it applies in so many different

ways across numerous disciplines and there is no

single agreed definition, but the American Society

for Cybernetics has a great webpage with diverse

interpretations from a range of scientists. (See:

http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/

definitions.htm)

The main thing to grasp is the idea of a feedback

loop, like that of a thermostat. Information (e.g. the

external temperature) is measured and fed back,

and this feedback affects the running of the ma-

chine (or the person) so that a situation of control

or stabilisation can be achieved. It also applies to

the workings of guided missiles. And then there is

second order cybernetics, where the observer is

included in the loop.

The operation of certain phenomena in our present

culture, for example the internet, can be seen in

terms of cybernetic feedback loops and I am inter-

ested how these feedback loops enable a certain

type of corporate and government control of soci-

ety. I am especially interested in how this is going

to pan out in the future. The future doesn‟t just hap-

pen; obviously to a certain extent we engineer it

according to our actions. Even as non-politicians

we‟re not completely powerless. That‟s why I like to

keep a look out, I don‟t want to live in a control so-

ciety, I don‟t want a corporation or a government to

know where we all are and who our friends are at

any given point, or to be able to lock us out of our

data if/when the only storage available is on the

Cloud or Intercloud. I‟d like to work out how to

avoid that happening. We also need to work out

how to carry out collective action without corporate

tools like Facebook. I think we should all take time

to try and see where we might be headed.

At the same time cybernetics and ideas of feed-

back loops may hold the key to working out alterna-

tive ways forward, possible ways out of impending

global crises perhaps? Some scientists started on

this a while back, for example Stafford Beer, with

his ideas for a factory controlled by the computa-

tional power of the Irish Sea, or for the enrolling of

naturally occurring adaptive systems, such as

ponds, into human projects. In 1948 the ecologist

Evelyn Hutchinson talked about circular causal sys-

tems in ecology. (1)

QJ: You‟ve used a notably occult device to explore

modern strands of human organization. This leads

me to wonder if you feel that the overarching phi-

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 3

losophies of Rationalism and Scientism (drivers of

exploration, science and the economy since the late

1700‟s) are eroding, or failing as a philosophical

foundation for post-industrial development?

ST: As a philosophical foundation for post-industrial

development they are still performing pretty well for

a lot of people, whilst simultaneously leading all of

us into a potentially disastrous situation in terms of

life on and of the planet, while ironically in terms of

the planet, it‟s the scientists who, realistically, if they

can figure it out in time, might be the only ones ca-

pable of finding the solution to it all. In terms of the

erosion of belief in those structures, I don‟t see this

as a particularly recent phenomenon. Many writers,

thinkers and communities have long advocated a

differently balanced approach to life, but for people

in control, people at the top, it is an understatement

to say that this is usually unworkable, unprofitable

and undesirable. On the other hand, the US military

have flirted with ideas of the occult for some time

but I think they may have given up on it.

QJ: HEXEN 2.0 presents a range of obscured facts,

organizations and individuals that may lead to the

awareness of new truths. Do you perceive new cul-

tural and philosophical paradigms emerging from

the strife and convulsions of the past few decades?

ST: I get concerned that many people are retreating

into a kind of retro fetishism; often tokenistic re-

enactments of aspects of the 1960s and 70s which

may make them feel better but aren‟t necessarily

helping out on a larger scale. It‟s easy enough to

grow your own vegetables, for example, if you can

afford a place with a garden or a plot of land. Indus-

trialisation may have caused a lot of problems but

technology isn‟t going to go backwards unless there

is a global apocalypse and all the data warehouses

are switched off and all the military research insti-

tutes are shut down. That would be one solution

though, which is explored by members of various

movements such as the Anarcho-Primitivists.

In 1993 the psychologist James Hillman wrote a

book called, „We've Had a Hun-

dred Years of Psychotherapy

and the World's Getting Worse’.

It would be sad to think that in

100 years time the same could

be said of the way people collect

endless reusable cloth carrier

bags. Clearly that is not going to

solve any of the global financial,

ecological or social messes we

are in. There are new cultural

and philosophical paradigms be-

ing thought up out there, I‟m just

not sure they‟re workable, but

here and there people are trying

to do stuff. Clearly we don‟t want

a new totalitarian system, so

things have to happen on other

levels. I know some people who

have been working on a few

ideas for a while and I‟ve invited

three of them over to London this summer to talk at

a series of public events.

QJ: Has the progress of Western socio-political

decision-making since the Macy Conferences

served to help society while failing the individual?

ST: That‟s a huge question. There are many differ-

ent types of individual at various levels of empow-

erment and it‟s not possible for me to generalise.

So many things have changed since then on many

levels. You can start by asking who are the kinds of

people that want to help society and who are the

kinds of people that want to help individuals, and

what might their agendas be. Then you can ana-

lyse all of the political systems and government

directives and social welfare, cultural, military, agri-

cultural and educational agendas and methodolo-

gies that have arisen all over the Western world

since WW2 and see where you get to. HEXEN 2.0

might provide a possible starting point for that kind

of investigation.

I just saw a write up about the HEXEN 2.0 deck on

„the tarot room‟ site http://thetarotroom.com/page/2/

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 4

where the writer says, “I‟ve been

using it to ask questions about

the political, social, and eco-

nomic situations we‟re facing to-

day and have come up with

some truly remarkable readings.”

QJ: Do you have any public

events, gallery exhibits, or art

shows in the near future?

ST: Some of the works from

HEXEN 2.0 will be in a show

called Mutatis Mutandis, curated

by Catherine David at the Seces-

sion in Vienna from 29th June 29

until 2nd September 2012, and

from July 28th I have organised a

series of events and exhibits

over four consecutive weekends

at Raven Row, an art space in

London. The title of the project is „THE REAL

TRUTH A WORLD’S FAIR’, and more info can be

found at: www.ravenrow.org nearer the time. In

January-February 2013 HEXEN 2.0 will be showing

at P.P.O.W gallery in New York.

QJ: Suzanne – it‟s been a real treat. Thank you very

much for giving this interview.

Artist Bio—Suzanne Treister

was born in 1958 in London. Initially recognized in the 1980s

as a painter, she became a pioneer in the digital/new media/

web based field from the beginning of the 1990s. Treister has

since evolved a large body of work that encompasses drawing,

video, installation and photography. Her practice engages with

eccentric narratives and unconventional bodies of research to

reveal the structures that bind power, identity and knowledge.

Often spanning several years, her projects comprise fantastic

reinterpretations of given taxonomies that suggest the existence

of surreptitious, unseen forces at work in the world, whether

corporate, military or paranormal.

URLS:

http://www.suzannetreister.net/

http://www.suzannetreister.net/HEXEN2/

HEXEN_2.html

Notes:

(1.) "The aspects of ecology to be considered re-

gard primarily the study of the conditions under

which groups of organisms exist. Such groups may

be acted upon by their environment, and they may

react upon it. If a set of properties in either system

changes in such a way that the action of the first

system on the second changes, this may cause

changes in properties of the second system which

alter the mode of action of the second system on

the first. Circular causal paths can be established

in this manner."

HUTCHINSON GE (1948) Circular causal systems

in ecology. Annals of the New York Academy of

Sciences 50: 221-246.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 5

The Crow Stone Oracle

Here‘s something new for diviners who like oracle tools that are solid and tangible: The Crow Stone Oracle by Robyn Tisch Hollister

Each set is handmade, featuring a symbol and number painted on glass stones. You get a sense that Robyn put a lot of thought and effort into this creation.

This oracle is based on old ‗crow counting‘ rhymes. There are many versions of this old poem, including one for magpies. The poem goes:

One is a message, two is mirth. Three is a union, four is a birth. Five is for riches, six is a thief. Seven’s a journey, eight is a grief. Nine is a secret, ten is a sorrow. Eleven is for love, twelve is joy tomorrow. Thirteen is bad luck, fourteen is danger. Fifteen is a change of luck, sixteen is a stranger. Seventeen is for adventure; eighteen is love that’s new. Nineteen is fame and honour; twenty is a wish that comes true.

Each number is translated to a stone that contains a symbol – 9 is Secret and shows a locked chest and key, 15 is Change of Luck and shows a horseshow and four leafed clover. An additional stone, showing a crow, is included which can represent the querent, or the un-known.

Robyn does three versions: black, white, and ruby. The stones are small, come in a little pouch with an in-struction booklet.

Available at: http://tarotgoodies.webs.com/apps/webstore/

Tarot Symbols in the

Practice of Vastu Shastra by Janina Renée

In the previous issue, we looked at ways that tarot im-

agery can be utilized in the Feng Shui practice of placing

symbolic images in different sections of a home to activate

different types of good fortune. Vastu Shastra, (also called

Vastu Vidya), is the Indian counterpart of Feng Shui, and

is similar in its concern with the strategic placement of

auspicious images. Here, too, we can think about utilizing

tarot cards, as in Vastu and larger Hindic practice, sym-

bolic designs called yantras are placed on different walls

or in different rooms to evoke the energies of the ele-

ments, gods, and planets associated with their sectors.

Yantras may feature geometric designs, magic squares,

and Sanskrit letters; god images and religious icons are also

worked into yantric imagery. The Ashtamatrika [eight

mothers] Yantra (below) invokes aspects of the goddess

Durga for protection.

There actually is a deck of 64 cards called The Yantra

Deck by Karl Schaff-

ner and Maya Deva

Adjani. Though not

specifically oriented to

Vastu Shastra, it in-

cludes a few of the tra-

ditional yantras, as well

as an assortment of

other designs, coming

out of the creators‘ in-

dividual takes on sym-

bolism. The art is

beautiful, with a color

scheme that blends

metallic and earth

tones. The cards also

have single keyword

labels, though some users may find this confining. Square

shapes are favored in Vastu Shastra, so the Yantra Deck‘s

4 x 4-inch cards work well for meditation and display.

Other oracle decks based on sacred geometry, such as the

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 6

Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck by Francene Hart and the

Sacred Geometry Oracle by John Michael Greer, bring in

a few of the Vedic yantras. I am not aware of any tarot

decks that incorporate Vastu Shastra yantras or concepts,

but some tarot and oracle decks inspired by world religions

include some Hindu god images.

As indicated in the adjoining grid diagram, Vastu Shastra

links different sectors with planets and elements, so any

tarot cards or other sorts of cards with planetary or elemen-

tal images or associations suggest themselves here.

So, the Sun card is an obvious choice for an eastern wall,

and the Moon could be placed in the northwest. Because

the northwest relates both to the Moon and elemental Air

as represented by Vayu, the wind god, it is concerned with

movement and the forces of change; you might want to

place the Moon card in this quarter when you want to

stimulate movement or change, or when circumstances re-

quire you to move with the forces of change. Note, how-

ever, that the Moon card can sometimes have negative con-

notations and imagery, so you would want to choose a ver-

sion of the Moon that feels positive for you (or the High

Priestess card), in line with what you want to achieve. A

Moon card with an especially ―airy‖ illustration would be

ideal. For example, in Corrinne Kenner‘s Wizards’ Tarot,

where the Major Arcana are portrayed as professors at a

Ashtamatrika Yantra

(The image source is http://

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/

File:Ashtamatrika_yantra.jpg.)

NORTH-WEST

Adapting to change,

health & longevity

through self-control.

