Tarot and cartomancy enthusiasts have been seeing it for decades: the use and cooption of culturally-significant imagery, terminology, so-called “representation”, in the name of commercial profitability. Removing the sacred from its context, “simplifying” it to make it more “accessible” for a general audience, and selling it as some sort of talisman or solution to an undefined problem. As a formal student of Tibetan Buddhism, it pains me to see people selling, buying, and using imagery that the have no context or respect for in ways that it was never intended.
Art & Aesthetics
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Pride Decks for You, Me, and Everyone
First, let me wish you a happy Pride Month, and a wish that you are able to live your life and express yourself, in all your complexities, however you feel comfortable, and feel safe and supported in doing that. I recognize not everyone is in that position right now, either…
How To
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On Inspiration, Creativity, and Learning to Read Tarot
UTarot 2022, custom work created for United Therapeutics Corporation. Art direction and tarot instructions by The Tarot Lady, Theresa Reed; art by Ralph Steadman. Welcome to my very long TED talk on creativity, inspiration, and how we misconstrue learning and skill development for talent. Scroll to the end of this…
Tarot Spreads
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The Tower Bridge Spread: Reading on My Card of the Year
Recently I’ve been enjoying the heck out of a new-to-me channel from Nancy at Hidden Magic Tarot. While our baseline interpretations for some of the individual cards are different, I appreciate Nancy’s practical approach to reading, her fun exercises for practice and play, and her inventive spreads. I was doing…
Art & Aesthetics
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Recolored Historic Tarots
When I first realized that tarot predated the Smith-Waite deck of 1908 I was immediately excited to start collecting historic decks… and then quickly put off by the crude, primary color woodblock style of Tarots de Marseille. After additional research I started to find recolored and redrawn decks that I…
Historic Deck Producers: My favorites and more
When I first started getting interested in historic tarots, I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy reading with them. Over the last 5 years I’ve refined my taste in what I look for and wanted to share my favorites. I’ll talk about why I want my historic tarot esthetics…
Art & Aesthetics
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#TopTenPips : A (mostly) modern review
I like weird pips, and I cannot lie. You other readers can’t deny that when a deck presents asymmetrical pips and some unexpected shapes you get… Sorry about that – just seeing if anyone’s reading the blog. But I do like weird pips: unusual patterns that differ from the traditional…
TarotTube Content: Ideas for a low-buy approach
This post is a response to conversations I’ve been having with friends who have had channels for years. The perennial dilemma of “I’m running out of things to talk about” appears from time to time when you’ve been in a niche for a while. What’s new, other than decks? Sometimes it feels like the answer is “not much”. But I have some ideas.
Sample Readings
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Body, Speech and Mind: A spread for reading third parties
Whether it’s a potential employer, discussion group, volunteer organization, religious gathering, or bowling club, it can be helpful to investigate the connection between the actions, the talk, and the internal attitudes that are present before attending your interview or first meeting.
On Having a Deck Collection
This was an unexpected surprise topic, and it’s been a fun one to consider in depth (thanks to Imogen of Sapling Tarot). I’ve learned a lot from collecting tarot and wanted to share more of my thoughts in a blog post (because a 53 minute video just wasn’t enough!). Most…