Most of my participation is now on the sister site of this blog, the Tarot History Forum. Please join us there for discussions on all aspects of Tarot History.

http://forum.tarothistory.com/index.php

by Robyn Tisch-Hollister

Each card of the Minute Tarot is unique – it was drawn and colored in just five minutes to help the artist overcome a creative block. The full 78 cards were completed in just over nine hours to make a charming and very usable set in the Rider-Waite tradition.

• Size: 3.75″ x 2.5″
• 78 Cards
• Title Card
• Silk Bag in Assorted Colors
• Mini Sand Timer
• $40

Buy your copy of the Minute Tarot in the Tarot Connection Shop

A wonderful interview by two of the most influential people in tarot today.

Jean-Claude Flornoy has been restoring historical decks for many years now, and with the release of the 78 card Jean Dodal Tarot, another product of a master cardmaker is finally available to tarot enthusiasts.

Enrique Enriquez is one of the most notable writers on the 21st century uses of tarot. He wrote part of the introduction to the new Flornoy Dodal, and here interviews Jean-Claude in a perceptive and surprising interview.

Enjoy…

http://www.tarot-history.com/Enrique-Enriquez/pages/itw-EE-15-02-2010-eng.html

Here’s a very short video from the printer of the deck being printed…

Jean Dodal Tarot by Jean-Claude Flornoy

It’s almost here!

I’ve spoken with the Flornoys, and am pleased to share that the printing has been a great success and we are now in the final stages of completion before the new Jean Dodal 78-Card version by Jean-Claude Flornoy is available!

I’m terribly excited about this.

As some of you know, I was to be asked to help design the box for the deck, and Roxanne Flornoy told me today that she is sending me a sheet of the unfolded box, along with some uncut sheets from the deck, so I’ll finally get to see the cards all of their glory. :-bd

I’m not positive, but it feels like they’ve been working on it since just after they finished the Noblet, so that’s almost two years now? I’m sure everyone who owns one of their decks can confirm that one of the hallmarks of their work is the painstaking attention to detail and their authenticity, and I know that the time has been well spent making sure that this restoration of the Jean Dodal sets the standard at the highest level.

Here’s a sneak peek at the box, although the colours will have been perfected at the time of press, so enjoy… with caution.

For Shame: The Hanged Man

This is one of my least liked tarot card trumps. I’m not sure it’s anyone’s favorite given its uncomfortable depiction of torture, but my main beef with this card is not only does it tell me that what I want requires a very long wait, but in the meantime I’m not going to be enjoying that wait. Unlike the Star that also depicts that my goal is afar off, this card says the intervening time is pretty much going to suck for me, though I will learn a lot from it. Bah. Take your life lesson and hang that from a tree, ok?

To even attempt to understand the meaning of this Major Arcana card, one really does need to get the historical perspective. Times have most certainly changed since the creation of Tarot and this card references something that people of the 1500’s would have readily recognized that we in the 21st Century have no current context. Well, we do, but not in this manner. This picture of a man hung upside down by one foot is what was known in Italy as a pittura infamante, a defaming portrait. It was used as a kind of rag publication that showed thieves, traitors, those guilty of bankruptcy or fraud in this punishing position and displayed in centers of public view. Those paintings weren’t literal, in that the depicted victims were not actually hung in this manner but were shamed by the portrait. They were akin to our political cartoons except that they were approved and even requested by the municipal civil authorities as a form of public punishment. They began to lose popularity when they began to be appreciated more as an art form, like the political cartoon, rather than be seen as a form of punishment. The intended effect, shame, was lessened, and the practice diminished. (read the full post)

Ginny Hunt

Ginny Hunt is a Professional Tarot Reader from Maryland. Her interest in the spiritual and metaphysical has been a lifelong passion. She has been a practicing counselor, both professionally with adolescents and para-professionally as a volunteer with abused women. She offers professional reading services through 78 Notes to Self.

Music Credits

• 78 Notes Music: Winter Moon by Rhonda Lorence from Winter Moon (Magnatune)

With Dena DeCastro and Storm Cestavani

http://www.tarotconnection.net/handouts/LeisasNotesElements.pdf

Leisa ReFalo and Dena DeCastro join Storm to discuss the difference of the elements in different traditions. Whether you are an Astrologer, Taroist, or a Psychotherapist the elements of fire, earth, air, and water are used to describe certain areas of life, personality temperament, and modes of expression. Join this group of experts for an enlivened discussion and find out how understanding what mode of expression you most associate with can provide you with startling insight into your life. Example readings will be provided for further understanding.