Business matters. Moon-

Chandra and Air, wind

god Vayu

(18)

NORTH

Mental/physical strength,

prosperity through com-

munication and com-

merce, protection of

valuables, female chil-

dren. Kubera, god of

wealth, and Mercury,

Water

NORTH-EAST

Religious devotion,

husband, male children,

success through rela-

tionship with mentor.

Vishnu, Shiva, Soma,

Ketu (South Node),

Jupiter/Guru, Water

WEST

Rain after drought

Relief, prosperity, bless-

ings

Saturn/Air

Rain god Varuna

CENTER

Unity, Brahamastahana

Survey situation

Self as cosmos

Pranic energy, ether

EAST

Awareness, life plan,

wealth and pleasure

through intellectual

determination, male

children. Surya/Sun, fire,

Indra, Aditya

SOUTH-WEST

Karmic responsibility,

ancestors, ancestral

challenges, strength of

character through purity;

protective measures.

Nirriti, Durga, Uranus,

Earth, Rahu (North Node)

SOUTH

High energy and intensity

of feeling.

Mars/Mangal,

Yama

Earth

SOUTH-EAST

Husband and wife,

energy and passion,

physicality, physical

comforts. Venus/Shukra,

Agni, Fire

(30)

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 7

magical academy, The

Moon is the professor

of lunar magic, and

shows a woman doing a

dance of invocation.

(Note that Vastu corre-

spondences differ from

those of western astro-

logical lore, where, for

example, we associate

the Moon with water.

This challenges us to

think of correspon-

dences in ways that

provoke new insights.)

In addition to the obvi-

ous planetary cards like

the Sun and Moon, the

other Major Arcana can also have planetary associations,

whether through their archetypal symbolism, or through

correspondences that have been assigned to them by dif-

ferent systems like the Golden Dawn attributions. The

archetype of the Hierophant encompasses some of the

astrological qualities of the planet Jupiter, in terms of be-

ing an ideal mentor, concerned with high ideals and the

cultivation of the mind. As Vastu associates the north with

both the planet Jupiter (called ―Guru‖) and with mentor-

ing, place the Hierophant in this quarter when you want to

attract the right teacher, especially a spiritual teacher, into

your life. In the Golden Dawn system, the Jupiter card is

The Wheel, so you could place the Wheel accordingly.

In the previous issue, we looked at the Lo Shu, a magic

square that adds up to 15 and is used in Feng Shui as a

representation of the idealized cosmos. Vastu Shastra uses

nine magic squares called the ―navrahas‖ to evoke the di-

rectional planetary rulers. The navraha that corresponds

to the basic Lo Shu, and in western magic the Kamea of

Saturn, is also attributed to Saturn and the West. A differ-

ent arrangement of the numbers in this square is applied

to the Sun and the East. The other navrahas add up to

different numbers. Of particular interest is the Moon‘s,

Chandra Yantra, which adds to 18, the number of The

Moon in tarot, and the Venus Yantra, which adds to 30,

and therefore to ―3,‖ the number of the Empress, who has

many Venus qualities.

None of the Navraha squares utilize numbers above 21,

so they can all be materially reproduced as magic squares

with different groupings of tarot cards. The southwest is

considered the best sector for the master bedroom, but not

auspicious for general purposes. To balance the energies of

the southwest, and to attract and evoke ancestral energies

and blessings, you could place cards 13, 8, and 15 as the

first row; followed by 14, 12, and 10; then 9, 16, and 11 on

your southwest wall to reproduce the Rahu yantra. (Rahu,

the north node of the Moon, is the ruler of the southwest

in Vedic astrology.) Because the Rahu magic square adds

up to 36, and 3 + 6 = 9 in magical numerology, you could

display The Hermit card. In this context, the Hermit could

designate a room where one can contemplate in peaceful

inward reflection and communion with ancestral wisdom

figures.

Because Vastu and its yantras are part of a larger cultural

collection of rituals and lore for bringing auspicious ener-

gies into homes and buildings, Indian folkways can inspire

other uses for tarot imagery. For example, the front door,

which has great ceremonial significance in Indian life, is

known as ―the lion door.‖ This suggests putting a version

of the Strength card featuring a lion on your front door.

This would be all the more meaningful if your front door

happens to face northeast, which is the direction of

strength.

Aside from the amuletic uses, when we think seriously

about how we want to use tarot and other magical imagery

in our homes, we think more deeply about how we interact

with and experience our living spaces. This, in turn, gener-

ates new insights into our understanding of tarot imagery

and how it plays out in our lives.

Author Bio

Janina Renée is a scholar of folklore, psychology, medical anthropol-

ogy, the material culture of magic, ritual studies, history, and litera-

ture. Her books include Tarot Spells, Tarot Your Everyday Guide

(winner of 2001 COVR [Coalition of Visionary Retailers] award for

best Self Help book), Tarot for a New Generation (2002 COVR

winner, best General Interest Title), and By Candlelight: Rites for

Celebration, Blessing and Prayer (2005 COVR runner-up, Spiritual-

ity). Janina continues to work on multiple books, with ongoing re-

search projects exploring the ways folk magic and medicinal tech-

niques can apply to modern problems, including the modulation of

Asperger’s Syndrome and other neuro-sensory processing disorders.

Janina offers regular tips on tarot magic and discovery at http://

TarotMagicAdventures.blogspot.com.

The Moon from the Wizard’s Tarot

By Nancy Waterstone

As Tarot readers, we want our clients to walk away from a

reading with new insight to heal, to grow, or to take action

to redirect their lives toward their dreams. But as time

passes, the same individuals who walked out our door with

newfound resolve begin to drift into old patterns as mindful-

ness of the reading’s message fades. How helpful would it

be to send them off with a companion, to be constantly with

them, to remind, support, and nudge them toward their

goal? Stone Companions are an ideal tool for this purpose.

Throughout history, stones have been used as talismans for

luck and protection, intuitive guidance and divination, and

for healing of emotional and physical ailments. Crystals and

stones are finding increasing application in the healing arts

as modern-day practitioners acknowledge the wisdom of the

ancient healers. These qualities of healing and guidance can

be used to supplement the power of the Tarot’s message.

How does this work? Stones interact with humans through

energy fields which resonate with the human aura and en-

ergy meridians. This energy works in multiple forms, via the

mineral’s crystal lattice structure, the chemical properties

contained within the minerals, and reflected light in the form

of color.

In addition to these properties, belief and mindfulness of

purpose are essential to the successful use of stones. Used in

combination with the Tarot, stones provide a focal point for

the “mindfulness” needed to act on the Tarot’s message.

What is left to you, the Tarot reader, is to select an appropri-

ate stone to reinforce the message of the reading.

In our context here, “stone” is a general term that includes a

pure mineral, a combination of minerals contained in a single

stone, a gemstone, or what some might call “just a rock”.

For application as Companion Stones, I have found tumbled

stones to particularly useful, as they are easily carried close

to the body, unobtrusively, in a pocket or charm bag. Jew-

elry made from the recommended stones can also be worn.

Most Companion Stones fall under the category of “semi-

precious stones”. Unlike many gemstones, these are usually

quite affordable, yet can be of great beauty while they give

the desired mineral presence.

So, how do we select the appropriate stone from a Tarot read-

ing? As with all things Tarot, here is where our intuitive guid-

ance comes in. Not all readings indicate use of a Companion

Stone. Yes/no questions or other “specifics” of that type are

not usually receptive to the influences of Companion Stones.

Readings in which the crucial message can be described as

“your mission is to….”, or which result in an affirmation for

personal growth, are the ones best suited to Companion

Stones. In these types of readings, both the client’s question

and the primary message of the reading suggest a change in

behavior, a new way of thinking, or a new focus in one’s life.

The Companion Stone is a supportive friend in that mission.

As the central message emerges, the reader can then select a

stone that will be supportive to your client’s “mission”. I keep

on hand several stones of each kind that I work with, and once

the needed stone is identified, I encourage clients to choose

the one that most attracts them. Together, ask for the stone’s

blessing and support as a companion for the mission at hand.

If you are not already working with stones, you will need to do

a bit of homework to learn about minerals, crystals, and their

related properties. You can begin working with a limited se-

lection that you are comfortable with, and build your collec-

tion and knowledge from there. The stones you chose to work

with will be those which resonate with your own perception

about what they can do, which you will develop as you handle

them, meditate on them, and live with them. By using com-

panion stones yourself for your own “missions”, you will learn

much about their subtle power.

As a beginning, there are many resources which describe

stones for healing and personal transformation. The Informa-

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 8

tion Resources listed above include several that I refer to

frequently. More information is also available on the inter-

net. Be warned – the myriad sources on the market will often

differ and sometimes conflict in the properties they attribute

to the various stones. It will be up to you to determine which

stones best address which circumstances, using your own

study and meditative insights. However, there are a number

of stones whose properties are well-documented by history

and by their consistent use across different cultures. These

are a good place to start. The list of Companion Stones on

the next page includes a few of the more well-documented

stones, along with very brief descriptions of their traditional

properties.

The following single-card reading gives an example of a tarot

message which indicates a Companion Stone. The client’s

question was, “Can you give me some insight into finding a

loving relationship?” She had been emotionally isolated for

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 9

some time after the painful ending of a relationship. Using the

Gaian Tarot deck, the card which appeared was the Three of

Earth, in the reversed position. The card shows three women

in a country-style kitchen, working together on what appear

to be herbal preparations. They are smiling together and

clearly enjoying their companionship and their task. Working

on the traditional significance of this card of craftsmanship,

partnership, and working together with others to achieve suc-

cess, combined with the women in the card “stirring up some-

thing good”, the key message was that the client should over-

come her current hesitation (the card was reversed) to de-

velop relationships through interaction and cooperation with

others, at work and elsewhere. Thus her mission was to break

out of her isolation, get back into life and interact.

This message suggested use of a Companion Stone which

would support her resolution to get past her previous relation-

ship and open up to new people and experiences. The recom-

mended Companion Stone was Chrysoprase, a green variety

of Chalcedony. Along with its other properties, Chrysoprase is

a stone that is believed to be helpful in healing a broken heart,

giving optimism, creating new opportunities, and most im-

portant to this client, giving the impetus to get back into the

mainstream of life following a period of despair. This stone is

a translucent apple-green, often with chocolaty-brown

patches, and can be quite beautiful either by itself or worn as

a pendant.

As you develop your work with Companion Stones, you will

develop favorites for application to various situations: rose

quartz to gently attract love, hematite to bolster self-esteem,

moonstone to enhance intuitive abilities. However, do not get

in a rut! As you work with the stones you will begin to under-

stand more about their subtle properties. As your knowledge

expands, you will find that more than one stone applies to, for

example, “mending a broken heart”. But you will want to

choose the stone that best fits the combination of situation,

personality of the client, and the client’s mission. If more than

one stone can be rec-

ommended, let the

client chose from the

possibilities. The at-

traction a client may

have to a particular

stone is another

method for choosing

the best stone for that

person, for that mis-

Information Resources Crystal Power, Crystal Healing, by Michael Gienger – This book takes a more scientific approach to stones than most others, with specific information on crystal struc-ture, properties of elements, and systematically selecting an appropriate stone. The Illustrated Directory of Healing Crystals, by Cassan-dra Eason - Packed with information, this book includes good descriptions of the stones, mythology and history, and associations with planets, zodiac signs, elements, and more. The Crystal Healer, by Philip Permutt – Descriptive information is brief, but the book includes very handy indexes for crystal remedies for physical, emotional, and spiritual ailments. Gems of Wisdom, Gems of Power, by Teresa Kennedy – An excellent guide which examines the most important stones, grouped by ―mission‖; protection, creativity, emo-tional healing, etc. Includes down to earth information on history, and tips to avoid fakes. Love is In the Earth, by Melody – This is a popular and comprehensive series, which altogether seems to cover every rock, mineral and stone under the sun. If you prefer a purely metaphysical approach, this is the one to look for. I find its usefulness is limited for selecting compan-ion stones, since there is no indexing by stone properties. It lists stones only by mineral name.

sion, at that time.

