American Tarot Association Quarterly Journal - Summer 2012

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Summer 2012
ATA Quarterly JournalSummer 2012

Table of Contents
Presidents Letter
Page 1The Axis of Hexis: An Interview with Suzanne Treister
Page 5CrowStone Oracle
Page 6Tarot Symbols in the Practice of Vastu Shastra by Janina Rene
Page 8Companion Stones: Sustaining the Message of Your Tarot Readings by Nancy Waterstone
Page 11The Contract: An Interview with Jean Hamilton Fford
Page 13Timeless Classics: The Esoteric Scene by Danny Jorgensen, by Sherryl Smith
Page 16Stars & Cards: Tarot-Astro-Almanac for August to October by Elizabeth Hazel
Special Summer Review SectionNew Dimensions in Tarot 2012
Page 20The Hobbit Tarot deck, created by Peter Pracownik and Terry Donaldson
Page 21The Art of Life Tarot deck, created by Charlene Livingstone
Page 22Tarology: The Poetics of Tarot with Enrique Enriquez (DVD)
Page 24The Ghosts and Spirits Tarot deck created by Lisa Hunt
Page 25The Mirror of the Free written by Nicholas Swift
Page 26The Steampunk Tarot deck created by Barbara Moore and Aly Fells
Page 28HEXEN 2.0 created by Suzanne Treister
Page 29The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern
Page 30Learning the Lenormand Cards: A Resource Guide by Donnaleigh de la Rose
Page 32QJ Submission Guidelines
End MatterATA Contact Information
On the Cover
This issue features the Nine of Wands from HEXEN 2.0 by Suzanne Treister. Images depicting scientific, socio-political, governmental, and countercultural movements of the twentieth
century transform the tarot into a forum for exploring the trends in mass population mind control, cybernetics, science fiction, and government and military institutions.
In this space, "one may imagine and construct possible alternative futures."
The Nine of Wands focuses on the origins of the drug culture and the impact of LSD. The
major players in the movement are noted in the psychedelic rainbowTimothy Leary, Allan
Ginsberg, Abbey Hoffman, Aldous Huxley, Tom Wolfe, and related subjects like the Summer
of Love, Acid Rock, Mysticism, and Haight-Asbury. The subtext of this card implies how LSD
can be used to expand the mind, as well as control it.
Cover image is used with the permission of Black Dog Publishing London UK, Hexen2.0 Tarot:
by Suzanne Treister. ISBN: 978 1 907317 65 1. Copyright Suzanne Treister, 2012.
Presidents Letter
It's that time again! How are you doing? When thinking about this letter, I drew the Six
of Fire from the Gaian Tarot. I see this woman dancing around the campfire as the
quintessential free spirit. She's engaged in the passion of the moment. She is doing
what brings her joy.
Something that brings me joy is the amazing people I get to work with on your Board of
Directors. I'd like to introduce you to last year's Member-at-Large who is now your Vice
President of Education.
Cindy Wilson, also known as Olympias, is VP of Education. Cindy has over 40 years of
experience in reading and teaching Tarot. She believes that Tarot is especially useful in
affirmations of happenings and choices in a persons life, as well as giving the seeker
preparation time and warning of upcoming situations. The seeker can then plan and
decide how they will react and not being taken unawares. Cindy began reading professionally in 1999. She took advantage of the anonymity of online in the 1990s and became known as, The Reader of Readers on AOL. Cindy is ranked as a Certified Tarot
Grand Master through the Tarot Certification Board of America. She hosts a weekly
BlogTalk Radio show which in part discusses and demystifies Tarot. Cindy reads at fairs
and conventions throughout the Southwest, from her blogtalk radio show, and privately
by phone.
Cindy is working with our mentoring program. If you want to help others engage in their
passion for Tarot, won't you shoot her an email at vpeducation@ata-tarot.com so you
can get involved? And don't think you can't also ask for a mentor! I know I'm considering finding a mentor for the Marseille-style decks. I would love to delve into them more.
So what's your passion?
Seek joy, y'all!
Arwen
the Greek word hexis means coherence or cohesion, not just understood as a structural
unity, but the source of all qualities in a body. Thus hexis is defined by producing tensional motion in a body or across several bodies. (Lars Bang Larsen, introduction, pp 6-7)
Welcome to the fascinating world of Suzanne Treister, the creator of HEXEN 2.0. This deck is
different than anything youve seen before. Make yourself comfortable and let your mind roam
into the clouds of possibility as you read this interview!
QJ: Greetings Suzanne! Your new tarot deck is
wildly different from other tarot decks in content.
What inspired you to connect with the tarot this
way?
Suzanne Treister: Well Im interested in ways that
things connect. A previous project, HEXEN 2039,
investigated links between the military and the occult. For a while Ive been curious about the tarot
but until recently I hadnt investigated its history or
how it operated. For several years though I had
been working with the idea of alchemical drawings.
I made a series of works which transcribed front
pages of international daily newspapers into alchemical drawings, as a way of reframing the world
as if animated by strange forces, powers and belief
systems, redeploying the languages and intentions
of alchemy: the transmutation of materials and essences and the revealed understanding of the
world as a text, as a realm of powers and correspondences which, if properly understood, will allow man to take on transformative power. So in that
sense making work with and about the tarot was a
natural next step.
QJ: How do you envision people working with or
studying this deck?
ST: I familiarised myself with interpretations for
each of the cards in order to decide which historical
figure, event or
organisation etc. to
use for each, because my intention is
for the cards to be used to look at interpretations of
history and for the imagining of possible futures,
rather than for individual personal readings. I think
this is feasible if the reader or a group of readers
working together are prepared, if necessary, to carry
out a little research into some of the subject areas
they may not already be overly familiar with. The
HEXEN 2.0 book is useful in this sense in that it
maps out broad histories connecting together all the
material featured in the cards as well as additional
information on Macy Conferences attendees as well
as some background reading material in the form of
reverse-drawn book covers, more of which are
online on my website. I have tried to put as much
relevant information into each card as possible and I
guess I have a crazy hope that the sorts of ideas
that might come through a traditional interpretation
using a more traditional tarot in a personal reading
might also apply on a more general level with the
HEXEN 2.0 tarot. At the very least I hope the cards
may have an educational function. Having said that I
sat around last night with a couple of London art
world luminaries and at the end of the evening we
got out the cards and did personal readings which,
due to the nature of the cards, ended up being more
about where these people were in terms of possible
ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 1
conflicts with their personal/

political values, than issues in their
personal/private lives.
QJ: The Tarot is an approximately
500-year old card game that later
became used for divination.
HEXEN 2.0 takes the Tarot in a
new direction. Do you see the possibility of the tarot being used for
new and innovative applications
besides divination?
ST: Yes, I can see its potential to
be used, as I have mentioned
above, as a means towards a discourse on the past, present and
future of the world. Obviously I
havent been able to include the entire universe or
all of human knowledge in the HEXEN 2.0 deck (I
look forward to seeing someone have another go at
that), and I have chosen to focus on selected trajectories of history, but given the nature of the tarot
one could say that a universalism is already inherently implied in the gaps between information provided, the names of the cards, and their traditional
interpretive texts. Im hoping that the cards can provoke unlikely starting points and ways of shortcircuiting preconceptions and ingrained paths of
discussion. The HEXEN 2.0 cards are meant to be
used as a tool, allowing thought to take unexpected
turns and directions and perhaps result in ideas for
positive action in the world. I know to many people
I will sound like a crazed idealist here.
QJ: In one of the introductory essays in the book,
Lars Bang Larsen describes your placement of
unwritten genealogies in an epistemologically
virgin format. The theme of HEXEN 2.0 revolves
around the results of the Macy Conferences held in
New York City from 1946-1953. Please explain to
readers why this event is the anchor of HEXEN 2.0,
and what kind of enlightenment can the individual
seek when examining the deck?
ST: The Macy Conferences, which were

sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in New York, evolved in the aftermath of WWII. They aimed to generate
new connections between engineering,
computing, biology, mathematics, psychology, psychiatry, and all the social
sciences. The Macy Conferences attendees consisted of leading figures of post
-war science and social science, some
of whom had contributed to the construction and use of nuclear weapons,
some of whom went on to carry out CIA
funded military research into the psychological effects of LSD and its potential as a tool for interrogation and psychological manipulation in such projects
as the CIA's MKULTRA program, and
others who later rejected military funding of their
work.
Macy Conferences attendees were responsible for
the development and dissemination of the idea of
cybernetics, the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine, in society and in
individual human beings (Norbert Wiener), as a
model of understanding and controlling the world.
The idea was to avert another world war, and another programme of mass human extermination. But
as with any new scientific theory or invention the
uses of cybernetic ideas have been both positive
and negative and the outcomes are with us now and
ongoing. This in particular is one of the things I had
been thinking about and that I wanted to raise in
HEXEN 2.0 for a broad audience, not just an art
world audience.
Cybernetics is a really hard concept to explain in a
short space because it applies in so many different
ways across numerous disciplines and there is no
single agreed definition, but the American Society
for Cybernetics has a great webpage with diverse
interpretations from a range of scientists. (See:
http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/
definitions.htm)
The main thing to grasp is the idea of a feedback

loop, like that of a thermostat. Information (e.g. the
external temperature) is measured and fed back,
and this feedback affects the running of the machine (or the person) so that a situation of control
or stabilisation can be achieved. It also applies to
the workings of guided missiles. And then there is
second order cybernetics, where the observer is
included in the loop.
The operation of certain phenomena in our present
culture, for example the internet, can be seen in
terms of cybernetic feedback loops and I am interested how these feedback loops enable a certain
type of corporate and government control of society. I am especially interested in how this is going
to pan out in the future. The future doesnt just happen; obviously to a certain extent we engineer it
according to our actions. Even as non-politicians
were not completely powerless. Thats why I like to
keep a look out, I dont want to live in a control society, I dont want a corporation or a government to
know where we all are and who our friends are at
any given point, or to be able to lock us out of our
data if/when the only storage available is on the
Cloud or Intercloud. Id like to work out how to
avoid that happening. We also need to work out
how to carry out collective action without corporate
tools like Facebook. I think we should all take time
to try and see where we might be headed.
losophies of Rationalism and Scientism (drivers of

exploration, science and the economy since the late
1700s) are eroding, or failing as a philosophical
foundation for post-industrial development?
ST: As a philosophical foundation for post-industrial
development they are still performing pretty well for
a lot of people, whilst simultaneously leading all of
us into a potentially disastrous situation in terms of
life on and of the planet, while ironically in terms of
the planet, its the scientists who, realistically, if they
can figure it out in time, might be the only ones capable of finding the solution to it all. In terms of the
erosion of belief in those structures, I dont see this
as a particularly recent phenomenon. Many writers,
thinkers and communities have long advocated a
differently balanced approach to life, but for people
in control, people at the top, it is an understatement
to say that this is usually unworkable, unprofitable
and undesirable. On the other hand, the US military
have flirted with ideas of the occult for some time
but I think they may have given up on it.
QJ: HEXEN 2.0 presents a range of obscured facts,
organizations and individuals that may lead to the
awareness of new truths. Do you perceive new cultural and philosophical paradigms emerging from
the strife and convulsions of the past few decades?
At the same time cybernetics and ideas of feedback loops may hold the key to working out alternative ways forward, possible ways out of impending
global crises perhaps? Some scientists started on
this a while back, for example Stafford Beer, with
his ideas for a factory controlled by the computational power of the Irish Sea, or for the enrolling of
naturally occurring adaptive systems, such as
ponds, into human projects. In 1948 the ecologist
Evelyn Hutchinson talked about circular causal systems in ecology. (1)
ST: I get concerned that many people are retreating

into a kind of retro fetishism; often tokenistic reenactments of aspects of the 1960s and 70s which
may make them feel better but arent necessarily
helping out on a larger scale. Its easy enough to
grow your own vegetables, for example, if you can
afford a place with a garden or a plot of land. Industrialisation may have caused a lot of problems but
technology isnt going to go backwards unless there
is a global apocalypse and all the data warehouses
are switched off and all the military research institutes are shut down. That would be one solution
though, which is explored by members of various
movements such as the Anarcho-Primitivists.
QJ: Youve used a notably occult device to explore

modern strands of human organization. This leads
me to wonder if you feel that the overarching phi-
In 1993 the psychologist James Hillman wrote a
book called, We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy

and the World's Getting Worse.
It would be sad to think that in
100 years time the same could
be said of the way people collect
endless reusable cloth carrier
bags. Clearly that is not going to
solve any of the global financial,
ecological or social messes we
are in. There are new cultural
and philosophical paradigms being thought up out there, Im just
not sure theyre workable, but
here and there people are trying
to do stuff. Clearly we dont want
a new totalitarian system, so
things have to happen on other
levels. I know some people who
have been working on a few
ideas for a while and Ive invited
three of them over to London this summer to talk at
a series of public events.
QJ: Has the progress of Western socio-political
decision-making since the Macy Conferences
served to help society while failing the individual?
ST: Thats a huge question. There are many different types of individual at various levels of empowerment and its not possible for me to generalise.
So many things have changed since then on many
levels. You can start by asking who are the kinds of
people that want to help society and who are the
kinds of people that want to help individuals, and
what might their agendas be. Then you can analyse all of the political systems and government
directives and social welfare, cultural, military, agricultural and educational agendas and methodologies that have arisen all over the Western world
since WW2 and see where you get to. HEXEN 2.0
might provide a possible starting point for that kind
of investigation.
where the writer says, Ive been

using it to ask questions about
the political, social, and economic situations were facing today and have come up with
some truly remarkable readings.
QJ: Do you have any public
events, gallery exhibits, or art
shows in the near future?
ST: Some of the works from
HEXEN 2.0 will be in a show
called Mutatis Mutandis, curated
by Catherine David at the Secession in Vienna from 29th June 29
until 2nd September 2012, and
from July 28th I have organised a
series of events and exhibits
over four consecutive weekends
at Raven Row, an art space in
London. The title of the project is THE REAL
TRUTH A WORLDS FAIR, and more info can be
found at: www.ravenrow.org nearer the time. In
January-February 2013 HEXEN 2.0 will be showing
at P.P.O.W gallery in New York.
QJ: Suzanne its been a real treat. Thank you very
much for giving this interview.
Artist BioSuzanne Treister

was born in 1958 in London. Initially recognized in the 1980s
as a painter, she became a pioneer in the digital/new media/
web based field from the beginning of the 1990s. Treister has
since evolved a large body of work that encompasses drawing,
video, installation and photography. Her practice engages with
eccentric narratives and unconventional bodies of research to
reveal the structures that bind power, identity and knowledge.
Often spanning several years, her projects comprise fantastic
reinterpretations of given taxonomies that suggest the existence
of surreptitious, unseen forces at work in the world, whether
corporate, military or paranormal.
I just saw a write up about the HEXEN 2.0 deck on

the tarot room site http://thetarotroom.com/page/2/
URLS:
http://www.suzannetreister.net/
http://www.suzannetreister.net/HEXEN2/
HEXEN_2.html
Notes:
(1.) "The aspects of ecology to be considered regard primarily the study of the conditions under
which groups of organisms exist. Such groups may
be acted upon by their environment, and they may
react upon it. If a set of properties in either system
changes in such a way that the action of the first
system on the second changes, this may cause
changes in properties of the second system which
alter the mode of action of the second system on
the first. Circular causal paths can be established
in this manner."
HUTCHINSON GE (1948) Circular causal systems
in ecology. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences 50: 221-246.
The Crow Stone Oracle

