Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
Who We Are Now
We are constantly changing, and always being changed.
One of the most gratifying comments I heard from a few people at the end of this weekend’s online conference, StaarCon, was this.
I am not the same person I was at the beginning of the weekend.
Of course, what people meant by this was that they had found the experience transformational (in a good way).
Truly, every experience is transformational, one way or the other.
Right now, virtually every society on Earth is being transformed by a variety of circumstances.
Very often, what is happening may be beyond our control. Yet, the way we let ourselves be transformed is often something we can direct.
We can always choose growth. We can always choose healing.
We can’t always choose the things that happen. All we can do is allow ourselves to transform in the best ways possible given the circumstances. Then, we can discover who we have become, and move forward.
We can’t worry about who or what we might have been. We can only celebrate who we are now, and look toward what we might next become.
The StaarCorner
StaarCon 2021 Online was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who attended, everyone who presented, and everyone who worked behind the scenes to make it a wonderful conference.
We are already making plans for StaarCon 2022, which will be held January 21-23. Mark your calendar now!
If you missed us live you have a chance to watch the session videos. Visit the website for the details.
Join Us for Tarot Class on Zoom
On Thursday, February 18, 7 to 9 pm EST, join me on Zoom for a special tarot class,
Tarot Readings for Personalities and Relationships.
How do tarot cards speak of people, their personalities and their relationships? How can we use tarot to better understand ourselves and each other?
In this class you will learn how to give helpful relationship readings and couples readings, and how to determine the nature and needs of an individual simply by understanding the cards that appear for them.
This special Valentine’s Day inspired tarot class is appropriate for readers of all levels of experience.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now!
Your Daily Tarot Significator
In tarot, a significator can be a number of different things, but it always comes down to one thing. A significator is a card that signifies a particular person.
Here is a daily one-card tarot practice to help you understand, in each day, who you are now.
Simply ask the cards this question.
Who am I today?
Pull one card at random and interpret it within the context of the question. How does the card describe who you are today? What can you learn from this about tarot? What can you learn about yourself?
The Week in Review
This past week I spent most of my time involved with our very successful first conference, StaarCon.
I am now returning to my normal schedule for live broadcasts on Facebook. You can look for a new schedule of classes and meetups on my YouTube channel for February very shortly.
From Around the Web
We had some wonderful presenters at StaarCon. Check out some of their online offerings.
Here are some free meditations with Mitchell Osborn.
Here is a tarot spread from Jenna Matlin.
Here is a blog about women’s empowerment from Madame Zee.
Cards for Your Consideration
An interesting card to consider when we think of who we have become is the Six of Cups.
The Six of Cups deals with the past, and the way we process our past.
When we think about who we are now, we must think about what made us that way.
The Six of Cups often speaks of that process of remembering the past, honoring the past, and reminiscing of the past. Surely the Six of Cups can also speak of the ways we have been shaped by the past.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 4
January 27, 2021
Celebrating StaarCon
This week we are celebrating our first-ever tarot conference!
StaarCon begins this Friday.
The idea for StaarCon began more than two years ago. Our goal was to produce an annual tarot conference in South Florida, to be held each January. Of course, current circumstances have forced us to move our first event to an online only platform.
We have chosen Accelevents to be our conferencing platform. We are pleased with how robust and interactive this platform is!
One thing many of us learned during this past year is how important our online connections are. Most of us have enjoyed a Zoom birthday party or visited with friends via FaceTime.
We know that attending an online conference is not the same as being there, but it certainly is the next best thing.
The second annual StaarCon is scheduled for January 21 through January 23, 2022, to be held as a hybrid event. We will be in person at the Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and streaming live online on the Accelevents platform.
Tickets for this weekend’s conference are still available. If you haven’t yet gotten yours, here are some things to consider.
We are proud and pleased to have some of the best teachers and authors from around the globe presenting at StaarCon 2021, as well as some exciting fresh new talent.
StaarCon 2021 includes a full online psychic fair, with readers and exhibitors. You can shop for card decks, books, and other wonderful items. You can have a reading with our many talented readers.
Our lounges will open for networking and conversation, using video and chat.
All classes included with your ticket package will be recorded and available for you to watch for thirty days after StaarCon 2021 ends, on Accelevents.
We will also have discussion groups, ceremonies and entertainment!