If you find resonance with stones yourself, then Companion

Stones can easily find a place in your “tarot toolbox”. Let the

tarot guide you as to the most important mission for your

clients, and then send them off with a gentle companion that

will give them focus and courage on their path!

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 10

Author Bio

Nancy Waterstone has worked for over 30 years as a pro-

fessional geologist, helping humans to live in harmony

with the geologic processes of Mother Earth and to repair

scars of the past. In her 10 years as a Tarot reader and

intuitive consultant, she has incorporated the use of Com-

panion Stones for transformation, growth, and well-

being. To learn more about Companion Stones, log on to

www.daughterofstones.com.

Popular Companion Stones Crystalline Quartz: The most omnipotent of heal-ing stones, it applies energy and healing to wher-ever it is needed most. Rose Quartz: Gently draws love to its holder. Fosters unconditional love and helps forgive the past. Obsidian: Protects the holder from hostility and negative emotions of others. Eases the grieving process and lifts depression after loss. Tiger Eye: Promotes clarity of vision, both physi-cally and mentally. Helps dispel illusions to help with sound decision-making. Rainbow Fluorite: A calming stone, it is good for focusing the mind to deal with complex issues. Amethyst: Historically the ―sobriety stone‖, it enhances spiritual and intuitive awareness.

Here‟s an interview with Jean Hamilton-Fford, a novelist who‟s creating a unique tarot deck to accompany her novel in progress. QJ: I understand you are writing a novel based on the tarot and that you are creat-ing a tarot deck to accompany the book. What prompted you to do this?

JHF: The prompt for this pro-ject came from a dream. I have vivid dreams that show me exactly what I need to know for whatever project on which I may be working. My dreams also answer ques-tions or problems I may be having. QJ: Did you know anything about tarot before this dream?

JHF: I began researching tarot this year in March. I knew I‟d have to learn everything I could about it to write credibly and to create a deck. The more I discov-ered, it became apparent that the tarot includes all kinds of alternative fields. QJ: Have you written anything before this novel? JHF: My husband and I have written several works of fiction. My love is murder mysteries. This book will be a little different as it will be written as a combination of novel and screenplay. That is how it has come to me and I will honor that unusual format. QJ: Can you tell us how tarot will be used with the book?

JHF: The title of the book is The Contract. The accompa-nying tarot deck will directly impact on the story. The subtitle of the book is, “an agreement that will change

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 11

your life - FOREVER!” This had a big impact on me because, as a reader, you inherently understand how the tarot can be used and how powerful it can be. You make an intuitive and spiri-tual contract with any deck you use. Querents connect with tarot readers, rightly or wrongly, to change his or her life. People look for answers to questions and either want the cards to tell them what is already known or to get permission to make a different choice and „see‟ some-thing they haven‟t seen for themselves. The Querent makes an unstated contract with the reader and the deck when they have a reading. Tarot becomes, in a sense, an agreement that will change one‟s life - FOREVER! To tell you more about the book, at this point, will be giv-

ing too much of it away. It is a spiritual mystery in one sense, a how-to and a whodunnit, in another sense. It is flippant and serious. It is possibility thinking and limita-tion breaking. QJ: How have you learned what you need to proceed with this project?

JHF: I‟d like to say it‟s magic and it probably is to some extent. I‟ve known about astrology since I was a pre-teen as my older sister was an astrologer. I grew up on a farm where Mother Nature taught me loads of things. I was doing energy work then. My mother encouraged me and I was raised with “possibility thinking.” I was introduced to different religions and, as the youngest of six, my older siblings shared their own discoveries. I was and am quite precocious and I have always known that I can do any-thing if I choose to do it. I joined some online groups with the hope I could learn through them and I have, a bit. But they are not running on my timeline and when you do join in, the methods used are a bit chaotic and the class sizes are too big. So, I began researching everything I could myself using books and online sources. I bought tarot and Lenormand decks and found the Thoth Tarot to be my cup of tea. QJ: The Major Arcana cards have verses on them. JHF: Yes, that was deliberate. Learning tarot is challeng-ing, and the verses on the Lenormand cards are helpful. I wanted to make a deck that not only had symbolic im-agery but also had some help given in the words, espe-cially the Major Arcana. I‟ve renamed some of the trumps, court cards and the suits to support the novel. QJ: You‟re using digital art rather than drawing or paint-ing them yourself. Why did you make that decision?

JHF: I made that decision because of health issues. My hands are slowly losing the ability to grip a pencil or a paint brush. I use digi-tal art and digital software with a rather thick stylus to create the art on the cards. It is all stock images or free images I find on the web and I have been known to create my own digital im-ages as well, if needed. QJ: So you‟re creating the deck, and once that‟s com-

plete, you‟ll write the book. How will you use these cards in the book? JHF: Each card represents a character in the book. The contract is how they use the card they are given as they interface with every other character and how they learn what they need to in order to complete the contract. The contract challenges each character to deal with and face the light and shadow side of themselves with respect to every other character. How this is accomplished and how people‟s lives change forever is the goal of the book. It is being written to show others how tarot and semiotics can be used every day to change our lives for the better. The cards will inform the book as the interac-tions take place. QJ: Seventy-eight characters will take a lot of writing. Will this all take place in one book? JHF: I don‟t know. I can‟t answer that now. I am being led by Spirit and following my intuition. I‟ll know more as it proceeds and gets under way. I hope to be able to do a follow-up interview in six to nine months. QJ: Do you already have a publisher?

JHF: No. I‟m not concerned with that at the moment. I‟ve been given assurances that a publisher will come forward when I‟m ready. I am trusting this will happen. I don‟t know how or when. I just know it will. QJ: Do you have anything else for us right now? JHF: You asked me about using Tarot cards as writing prompts. I‟m sure it will come as no surprise to you or your readers that every Tarot card has a story to tell and no two decks tell exactly the story in the same way.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 12

My blog, Journey through

Tarot, helps viewers under-stand my use of elements in the cards and tells the story of their creation. I‟m cognisant that I tell only part of the story there. I encourage read-ers to look at the card and tell their own story with it. What do they see or how would they interpret it? This is the way cards are used when reading and, unless you are the creator, it is difficult to fully know what the card is about. I give viewers an op-

portunity to interface if they choose it and to begin a dia-logue. References for my know-ledgebase are varied. The books I have handy to use are Lon Milo DuQuette‟s Under-standing Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, Anthony Louis‟ Tarot Plain and Simple, Marcus Katz Tarosophy, Janet Ber-enson-Perkins‟ Kabbalah De-coder, Max Heindel‟s Cosmo

Conception and various refer-ences online dealing with tarot, runes, gemstones, crys-tals, virtues, colour, numerol-ogy, astrology, animal meanings and semiotics. If I have a question that I cannot find the answer to, I let it go, sleep on it and am usually directed to the information I need. Beyond this, I am an artist and have my artwork on dis-play at Fine Art America (http://jean.hamiltonfford.artistwebsites.com). There‟s a Face-book page for my art (http://www.facebook.com/jean.hamiltonfford.artist), and a Facebook page for The Contract (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Contract/401324033221501). My husband and I have written 14 books together and have published eight of them through Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jjhf). Jean Hamilton-Fford Email: journeythroughtarot@gmail.com Blog: http://journeythroughtarot.com

Timeless Classics

The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu, and

Occult Tarot by Danny L. Jorgensen

By Sherryl Smith

In the mid-1970s, Danny Jorgensen moved to a

city in the southwestern United States where he lec-

tured at the university and became a tarot reader in

order to gather material for his PhD dissertation on

the esoteric scene, a subculture of Americans who

claim to receive knowledge from non-empirical

sources. He assumed he'd have to join a secretive cult

of deluded outsiders. Instead, he found a large pool of

well educated, middle-class people practicing various

healing and divinatory arts while enjoying a complex

and fluid social network of loosely organized study

groups, book stores and psychic fairs, which Jorgen-

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 13

sen called the cultic

milieu.

The first 100 pages

of the book were writ-

ten for Jorgensen's fel-

low sociologists. He

explains his research

methods then gives a

fascinating and de-

tailed description of

the demographics and

social structure of what

we would call the "New

Age" scene in his uni-

versity town. He then

switches to a more conversational and autobiographi-

cal tone to talk about his adventures as a tarot reader,

being mentored by a prominent member of the commu-

nity, participating in psychic fairs, and getting em-

broiled in the personality conflicts and political feuds

of the community.

Breaking into the esoteric scene wasn't easy in the

mid-70s since there was still a confrontational attitude

between establishment and counter-culture lifestyles,

with a lot of misunderstanding and stereotyping on

both sides. Jorgensen spent much time hanging out at

metaphysical bookstores, asking questions, and acquir-

ing a reputation as a serious seeker. A graduate stu-

dent who was a witch and tarot reader befriended

Jorgensen and his wife. Jorgensen's wife had a natural

talent for reading tarot and became a professional

reader and teacher within a year. Jorgensen decided to

take up the tarot as well, and use his identity as a seri-

ous student to gain entrée into the inner circle of the

esoteric subculture.

By the mid-1970s, the younger generation of tarot

readers saw themselves doing counseling and empow-

erment work, and were very anxious to distance them-

selves from gypsy fortune-tellers. Their greatest frus-

trations were clients who refused to take responsibility

for their lives, and clients who did not participate in

the reading but remained passive listeners. Jorgensen

never enjoyed doing readings. He was conflicted be-

tween his roles as researcher and practitioner; and

often felt like a fraud. But he felt an affinity for the

scholarly study of occult Tarot and devoted 100 pages

of the book to this topic.

He asserts that occult tarot is a socially con-

structed human text; an occult language with a gram-

mar and vocabulary. When you interpret a spread you

are reading the text. He provides an elementary dic-

tionary of meanings for the 78 cards drawn from A. E.

Waite, Alfred Douglas and Stuart Kaplan, whom he

considered representatives of mainstream tarot. He

says Tarot makes certain assumptions about the hu-

man condition: that there are such things as creativ-

ity, spirituality, love, economic activity, a quest for

meaning, moral choices, divine guidance, and an in-

terplay of opposites such as masculine and feminine

or life and death.

Grammar organizes these meanings. Numerical

order is a basic grammar. Other grammatical struc-

tures are alchemy and the four elements, astrology,

Kabala and the Tree of Life, and Jungian archetypes.

The Golden Dawn created a very complex grammar

from a synthesis of several basic grammars.

Jorgensen focused his research on discovering how

readers and querents use tarot to acquire the sense

that they have an extraordinary knowledge of reality,

and how they maintain the sense of participating in

non-ordinary reality. He defines a tarot reading as "a

social interactional process whereby a reader inter-

prets past, present and future events commonly for a

querent through the medium of the cards. The quer-

ent must participate in this interaction and engage in

interpretation in order to sustain a sense of having

accomplished extraordinary knowledge."