Heres something new for diviners who like oracle
tools that are solid and tangible: The Crow Stone
Oracle by Robyn Tisch Hollister
Each set is handmade, featuring a symbol and number
painted on glass stones. You get a sense that Robyn
put a lot of thought and effort into this creation.
This oracle is based on old crow counting rhymes.
There are many versions of this old poem, including
one for magpies. The poem goes:
One is a message, two is mirth.
Three is a union, four is a birth.
Five is for riches, six is a thief.
Sevens a journey, eight is a grief.
Nine is a secret, ten is a sorrow.
Eleven is for love, twelve is joy tomorrow.
Thirteen is bad luck, fourteen is danger.
Fifteen is a change of luck, sixteen is a stranger.
Seventeen is for adventure; eighteen is love thats new.
Nineteen is fame and honour; twenty is a wish that comes true.
Each number is translated to a stone that contains a
symbol 9 is Secret and shows a locked chest and key,
15 is Change of Luck and shows a horseshow and four
leafed clover. An additional stone, showing a crow, is
included which can represent the querent, or the unknown.
Robyn does three versions: black, white, and ruby. The
stones are small, come in a little pouch with an instruction booklet.
Available at: http://tarotgoodies.webs.com/apps/
webstore/
Tarot Symbols in the

Practice of Vastu Shastra
by Janina Rene
In the previous issue, we looked at ways that tarot imagery can be utilized in the Feng Shui practice of placing
symbolic images in different sections of a home to activate
different types of good fortune. Vastu Shastra, (also called
Vastu Vidya), is the Indian counterpart of Feng Shui, and
is similar in its concern with the strategic placement of
auspicious images. Here, too, we can think about utilizing
tarot cards, as in Vastu and larger Hindic practice, symbolic designs called yantras are placed on different walls
or in different rooms to evoke the energies of the elements, gods, and planets associated with their sectors.
Yantras may feature geometric designs, magic squares,
and Sanskrit letters; god images and religious icons are also
worked into yantric imagery. The Ashtamatrika [eight
mothers] Yantra (below) invokes aspects of the goddess
Durga for protection.
There actually is a deck of 64 cards called The Yantra
Deck by Karl Schaffner and Maya Deva
Adjani. Though not
specifically oriented to
Vastu Shastra, it includes a few of the traditional yantras, as well
as an assortment of
other designs, coming
out of the creators individual takes on symbolism. The art is
Ashtamatrika Yantra
beautiful, with a color
(The image source is http://
scheme that blends
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Ashtamatrika_yantra.jpg.)
metallic and earth
tones. The cards also
have single keyword
labels, though some users may find this confining. Square
shapes are favored in Vastu Shastra, so the Yantra Decks
4 x 4-inch cards work well for meditation and display.
Other oracle decks based on sacred geometry, such as the
Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck by Francene Hart and the

Sacred Geometry Oracle by John Michael Greer, bring in
a few of the Vedic yantras. I am not aware of any tarot
decks that incorporate Vastu Shastra yantras or concepts,
but some tarot and oracle decks inspired by world religions
include some Hindu god images.
As indicated in the adjoining grid diagram, Vastu Shastra
links different sectors with planets and elements, so any
tarot cards or other sorts of cards with planetary or elemental images or associations suggest themselves here.
NORTH-WEST
NORTH
NORTH-EAST
Adapting to change,
health & longevity
through self-control.
Business matters. MoonChandra and Air, wind
god Vayu
(18)
Mental/physical strength,
prosperity through communication and commerce, protection of
valuables, female children. Kubera, god of
wealth, and Mercury,
Water
Religious devotion,
husband, male children,
success through relationship with mentor.
Vishnu, Shiva, Soma,
Ketu (South Node),
Jupiter/Guru, Water
WEST
CENTER
EAST
Rain after drought

Relief, prosperity, blessings
Saturn/Air
Rain god Varuna
Unity, Brahamastahana
Survey situation
Self as cosmos
Pranic energy, ether
Awareness, life plan,

wealth and pleasure
through intellectual
determination, male
children. Surya/Sun, fire,
Indra, Aditya
SOUTH-WEST
SOUTH
SOUTH-EAST
Karmic responsibility,
High energy and intensity
Husband and wife,
ancestors, ancestral
of feeling.
energy and passion,
challenges, strength of
Mars/Mangal,
physicality, physical
character through purity;
Yama
comforts. Venus/Shukra,
protective measures.
Earth
Agni, Fire
Nirriti, Durga, Uranus,
(30)
Earth, Rahu (North Node)
So, the Sun card is an obvious choice for an eastern wall,

and the Moon could be placed in the northwest. Because
the northwest relates both to the Moon and elemental Air
as represented by Vayu, the wind god, it is concerned with
movement and the forces of change; you might want to
place the Moon card in this quarter when you want to
stimulate movement or change, or when circumstances require you to move with the forces of change. Note, however, that the Moon card can sometimes have negative connotations and imagery, so you would want to choose a version of the Moon that feels positive for you (or the High
Priestess card), in line with what you want to achieve. A
Moon card with an especially airy illustration would be
ideal. For example, in Corrinne Kenners Wizards Tarot,
where the Major Arcana are portrayed as professors at a
magical academy, The

Moon is the professor
of lunar magic, and
shows a woman doing a
dance of invocation.
(Note that Vastu correspondences differ from
those of western astrological lore, where, for
example, we associate
the Moon with water.
This challenges us to
think of correspondences in ways that
provoke new insights.)
so they can all be materially reproduced as magic squares

with different groupings of tarot cards. The southwest is
considered the best sector for the master bedroom, but not
auspicious for general purposes. To balance the energies of
the southwest, and to attract and evoke ancestral energies
and blessings, you could place cards 13, 8, and 15 as the
first row; followed by 14, 12, and 10; then 9, 16, and 11 on
your southwest wall to reproduce the Rahu yantra. (Rahu,
the north node of the Moon, is the ruler of the southwest
in Vedic astrology.) Because the Rahu magic square adds
up to 36, and 3 + 6 = 9 in magical numerology, you could
display The Hermit card. In this context, the Hermit could
designate a room where one can contemplate in peaceful
inward reflection and communion with ancestral wisdom
figures.
In addition to the obvious planetary cards like