You can visit the StaarCon website to learn more, and to get your tickets. If you have any questions, please call or text me at 561-655-1160.
The StaarCorner
The last episode of StaarCast features a fascinating conversation with Frank Kwiatkowski. If you want to know about how Frank finds spiritual healing, awakening, and Beatles songs with tarot, you must listen to this episode!
You can watch the video on YouTube, or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
I am Available for Readings
So many people are asking me if I am busy this week in preparation for the conference. The truth is, I have been busy all year in preparation for the conference!
That means that, until the conference begins on Friday morning, I am still available to work with you.
We can do your reading by phone, Skype, FaceTime or Zoom. You can book directly on my website or call or text 561-655-1160.
If you haven’t yet gotten your New Year reading, there is still plenty of time to see what is around the corner, and to set your intentions and make your plans for a year of growth and success!
The StaarCon Mission
Here are the goals for StaarCon, for now, and for the future. These are good goals for us to embrace in our personal lives as tarotists, as well.
Educational Excellence
We will provide you with a true educational opportunity. Wherever you are in your journey as a tarotist, diviner or spiritual seeker, we want to help you get to the next level of understanding and confidence in your practice. We will do this by offering great teachers, and a variety of classes that are immersive, experiential and informative.
A Broad Scope of Topics
We are a tarot convention. Yet, those who love tarot enjoy many important mystical topics. At StaarCon you can learn about many types of cartomancy and divination, as well as spiritual practices from a variety of cultures.
Community Fellowship
We will create an environment that fosters the growth of community, as well as personal growth. At StaarCon you will make new friends, expand your network, and renew longstanding connections. The fellowship created by the study of sacred art and spiritual symbolism is like no other.
Appreciation of Our Artists
We will shine a light on the artists of tarot and cartomancy. It is through the inspiration and talent of our artists that we are able to connect with Universal wisdom in our divination practices. At StaarCon you will have an opportunity to meet some of our most treasured artists, and to appreciate their creations.
The Week in Review
This week I took a deep dive into the Justice card of tarot on my blog.
As we look toward February, there will be an entirely new schedule of free tarot meetups and classes on my YouTube channel. Plan to join us there!
From Around the Web
Check out a few of our StaarCon presenters!
John Hijatt has a Runic View of 2021 for us. He will be presenting about Bindrunes this weekend.
Marion Kirk has a great YouTube channel. She will be presenting about the connection between tarot and music.
Toni Puhle is the founder of the World Divination Association. Did you think tarot was the only tool for divination? Check out the wealth of possibilities beyond tarot!
Toni will be presenting Kipper Cards at StaarCon.
Cards for Your Consideration
This week, in celebration of StaarCon, it is time to consider all the cards, and all the ways we use them.
I got an oracle deck for a friend as a present. Her question to me was, “How do I use these?”
The great thing about oracle decks is that no prior skill or knowledge is needed. You can simply pull a card for reflection and focus.
Tarot can require study and can offer a lifetime of exploration and learning. Yet even a novice can find wisdom in a card they are seeing for the very first time.
Systems like Lenormand and Kipper often offer more fortune-telling than inspiration, yet can be fun, thought-provoking, and accurate.
There are also rune cards, and other types of cartomancy. One can even do readings with a regular deck of playing cards!
To be able to shuffle a deck of cards in divination is to invite the universe to speak with us.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 3
January 20, 2021
How Art Heals
Creativity is for everyone, and heals everyone.
It takes a specific kind of talent to be any sort of artist on a professional level. Yet, even the most unskilled and untrained amongst us can have a great appreciation for art created by others.
And, within all of us at least a bit of creativity resides. Whether or not we possess the skill of a professional artist, dancer, writer, sculptor, or musician, we can all experience the healing that art brings. This is true in a number of ways.
We experience healing when we enjoy the beauty of art. This is the healing that art brings us in its simplest form.
We experience healing when we work with the utility of art, perhaps wearing a handmade piece of clothing or divining with a lovely oracle.
We experience healing when art inspires us and causes us to find a new perspective or idea.
We experience healing when we can harness our own creativity.
All children draw, dance, and sing, without worrying about whether they are good at it or not. When we can approach creativity with the joy of a child, we find healing.
As adults, it takes courage to play with art. When we can refrain from worrying about whether we are good at art and, instead, think about how art is good for us, we find healing.