Jorgensen adamantly states that a reading can

only be valid if the querent actively colludes with the

reader in creating meaning. His research focused on

the social interaction between reader and querent

where meanings are created and claims to extraordi-

nary knowledge are sustained. He concluded that

tarot readings are only successful when done for peo-

ple who already believe in the validity of non-ordinary

reality, who assume divination is an acceptable way

to make decisions, and who can suspend their mun-

dane, scientific world view for the duration of the

reading. The reading will be meaningless to someone

who does not share these assumptions. One-sided

readings, such as an email reading, a reading for

someone who receives it passively, or even a reading

for oneself, are not valid readings. The ideal client is

a stranger who shares the reader's assumptions about

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 14

non-ordinary reality and who already knows how to

interact during a reading to extract meaning from the

procedure. The sense of having acquired extraordinary

knowledge is enhanced when the querent's personal

story is unknown to the reader, yet a meaningful mes-

sage is discovered in the spread.

Jorgensen recorded and transcribed 20 tarot read-

ings to analyze the nature of the social interaction be-

tween reader and querent, which he calls a "divinatory

performance". He discovered a basic structure most

readings follow and created an archetypal script for

the interaction.

He only gives us one transcription, a reading done

by a 60-year-old woman who was considered one of the

city's best readers, for a client who was an experienced

reader herself. If this is an example of an optimal read-

ing, we've come a long way in 35 years. The reading

was repetitious, one-sided, delivered in an arrogant,

know-it-all tone, and bordered on fortune telling.

According to Jorgensen's archetypal script, the typi-

cal reading starts with preliminary small talk where

the reader manages his/her presentation, and estab-

lishes that the reading is an interaction between an

expert who will demonstrate something extraordinary

and a subordinate who his seeking help; just as a doc-

tor or professor will establish their authority with a

patient or student. Next, the reader explains his meth-

ods and techniques. This marks the boundary between

ordinary and non-ordinary worlds. The consciousness

of both participants shifts to a heightened awareness

that transcends linear time. Doubts about the validity

of divination are suspended in favor of a magical state

of mind. There's a

shared assumption that

the querent has a prob-

lem to be solved; and if

the querent doesn't

state the problem, the

reader must find the

problem in the cards.

An interchange fol-

lows where reader and

querent alternate mak-

ing statements or ques-

tions about facts then

providing an interpre-

tation. A meaning is negotiated between reader and

querent which is then considered factual and inherent

in the reading from the start. They share a tacit

agreement that the process is meaningful, not defec-

tive or absurd, even if they have difficulty finding the

meaning in the spread. It's assumed the querent will

finish by supplying the ultimate meaning and final

message of the spread.

Here is my distillation of a model interchange dur-

ing a divinatory performance:

Reader: This seems to be about an older red-haired

woman. (A tentative statement of facts.)

Querent: My older sister has red hair, but so does my

favorite aunt. (Either a confirmation or denial of the

facts, or a request for clarification.)

Reader: This woman is artistic and loves the out-

doors. (More tentative facts.)

Querent: That must be my sister. (The reader and

querent negotiate what the reading is about, then

pretend it's been about the red-headed sister from the

beginning.)

Reader: The Devil card tells me she's had long-

standing troubles. (Building on the previous facts and

searching for meaning – why is the sister in this read-

ing?)

Querent: She's been unhappy for a long time. I think

her husband beats her. (Repeats the reader's state-

ment and offers personal information that makes the

foregoing meaningful in the context of her life.)

Reader: She seems to be reaching out to you for help.

(Further negotiating the reading's message.)

Querent: She's been begging me to visit her. I think

I'll use my vacation to go out there and see what I can

do for her instead of going on a cruise. (The querent

declares the meaning of the reading and brings it to a

successful conclusion.)

In a typical reading, the reader and querent go

back and forth, negotiating the meaning of the cards

and never breaking the magical mind-set. Like a good

therapy session, the reading is successfully concluded

when the querent experiences a shift and is able to

identify the meaning negotiated during the interac-

tion.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 15

This hard bound book is a monograph in the series

Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups produced

under the auspices of J. Gordon Melton and the Insti-

tute for the Study of American Religions at the Univer-

sity of California, Santa Barbara. The book is rare and

expensive, but is a unique scholarly study that exam-

ines the nature of tarot reading, the shared assump-

tions that make a meaningful tarot reading possible,

and the kinds of social structures created by people

who believe in metaphysical realities.

Jorgensen, Danny L. The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Mi-

lieu, and Occult Tarot. New York: Garland Publishing,

Inc., 1992.

List of Illustrations:

The Magician from the Aquarian Tarot, David Pal-

ladini, U.S. Games Systems, Inc., 1970.

Illustration Two: Knight of Swords, New Tarot, Wil-

liam J. Hurley and J.A. Horler, 1974.

Illustration Fourteen: The Golden Dawn Tarot Deck,

U.S. Games Systems, Inc. 1977.

Sherryl Smith has been studying Tarot for 40 years.

Her website www.tarot-heritage.com offers an illus-

trated history of tarot and instructions for reading

with historic decks.

Stars and Cards

Tarot Astro-Almanac

August through October 2012 by Elizabeth Hazel

After the wild ride through the April-June period, the late

summer to early autumn months offer an opportunity to

slow down a bit, catch up, make necessary adjustments, and

plan for the future.

Full Moon at 10 Aquarius: August 1 to August 16.

This full moon corresponds to the 7 of

Swords, and no wonder, as it’s com-

bined with a Mercury retrograde in

Leo. It’s hard to pin things down –

plans change and people waffle. Never-

theless, the confusion of the full moon

can bring unexplected blessings as its

trine Jupiter in Gemini (Wheel/Lovers).

August 2 – Venus enters Cancer (2 of

Cups). Look for friends who share

your interests or are on the same emotional wave-length as

you.

August 3 – Mercury turns direct in Leo

August 15 – Venus opposes Pluto and Mars is conjunct Sat-

urn in Libra (3 of Swords). Intense feelings erupt to the sur-

face. Some will feel used and abused, while others are able

to let go of the past and apply intense concentration on

developing new vehicles for progress.

New Moon at 25 Leo: August 17 to August 30.

The Strength card is emphasized with

both the Sun and Moon in Leo and Mer-

cury direct in Leo. Follow your bliss! Pets

and children, along with pet projects,

are the central focus.

August 20 – Sun in Leo sextiles Mars in

Libra. 7 of Wands corresponds to this

combination. People need to strive to

achieve their aims and goals. The Libra

Moon suggests seeking partners or

assistance in endeavors.

August 22 – the Sun enters Virgo, corresponds with the 8 of

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 16

Pentacles. Mercury makes its third sextile to Jupiter in Gem-

ini (8 of Swords). The vibration of the number 8 is empha-

sized: practicality and solid decision-making skills come in

handy.

August 23 – Mars enters Scorpio. The 5

of Cups corresponds to this combination.

There may be mixed emotions about

changes taking place at the end of Au-

gust. Security and guarantees are desir-

able, while uncertain risks are not.

Strong personalities will dominate rela-

tionships.

Full Moon at 8 Pisces: August 31 to September 14.

This full moon relates to the Moon card,

especially with the Sun and Moon con-

junct Neptune. Mercury enters Virgo

today and opposes Neptune tomorrow.

Educational matters are emphasized,

and a powerful aura of nostalgia sur-

rounds memories of the past. The Moon

also squares Jupiter in Gemini (8 of

Swords), so people may be nervous or

uncertain about their reception into

schools and institutions, or be overwhelmed by too many peo-

ple or too many choices.

September 3 (Labor Day) – Venus in Cancer (2 of Cups)

squares Saturn in Libra (3 of Swords). Attachments to others

are re-evaluated or scrutinized for fairness and balance.

September 4 – Mercury in Virgo (10 of Pentacles) trines

Pluto. This favors long-term rewards for effort, or invest-

ments or acquisitions that create long-term benefits.

September 6 – Venus enters Leo

September 7 – Sun in Virgo (8 of Pen-

tacles) squares Jupiter in Gemini (8 of

Swords). Another big “8” day. Make

decisions with caution and common

sense. If there are too many options

and decisions seem overwhelming,

choose whatever will work best in

practical terms.

September 10 – Sun-Mercury con-

junction in Virgo (8 and 10 of Pentacles). This is a doubly-

earthy day. Some will receive benefits that have been

earned after long labor or sustained effort. There’s a focus

on students and teachers. People are encouraged to fit into

groups, with an equal emphasis for groups to be open and

accepting of diversity.

New Moon at 23 Virgo: September 15 to September 28.

The Hermit (Virgo) with the 8 of Pen-

tacles. This lunar cycle underscores

the importance of details, research,

and concentrated study. Make sure

equipment is working properly, fix

whatever is broken, and cultivate use-

ful skills.

September 16 – Mercury enters Li-

bra

September 18-19 – Uranus square

Pluto #2. This Fool-Tower (or Judg-

ment) combination is the second in the four-year series.

Pluto is stationing direct so is especially potent. National

trends swell and public opinion drives the news. Outbreaks

and outbursts are very possible – and will be captured on

video for everyone to see on CNN or YouTube.

September 20 – Mercury (Magician) in Libra squares Pluto

and opposes Uranus. Major events provoke intense de-

bates and discussions. Legal and technical opinions are

sought; some people will have a chance to gain name rec-

ognition because of their expertise.

September 22 – The Sun enters Libra; Fall Equinox. The

Justice card. People seek bal-

ance, harmony, equity, fairness,

or representation. Some pursue

partnerships or important agree-

ments to obtain beneficial re-

sults.

September 26 – Mercury trine

Jupiter (Magician-Wheel). This

highly favorable combination is

superb for communications and

travel. Information burns

through the optical fibers!

September 27 – Venus square Mars (Empress-Tower). Ma-

jor changes and transitions are at hand. Some may be prun-

ing away the deadwood in life, while others adjust to

changes imposed by external forces.

Full Moon at 7 Aries: September 29 to October 15.

This is in the Queen of Wand’s zodiac zone, and corresponds

to the Two of Swords and Three of Wands. Expect some un-

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 17

certainties and abrupt shifts under this

full moon! The Sun and Moon are en-

tangled with Uranus and Pluto. Certain

choices and changes may be delayed

until after the election, as people want

to be sure they’re on the right track.

Political candidates could make sur-

prising changes, switching sides, swap-

ping running mates, or jumping into or

out of election races.

October 3 – Venus enters Virgo (9 of Pentacles) People with

long experience in their fields of expertise are valuable advi-

sors and consultants. Environmental clean-up efforts may be

in the works or demanded by the public. Notable women are

in the public spotlight, and may be single.

October 4 – Jupiter turns retrograde at 16 Gemini, at the

point of the Sun-Venus conjunction and opposite the degree

of the June 4 Lunar Eclipse. Events and decisions from the

early June period impact current situations.

October 5 – Mercury-Saturn conjunction; the planets move

together into Scorpio. Saturn in Scorpio is similar (but not

identical) to the 8 of Cups energy. There’s a focus on secu-

rity, stability, accumulated wealth, inheritances and prop-

erty. Scorpio is also the sign of reproduction.

October 6 – Mars enters Sagittarius. This energy is similar to

the 2 of Wands and the 7 of Wands. There’s an urge to start

new things, but indecision or roadblocks may hinder pro-

gress as Mars squares Neptune. Look for further options and

ways around the mountain.

October 8 – The Sun trines Jupiter (Sun-Wheel). This dy-

namic combination brings personalities into sharp relief.