The Moon from the Wizards Tarot
the Sun and Moon, the
other Major Arcana can also have planetary associations,
whether through their archetypal symbolism, or through
correspondences that have been assigned to them by different systems like the Golden Dawn attributions. The
archetype of the Hierophant encompasses some of the
astrological qualities of the planet Jupiter, in terms of being an ideal mentor, concerned with high ideals and the
cultivation of the mind. As Vastu associates the north with
both the planet Jupiter (called Guru) and with mentoring, place the Hierophant in this quarter when you want to
attract the right teacher, especially a spiritual teacher, into
your life. In the Golden Dawn system, the Jupiter card is
The Wheel, so you could place the Wheel accordingly.
Because Vastu and its yantras are part of a larger cultural

collection of rituals and lore for bringing auspicious energies into homes and buildings, Indian folkways can inspire
other uses for tarot imagery. For example, the front door,
which has great ceremonial significance in Indian life, is
known as the lion door. This suggests putting a version
of the Strength card featuring a lion on your front door.
This would be all the more meaningful if your front door
happens to face northeast, which is the direction of
strength.
In the previous issue, we looked at the Lo Shu, a magic

square that adds up to 15 and is used in Feng Shui as a
representation of the idealized cosmos. Vastu Shastra uses
nine magic squares called the navrahas to evoke the directional planetary rulers. The navraha that corresponds
to the basic Lo Shu, and in western magic the Kamea of
Saturn, is also attributed to Saturn and the West. A different arrangement of the numbers in this square is applied
to the Sun and the East. The other navrahas add up to
different numbers. Of particular interest is the Moons,
Chandra Yantra, which adds to 18, the number of The
Moon in tarot, and the Venus Yantra, which adds to 30,
and therefore to 3, the number of the Empress, who has
many Venus qualities.
None of the Navraha squares utilize numbers above 21,
Aside from the amuletic uses, when we think seriously

about how we want to use tarot and other magical imagery
in our homes, we think more deeply about how we interact
with and experience our living spaces. This, in turn, generates new insights into our understanding of tarot imagery
and how it plays out in our lives.
Author Bio
Janina Rene is a scholar of folklore, psychology, medical anthropology, the material culture of magic, ritual studies, history, and literature. Her books include Tarot Spells, Tarot Your Everyday Guide
(winner of 2001 COVR [Coalition of Visionary Retailers] award for
best Self Help book), Tarot for a New Generation (2002 COVR
winner, best General Interest Title), and By Candlelight: Rites for
Celebration, Blessing and Prayer (2005 COVR runner-up, Spirituality). Janina continues to work on multiple books, with ongoing research projects exploring the ways folk magic and medicinal techniques can apply to modern problems, including the modulation of
Aspergers Syndrome and other neuro-sensory processing disorders.
Janina offers regular tips on tarot magic and discovery at http://
TarotMagicAdventures.blogspot.com.
By Nancy Waterstone
As Tarot readers, we want our clients to walk away from a
reading with new insight to heal, to grow, or to take action
to redirect their lives toward their dreams. But as time
passes, the same individuals who walked out our door with
newfound resolve begin to drift into old patterns as mindfulness of the readings message fades. How helpful would it
be to send them off with a companion, to be constantly with
them, to remind, support, and nudge them toward their
goal? Stone Companions are an ideal tool for this purpose.
Throughout history, stones have been used as talismans for
luck and protection, intuitive guidance and divination, and
for healing of emotional and physical ailments. Crystals and
stones are finding increasing application in the healing arts
as modern-day practitioners acknowledge the wisdom of the
ancient healers. These qualities of healing and guidance can
be used to supplement the power of the Tarots message.
How does this work? Stones interact with humans through
energy fields which resonate with the human aura and energy meridians. This energy works in multiple forms, via the
minerals crystal lattice structure, the chemical properties
contained within the minerals, and reflected light in the form
of color.
In addition to these properties, belief and mindfulness of
purpose are essential to the successful use of stones. Used in
combination with the Tarot, stones provide a focal point for
the mindfulness needed to act on the Tarots message.
What is left to you, the Tarot reader, is to select an appropriate stone to reinforce the message of the reading.
In our context here, stone is a general term that includes a
pure mineral, a combination of minerals contained in a single
stone, a gemstone, or what some might call just a rock.
For application as Companion Stones, I have found tumbled
stones to particularly useful, as they are easily carried close
to the body, unobtrusively, in a pocket or charm bag. Jewelry made from the recommended stones can also be worn.
Most Companion Stones fall under the category of semiprecious stones. Unlike many gemstones, these are usually
quite affordable, yet can be of great beauty while they give
the desired mineral presence.
So, how do we select the appropriate stone from a Tarot reading? As with all things Tarot, here is where our intuitive guidance comes in. Not all readings indicate use of a Companion
Stone. Yes/no questions or other specifics of that type are
not usually receptive to the influences of Companion Stones.
Readings in which the crucial message can be described as
your mission is to., or which result in an affirmation for
personal growth, are the ones best suited to Companion
Stones. In these types of readings, both the clients question
and the primary message of the reading suggest a change in
behavior, a new way of thinking, or a new focus in ones life.
The Companion Stone is a supportive friend in that mission.
As the central message emerges, the reader can then select a
stone that will be supportive to your clients mission. I keep
on hand several stones of each kind that I work with, and once
the needed stone is identified, I encourage clients to choose
the one that most attracts them. Together, ask for the stones
blessing and support as a companion for the mission at hand.
If you are not already working with stones, you will need to do
a bit of homework to learn about minerals, crystals, and their
related properties. You can begin working with a limited selection that you are comfortable with, and build your collection and knowledge from there. The stones you chose to work
with will be those which resonate with your own perception
about what they can do, which you will develop as you handle
them, meditate on them, and live with them. By using companion stones yourself for your own missions, you will learn
much about their subtle power.
As a beginning, there are many resources which describe
stones for healing and personal transformation. The Informa-
Information Resources
Crystal Power, Crystal Healing, by Michael Gienger
This book takes a more scientific approach to stones than

most others, with specific information on crystal structure, properties of elements, and systematically selecting
an appropriate stone.
The Illustrated Directory of Healing Crystals, by Cassan-
dra Eason - Packed with information, this book includes

good descriptions of the stones, mythology and history,
and associations with planets, zodiac signs, elements, and
more.
The Crystal Healer, by Philip Permutt Descriptive

information is brief, but the book includes very handy
indexes for crystal remedies for physical, emotional, and
spiritual ailments.
Gems of Wisdom, Gems of Power, by Teresa Kennedy
An excellent guide which examines the most important

stones, grouped by mission; protection, creativity, emotional healing, etc. Includes down to earth information
on history, and tips to avoid fakes.
Love is In the Earth, by Melody This is a popular and
comprehensive series, which altogether seems to cover

every rock, mineral and stone under the sun. If you prefer
a purely metaphysical approach, this is the one to look
for. I find its usefulness is limited for selecting companion stones, since there is no indexing by stone properties.
It lists stones only by mineral name.
tion Resources listed above include several that I refer to

frequently. More information is also available on the internet. Be warned the myriad sources on the market will often
differ and sometimes conflict in the properties they attribute
to the various stones. It will be up to you to determine which
stones best address which circumstances, using your own
study and meditative insights. However, there are a number
of stones whose properties are well-documented by history
and by their consistent use across different cultures. These
are a good place to start. The list of Companion Stones on
the next page includes a few of the more well-documented
stones, along with very brief descriptions of their traditional
properties.
The following single-card reading gives an example of a tarot
message which indicates a Companion Stone. The clients
question was, Can you give me some insight into finding a
loving relationship? She had been emotionally isolated for
some time after the painful ending of a relationship. Using the

Gaian Tarot deck, the card which appeared was the Three of
Earth, in the reversed position. The card shows three women
in a country-style kitchen, working together on what appear
to be herbal preparations. They are smiling together and
clearly enjoying their companionship and their task. Working
on the traditional significance of this card of craftsmanship,
partnership, and working together with others to achieve success, combined with the women in the card stirring up something good, the key message was that the client should overcome her current hesitation (the card was reversed) to develop relationships through interaction and cooperation with
others, at work and elsewhere. Thus her mission was to break
out of her isolation, get back into life and interact.
This message suggested use of a Companion Stone which
would support her resolution to get past her previous relationship and open up to new people and experiences. The recommended Companion Stone was Chrysoprase, a green variety
of Chalcedony. Along with its other properties, Chrysoprase is
a stone that is believed to be helpful in healing a broken heart,
giving optimism, creating new opportunities, and most important to this client, giving the impetus to get back into the
mainstream of life following a period of despair. This stone is
a translucent apple-green, often with chocolaty-brown
patches, and can be quite beautiful either by itself or worn as
a pendant.
As you develop your work with Companion Stones, you will
develop favorites for application to various situations: rose
quartz to gently attract love, hematite to bolster self-esteem,
moonstone to enhance intuitive abilities. However, do not get
in a rut! As you work with the stones you will begin to understand more about their subtle properties. As your knowledge
expands, you will find that more than one stone applies to, for
example, mending a broken heart. But you will want to
choose the stone that best fits the combination of situation,
personality of the client, and the clients mission. If more than
one stone can be recommended, let the
client chose from the
possibilities. The attraction a client may
have to a particular
stone is another
method for choosing
the best stone for that
person, for that mis-
sion, at that time.

