Saturday at the UK Tarot Conference 2018

Saturday started much too early, but it was worth getting up for the second day of the 2018 UK Tarot Conference! (If you haven’t already, you can read about Friday’s program and events in this post.) In addition to all the wonderful people who attended Friday, several joined us for Saturday, including the lovely Louise of Priestess Tarot, another friend I’ve not seen since the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) conference many years ago!

Benebell Wen opened with “Tarot and the Four Pillars: Divining for Self-Empowerment.” As with Friday’s presentation, this was a guided journey through a complex Tarot reading based on the Four Pillars: To Do, To Dare, To Know, and To Keep Silent. 

Cards were drawn and aligned with selected Major Arcana cards, adding a richness to the reading and once again giving me so much to think about—especially so early in the morning!

There followed a break with much-needed caffeine and a treat (the cutest miniature pastries—also delicious!). Thus refreshed, we returned for a talk by Cilla Conway, creator of the Intuitive Tarot:

Cilla spoke on quantum consciousness, which was fascinating. Cilla had us do a spread to help us open our minds to new levels of awareness. My final card was the Page of Swords, which Sue, my reading partner, suggested as “the beginner’s mind”—try to abandon preconceptions and see things in a new way. Excellent advice, and yes, that’s more than a bit of a challenge when approaching Tarot, something I’ve been doing almost my entire life!

I retreated to my hotel room over the lunch break to meditate and process the energies and ideas from the morning sessions. Jet lag and insomnia are a wicked combination, and I really needed that time to sort myself out so I could focus during the afternoon sessions. Sadly, it meant missing the presentation by Linda MacLean on Hermetic Kabalah in the middle of the break, but overall, it was the right thing to do in order to ensure I would make it through the afternoon in one piece.

After lunch, Jo Watkins spoke on “The Oracle Within Tarot”—that is, you, as the reader, are the oracle for the oracle. Jo had us examine a series of the Major Arcana cards to discover qualities within those cards that are already within ourselves, and to consider how to develop those qualities to strengthen those qualities and develop as readers.

Another break for tea (yay, caffeine!) and treats, and then Rachel Pollack rounded out the day with “What Do You Do If You Ask for a Vision of Your Soul and You Get the Devil?” The Devil is the power of desire, which is necessary for life (very basic—if you don’t desire food, you won’t eat, and you would die of starvation); the problem is when desire is indulged to excess (you desire food, you eat too much, and you develop health problems). The Rider-Waite-Smith Devil is often interpreted as addiction, or an inability to change; however, Rachel asked us to consider the question, “Are you really trapped, or are you trapped only by your unwillingness to change?” when the Devil comes up in a reading. Framed that way, it may help the client find perspective on the situation—or they may go into denial. Sometimes, the client isn’t ready to hear the message, no matter how loudly the cards speak.

Rachel also led us through an exercise in contemplating what the secret of each card is. If you have trouble with a particular card—for example, the Tower card—shuffle the deck and pull a card to help you understand the secret of the troublesome card. In this exercise, we drew the Three of Pentacles:

The message comes across that, while you may work hard and do your part, there is much beyond your control that will also affect the situation; do your best, and understand that it still may not work out. That doesn’t mean you failed, or did badly; it simply means that the things you couldn’t control had more effect than the things you could control.

And, suddenly, it was 5:30 PM, and the day and the conference were done! Kim did the closing honors, and offered lovely thanks and compliments all around, and then we were off to the four winds, headed back to whence we had come—or, in my case, off to dinner with Rachel for a chance to catch up!

The next UK Tarot Conference London will be October 11 – October 12, 2019, and feature (among others) Mary K. Greer and Caitlin Matthews —mark your calendar!