Good and bad characteristics are weighed and analyzed.

Somebody puts on a big show or extravaganza.

October 9 – Venus trines Pluto (9 of Pentacles-Tower).

Women make surprising or unexpected statements. Impor-

tant women take strong defensive positions to support their

causes.

October 10 – Saturn trines Neptune (World-Moon) Issues in

the news have an overwhelmingly emotional or religious

tone, but these sorts of messages meet with rock solid skep-

ticism and mockery. There’s a demand for distinct and pre-

cise limits and definitions, and people resist overly fussy,

intrusive restrictions. These planets represent opposites—

Saturn well-defined borders, and Neptune boundless ex-

panses.

New Moon at 22 Libra: October 15

to October 28.

(Justice-2 of Swords) Critical legal

and technical questions hang in the

balance during this lunar cycle. Deci-

sions are pending, but outcomes are

unknown. Expect wild speculation

on the eve of the national presiden-

tial election.

October 16 – Mercury sextile Ve-

nus; Venus square Jupiter. These

aspects provoke lots of talk, and that talk can take on epic

proportions with Jupiter in Gemini (8 of Swords). Don’t be-

lieve everything you hear; talking heads are everywhere

gabbing away, even if they don’t know anything. Social ac-

tivities may pile up a load of obligations.

October 22 – The Sun enters Scorpio (6 of Cups). Loyalty

and allegiance are emphasized. People stick with their fa-

vorite team, favorite candidate, and favorite music groups.

October 25 – Sun conjunct Saturn in Scorpio; Mercury sex-

tile Venus. Mix business and pleasure. People benefit

through long-term associates and sustained efforts.

October 28 – Venus enters Libra (Empress-Justice); Mars in

Sagittarius in opposition to Jupiter in Gemini (Tower-

Wheel). These are powerful energies that demand expres-

sion. Venus seeks ideal arrangements in Libra – perfect cou-

ples, beautifully arranged furniture, perfect blueprints. The

demand for precision and specific information is also em-

phasized by Mars and Jupiter. This is a combative opposi-

tion! Political mudslinging and debates will be at a peak.

Attacks contort the facts into pretzels. Wild claims and out-

rageous statements dominate the airwaves as the Full

Moon approaches.

Full Moon at 6 Taurus: October 29 to November 12.

(High Priestess-6 of Pentacles). The

exalted full Moon rules the public and

public opinion; opinions and trends are

scrutinized and subjected to intense

analysis. Much depends on what peo-

ple think they’re going to get out of

various options on the table. The

movement of large sums of money is a

topic for discussion, too. Mercury en-

ters Sagittarius (8 of Wands). Things

speed up as the elections approach. The volume and velocity

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 18

of chatter increases.

November 6 – Tuesday, Election Day. Brace yourself – Mer-

cury turns retrograde at 6:04 pm EST on Election Day! The

Magician will have tricks up his sleeve. In previous years with

Mercury stations on election day, there have been problems

with counting votes, and the results have been challenged

by the losing contender. Election results may be delayed,

and some results may not be announced until Thursday.

November 9 – Venus trine Jupiter. (Empress-Wheel) People

celebrate lucky turns and verified results. This is a good day

to join forces with people who share common goals and ex-

tend their avenues of publicity and expression.

Elizabeth Hazel is an astrologer and tarotist, author of “Tarot

Decoded”. She is developing new deck (pre-release image of

the Hermit on page 17). Her weekly Third Rock Almanac Horo-

scope is available for free at her Kozmic Kitchen Facebook

page every Sunday.

Liz will be giving a lecture on “The Dragons of Karma” at the

Midwest Astrology Conference (Aug 2-5, 2012), which is being

held at the Ann Arbor Holiday Inn this year; and a lecture on

“Persian Time Lord Techniques” on November 11, 2012 for the

Ann Arbor chapter of NCGR. Contact Liz at ehazel@bex.net for

more information.

Midwest Astrology Conference—see: www.midwestastrology.com

Images in this article are from the Whispering Tarot, a signed, numbered, limited edition deck available at www.kozmic-kitchen.com.

By Elizabeth Hazel, QJ Editor

In the past few years, the Quarterly Journal has reviewed

a wealth of new decks. Many of these were not tarot decks

but entries in the new growth category of oracle decks.

New divination tools on the popular horizon include Lenor-

mand style decks. A list of Lenormand learning sites is in-

cluded in this section. Other similar tools include the Play-

ing Card Oracle by Ana Cortez, Orna Ben-Shoshan’s brain-

melting surrealist Kabbalistic tools, and decks that do duty

for other divination methods like the Tea Leaf Oracle

Cards. In some ways, these tools are more cut-and-dried,

even fatalistic, but they also serve as do-it-yourself tools

that expand the playful and happy repertoire in the divina-

tion field. Apparently we’re all still trying to find ourselves,

or pin down the bug of elusive wisdom.

Tarot is still the much-loved grande dame of divination.

Contemporary tarot reached a watershed year in 2009 with

the centennial edition of the Smith-Waite Tarot. The 78-

card, five-suit deck is the granite foundation of modern

tarot, and it allows for delicious deviations. Since the Tarot

Revolution of the 1970s, the tarot has matured enough to

accommodate a mind-boggling diversity of imagery and

content. The maturity of the tarot as a commercial item is

cemented by the burgeoning collector’s market that en-

courages the production of spe-

cialized decks and pricey limited

editions. Collectors give the

tarot market a range and vitality

it might not otherwise have.

Artists and esoteric thinkers

have tested the plasticity of the

tarot by filling it with new and

sometimes alien concepts, or by

revisiting antique decks with a

new twist. For instance, Chris-

tine Payne-Towler’s Tarot of the

Holy Light is a flash-back to al-

chemical imagery entwined with

the European, Marseille-style

attribution system promulgated

by Levi, Wirth, Papus and others

in the 18th century. (Available at

http://www.tarotuniversity.com/2011/09/tarot-of-the-holy-

light-deck.html)

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 19

The expanding waistband of the tarot is tested in other

ways. The Art of Life Tarot (review on page 21) foregoes tra-

ditional tarot imagery and replaces it with paintings by great

masters. These are accompanied by relevant quotes. Much

like the elegant Rumi Tarot by Nigel Jackson (2009), the

deck offers an aphoristic-bibliomantic function, thus entwin-

ing two forms of divination.

The Steampunk Tarot (Llewellyn, review on page 26) is

one of three decks of the same name that’s been produced

in the past year. Steampunk is hot. The cocktail mix of gizmo

-gimmickery and mysticism is accentuated by the computer-

generated imagery by the artist, Aly Fell. This deck wraps the

past, present and future into one neat package.

Taking the tarot even farther down the path is HEXEN 2.0.

John Marani’s review of this deck on page 28 explores the

cutting edge of tarot development and oracular thinking.

Where the Steampunk Tarot conveys its ideas through the

idiom of wheels, gears, and the sepia tones, HEXEN 2.0 is a

tarot deck filled with political and social commentary.

The Steampunk Tarot and HEXEN 2.0 are decks that em-

body the detached and impersonal side of modern culture,

the vast machine that swallows people as numbers and

cranks out endless piles of stuff to be purchased, con-

sumed, and pitched. While Neptune’s entry into Pisces re-

flects this cold, inhuman side of the global industrial collec-

tive, this watery sign also awakens deep visionary qualities

that allow greater intimacy with the dark corners of the soul.

The Hobbit Tarot revives our national love affair with J. R.

R. Tolkien and his marvelous Middle Earth. A film about the

unique, urban tarot stylings of Enrique Enriques, TAROLOGY,

opens the door to viewing the tarot through the lens of the

visual environment. Writer Paul Nagy shares his views of the

content of this film and the extras on the DVD on page 22.

A recent book, Mirror of the Free by Nicholas Swift, traces

the imagery of the trump two-thousand years or more back-

wards to Babylonian cylinder seals. The review is on page

25.

Last year’s QJ Summer 2011 issue explored a wide range

of new tarot and oracle decks. In this Summer 2012 issue,

it’s even more apparent that the harsh pruning in the tarot

world triggered by the 2008 economic crash did indeed en-

courage lush new growth, a resurgence of original new

decks featuring startling new concepts and visual content.

The Star from Tarot of the Holy Light

Middle-earth fans, rejoice! The Hobbit Tarot is

just over the horizon, in anticipation of The Hobbit

movie to be released in December this year. Al-

though I found The Hobbit Tarot to be less accessible

than its predecessor based on Lord of the Rings,

Tolkien fans will delight to see Bilbo‟s adventures

brought to life in this deck.

Those of you familiar with

the Lord of the Rings Tarot

deck will find a very differ-

ent look in The Hobbit Tarot

deck. Although developed

by the same author/artist

team, the cards are much

simpler in presentation,

without suit symbols or text

descriptions. The result is a

“cleaner” feel that draws

you further into the story of

The Hobbit, but presents

challenges for effective reading. Because The Hob-

bit story has more the tone of an “adventure”, in

contrast to the epic “hero‟s journey” so well-

chronicled in both the Lord of the Rings and the tra-

ditional tarot, melding the story of The Hobbit into a

tarot deck was likely a greater challenge for the de-

velopers.

The card backs are nicely done, with the elvish

runes of The Ring inscribed in an octagonal grid on

a dark blue background. The artwork in the cards

is dominated by greens and blues of mountain and

forest backgrounds. Characters and scenes are

depicted in a mainstream fantasy style – neither

too cute nor too harsh. The space at the bottom of

each card gives the card title, following the tradi-

tional RWS card names. This is important, because

few of the cards give any other indication of the

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 20

tarot relevance.

Most of the cards portray

specific scenes from the

book. While relevance to

scenes in the book is some-

times (but not always) ob-

vious, the connection to the

tarot‟s message is often ob-

scure. The LWB is indis-

pensible with this deck.

As an exercise to get fa-

miliar with the deck, I ex-

amined each of the cards and laid them out in a se-

quence that appeared to follow the story line. This

was trickier than I expected. Even after re-reading

The Hobbit prior to this review, I was challenged to

identify the scenes and constantly had to refer to the

LWB to understand what was being shown. Text

descriptions on the cards would have been helpful

here.

Laying out the cards in the traditional order of the

tarot was no more enlightening. As expected, Bilbo

leads off as the Fool, as he leaves behind his cozy

Hobbit hole for the great adventure. Gandalf fol-

lows as the Magician. So far so good. Once we ar-

rive at the Empress, however, they lost me. The Em-

press card shows Bilbo and the dwarves sitting un-

der the trees, while in the background Gandalf

points to the path ahead. How this relates to the tra-

ditional message of the

Empress is obscure, to say

the least. While most of

the Major Arcana depicts

characters or concepts

more or less appropriate

to the card‟s traditional

meaning, some of them

illustrate specific scenes

from the book. However,

the scenes are out of se-

quence when the cards

The Hobbit Tarot

By Peter Pracownik and Terry Donaldson

Review by Nancy Waterstone

are laid out in the traditional tarot order.

The LWB is nicely done, and is indispensible for

getting familiar with The Hobbit Tarot. The cover is

in full color and the artwork is taken from the

cards themselves. The LWB is 96 pages. Although

images of the cards are not shown, the card de-

scriptions are detailed and do give full explana-

tions of the scenes represented in each card. There

is good presentation of the divinatory meanings,

which hold closely to the RWS tradition. The chal-

lenge is in relating the card images/scenes to tradi-

tional tarot meanings.