If you find resonance with stones yourself, then Companion
Stones can easily find a place in your tarot toolbox. Let the
tarot guide you as to the most important mission for your
clients, and then send them off with a gentle companion that
will give them focus and courage on their path!
Author Bio
Nancy Waterstone has worked for over 30 years as a professional geologist, helping humans to live in harmony
with the geologic processes of Mother Earth and to repair
scars of the past. In her 10 years as a Tarot reader and
intuitive consultant, she has incorporated the use of Companion Stones for transformation, growth, and wellbeing. To learn more about Companion Stones, log on to
www.daughterofstones.com.
Popular Companion Stones

Crystalline Quartz: The most omnipotent of healing stones, it applies energy and healing to wherever it is needed most.
Rose Quartz: Gently draws love to its holder.
Fosters unconditional love and helps forgive the
past.
Obsidian: Protects the holder from hostility and
negative emotions of others. Eases the grieving
process and lifts depression after loss.
Tiger Eye: Promotes clarity of vision, both physically and mentally. Helps dispel illusions to help
with sound decision-making.
Rainbow Fluorite: A calming stone, it is good for
focusing the mind to deal with complex issues.
Amethyst: Historically the sobriety stone, it
enhances spiritual and intuitive awareness.
your life - FOREVER!
Heres an interview with Jean

Hamilton-Fford, a novelist
whos creating a unique tarot
deck to accompany her novel
in progress.
QJ: I understand you are

writing a novel based on the
tarot and that you are creating a tarot deck to accompany
the book. What prompted
you to do this?
JHF: The prompt for this project came from a dream. I have vivid dreams that show
me exactly what I need to know for whatever project on
which I may be working. My dreams also answer questions or problems I may be having.
QJ: Did you know anything about tarot before this
dream?
JHF: I began researching tarot this year in March. I
knew Id have to learn everything I could about it to
write credibly and to create a deck. The more I discovered, it became apparent that the tarot includes all kinds
of alternative fields.
QJ: Have you written anything before this novel?
JHF: My husband and I have written several works of
fiction. My love is murder mysteries. This book will be a
little different as it will be written as a combination of
novel and screenplay. That is how it has come to me and
I will honor that unusual format.
QJ: Can you tell us how tarot will be used with the
book?
JHF: The title of the book is The Contract. The accompanying tarot deck will directly impact on the story. The
subtitle of the book is, an agreement that will change
This had a big impact on me because, as a reader, you

inherently understand how the tarot can be used and
how powerful it can be. You make an intuitive and spiritual contract with any deck you use. Querents connect
with tarot readers, rightly or wrongly, to change his or
her life. People look for answers to questions and either
want the cards to tell them what is already known or to
get permission to make a different choice and see something they havent seen for themselves. The Querent
makes an unstated contract with the reader and the deck
when they have a reading. Tarot becomes, in a sense, an
agreement that will change ones life - FOREVER!
To tell you more about the book, at this point, will be giving too much of it away. It is a spiritual mystery in one
sense, a how-to and a whodunnit, in another sense. It is
flippant and serious. It is possibility thinking and limitation breaking.
QJ: How have you learned what you need to proceed
with this project?
JHF: Id like to say its magic and it probably is to some
extent. Ive known about astrology since I was a pre-teen
as my older sister was an astrologer. I grew up on a farm
where Mother Nature taught me loads of things. I was
doing energy work then. My mother encouraged me and
I was raised with possibility thinking. I was introduced
to different religions and, as the youngest of six, my older
siblings shared their own discoveries. I was and am quite
precocious and I have always known that I can do anything if I choose to do it.
I joined some online groups with the hope I could learn
through them and I have, a bit. But they are not running
on my timeline and when you do join in, the methods
used are a bit chaotic and the class sizes are too big. So, I
began researching everything I could myself using books
and online sources. I bought tarot and Lenormand decks
and found the Thoth Tarot to be my cup of tea.
QJ: The Major Arcana cards have verses on them.
JHF: Yes, that was deliberate. Learning tarot is challenging, and the verses on the Lenormand cards are helpful. I
wanted to make a deck that not only had symbolic imagery but also had some help given in the words, especially the Major Arcana. Ive renamed some of the
trumps, court cards and the suits to support the novel.
QJ: Youre using digital art rather than drawing or painting them yourself. Why did you make that decision?
JHF: I made that decision

because of health issues.
My hands are slowly losing
the ability to grip a pencil
or a paint brush. I use digital art and digital software
with a rather thick stylus to
create the art on the cards.
It is all stock images or free
images I find on the web
and I have been known to
create my own digital images as well, if needed.
QJ: So youre creating the
deck, and once thats complete, youll write the book.
How will you use these cards in the book?
JHF: Each card represents a character in the book. The
contract is how they use the card they are given as they
interface with every other character and how they learn
what they need to in order to complete the contract. The
contract challenges each character to deal with and face
the light and shadow side of themselves with respect to
every other character. How this is accomplished and
how peoples lives change forever is the goal of the
book. It is being written to show others how tarot and
semiotics can be used every day to change our lives for
the better. The cards will inform the book as the interactions take place.
QJ: Seventy-eight characters will take a lot of writing.
Will this all take place in one book?
JHF: I dont know. I cant answer that now. I am being
led by Spirit and following my intuition. Ill know more
as it proceeds and gets under way. I hope to be able to
do a follow-up interview in six to nine months.
QJ: Do you already have a publisher?
JHF: No. Im not concerned with that at the moment.
Ive been given assurances that a publisher will come
forward when Im ready. I am trusting this will happen.
I dont know how or when. I just know it will.
QJ: Do you have anything else for us right now?
JHF: You asked me about using Tarot cards as writing
prompts. Im sure it will come as no surprise to you or
your readers that every Tarot card has a story to tell and
no two decks tell exactly the story in the same way.
My blog, Journey through

Tarot, helps viewers understand my use of elements in
the cards and tells the story of
their creation. Im cognisant
that I tell only part of the
story there. I encourage readers to look at the card and tell
their own story with it. What
do they see or how would
they interpret it? This is the
way cards are used when
reading and, unless you are
the creator, it is difficult to
fully know what the card is
about. I give viewers an opportunity to interface if they
choose it and to begin a dialogue.
References for my knowledgebase are varied. The
books I have handy to use are
Lon Milo DuQuettes Understanding Aleister Crowleys
Thoth Tarot, Anthony Louis
Tarot Plain and Simple, Marcus
Katz Tarosophy, Janet Berenson-Perkins Kabbalah Decoder, Max Heindels Cosmo
Conception and various references online dealing with
tarot, runes, gemstones, crystals, virtues, colour, numerology, astrology, animal meanings and semiotics. If I have
a question that I cannot find the answer to, I let it go,
sleep on it and am usually directed to the information I
need.
Beyond this, I am an artist and have my artwork on display at Fine Art America (http://
jean.hamiltonfford.artistwebsites.com). Theres a Facebook page for my art (http://www.facebook.com/
jean.hamiltonfford.artist), and a Facebook page for The
Contract (http://www.facebook.com/pages/TheContract/401324033221501).
My husband and I have written 14 books together and
have published eight of them through Smashwords
(http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jjhf).
Jean Hamilton-Fford
Email: journeythroughtarot@gmail.com
Blog: http://journeythroughtarot.com
Timeless Classics
sen called the cultic