Dena DeCastro & I talk about Saturn and Saturn Transits and do a reading based on these themes.

Saturn Notes by Dena DeCastro

Saturn

Ruler of Capricorn

Ancient Ruler of Aquarius

Your Natal Saturn:

Saturn in the natal chart is the function within us that makes it possible for us to develop discipline and maturity.  Saturn’s house and sign placement indicate where and in what way you are to enact your earthly responsibilities, and where a sense of duty lies.

Saturn Transits:

Saturn times are times in which we are invited to step into a role of authority and maturity in our lives.  We must learn to choose decisively and act upon our decisions.  We are asked often to shoulder more responsibility, and perhaps “toughen up” in the area being touched by the transit.  There are no magical solutions available, nor any “get out of jail free” cards during this season.  A Saturn transit offers the lesson of facing reality head on.  The gift of this time is in learning that you actually can do it.  A successful integration of Saturnian medicine shows you that you are more mature, wise, and capable than you thought possible.  This leads to a sense of accomplishment, and the strength to move forward.

Spread

Invoking Saturn Spread

1. Combat Inertia
2. Conquer Fear
3. Seek a Solution
4. Set Goals
5. Get Organized

Resources:

• Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain
• Astrology, Magic and Alchemy in Art
• Astrology for Dummies
• THE MINCHIATE TAROT The 97–Card Tarot of the Renaissance, Complete with the 12 Astrological Signs and the 4 Elements
• Saturn in the Signs from Always Astrology

Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Music Credits

• Opening Music: The Oracle Speaks by William Wilde Zeitler from Elegy for Atlantis
• Closing Music: Transition Music: Saturn, the Prime Mover of the Spheres by William Wilde Zeitler from Music of the Spheres

Play or Download the Episode

(I was a guest on the Storm Cestavani Show)

Original Air Date: 10/22/2009 10:00 AM
All The News That’s Fit to Predict!

Radio has Ryan Seacrest, Television has Oprah, and Tarot has Leisa ReFalo. Leisa is the owner/operator of The Tarot Connection and has the most successful Tarot Podcast on the Internet. She will join Storm and Robin to discuss The Tarot Connection’s latest release “All Hallowed Tarot,”. Also, we will be giving away decks throughout the show! You can listen to Leisa’s wonderful podcasts by going to http://www.tarotconnection.net.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/StormCestavaniShow

Barbara Oliver

I was born and raised on the Jersey shore, where I enjoyed a life of sun and surf.  I was always aware of the fact that I was a “tad different” then most of the kids that I hung around with, when I would challenge them on their thoughts or tell them what they were thinking.  I was promptly labeled “freak.”  LOL.  At 16, I began watching the soap opera Dark Shadows and was fascinated with the character Magda the Gypsy and her skills as a card reader.  Of course, I knew these were fake readings for the script, but I became intrigued with the cards that were being used.  Once I got enough money together (in those days, a tarot deck cost about $10.00), I bought two decks; a Swiss IJJ and a Rider-Waite Smith.  I quickly put aside the Swiss and concentrated on the Rider-Waite-Smith and started a notebook with my thoughts on the cards because trying to read the Little White Book, you needed a magnifying glass.  Once I started, I never looked back.  That was 40 years ago.

You can contact Barbara on Facebook. This picture is of her beloved cat (RIP) Ginger, aka Mushie-mushie, aka Poochie-poo, aka Booga.

Reading One: How will this go?

Subject, Verb and Direct Object

Reading Two: Should I Offer Assistance to a Friend?

Music Credits

• Opening Music & Transition Music: Narcissus by Queenie from Dream of Flight
• Closing Music: Under the Boardwalk by  by Bob Rowe from The Podsafe Music Network