The LWB also includes suggestions for three

spreads. Using one of these, I was surprised at how

well the cards “read”, in spite of the limitations de-

scribed above. By letting the artwork speak for it-

self, without trying to interpret specific scenes from

the book, it worked. However, some of the card

messages would have still been incomprehensible

to me without “hints” from the printed titles. This

deck grows on you if you take time to work with it.

This is not a deck for beginners. The Hobbit Tarot

stays true to the Hobbit tale, but struggles with its

application to traditional tarot. Those readers who

can relate to The Hobbit story as a model for life

may resonate well with this deck for routine use.

For others, it may work well for those special read-

ings which probe an

“adventure” or pursuit

of a specific goal. Cer-

tainly, it is a deck for

Tolkien fans, and it will

no doubt find a welcom-

ing market once the

movie is released.

The Hobbit Tarot.

U.S. Games Systems,

2012, ISBN-13: 978-1-

57281-677-0, 78 cards

with instruction book,

$20.00.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 21

This is an out-of-the-box

deck that happens to come

packaged in a really cool box.

Deck designer Charlene Liv-

ingstone has selected 78

pieces of fine art (mostly from

the past 300 years) and

matched each with a relevant

quote. This rather simple con-

cept offers an ingenious kind

of new deck for contemplation.

The choice of painting for each card is an utterly sub-

jective task, but Livingstone uses her background in art

history to create a self-help tarot deck that is “an inter-

active tool for people to

access when they were feel-

ing uncertain or lost and

searching for direction or

answers.” The quotations

supplement the card mean-

ings, and give the reader

something to contemplate.

This is intended to be handy

for beginning tarotists, mak-

ing meaning look-ups unnec-

essary.

A small LWB is included with the deck, but the art-

and-quotation format makes each card rather self-

explanatory. What is new and exciting about this deck is

the package. The attached box lid includes a clever, self-

stored “frame” that can be used to store a particular

card for examination (while protecting it from flying pop-

sicles, sticky fingers and doggie chew). The frame can be

popped up or can lay flat as a box-top.

Art of Life Tarot Deck By Charlene Livingstone

Review by E. Hazel

An elaborate gold frame is cer-

tainly appropriate for a 78-card

collection of some of the world’s

greatest paintings. Livingstone has

a penchant for the French impres-

sionists, but the collection includes

a wide range of artwork from the

world’s most notable artists, in-

cluding: Jacques-Louis David, N. C.

Wyeth, da Vinci, Burne-Jones,

Raphael, and a few Dutch masters

like Bosch. Historic portraits of

royalty grace the Strength card

(the Armada portrait of Queen

Elizabeth I), the Emperor (Henry

VIII by Hans Holbein), and the

King of Pentacles (King Charles II).

One of Joseph Turner’s luminous

landscapes is featured on the Sun

card. The collection is dominated

by European art, but some American painters are rep-

resented in the group.

The quotations are uplifting and thoughtful, and like

the paintings represent some of the world’s greatest

thinkers and writers. The 5 of Cups, which can be a

rather miserable card, features

a touching portrait of a think-

ing woman by Sir John Everett

Millais, with the quote “Better

by far you should forget and

smile than that you should re-

member and be

sad.” (Christina Rossetti).

For people who love visiting

museums to see work by the

world’s finest artists, and for those who adore classical

fine art, this is a truly lovely deck to acquire for con-

templation.

Art of Life Tarot. U. S. Games Systems Inc. 2012;

78 cards with 31 page booklet in custom box with at-

tached frame. $21.95.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 22

Tarology: The Poetics of Tarot with Enrique

Enriquez is a film by Chris Deleo and Kimberlie

Naughton, released in 2012. It offers a patchwork quilt

of ideas and pictures about how to discover ourselves

in world and word through the early modern Marseille

tarot deck as guided

by conceptual artist

cum tarot reader,

Enrique Enriquez.

The film opens

with street scenes

and the sound of

traffic. Negligible

bell sounds carpet

the background, a

brisk winter day, a man walks alone on sidewalks by

walls, down alleys, by a tree, placing tarot cards near

analogous structures or displays. Enrique Enriquez‟s

smooth Venezuelan accented voice introduces the mo-

saic narrative effect of the film. Stating his doubts,

tarot seems a marginal anachronism to the 21st cen-

tury, out of place to mainline enquiries into the predic-

tive sciences or idols of mass celebrity.

Other minimally identified voices chime in with

summary accounts of tarot and Enrique‟s unique ap-

proach to tarot. Most of these commentators are well

known and respected tarot teachers and readers: Mar-

cus Katz, Mary K. Greer, Donnaleigh la Rose, Shawn

Nacol, Rachel Pollack, and Robert Place among oth-

ers. Here this chorus of tarot talking heads provide

brief introductory statements contextualizing how En-

rique Enriquez‟s approach to tarot is fresh and alive

and cuts to the core of the way tarot reading is as

much of an art form as is painting a picture or compos-

ing a poem. The film unfolds, actually unrolls around

the gentle voice and demeanor of Enrique Enriquez,

showing tarot cards as glyphs of Manhattan street

scenes and graffiti and explaining how the simple im-

TAROLOGY The poetics of tarot with

Enrique Enriques

DVD review by Paul Nagy

Enrique re-envisioning the alphabet as

tarot process

ages offer visual messages in their juxtaposition and

gesture to body and buildings.

There are two major stars in this film. The gentle

and dignified artist tarot-reader, Enrique Enriquez

and his then tarot deck of choice, Jean-Claude Flor-

noy‟s superb Jean Dodal Marseille facsimile (http://

www.tarot-history.com/). The film is a paean to

these vibrant restored images, primarily of tarot

trumps but also to inside and outside spaces of New

York City, where selves are served up as potentiating

stories. Eventually the story of how to read tarot

weaves round and round again, a feast for eye and ear

that gives some idea of how the magic or art of sym-

bols as embedded in our lived environment if we but

pay attention. In the back drop are some of the lumi-

naries of tarot reading and interpretation, popping up

with stationary commentary about tarot goals and

practice, while Enrique is incessantly in and around

Manhattan, cards in the ready, displaying visual puns

and anagrams of surprise. Enrique‟s ambivalence

over what is expected of tarot readers and what he

can actually do becomes a theme. Some may find the

lack of didactic organization a little disorientating.

The film is gentle in its instruction and pays off in

multiple viewings, if you care to learn from Enrique‟s

examples. If nothing else I would suggest, if you want

a distinctive tarot reading when visiting New York

City, schedule a reading with Enrique at Quest Book

Shop (details below).

The DVD extras include 130 minutes of fuller com-

mentary by some people who know tarot and can ap-

preciate Enrique‟s unique position. They also repre-

sent some of the most learned and highly respected

tarot personalities in the USA, if not world. There are

two especially fruitful outtakes, where Enrique at

length explains how to see the Trumps and some sim-

ple combination readings and where he embodies

postures on the cards. Scenes from Readers Studio

2011-2012 highlight the annual gathering of about

200 plus professional tarotists, avid hobbyists, collec-

tors, writers, readers, publishers and artists, which is

definitely the East coasts premier tarot gathering of

the year. (http://www.tarotschool.com/RS12/

index.html).

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 23

Enrique Enriquez has published a book entitled

TAROLOGY, published by Camilia Elias (she ap-

pears in the film and extras) of EyeCorner Press. It

collects a healthy group of Enrique Enriquez 's

„pataphysical‟ (the science of imaginary solutions)

tarot experiments and examples of his performance-

based poetic tarot readings. TAROLOGY is a

book that may inspire or confound many tarot readers.

Unlike how-to or recipe books on basic card reading

and manipulation of the cards, TAROLOGY is likely

to appeal to the mavericks among truly adept tarotists

(which is just about any serious tarot reader beyond

tyro stage), who has experienced being struck by sym-

bol glut or associationist salad into a state of occult

ennui, a malady well-understood by readers with dec-

ades of dedication to their craft.

If you count yourself among such readers, when the

cards seem staid and your readings seem rote to the

point of boredom, perhaps a bit of serious perusal of

Enrique Enriquez‟s TAROLOGY may nudge you out

of that subconscious doldrums into a wondrous state

of poetic afflatus and maybe, at its very least, encour-

age us to take lessons, as Enrique has, from poetry and

the poets, those universal editors of the divine utter-

ance or oracular tarot readings.

TAROLOGY (film) 87 min run time, 130 min extra mate-

rial, $49.95 (http://tarologyfilm.com/)

TAROLOGY (book) EyeCorner Press, 2011, $20.00

(http://eyecornerpress.com )

Quest Book Shop, NYC: 240 East 53rd Street, New York,

NY 10022 tel: (212) 758-5521, Monday-Friday, 10am -

7pm, Saturday & Sunday, 12 noon - 6pm.

Email: manager@questbookshop.com

Site: http://questbookshop.com/home/

Author Bio

Paul Nagy is an esotericist and mystic who has studied world

religions and reads tarot. Paul hosts a talk show, and is a

writer and editor at Wordtrade.com. His focus is on human-

istic and theosophical philosophies, and he is a member of the

Theosophical Society and the International Society of Neo-

platonic Studies. Paul is a graduate from the Pacific School

of Religion (Master in Divinity), and has traveled extensively

to do pilgrimages and to learn about esoteric practices includ-

ing Buddhism, Sufi and Wicca.

When I heard about this tarot deck, I was very curious to

see which route the designer would take. Part of me wondered

if we weren’t dealing with a “Casper the Friendly Ghost”-

style deck that would try to tell us that spirits are generally

helpful, kind creatures who are providing us with wisdom, or

if the deck was going to go more serious and try to shock the

reader with disturbing images. As it turns out, neither answer

was correct.

The backs of the cards are fairly simple: A triad of ghosts

surrounded by a circle of light green bones. The rest of the

area contains different shades of dark blues and very pale

greens, reminiscent of the ocean in Massachusetts in the win-

tertime. The ghosts themselves are expressionless. Overall, I

liked the feel of the deck immediately, which is a standard

tarot size. The cards were not too slippery or inflexible, even

the first time I pulled them out of the box.

When you turn the cards over, this 78-card deck impressed

me much more than many decks I have seen recently through

its extremely intricate artwork. You have to take your time

looking over these cards or you’ll miss something. The color

scheme continues from the back: lots of blues of all kinds

with mostly dark backgrounds. This deck won’t make you feel

good just by looking at it; color is definitely taking a back seat

to detail here.

If you’re looking for another RWS clone, this is definitely

not one of those. Almost none of the traditional symbols ap-

pear on these cards. In this case, however, I think it’s an asset

and not a liability.

The images depict ghosts, and spirits from many different

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 24

cultures, and you’ll need to keep the little white book handy for

that reason. Some you will recognize right away, like Jacob

Marley on the Devil, appropriately enough, chained to all his

strongboxes. The Headless Horseman from “The Legend of

Sleepy Hollow” makes his appearance as the King of Swords.

And what would any deck in this vein be complete without the

Grim Reaper on the Death card?

Hunt threw in a few ghost-related holidays and spirit-related

stories or legends, like the Day of the Dead on the Ten of Cups

and Davy Jones’ Locker on the Four of Cups. Others were

more obscure, but if you enjoy ghost stories, you’ll get a real

education just going through the deck and the LWB. One that I

didn’t expect but enjoyed was the story of the Hawaiian hero

Hiku on the Knight of Wands descending into the depths to

bring his wife, Kawela, back to life.