milieu.
The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu, and

Occult Tarot by Danny L. Jorgensen
The first 100 pages

of the book were written for Jorgensen's fellow sociologists. He
explains his research
methods then gives a
fascinating and detailed description of
the demographics and
social structure of what
we would call the "New
Age" scene in his university town. He then
switches to a more conversational and autobiographical tone to talk about his adventures as a tarot reader,
being mentored by a prominent member of the community, participating in psychic fairs, and getting embroiled in the personality conflicts and political feuds
of the community.
By Sherryl Smith
In the mid-1970s, Danny Jorgensen moved to a

city in the southwestern United States where he lectured at the university and became a tarot reader in
order to gather material for his PhD dissertation on
the esoteric scene, a subculture of Americans who
claim to receive knowledge from non-empirical
sources. He assumed he'd have to join a secretive cult
of deluded outsiders. Instead, he found a large pool of
well educated, middle-class people practicing various
healing and divinatory arts while enjoying a complex
and fluid social network of loosely organized study
groups, book stores and psychic fairs, which Jorgen-
Breaking into the esoteric scene wasn't easy in the

mid-70s since there was still a confrontational attitude
between establishment and counter-culture lifestyles,
with a lot of misunderstanding and stereotyping on
both sides. Jorgensen spent much time hanging out at
metaphysical bookstores, asking questions, and acquiring a reputation as a serious seeker. A graduate student who was a witch and tarot reader befriended
Jorgensen and his wife. Jorgensen's wife had a natural
talent for reading tarot and became a professional
reader and teacher within a year. Jorgensen decided to
take up the tarot as well, and use his identity as a serious student to gain entre into the inner circle of the
esoteric subculture.
By the mid-1970s, the younger generation of tarot
readers saw themselves doing counseling and empowerment work, and were very anxious to distance themselves from gypsy fortune-tellers. Their greatest frustrations were clients who refused to take responsibility
for their lives, and clients who did not participate in
the reading but remained passive listeners. Jorgensen
never enjoyed doing readings. He was conflicted between his roles as researcher and practitioner; and
often felt like a fraud. But he felt an affinity for the
scholarly study of occult Tarot and devoted 100 pages
of the book to this topic.
He asserts that occult tarot is a socially constructed human text; an occult language with a grammar and vocabulary. When you interpret a spread you
are reading the text. He provides an elementary dictionary of meanings for the 78 cards drawn from A. E.
Waite, Alfred Douglas and Stuart Kaplan, whom he
considered representatives of mainstream tarot. He
says Tarot makes certain assumptions about the human condition: that there are such things as creativity, spirituality, love, economic activity, a quest for
meaning, moral choices, divine guidance, and an interplay of opposites such as masculine and feminine
or life and death.
Grammar organizes these meanings. Numerical
order is a basic grammar. Other grammatical structures are alchemy and the four elements, astrology,
Kabala and the Tree of Life, and Jungian archetypes.
The Golden Dawn created a very complex grammar
from a synthesis of several basic grammars.
Jorgensen focused his research on discovering how
readers and querents use tarot to acquire the sense
that they have an extraordinary knowledge of reality,
and how they maintain the sense of participating in
non-ordinary reality. He defines a tarot reading as "a
social interactional process whereby a reader interprets past, present and future events commonly for a
querent through the medium of the cards. The querent must participate in this interaction and engage in
interpretation in order to sustain a sense of having
accomplished extraordinary knowledge."
Jorgensen adamantly states that a reading can
only be valid if the querent actively colludes with the
reader in creating meaning. His research focused on
the social interaction between reader and querent
where meanings are created and claims to extraordinary knowledge are sustained. He concluded that
tarot readings are only successful when done for people who already believe in the validity of non-ordinary
reality, who assume divination is an acceptable way
to make decisions, and who can suspend their mundane, scientific world view for the duration of the
reading. The reading will be meaningless to someone
who does not share these assumptions. One-sided
readings, such as an email reading, a reading for
someone who receives it passively, or even a reading
for oneself, are not valid readings. The ideal client is
a stranger who shares the reader's assumptions about
non-ordinary reality and who already knows how to

interact during a reading to extract meaning from the
procedure. The sense of having acquired extraordinary
knowledge is enhanced when the querent's personal
story is unknown to the reader, yet a meaningful message is discovered in the spread.
Jorgensen recorded and transcribed 20 tarot readings to analyze the nature of the social interaction between reader and querent, which he calls a "divinatory
performance". He discovered a basic structure most
readings follow and created an archetypal script for
the interaction.
He only gives us one transcription, a reading done
by a 60-year-old woman who was considered one of the
city's best readers, for a client who was an experienced
reader herself. If this is an example of an optimal reading, we've come a long way in 35 years. The reading
was repetitious, one-sided, delivered in an arrogant,
know-it-all tone, and bordered on fortune telling.
According to Jorgensen's archetypal script, the typical reading starts with preliminary small talk where
the reader manages his/her presentation, and establishes that the reading is an interaction between an
expert who will demonstrate something extraordinary
and a subordinate who his seeking help; just as a doctor or professor will establish their authority with a
patient or student. Next, the reader explains his methods and techniques. This marks the boundary between
ordinary and non-ordinary worlds. The consciousness
of both participants shifts to a heightened awareness
that transcends linear time. Doubts about the validity
of divination are suspended in favor of a magical state
of mind. There's a
shared assumption that
the querent has a problem to be solved; and if
the querent doesn't
state the problem, the
reader must find the
problem in the cards.
An interchange follows where reader and
querent alternate making statements or questions about facts then
providing an interpre-
tation. A meaning is negotiated between reader and

querent which is then considered factual and inherent
in the reading from the start. They share a tacit
agreement that the process is meaningful, not defective or absurd, even if they have difficulty finding the
meaning in the spread. It's assumed the querent will
finish by supplying the ultimate meaning and final
message of the spread.
Here is my distillation of a model interchange during a divinatory performance:
Reader: This seems to be about an older red-haired
woman. (A tentative statement of facts.)
Querent: My older sister has red hair, but so does my
favorite aunt. (Either a confirmation or denial of the
facts, or a request for clarification.)
This hard bound book is a monograph in the series

Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups produced
under the auspices of J. Gordon Melton and the Institute for the Study of American Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The book is rare and
expensive, but is a unique scholarly study that examines the nature of tarot reading, the shared assumptions that make a meaningful tarot reading possible,
and the kinds of social structures created by people
who believe in metaphysical realities.
Jorgensen, Danny L. The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu, and Occult Tarot. New York: Garland Publishing,
Inc., 1992.
List of Illustrations:
Reader: This woman is artistic and loves the outdoors. (More tentative facts.)
The Magician from the Aquarian Tarot, David Palladini, U.S. Games Systems, Inc., 1970.
Querent: That must be my sister. (The reader and

querent negotiate what the reading is about, then
pretend it's been about the red-headed sister from the
beginning.)
Illustration Two: Knight of Swords, New Tarot, William J. Hurley and J.A. Horler, 1974.
Illustration Fourteen: The Golden Dawn Tarot Deck,
U.S. Games Systems, Inc. 1977.
Reader: The Devil card tells me she's had longstanding troubles. (Building on the previous facts and
searching for meaning why is the sister in this reading?)
Querent: She's been unhappy for a long time. I think
her husband beats her. (Repeats the reader's statement and offers personal information that makes the
foregoing meaningful in the context of her life.)
Reader: She seems to be reaching out to you for help.
(Further negotiating the reading's message.)
Querent: She's been begging me to visit her. I think
I'll use my vacation to go out there and see what I can
do for her instead of going on a cruise. (The querent
declares the meaning of the reading and brings it to a
successful conclusion.)
In a typical reading, the reader and querent go
back and forth, negotiating the meaning of the cards
and never breaking the magical mind-set. Like a good
therapy session, the reading is successfully concluded
when the querent experiences a shift and is able to
identify the meaning negotiated during the interaction.
Sherryl Smith has been studying Tarot for 40 years.

