Tarot San Francisco Style

Bay Area Tarot Symposium: A Springtime Feast of Fools

April, 2005

Toni Gilbert, RN, MA, HNC

As luck or synchronicity would have it, here I was in San Francisco one more time. It seems that time and time again I am invited or something implores me to come to this beautiful city. This time I was invited to the Bay Area Tarot Symposium (SF BATS) by Art Rosengarten, a Bay Area clinical psychologist. He was to lecture on his new system Tarot of the Nine Paths and he wanted me to attend. Another inducement was that Mary K. Greer, a veteran Tarot counselor and the author of a multitude of highly educational books on the system of Tarot was to be there too.

Mary has a MA in English literature and writes extensively about Tarot, its history, interpretation and a method of counseling using a similar projective technique that I describe in my book (We discovered this separately.). She had also published an article on Tarot research in my on-line nursing journal. Mary developed the Tarot and Emotions Research Project Report, which attempts to understand how the cards work at a functional, psychological level for both client and counselor.

Art Rosengarten’s path crossed with mine a couple of years ago. His book Tarot and Psychology was one of the first that I found on the system of Tarot and how Tarot is used in psychology with DSM IV clients. His kind of Tarot counseling was intriguing but I initially contacted him about the success of his on-line Tarot sessions. I was contemplating offering distance Tarot sessions on my web site. Over several conversations, we got know each other well enough to know that we probably have some things to teach each other. I met Mary K. Greer over the Tarot L. chat line. She allowed me to publish her above mentioned Tarot research project in my journal. I saw it in the newsletter of an organization that Art, Mary and I belong to called the American Tarot Association.

My publicist at White Cloud Press, Bill Hagle contacted the book vendor for the symposium, David Wieglet of Fields Book Store. David graciously purchased a few copies of my book Messages from the Archetypes for the event. www.fieldsbooks.com

The Flow was with me and using my flyer miles, I was able to purchase two round trip tickets for $25.00. My husband, Lewis Judy, loves San Francisco too and so I invited him to go along. He is a Tarot enthusiast but doesn’t work with the cards himself.

Once checked into the Cathedral Hill Hotel (which offered conference participants room rate discounts) I was glad to hear that the BATS event at the First Unitarian Universalist Church was just around the corner and within walking distance.

The next morning, after the hotel’s complimentary breakfast, I walked in the morning California sun up the hill to the wonderful stone church. A BATS sign pointed the way to a large modern conference center off to the side. The first thing one sees entering the center is a beautiful stone fountain in the middle of an inviting plant filled courtyard. I said to my self, “This is good.”

Thalassa Therese, the event’s organizer met me at the center’s entrance. Thalassa, a third generation native of San Francisco is the producer of the San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium (SF BATS), the oldest continuously-produced divination event in the country, if not the world. She is the founder of the Daughters of Divination www.daughtersofdivination.com and the publisher of the Tarot magazine The Belfry. She has been reading, teaching and working with the Tarot for 37 years and is working on an advanced level book on Tarot technique, as well as researching the history of the Tarot.

In addition to Thalassa’s class series taught around the Bay Area, she has presented at the World Tarot Congress, the New York Tarot Festival, the LA Tarot Symposium (LATS), PantheaCon and the Whole Life Expo. Thalassa has been published in several alternative spirituality publications, including the late, lamented Tarot Network News (of which she was the Associate Editor). Her classes are renowned for the unique perspective and breadth of useful information delivered in a lively and entertaining style that makes learning fun.

Thalassa had granted me an entrance fee discount if I would cover the event for the Alternative Journal of Nursing. We spoke briefly exchanging polite introductions and then she hurried off to continue working at the enormous task of putting the BATS conference together.

My book was indeed at the counter of the Fields Book Store space. However, when I am involved with such a comprehensive bookstore, I usually buy more books than I should. I had my eye on one book in particular but it cost a lot. I finally decided that if it was still there by mid-afternoon that it was meant to be mine. (Funny the games we play with ourselves.) By mid-afternoon, I had read a full chapter from this book on the Emperor archetype and decided not to wait any longer. I purchased the hardback version of the beautifully illustrated and inspiring Tarot ReVISIONed by the actor Leigh J. McCloskey. The entire book is in-depth study of the Major Arcana. McCloskey, an accomplished artist, also drew the magnificently symbolic illustrations.

Slowly, but right on time, the conference room filled with participants and I noticed a broad cross section of all ages and archetypes were represented. Men and women, young and old, conservatively dressed and colorful Pagan types made up the audience. Sitting in the middle of the room, facing the stage there were tables set up for Tarot counseling on the right. On the left, there were several vendors offering such things as jewelry, witch wands, stones, Runes and of course Tarot cards. The DOD organization offered us a “garage sale table” of a wonderful selection of used books at good prices.

The roster of speakers at the symposium was impressive. As it is with such conferences, one is unable to attend all that was offered. The following is a list of speakers and a short description of the topics presented:

Joseph Earnest Martin, creator and designer of the Quest Tarot cards and author of the book The Compass: Guide to the Quest Tarot. His contention is that Tarot is a growing, living medium. He postulates that with the expanded view that quantum physics gives to our understanding of our world, Tarot can be expanded to include the idea of multiple universes. The questions he posed were: What are the current theories about the creation of our universe? Should the Tarot expand to include this concept with a blank card? During his lecture he made the case for what he called the “MultiVerse Card.”