Probably the most chilling image for me was the Queen of

Swords. I knew this was not a spirit to be trifled with. Her face

has the most incredible look of agony and distress as she holds

the sword behind her. This is the well-known banshee of Celtic

folklore. On the flip side, the simple beauty of the doppel-

ganger on the Two of Wands was very striking, with the mir-

rored image of a red-haired woman in the window behind her.

For what it’s worth, I would LOVE to see a full-color book

with card images and meanings for this deck. It would make a

fantastic coffee table book.

If you’re a fan of anything that goes bump in the night,

you’ll really enjoy the Ghosts & Spirits Tarot. I definitely

wouldn’t give it to a beginner tarotist, unless the person really

gravitates toward the spirit world and is willing to learn the

various traditions. But it’s a great opportunity for intermediate-

level tarot students and up to learn some more spirit folklore

and legend. And speaking personally, I think I just found the

deck I’m going to use in October!

Ghosts & Spirits Tarot—U.S. Games Systems, 2012, $18.00

Ghosts & Spirits Tarot

By Lisa Hunt

Review by John Marani

I’m going to begin this re-

view by quoting the back cover

of the book:

“The images on the Marseille

Tarot cards started out as illus-

trations of Sumero-Bablyonian

(sic) myths, preserved through

the centuries on cylinder seals.

They were copied by people

who didn’t understand them

but who also had access to

some form, whether written or

oral, of the wisdom encoded in those myths and

in Bible stores. That wisdom is identical with Sufi

teachings as espoused by teachers like Ibn al

‘Arabi, Rumi, and others including Gurdjieff and

his teachings about the Enneagram. The myths

and stories are decoded in this book using the

multiple meanings conveyed by Arabic consonan-

tal wood roots and by reference to those doc-

trines and to modern discoveries about condi-

tioning and the hemispheric specialization of the

brain. Arabic is the closest existing descendant of

the ancient Protosemitic language. The Kabbalah,

long rumoured to be linked to the Tarot , is

shown to come from the same sources, and

originally had eight, not ten, sefiroth. The visual

evidence alone is overwhelming: the mystery of

where the Tarot comes from has been definitely

solved. Nicholas Swift was born in St. Catharines,

Canada, and is a graduate of the University of

Toronto.”

A regular sledgehammer to the brain, huh?

Brace yourself, because it’s a representative

sample of what’s within the covers. Swift follows

up on Helena Blavatsky’s premise that “the real

Tarot, in its complete symbology, can be found

only in the Babylonian cylinders…” (“Collected

Writings: Miscellaneous.” Vol. XIV) There’s no

evidence given for how cylinder seal imagery and

Sufi wisdom were incorporated into the tarot

trump. Deviations from cylinder seal images are

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 25

“mistakes” on the part of the TdM

artist. Blavatsky’s and Swift’s premise

has to be accepted at face value.

The author identifies the deities and

scenes on the cylinder seal images

insomuch as that is possible. Connec-

tions to the trump images are of-

fered, along with relevant concepts

from Sufi writers and that ubiquitous

philosophical reprobate, Gurdjieff.

The author explores Arabic etymology

and homonyms, alike-sounding words

that are spelled differently and mean

different things (i.e., there, their, and

they’re). Homonyms are a common

device in ancient philosophical writing

used to emphasize multiple levels of

meaning.

As a summary of content, this appears to be an

awesome collection of mind-tickling information.

But the reader should be prepared to contend

with Swift’s writing style. American readers in

particular will have to pick part some of the ex-

tremely lengthy sentences and be patient with the

round-about passages that eventually

(sometimes, maybe) get to the damn point. Swift

is a new entry into the school of tarot writing

where an aggressive onslaught of bedazzling facts

and ideas substitutes for coherent conclusions, or

making the information useful beyond the mere

possession of said facts.

The work presents other challenges. There are

no chapters or section headers to give the reader

a moment to pause and absorb before moving to

the next set of ideas. It’s a rambling dissertation

with little internal organization. Cards, cylinder

seals, and ideas don’t appear in any deliberate

order. This chaotic format could be intentional on

the author’s part, as it’s reminiscent of late 19th

century occult writing, particularly of Madame

Blavatsky. The images of the cylinder seals are

grainy and sometimes indecipherable, too.

To add to the collection of disconcerting devia-

tions from contemporary literary conventions,

there’s no ending to the book – no concluding

summary or final statement. The discussion sim-

ply ends, as though the writer dropped off a cliff

Mirror of the Free

By Nicholas Swift

Review by E. Hazel

with a thud. The next page turns to the Refer-

ences cited in the book, and a list of Sources.

This is all the more remarkable as Swift’s bio in-

dicates the author worked as an editor.

This might be a brilliant book, but the lack of

basic presentation devices and organization turns

it into a mountain-climbing expedition. Only the

reader can decide if the climb is worth the while,

because the making the material coherent and

useful is foisted onto the reader. The pity of it is

some less-able writer will come along in a few

years, do a better job of organizing and present-

ing the material, and sell a lot more copies of his

book than Swift will of this volume.

On the positive side, the long-neglected writ-

ings of the Persian and Arabic wisdom schools

and mystical movements (the Sufis) of the 8th –

12th centuries CE are finally leaking into the

sphere of western esotericism and astrology. It

was inevitable that someone would kick open the

door between the Wisdom schools and the tarot.

A number of other reviews can be seen at:

http://www.dodona-books.com/books/mirror-of-

the-free. The reviews, like the book, are garbled

and uneven. Some reviewers were wowed by the

contents. A few coughed up a remark or two

about the difficult presentation and grainy im-

ages. While all the reviewers agreed the book

offered a fascinating collection of information,

not one suggested that it offered useful tools for

tarot readings. A telling omission, that.

Plenty of tarot books go overboard in spoon-

feeding the reader a puree of regurgitated, wa-

tered-down information. This presentation is the

diametric opposite of the spoon-feeding variety.

If readers are willing to tackle the challenges,

there are gold nuggets to be mined.

With that in mind – read the book. But curb

your expectations for immediately accessible

tools to use in tarot readings. It isn’t that sort of

book.

Mirror of the Free. O Books (Dodona Books,

John Hunt Publishing) 2011. Second edition of a

limited edition printing in 2005. Black and white

illustrations. 184 pages, $19.95 paperback.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 26

In case you’ve missed it,

steampunk is a trending art and

design style that recaptures the

fashions and early industrial

gadgetry of the late Victorian

and Edwardian periods

(roughly 1880-1910). Images

are blended with mists and

mysticism. Interlocking gear

wheels, featured on the card

backs, are a common theme in

this sort of artistic imagery.

Barbara Moore, a huge fan of steampunk style, dives

into an explanation of the Steampunk aesthetic and its

relevance to current society and the tarot. She mentions

that “the very best steampunk literature includes the mys-

terious and magical as well.” Generally steampunk has a

note of the British Empire, too. The book includes an

overview of tarot basics and descriptions of the 78 cards,

and a half dozen useful spreads.

One of the first things you might notice while scanning

the cards is that the dominant color scheme centers on

brown. Scenes tend to occur on dark, foggy streets, ala

Sherlock Holmes. The 10 of Swords features the foggy,

polluted skyline of late 19th century London. The penchant

for gears, gadgetry and gizmos

is conveyed in the Ace of Pen-

tacles, where the hand of a

metal automaton lifts the pen-

tacle disk into the air. Women

are a dominant presence in

the Court cards, as the Pages

and some of the Knights are

young women in male attire.

Where the Knight of Cups is a

young woman with a strange

mix of Henry VIII pantaloons

and a WWII bomber jacket,

the Knight of Pentacles looks

The Steampunk Tarot Book by Barbara Moore, Illustrations by Aly Fell

Review by E. Hazel

Card backs

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 27

like Allan Quatermain on his quest for King Solomon’s

mines with some sort of jet pack on his back. (and yes,

books by H. Rider Haggard are totally proto-

steampunk since they were written in the 1880s-1890s.)

Aly Fell, the creator of the images, digs deeply into

the steampunk idiom and weaves iconic steampunk

themes through the suits and trump cards. The color

palette and imagery remains tightly focused and well

modulated while following the RWS canon.

There’s a bit of tongue in cheek humor as the Judg-

ment’s angel, wearing goggles and a black jacket, gets

the attention of the earth-bound with a classic Victrola.

The trump images are mostly successful in combining

the theme with the traditional image.

Steampunk Tarot. Llewellyn 2012, 294 pg paperback

book and 78 card deck, $28.95

The steampunk trend is hard to miss. A Steampunk

Tarot was created by Charissa

Drengsen in 2010 using photo

collage. (see: http://liber.us/

tarotbot/en/tarot/steampunk-tarot

and http://www.etsy.com/

listing/54493666/steampunk-tarot

-deck).

Yet another Steampunk Tarot is

going to be released this fall by

Caitlin and John Matthews. http://www.facebook.com/Steampunktarot?ref=ts

Fans of this new-old look can

find a deck that suits their style.

The Magician card from Drengsen’s

photo-collage Steampunk Tarot

King of Wands from HEXEN 2.0

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 28

History buffs, conspiracy theorists, and com-

puter geeks will all love this deck. It’s a sequel to

Treister’s paperback HEXEN 2039, which

“imagined new technologies for psychological

warfare through investigating links between the

occult and the military in relation to the histories

of witchcraft, the US film industry, British intelli-

gence agencies, Soviet brainwashing and behav-

ior control experiments of the US Army.”

If it seems overwhelming, let me assure you

that it is. Just the subject matter alone sounds

way too heavy for a tarot deck. But stick with me

here and I think you’ll find some value in it just

the same. If you feel burned out or need to have

your tarot world violently shaken, not stirred, this

deck will do that and then some. For me, it is this

century’s equivalent of Morgan’s Tarot, the

counter-culture tarot deck of the 1970s.

My first suggestion is unless you are an expert

on 20th century American history, cybernetics,

and world intelligence agencies, please buy the

HEXEN 2.0 coffee table book ($29.95). It dis-

cusses how the deck came about, and contains

full-color photos of each of the cards as well as a

historical context to each. There is an incredible

amount of detail that you’ll absolutely want, and

the deck will make much more sense to you.

The backs of the cards are black with white

outlines of mirror-imaged mushroom clouds, like

those made by nuclear explosions. The cards

themselves are quite a bit wider than a standard

deck, and while handling them can be a chal-

lenge, they’re flexible enough to shuffle right out

of the box.

Various figures and concepts adorn each card,

reinforcing philosophical ideas or showcasing

influential people and places of the aforemen-

tioned ideas. While it is obvious that the cards

were chosen with a few standard tarot meanings

in mind, there is little to no RWS imagery. Clear

white borders with black titles adorn the long

end of all the cards, while the majors have a sec-

ond border at the top with a Roman numeral.

The Empress, for exam-

ple, is all in black and

white. It’s a collection of

cartoon “explosions” and

each one contains the ac-

ronym of a known intelli-

gence agency in black let-

ters. Over 50 of these bal-

loons adorn the card. For

me, this was the

“abundance of informa-

tion” in the world and how

so many agencies are try-

ing to obtain it. Mathemati-

cian Ted Kaczynski, also

known as the “Unabomber”, also has a place here on

the Hermit, appropriately enough. If you wondered what

his address was, check the top right-hand corner and

you’ll find it there.