Her website www.tarot-heritage.com offers an illustrated history of tarot and instructions for reading
with historic decks.
Stars and Cards

Tarot Astro-Almanac
August through October 2012
by Elizabeth Hazel
After the wild ride through the April-June period, the late
summer to early autumn months offer an opportunity to
slow down a bit, catch up, make necessary adjustments, and
plan for the future.
Full Moon at 10 Aquarius: August 1 to August 16.
This full moon corresponds to the 7 of
Swords, and no wonder, as its combined with a Mercury retrograde in
Leo. Its hard to pin things down
plans change and people waffle. Nevertheless, the confusion of the full moon
can bring unexplected blessings as its
trine Jupiter in Gemini (Wheel/Lovers).
August 2 Venus enters Cancer (2 of
Cups). Look for friends who share
your interests or are on the same emotional wave-length as
you.
August 3 Mercury turns direct in Leo
August 15 Venus opposes Pluto and Mars is conjunct Saturn in Libra (3 of Swords). Intense feelings erupt to the surface. Some will feel used and abused, while others are able
to let go of the past and apply intense concentration on
developing new vehicles for progress.
New Moon at 25 Leo: August 17 to August 30.
The Strength card is emphasized with
both the Sun and Moon in Leo and Mercury direct in Leo. Follow your bliss! Pets
and children, along with pet projects,
are the central focus.
August 20 Sun in Leo sextiles Mars in
Libra. 7 of Wands corresponds to this
combination. People need to strive to
achieve their aims and goals. The Libra
Moon suggests seeking partners or
assistance in endeavors.
August 22 the Sun enters Virgo, corresponds with the 8 of
Pentacles. Mercury makes its third sextile to Jupiter in Gemini (8 of Swords). The vibration of the number 8 is emphasized: practicality and solid decision-making skills come in
handy.
August 23 Mars enters Scorpio. The 5
of Cups corresponds to this combination.
There may be mixed emotions about
changes taking place at the end of August. Security and guarantees are desirable, while uncertain risks are not.
Strong personalities will dominate relationships.
Full Moon at 8 Pisces: August 31 to September 14.
This full moon relates to the Moon card,
especially with the Sun and Moon conjunct Neptune. Mercury enters Virgo
today and opposes Neptune tomorrow.
Educational matters are emphasized,
and a powerful aura of nostalgia surrounds memories of the past. The Moon
also squares Jupiter in Gemini (8 of
Swords), so people may be nervous or
uncertain about their reception into
schools and institutions, or be overwhelmed by too many people or too many choices.
September 3 (Labor Day) Venus in Cancer (2 of Cups)
squares Saturn in Libra (3 of Swords). Attachments to others
are re-evaluated or scrutinized for fairness and balance.
September 4 Mercury in Virgo (10 of Pentacles) trines
Pluto. This favors long-term rewards for effort, or investments or acquisitions that create long-term benefits.
September 6 Venus enters Leo
September 7 Sun in Virgo (8 of Pentacles) squares Jupiter in Gemini (8 of
Swords). Another big 8 day. Make
decisions with caution and common
sense. If there are too many options
and decisions seem overwhelming,
choose whatever will work best in
practical terms.
September 10 Sun-Mercury conjunction in Virgo (8 and 10 of Pentacles). This is a doublyearthy day. Some will receive benefits that have been
earned after long labor or sustained effort. Theres a focus
on students and teachers. People are encouraged to fit into
groups, with an equal emphasis for groups to be open and

accepting of diversity.
New Moon at 23 Virgo: September 15 to September 28.
The Hermit (Virgo) with the 8 of Pentacles. This lunar cycle underscores
the importance of details, research,
and concentrated study. Make sure
equipment is working properly, fix
whatever is broken, and cultivate useful skills.
September 16 Mercury enters Libra
September 18-19 Uranus square
Pluto #2. This Fool-Tower (or Judgment) combination is the second in the four-year series.
Pluto is stationing direct so is especially potent. National
trends swell and public opinion drives the news. Outbreaks
and outbursts are very possible and will be captured on
video for everyone to see on CNN or YouTube.
September 20 Mercury (Magician) in Libra squares Pluto
and opposes Uranus. Major events provoke intense debates and discussions. Legal and technical opinions are
sought; some people will have a chance to gain name recognition because of their expertise.
September 22 The Sun enters Libra; Fall Equinox. The
Justice card. People seek balance, harmony, equity, fairness,
or representation. Some pursue
partnerships or important agreements to obtain beneficial results.
September 26 Mercury trine
Jupiter (Magician-Wheel). This
highly favorable combination is
superb for communications and
travel. Information burns
through the optical fibers!
September 27 Venus square Mars (Empress-Tower). Major changes and transitions are at hand. Some may be pruning away the deadwood in life, while others adjust to
changes imposed by external forces.
Full Moon at 7 Aries: September 29 to October 15.
This is in the Queen of Wands zodiac zone, and corresponds
to the Two of Swords and Three of Wands. Expect some un-
certainties and abrupt shifts under this

full moon! The Sun and Moon are entangled with Uranus and Pluto. Certain
choices and changes may be delayed
until after the election, as people want
to be sure theyre on the right track.
Political candidates could make surprising changes, switching sides, swapping running mates, or jumping into or
out of election races.
October 3 Venus enters Virgo (9 of Pentacles) People with
long experience in their fields of expertise are valuable advisors and consultants. Environmental clean-up efforts may be
in the works or demanded by the public. Notable women are
in the public spotlight, and may be single.
October 4 Jupiter turns retrograde at 16 Gemini, at the
point of the Sun-Venus conjunction and opposite the degree
of the June 4 Lunar Eclipse. Events and decisions from the
early June period impact current situations.
October 5 Mercury-Saturn conjunction; the planets move
together into Scorpio. Saturn in Scorpio is similar (but not
identical) to the 8 of Cups energy. Theres a focus on security, stability, accumulated wealth, inheritances and property. Scorpio is also the sign of reproduction.
October 6 Mars enters Sagittarius. This energy is similar to
the 2 of Wands and the 7 of Wands. Theres an urge to start
new things, but indecision or roadblocks may hinder progress as Mars squares Neptune. Look for further options and
ways around the mountain.
October 8 The Sun trines Jupiter (Sun-Wheel). This dynamic combination brings personalities into sharp relief.
Good and bad characteristics are weighed and analyzed.
Somebody puts on a big show or extravaganza.
October 9 Venus trines Pluto (9 of Pentacles-Tower).
Women make surprising or unexpected statements. Important women take strong defensive positions to support their
causes.
October 10 Saturn trines Neptune (World-Moon) Issues in
the news have an overwhelmingly emotional or religious
tone, but these sorts of messages meet with rock solid skepticism and mockery. Theres a demand for distinct and precise limits and definitions, and people resist overly fussy,
intrusive restrictions. These planets represent opposites
Saturn well-defined borders, and Neptune boundless expanses.
New Moon at 22 Libra: October 15