Play or Download the Episode

O-M-G by Ginny Hunt

I know you know at least one. I know you’ve probably even been one at some point, though it may be embarrassing to admit. At least once and probably many more times you have made that proverbial mountain out of a molehill. You Drama King/Queen! It’s ok, really. I have a side that inclines toward the dramatic. Ok, maybe more than a side. A whole flank of my being perhaps. Enough that a friend of mine, who also relishes the fair amount of drama sprinkled through out her life, will call me out, “O! M! G! You’re being so drama!” At least we recognize it in ourselves and can laugh at it when it rears its entertaining head. This fact makes us decidedly not Drama Queens. The true Drama King or Queen does not accept the fact that he or she is being ridiculously melodramatic nor do they seem aware that they are consistently creating situations that result in exhausting drama for themselves and others. So my friend and I were talking last night when she wondered aloud, “Which tarot card would represent drama?” We had been discussing the Moon card and the dramatic side to that card and the question made us both stop, mid-convo, and mentally rifle through the deck. At first we were rather nonplussed. I said the Fool and Moon combination would make me think “drama” but I wasn’t satisfied with my answer. We continued our conversation and somehow the Ten of Swords was mentioned and she interjected, “There is the drama card!” I laughed, “Oh yeah! For sure!” Talk about over the top, that card screams “Woe is meeeeeee!”(read the full post)

Ginny Hunt

Ginny Hunt is a Professional Tarot Reader from Maryland. Her interest in the spiritual and metaphysical has been a lifelong passion. She has been a practicing counselor, both professionally with adolescents and para-professionally as a volunteer with abused women. She offers professional reading services through 78 Notes to Self.

Music Credits

• 78 Notes Music: Winter Moon by Rhonda Lorence from Winter Moon (Magnatune)

Explore Art and Tarot with professional artists Robert Place & Ciro Marchetti, including what is Beauty, Symbolist Art, and Meaning. The share a few of their favorite decks as well.

Please be warned there were some difficulties with recording. The worst part is on my end with voice distortion. But the episode is mostly a conversation between Robert & Ciro.

Robert M. Place

Robert M. Place is an internationally known visionary artist and illustrator, whose award winning works, in painting, sculpture, and jewelry, have been displayed in galleries and museums in America, Europe, and Japan and graced the covers and pages of numerous books and publications. He is the designer, illustrator, and co-author, with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, of: “The Alchemical Tarot” and “The Angels Tarot“, which are both published by HarperCollins and have received international acclaim particularly for their skillful and illuminating graphics. He is the designer, illustrator, and author of “The Tarot of the Saints” and “The Buddha Tarot“. And, he is the author of “The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination“, which Booklist has said, “may be the best book ever written on that deck of cards decorated with mysterious images called the tarot.” He is currently working on the “Vampire Tarot“, which will be published by St. Martins Press in 2008.

Robert is recognized as an expert on Western Mysticism, the history of the Tarot, and as a gifted teacher of divination. He has taught and lectured at the New York Open Center, Omega Institute, The New York Tarot School, and the World Tarot Congress. He and his work have appeared on Discovery, The Learning Channel, and A&E. He has been a guest on numerous radio shows including The Woodstock Roundtable on WDST-FM, People are Talking on WKZE-FM , and Mystic Musings on KKUP FM.

Together with his wife Rose Ann, he has been creating hand crafted jewelry for over twenty-five years. Their work has been exhibited in the White House, in the American Craft Museum, The New York State Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Delaware Art Museum, The Montclair Art Museum, The Irish American Heritage Museum, the International Wilhelm Muller Competition, (which toured Museums in Germany), Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, England, and in numerous galleries in the United States, Ireland, Britain, and Japan.

• Visit the Alchemical Egg
• Schedule a Reading
• See the Tarot of the 7 fold Mystery

To receive The Restored Temple of Hermes, the free newsletter of the Alchemical Egg, with articles, a question and answer section, and news about up-coming lectures and workshops, e-mailed every other month, send an e-mail to Robert with The Restored Temple of Hermes in the subject line. Also, please let include know what state or country you live in.

Ciro Marchetti

Ciro Marchetti (Florida) is an award-winning artist from the United Kingdom. He studied art in London, followed by a career working in Europe and South America before settling in the United States where he opened a design agency in Miami. In addition to managing his company, Ciro also gives workshops and lectures on digital digital imagery and illustration at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute, and continues to create his own visionary art.

His new companion site for Legacy of the Divine Tarot is launching this month.

• Website: http://www.ciromarchetti.com
• Companion Site: www.legacyofthedivinetarot.com.
• Empress Card: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoSTPd–Nik
• Wands IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX-cFCxPu2U

Available Decks

Music Credits

• Opening Music & Transition Music: Narcissus by Queenie from Dream of Flight

• Closing Music: Fortune Laisse (Attaingnant) by Edward Martin from Art of the Lute in Renaissance (Magnatune)

Play or Download the Episode

After a very long hiatus, I am finishing editing the next episode. In the meantime, please be informed of these new tarots:

All Hallows Tarot

The All Hallows Tarot is a modern, Halloween-themed art tarot featuring goths, ghosts, punks, mediums and more. The images evoke all things mysterious…the idea that on All Hallows eve, strange people come out of the dark, and the veils between worlds and realities tend to melt away…

Drawn on blank playing cards, The All Hallow’s Tarot was originally meant to be a one of a kind thing…sold to some anonymous higher bidder on E-Bay to raise money for the artists mothers medical bills. Now in print due to popular demand.