The StaarCorner
Here are some great ways you can learn more about StaarCon and support a new annual tarot conference.
Like our Facebook page, and ask to join our Facebook group.
Subscribe to the StaarCast YouTube channel.
Donate to the StaarShine Scholarship Fund.
Email me to become a sponsor of StaarCon.
Check out our planned agenda.
Visit our online psychic fair and exhibition hall; you can shop here and having a reading during the conference!
And, of course, get your ticket now!
Countdown to StaarCon
StaarCon is now less than two weeks away! Since this newsletter is about art, I wanted to share the part of our StaarCon mission statement that speaks of our need to honor our artists.
It reads, “We will shine a light on the artists of tarot and cartomancy. It is through the inspiration and talent of our artists that we are able to connect with Universal wisdom in our divination practices. At StaarCon you will have an opportunity to meet some of our most treasured artists, and to appreciate their creations.”
As the StaarCon 2021 Online agenda has come together, I notice that we have a few tarot performance art pieces as well. The Tarot Show with Kate Mura is a great example of tarot performance art. We will also enjoy Tarot Improv with Mitchell Osborn, and a tarot-reading themed play by David Victor.
It seems that as we set our mission to honor tarot art and artists, we have inspired tarot creativity in multiple ways.
It’s not too late to get your ticket for StaarCon.
Tarot Poetry and Collage
Would you like to explore your creativity and deepen your understanding of a particular tarot card?
Here are two ways you can do that. One involves words and the other, images.
Tarot poetry is any poetry written about tarot, or a specific tarot card. For this exercise, choose one tarot card. You can do this simply by picking a card at random. If there is a card you are struggling with, you might want to choose that one. Or, if you are going through a particular personal issue and there is a card that speaks to you about that issue, pick that card as the basis for your poem.
Remember that a poem can be any series of words that conveys meaning and feeling. It can have rhyme and meter, or not.
Take the card you have chosen and breathe with it for a few minutes. Then, start writing about it. What does it make you think of? What does it make you feel?
Let those thoughts and words become a poem about the card.
How does that poem help you understand the card?
How does that poem help you understand yourself?
These days, we can do collage the old-fashioned way with scissors, magazines, greeting cards, paper and glue. Or we can use our computers and create digital collage. Either way, this is another fun and creative exercise that will help us understand tarot and understand ourselves.
Pick a card as described above and make a collage to represent that card. Pay attention to how you feel while you are involved in the artistic process.
See how creating this collage expands your understanding of the card. See if this process feels healing, joyful, fun, or even enlightening for you.
In a way, we can all be tarot artists!
The Week in Review
This week my blogpost is also about tarot art. Read “Tarot Art is More than Pictures.”
Join me on my Facebook business page, my YouTube channel and the StaarCon Facebook page for regular livestream events.
From Around the Web
Here are posts from some of our StaarCon presenters.
From Nancy Hendrickson, AKA Nancy SageShadow, When the Wheel of the Year Turns, So Do I. This is particularly apropos for StaarCon since Rose Robinson will be doing a presentation about Tarot and the Wheel of the Year.
Take a look at Benebell Wen’s latest tarot art!
Mary K. Greer writes about the Tarot Fours and the K-Pop group BTS.
Cards for Your Consideration
I seem to ask us to consider Temperance quite often. Perhaps that is because it is one of my favorite cards. Perhaps, thought, it is because Major Arcana 14, Temperance, asks us to blend so many things together to find perfect solutions.
Temperance is associated with the element of Fire. In some decks, it is literally renamed “Art”.
Temperance begs us to be creative in all ways.
So often, when we see Temperance in a reading, we think only of balance. To get the true energy of Temperance we need to see the creativity inherent in the process the card portrays and advises.
Temperance wants us to carefully blend things together to create something wonderful. This may describe a literal process of creating art. Or it may describe the art of living creatively.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 2
January 13, 2021
Seeking Clarity
When we are clear about who we are, the world makes more sense.
As we begin a new year, we like to have clear vision for the months ahead. We like to have an expectation of what is coming. We like to have goals. We sometimes make resolutions about changes we want to make in our lives. The new year inspires us to begin new things, find new ways, and seek greater clarity.
Over this past year it feels as though clarity has been hard to find because we have all been facing new and unknown things. That makes our dedication to seeking clear truth, thought, and vision even more vital.