For more on Mr. Martins products and theories visit www.questtarot.com

Sheree Naija (Thena MacArthur) introduced a new card system based upon the Shamanic practices of Siberia, Beringia, and the Pacific Northwest. Although the cards were not yet available in the marketplace, participants were encouraged to try out the deck she offered to see how it differs from the standard Tarot deck. The card’s images, reductions of the original paintings by the speaker, follow the Shaman’s initiatory and occupational processes as a mirror for life. The name of the deck is Shamaka: Oracle of the Shamaness.

Mary K. Greer, author of The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, and Women of the Golden Dawn, as well as numerous other books on Tarot, spoke about metaphor as the transportation process that conveys meaning from one domain to another via analogy. In other words, metaphore is how we get meaning from the symbols and images on the Tarot cards. She sees a symbol as merely one side of a metaphor “in waiting for” its other side. She talked about “figurative speech” in the clichés, aphorisms, puns, lines form songs, and proverbs used by Tarot readers to evoke emotions, sensations, memories and meaning from the client. She also explored the power of metaphor to create change and how to use it in a reading.

Valerie Sim, presented ideas about using a regular playing deck of cards as a Tarot deck. She claimed one could read “undercover” to “amaze your friends and befuddle your foes” and “make reading dignities easier.” This presentation was limited to those tarotists who have “a deck in their heads.” She made the claim that you could “stack the deck without getting shot.” As an inducement to join her forum, a free deck was given to the first ten people to join.

Lon Milo DuQuette, esteemed author of The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, and The Book of Ordinary Oracles, sat behind a small table of his “magical weapons” like the Tarot Magician archetype. He gave us an elaborate description of how throwing dice, perhaps the world’s oldest game of chance, can add a new dimension to the art of Tarot. More about Mr. DuQuette at www.lonmilo.com

Rachel Pollack, is the creative woman who wrote the text for various individual decks, especially the Tarot decks of Salvador Dali and Hermann Haindl. She created her own deck, The Shining Tribe Tarot, whose pictures are inspired by tribal and prehistoric art. Her presentation was called, The Fool, The Princess & The Stick: A fairy tale for Children of all ages. You may read more about Rachel at www.rachelpollack.com

Art Rosengarten, a Jungian psychologist, developed Tarot of the Nine Paths (TNP) a perfect matrix of twenty-seven universal principles believed instrumental in all transformational processes of psycho-spiritual growth and self-development. TNP marks a crucial departure from the traditional Tarot in that it is chiefly and exclusively concerned with the trump cards or “higher keys” of the deck. TNP was developed from the author’s own spontaneous scenes in Jungian Sandplay Therapy, then digitally photographed and artistically crafted to visually illustrate Dr. Rosengarten’s groundbreaking theory and vision for an expanded Major Arcana. Visit his web site at www.artrosengarten.com

Alexandra Genetti, author and illustrator of The Wheel of Change Tarot gave the participants an astronomy lesson using the Sun and Moon Tarot cards. With a background in sacred geometry, she also attempted to make sense out of the numbering system in this centuries old system of cards. More on her website at www.wheelofchange.com

Diana L. Paxson, is the author of Taking up the Runes as well as the Chronicles of Westria and nine historical fantasies, including The White Raven. In the past few years Runes have taken their place beside Tarot, I Ching and other divinatory systems. Ms. Paxson held participants spell bound as she described the history and uses of Runes as a tool of divination. She used sticks of fruitwood inscribed with symbols to show how ancient Germans cast them to seek omens for the future. She demonstrated that Runes can be used in a number of ways as they are cast, laid out and interpreted. Diana’s new book, Taking up the Runes will be on the market early this summer.

The “Final Foolery” was Thalassa drawing numbers from a basket to raffle off several fabulous prizes. And then it was over.

Hours later, myself and several of the presenters gathered at Thalassa’s room at the Cathedral Hill Hotel for an evening of frolicking fun and great conversations.

Artist Alexandra Genetti’s image at the beginning of this essay is from her Wheel of Change deck. This Color Wheel card is included as a “Makers Mark.”

In early Renaissance Tarot, the artist included another card like the two of disks or some such card. This extra card was called Makers Mark and included a reference to the artist. Alexandra states, “The card shown is my personal symbol. One of my magical names is "Colorwheel" and the symbol on the card is my mark which refers to me. I connect with the color wheel partly because I am an artist and also because I am an Astrologer (always a skeptical one though!). The color wheel represents the circle of the Zodiac and therefore the inherent individuality of all people and all nature. The wheel symbolizes how we are all a part of a contiguous circle - a positive form of how we all contribute to make up the world. The color wheel also represents the passage of the seasons and refers then to the passage of an individual life through its seasons. As an amateur astronomer, I teach Celestial Mechanics - sun & moon' and planet's passage through the sky over one years time - so this part of the symbol really connects for me too.” www.wheelofchange.com

The next SF BATS will be Saturday, October 22 in San Francisco, location to be announced later. There will be at least 14 speakers. The speakers currently confirmed are Mary Greer, Joseph Martin, Cynthia Giles (author of Tarot: History, Mystery & Lore"), Waite deck expert Holly Voley, and Tarot artist Arnell Ando and Toni Gilbert, RN.  Among those unconfirmed at this time is Leigh McCloskey, the author of the remarkable book, Tarot ReVisioned.

Look to the Events section of the Alternative Journal of Nursing for updated information as it becomes available.