On the pip cards, the Five of Swords represents cyber

giant Google, and lists some important dates in their

history as well as their span of control, which includes

the Android operating system, Gmail, and YouTube.

Some of the information is downright scary: “Entire Web

stored in Google database” and “Online Domination”

are written here. Taking a look at some standard mean-

ings for the card, I felt like Treister was trying to say how

badly Google was in a position to screw us because of

how powerful they are. Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rous-

seau and The Social Contract is on the Nine of Chalices;

his idea that “Man was born free and he is everywhere

in chains” was an interesting choice for a “wish card.”

Perhaps the desire for total freedom, and the fact that

as human beings we often chain ourselves down to ma-

terial things, was the impetus to place him here.

Nikola Tesla makes an appearance on the King of

Wands for his attempts to provide free electricity to the

world, and his desire to “theoretically connect the mate-

rial and the spiritual.” This was a perfect match to the

element of fire for me. Different types of drones—

unmanned aircraft used for various military and intelli-

gence purposes—can be found on the Queen of Swords.

These machines allow war to be made from a neutral

position—a control room—and it evoked the Queen’s

“Lie to me at your peril” attitude.

Overall, these cards are filled with detail, and the

work is amazing. The card that struck me the most,

HEXEN 2.0 Tarot By Suzanne Treister

Review by John Marani

however, was probably one of the simplest. The World

has only grey letters on it: “WWI”, “WWII”, and

“WWW”. The card can represent a movement forward,

and the meaning is clear: “The last two wars were

conventional, but the next will be in cyberspace.”

Using this deck for divination is probably not a real-

istic endeavor. There’s so much on each card that

they will fry the brains of all but the most experienced

tarot readers. But absolutely no collector should be

without it, and be warned: You may find your perspec-

tive on history changed.

HEXEN 2.0 Tarot. Black Dog Publishing, 2012, tarot

deck $19.95; book - Hexen2.0 ($29.95)

“Sweet Genius” and a spritz of fine perfume

from Houbigant. It reads American but feels

European.

The drama begins in the 1870s and contin-

ues through the early 1900s. Morgenstern’s

characters blossom and then writhe under the

tension of the contest. The circus appears,

grows, delights and takes its toll as it appears,

without notice, in cities all over the world. The

book’s fine crafting is apparent in the careful

pacing and the intricate, alluring way the

storylines are braided together.

In the ever-grinding best-seller competition,

Morgenstern is a big winner. The book has

been rated as one of the top 10 books of 2011.

Doubleday won a bidding war for the book,

and Morgenstern received a “high six-figure

advance” for the novel. [1] Rights have been

sold to 30 foreign publishers.

The book, which was released

in September 2011, was swiftly

optioned by Summit Enter-

tainment, the film company

that produced the “Twilight”

series.

The character of Isobel is a

tarot reader. This is one of the

most realistic portraits of a

tarotist in modern fiction. The

meanings of the cards she

pulls are accurate and rele-

vant to the storyline. A single

tarot card plays a spell-

binding role in the drama.

Morgenstern created a

monochromatic tarot deck

while she was writing the

book. It hasn’t been published yet, but the im-

ages of the Phantomwise Tarot can be seen

at: http://www.phantomwise.com/gallery/

On her site, Ms. Morgenstern says, “As some

of you may know, during 2006-2009 I painted a

78-card tarot deck in black and white and

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 29

The Night Circus By Erin Morgenstern

Review by E. Hazel

Welcome to Le Cirque des

Reves, where magic hides in

plain sight. This marvelous de-

but novel scoops the reader

into the lives of two young

magicians, Celia and Marco.

The circus is a venue for a

magic competition devised

by their mentors. And this is

one of those contests where

the winner is the last one

standing.

The book’s structure is, like a

circus, a labyrinth of timelines

that all lead to the critical moment of the

story. Morgenstern’s creativity and deft han-

dling of literary devices is an exquisite recipe

for the reader’s delectation – a cup of Balzac,

a tablespoon of Gaiman, a teaspoon each of

Cagliostro and Houdini, with a soupçon of

shades of grey. I spent the same approximate

time writing and re-writing The Night Circus. I

lived in monochrome for

a good long while there,

and there are references

to the circus in some of

the cards.”

Destined to become a

cult classic – for anyone

who enjoys fine storytel-

ling and magical realism,

this is a must-read book!

[1] CNN Living, 9-12-2011

article

The Night Circus. Doubleday, 2011, 387 pages,

$26.95 hardback

The Lenormand Cards

By Donnaleigh de la Rose

“Mademoiselle Lenormand was at the time a woman from twenty-four to tweny-nine years of age, short and stout in figure, vainly attempting to disguise that fact that one shoul-

der was higher than the other; she wore a turban adorned with a bird of para-dise. Her hair fell in long curls around

her face. She wore two skirts, one above the other: one was short, scarcely falling

below the knees, and pearl-gray in color; the other was longer, falling in a short train behind her, and was cherry

colored. The table upon which she made her experiments was nothing but

a common round table covered with a green cloth, with drawers in front, in which she put her different materials.

One side of the door was an oak book-case filled with books. Facing her seat was an arm-chair for the person who

was consulting her.” Quoted from

Alexandre Dumas “The Whites and

the Blues, Vol 2.” Kessinger Publishing, 2007.

Marie Anne Lenormand was born in Alencon,

France on May 27th, 1772. She died on June 25th 1843 at

the age of 71. Not only did she have clairvoyant powers, she also taught astrology and cabbalistic and was well

know all over Europe.

The majority of her clients consisted of members of

the French nobility, including Napoleon who appreci-ated her for her soundness, his wife Josephine and

several other well-known politicians of that time. Madame Lenormand amassed a considerable fortune

and left a stately home and a beautiful castle in Paris. So you want to learn how to read the Lenormand

Deck? If you have searched for how-to books, you may have found that it can be difficult to find re-

sources in English. Here‟s a list to get you started on your journey. My

webpage will be updated as resources continue to be-come available, and as I continue to discover them myself. Feel free to contact me with your suggestions

if you've found good resources I've not listed here. These books and resources present different card

reading systems. Take what you like, leave what doesn't fit you. I follow the traditional system as

much as possible as I continue to learn. http://www.donnaleigh.com/apps/blog/

show/14716898-so-you-want-to-learn-to-read-the-lenormand

Lenormand Starter Tips

Get a deck with images that are easy for you to see.

Traditional decks are great to start. I happen to like the French Cartomancy deck, and the Lo Scarabeo

Lenormand deck. Unlike tarot, the imagery itself does not alter the meaning of the card, except in a

very few cards that may have directional-ity. Find one you feel is attractive and

with clear imagery.

1.Learn the individual card meanings, or

get a sense of understanding them in sin-gles before trying blending two cards.

2.Learn 2-card combination blends -- it

gets exciting here! Then get on your journey as to how to

read the cards deeper in spreads, and these resources will help you with the

blends and the spreads.

FORUMS There is a Facebook Lenormand Card

Study Group

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 30

The Lovers card from the

Phantomwise Tarot. A limited

edition by Adam McLean is

already sold out.

AECLECTIC has Lenormand forums, both for those

who want to use the stricter, traditional methods, and

for those who want to learn a looser, wider oracle use

for it (see: Facebook Lenormand Cards Community)

Tali Goodwin is teaching a free class in the Tarot-

Town forum (www.tarot-town.com), files are accessi-

ble there. Go to Forums and look for "Lenormand."

The "Files" section at top of Tarot Town holds the

PDF's for each lesson. She is also releasing a book on

learning the Lenormand, expected release date in

June of 2012.

The Cartomancer's Forum, Lenormand Section at

http://cartomancy.forumotion.com/f9-lenormand-

oracle-cards

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 31

WEBSITES

andybc ~ Journal of a Cartomante http://andybctarot.wordpress.com/

The Language of the Lenormand by Madame Whodun at http://languageoflenormand.blogspot.co.uk/

Online Lenormand Dictionary, "My Wings of Desire" (list of card meanings) at http://mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.com/

p/lenormand-dictionary.html

Serena's Guide to the Cards of Mme Lenormand at http://www.serenapowers.com/lenormand.html

The Lenormand Oracle at http://spiritsong.wordpress.com/

Mary K. Greer's post on Mme. Lenormand at http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/madame-le-normand-the-

most-famous-card-reader-of-all-time/

Jozefa Seaqueen's Learning the Lenormand Cards at http://seaqueen.wordpress.com/

Janna's Lenormand Card site at http://lenormandcards.blogspot.com/

Lenormand Oracle Cards at http://lenormand36.wordpress.com/

ONLINE COURSES

Britta's Courses (and deck) at http://www.fortune-telling-lenormand.com/

Treppner Course -- People who don't speak German will need to use Google Translate or BabelFish to read the page, be-

cause the website is entirely in German.

Melissa Hill's Video Course: only $35, download at http://lenormand.info/lenormand-101/

Sandy Cristel's Interactive Lenormand Oracle at http://www.lenormand-oracle.com/

BOOKS

THE GAME OF DESTINY - Fortune Telling with Lenormand Cards By Mario dos Ventos

Caitlin Matthews is currently writing a book, soon to be released

Tali Goodwin, The New Lenormand: Modern Reading of an old-fashioned oracle, has a BOOK soon to be released on

the Lenormand Published by Forge Press, May 2012.

As is Rana George (and creating a Lenormand deck with Ciro Marchetti) at http://ranageorge.com/

The Secrets of the Lenormand by Sylvie Steinbeck (some complain this is not true to the traditional system; I like it and

learned from it). Createspace Publishing, 2007. 252 pages, Amazon $18.99. Four star rating by readers.

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012—page 32

ATA Quarterly Journal Submission guidelines

Your intrepid editor is seeking new writers to

contribute articles, spreads and reviews.

Submission deadlines for

2012!

Fall 2012—due September 1

Winter 2012—due December 1

Spring 2013—due March 1

We’re looking for:

Tarot Book and Deck Reviews (300 to 800

words) A great way to get started!

Tarot Techniques Articles (1,000-1,500

words)

Tarot Business Practices (1,000-1,500 words)

Topical Articles (1,000-1,500 words).

Tarot Cover Art and Illustrations

A copy of submission requirements and for-

matting guidelines is available upon request.

Material previously published on the inter-

net or in other forums may be accepted for

the QJ. Author retains full copyrights to any

published material.

Editor E-mail Address: Send QJ submissions to Liz

at: Quarterly@ata-tarot.com

ATA Contact Information

The American Tarot Association

2901 Richmond Rd Ste 130 #123

Lexington KY 40509-1763

Toll-free: 1-800-372-1524 (noon - 2 pm EST office hours)

Fax: 1-800-331-7787

Email: info@ata-tarot.com

Quarterly Journal and Tarot Reflections editors can be contacted at

Quarterly Journal submissions to Liz at: Quarterly@ata-tarot.com and

Tarot Reflections submissions to Shari at: Reflections@ata-tarot.com

Mission Statement

The American Tarot Association is a professional and social organization for tarot en-

thusiasts, students, scholars, and readers. We promote the study and appreciation of tarot

by supporting a variety of educational programs. We require a high level of ethics in

tarot readings by asking our members to agree to our published code of ethics.

Treats for ATA Members

ATA e-mail

Long distance telephone service for members, 4.46¢/minute anywhere, anytime in the

States

800 toll-free telephone service for 4.47¢/minute—your 800 telephone line can ring into

any telephone you want

Lowest price calling cards available

For more information call 800-363-6177 and reference Group 1340