We need to be clear about our intentions as we move forward into a new year. We need to be clear about our skills and resources as we work to create our stability. Maybe most importantly, we need to be clear about what we know and what we trust.
Perhaps the most important aspect of clarity is the ability to see oneself clearly. So often we see ourselves through a lens of low confidence. Sometimes our understanding of ourselves is distorted by expectations, either our own or of those around us.
Meditation, divination and self-reflection are some of the best ways to find our own personal clarity. From there, it is easier to make sense of the world.
The StaarCorner
Our last podcast of 2020 was a blast! I was all set to interview Amie Mouser, who is our podcast producer and also a presenter at StaarCon. She shared with us a clear agenda for her exciting presentation, which is about using the power and cycles of the moon in manifestation work.
Then she turned the tables on me and asked me some questions about my Preconference Intensive, Operational Tarot. Make sure you check out Moon Manifestation and Tarot Operation with Amie Mouser. You can watch it on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
StaarCon is this month, so get your tickets now!
Countdown to StaarCon
It’s hard to believe that, after all these months of planning, StaarCon will happen this month. Making the pivot to an online conference for our first event has been challenging, but I think you will find the result is amazing. We are offering four tracks of classes, five discussion groups, three tarot art performances, a full-scale psychic fair and exhibition hall, and more.
We have more than thirty presenters ready to inform, enlighten and inspire you.
If you have questions about StaarCon, please call or text me at 561-655-1160, or email me.
It is time to get your tickets for this amazing event. Remember that all classes will be recorded, and you will have thirty days to view them after the event.
StaarCon begins on January 22 and ends on January 24. Please plan to join us!
Clarity about Clarifying Cards in a Tarot Reading
In tarot, there is a practice of using a clarifying card. The problem is that a lot of readers do not have clarity on what this means and how to use it.
In a tarot reading, each card clarifies other cards that appear in the same spread. What does that mean? It means the way we interpret every card can be modified and understood when we take into account the cards that surround it.
Why, then, would we need a specified clarifying card? The answer is, we often don’t. Often the card that is designated as a clarifier offers very little clarity.
There are times, however, when a clarifying card is worth its weight in gold.
I feel the best use of such a card is as follows.
Do not use a clarifying card by rote. Only draw one if it is needed.
When do you need a clarifier? You need a clarifier when a particular card has you stumped. What you need to do is either formulate a question about that card, or simply ask, “What are you trying to tell me?” and pull a card in answer. That card should clarify the meaning of the troublesome card for you.
For more information about clarifying cards, and other ways to use them, read this blogpost I wrote about the topic a few years ago.
The Week in Review
This week my blogpost is a reflection on some things I learned in 2020.
Join me on my Facebook business page, my YouTube channel and the StaarCon Facebook page for regular livestream events.
From Around the Web
Not only is it a new year, it is a new month. Symbolic Living has your tarotscopes!
Susan Miller has your astrology forecast.
Theresa Reed’s Hit List comes out at the beginning of every month. It is always a great read.
Cards for Your Consideration
Which tarot card speaks most about our search for clarity? Since we very often use tarot in that search, we might find a way to let each of the seventy-eight cards speak to us of clarity.
One of my favorite cards to speak of the eternal search for truth and clarity is the High Priestess.
In a reading, the High Priestess can speak of many things. She is the card of perfection, balance, wisdom, intuition, and the subconscious. We say that she travels beyond the veil and knows the secrets of life and death.
That she is a keeper of such knowledge makes her a source of truth.
Very often her message to us that that we can only find the truth we seek by searching within ourselves.
When the High Priestess appears, she may be beckoning you to sit in silence and look within to find your inner visions, and to seek your inner truth. It is in that process that we find clarity.
Upcoming Events and Tours
Card and Craft Academy
Classes presented by Christiana are available right now at Card and Craft Academy!
Christiana’s Candle Magick
Christiana’s Eleven-Card Celtic Cross
Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana
The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane
Practical Tarot Techniques
Psychic Tarot
Personal Tarot: Reading for Yourself
Sharing Wisdom: Reading for Others
The Meaning and Magic of Tarot Reversals
Journey Through the Major Arcana
Your Journey Through the Minor Arcana: Numbers, Elements and Truth
Tarot Beyond the Veil
Your Journey Through the Tarot Court
Tarot Stories, Trends, and Blends (New)
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 4 Issue 1
January 6, 2021