Pre-Order from the Tarot Connection Shop – $40

Legacy of the Divine Tarot

Exquisitely rich and magical, this new Rider-Waite-Smith-based tarot deck by digital artist Ciro Marchetti takes you into the heart of fantasy. You can use this legacy from ages past to discover what you need for your own life as it guides you toward hope, wisdom, and inspiration.

The companion guidebook, Gateway to the Divine Tarot, presents the author’s interpretation of each card’s significance, along with additional perspectives from experts in the tarot community, including Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone, James Ricklef, and Leisa ReFalo.

I would like to thank Sean Tierseron and Debi Scott for their help as contributing editors. My part of the book would not have been possible under the very tight 4 week deadline without their tireless effort and support.

The Annotated Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery: a Renaissance Magical Tradition

The deck started with Robert Place’s  love of the paintings of the 19th century painter Burne-Jones. Like all magical works, this deck falls in the cracks between common definitions. It can be used as a deck of cards for divination but it is also a book of unbound pages that explains the philosophy and allegory of the Tarot. The written message on each card explains the symbolism and the theme of the card but not necessarily its divinatory meaning. The text is open ended and invites us to contemplate the image on a deeper level.

This deck is also a work of art that is larger than an average Tarot, 8½” by 5½”, and printed on archival rag paper. Each card is suitable for framing. Lastly, it is a deck for meditation or contemplation and each card can be displayed on an easel for this purpose. The Fool and all 21 trumps are represented. There is also a title card, three cards containing introductory text, a glossary of unusual terms, and a card with a chart of the seven ancient planets and their correspondences: 28 cards in all.

Available from the Tarot Connection Shop – $50

hi IM looking for a pshychic or tarot card reader who can help me with some spiritual healing, and give me some advice, if they can email me that would be great

I got a "Career" tarot card readin’ on my celly phoney, and my cards were- Death, Love, and Passion… What in the blue h-ell does this mean?

I have a job interview tomorrow morning and would like to do a tarot reading tonight to see how my day might unfold. What is the best card layout to use for this particular instance?

i am a 16 year old girl who is interested in learning on how to use Tarot cards but i don’t know how to use them but i have heard that their are certain types that a beginner should use please help me if u know ^_^

You can hardly call them the tarot now that they all look different from the original french ones and the subsequent Rider-Waite cards. Do we really need yet another deck of pretty pictures that supposedly say the same things?

As far as I know, I am not psychic, but I would like to purchase a deck of tarot cards and give myself a reading. Do you think that the reading would be accurate, considering that I’m not psychic?

I asked if i will be with someone that i secretly love.The card was the fool,does that mean i would be foolish, my sister is new to Tarot and means the beginning of a journey but she is rubbish??

Is it bad to tell your friends details about your tarot card readings? i read somewhere that what they tell you wont necessarily come true after having told someone…readings are personal and should be kept to oneself is this true? does this mean by me telling my friends what they told me chances are i might have changed the future around? i know the cards aren’t set in stone but im scared i might not get the result im waiting for because i told my friends when they asked.

I just started reading Tarot Cards today. I’m not very good yet and let’s be honest I pretty much just make it up as I go. I’m wondering how much I should charge and if you think it’s a good idea to do readings for my friends and family. Serious responses only please I really think this may be my new calling in life!

Lately I’ve been getting some tarot card readings done concerning my relationship. My partner and I have been having relationship troubles and have been on the verge of breaking up several times. The thing is, all of them point there being a big change in my relationship coming soon and hard decision I need to make or else I’ll end up unhappy. Is it possibly time to say goodbye to my partner and start anew?

Some one gave me a free tarot card reading the other day, it was quite interesting and seemed to account for things that are happening in my life and things that i am trying to make happen in the future. Im quite a skeptical about such things but it did make me raise an eyebrow haha.

Should I believe in this stuff?

The tarot card that speaks about your inner self based on whatever products you use…I’m not sure and I’m sure many people use different methods but I was curious…preferably a psychic with years of experience please