to October 28.
(Justice-2 of Swords) Critical legal
and technical questions hang in the
balance during this lunar cycle. Decisions are pending, but outcomes are
unknown. Expect wild speculation
on the eve of the national presidential election.
October 16 Mercury sextile Venus; Venus square Jupiter. These
aspects provoke lots of talk, and that talk can take on epic
proportions with Jupiter in Gemini (8 of Swords). Dont believe everything you hear; talking heads are everywhere
gabbing away, even if they dont know anything. Social activities may pile up a load of obligations.
October 22 The Sun enters Scorpio (6 of Cups). Loyalty
and allegiance are emphasized. People stick with their favorite team, favorite candidate, and favorite music groups.
October 25 Sun conjunct Saturn in Scorpio; Mercury sextile Venus. Mix business and pleasure. People benefit
through long-term associates and sustained efforts.
October 28 Venus enters Libra (Empress-Justice); Mars in
Sagittarius in opposition to Jupiter in Gemini (TowerWheel). These are powerful energies that demand expression. Venus seeks ideal arrangements in Libra perfect couples, beautifully arranged furniture, perfect blueprints. The
demand for precision and specific information is also emphasized by Mars and Jupiter. This is a combative opposition! Political mudslinging and debates will be at a peak.
Attacks contort the facts into pretzels. Wild claims and outrageous statements dominate the airwaves as the Full
Moon approaches.
of chatter increases.
November 6 Tuesday, Election Day. Brace yourself Mercury turns retrograde at 6:04 pm EST on Election Day! The
Magician will have tricks up his sleeve. In previous years with
Mercury stations on election day, there have been problems
with counting votes, and the results have been challenged
by the losing contender. Election results may be delayed,
and some results may not be announced until Thursday.
November 9 Venus trine Jupiter. (Empress-Wheel) People
celebrate lucky turns and verified results. This is a good day
to join forces with people who share common goals and extend their avenues of publicity and expression.
Elizabeth Hazel is an astrologer and tarotist, author of Tarot

Decoded. She is developing new deck (pre-release image of
the Hermit on page 17). Her weekly Third Rock Almanac Horoscope is available for free at her Kozmic Kitchen Facebook
page every Sunday.
Liz will be giving a lecture on The Dragons of Karma at the
Midwest Astrology Conference (Aug 2-5, 2012), which is being
held at the Ann Arbor Holiday Inn this year; and a lecture on
Persian Time Lord Techniques on November 11, 2012 for the
Ann Arbor chapter of NCGR. Contact Liz at ehazel@bex.net for
more information.
Midwest Astrology Conferencesee: www.midwestastrology.com
Images in this article are from the Whispering Tarot, a signed,
numbered, limited edition deck available at www.kozmickitchen.com.
Full Moon at 6 Taurus: October 29 to November 12.

(High Priestess-6 of Pentacles). The
exalted full Moon rules the public and
public opinion; opinions and trends are
scrutinized and subjected to intense
analysis. Much depends on what people think theyre going to get out of
various options on the table. The
movement of large sums of money is a
topic for discussion, too. Mercury enters Sagittarius (8 of Wands). Things
speed up as the elections approach. The volume and velocity
By Elizabeth Hazel, QJ Editor

In the past few years, the Quarterly Journal has reviewed
a wealth of new decks. Many of these were not tarot decks
but entries in the new growth category of oracle decks.
New divination tools on the popular horizon include Lenormand style decks. A list of Lenormand learning sites is included in this section. Other similar tools include the Playing Card Oracle by Ana Cortez, Orna Ben-Shoshans brainmelting surrealist Kabbalistic tools, and decks that do duty
for other divination methods like the Tea Leaf Oracle
Cards. In some ways, these tools are more cut-and-dried,
even fatalistic, but they also serve as do-it-yourself tools
that expand the playful and happy repertoire in the divination field. Apparently were all still trying to find ourselves,
or pin down the bug of elusive wisdom.
Tarot is still the much-loved grande dame of divination.
Contemporary tarot reached a watershed year in 2009 with
the centennial edition of the Smith-Waite Tarot. The 78card, five-suit deck is the granite foundation of modern
tarot, and it allows for delicious deviations. Since the Tarot
Revolution of the 1970s, the tarot has matured enough to
accommodate a mind-boggling diversity of imagery and
content. The maturity of the tarot as a commercial item is
cemented by the burgeoning collectors market that encourages the production of specialized decks and pricey limited
editions. Collectors give the
tarot market a range and vitality
it might not otherwise have.
Artists and esoteric thinkers
have tested the plasticity of the
tarot by filling it with new and
sometimes alien concepts, or by
revisiting antique decks with a
new twist. For instance, Christine Payne-Towlers Tarot of the
Holy Light is a flash-back to alchemical imagery entwined with
the European, Marseille-style
attribution system promulgated
by Levi, Wirth, Papus and others The Star from Tarot of the Holy Light
in the 18th century. (Available at
http://www.tarotuniversity.com/2011/09/tarot-of-the-holylight-deck.html)
The expanding waistband of the tarot is tested in other

ways. The Art of Life Tarot (review on page 21) foregoes traditional tarot imagery and replaces it with paintings by great
masters. These are accompanied by relevant quotes. Much
like the elegant Rumi Tarot by Nigel Jackson (2009), the
deck offers an aphoristic-bibliomantic function, thus entwining two forms of divination.
The Steampunk Tarot (Llewellyn, review on page 26) is
one of three decks of the same name thats been produced
in the past year. Steampunk is hot. The cocktail mix of gizmo
-gimmickery and mysticism is accentuated by the computergenerated imagery by the artist, Aly Fell. This deck wraps the
past, present and future into one neat package.
Taking the tarot even farther down the path is HEXEN 2.0.
John Maranis review of this deck on page 28 explores the
cutting edge of tarot development and oracular thinking.
Where the Steampunk Tarot conveys its ideas through the
idiom of wheels, gears, and the sepia tones, HEXEN 2.0 is a
tarot deck filled with political and social commentary.
The Steampunk Tarot and HEXEN 2.0 are decks that embody the detached and impersonal side of modern culture,
the vast machine that swallows people as numbers and
cranks out endless piles of stuff to be purchased, consumed, and pitched. While Neptunes entry into Pisces reflects this cold, inhuman side of the global industrial collective, this watery sign also awakens deep visionary qualities
that allow greater intimacy with the dark corners of the soul.
The Hobbit Tarot revives our national love affair with J. R.
R. Tolkien and his marvelous Middle Earth. A film about the
unique, urban tarot stylings of Enrique Enriques, TAROLOGY,
opens the door to viewing the tarot through the lens of the
visual environment. Writer Paul Nagy shares his views of the
content of this film and the extras on the DVD on page 22.
A recent book, Mirror of the Free by Nicholas Swift, traces
the imagery of the trump two-thousand years or more backwards to Babylonian cylinder seals. The review is on page
25.
Last years QJ Summer 2011 issue explored a wide range
of new tarot and oracle decks. In this Summer 2012 issue,
its even more apparent that the harsh pruning in the tarot
world triggered by the 2008 economic crash did indeed encourage lush new growth, a resurgence of original new
decks featuring startling new concepts and visual content.
The Hobbit Tarot
tarot relevance.
By Peter Pracownik and Terry Donaldson

Review by Nancy Waterstone
Most of the cards portray

specific scenes from the
book. While relevance to
scenes in the book is sometimes (but not always) obvious, the connection to the
tarots message is often obscure. The LWB is indispensible with this deck.
Middle-earth fans, rejoice! The Hobbit Tarot is

just over the horizon, in anticipation of The Hobbit
movie to be released in December this year. Although I found The Hobbit Tarot to be less accessible
than its predecessor based on Lord of the Rings,
Tolkien fans will delight to see Bilbos adventures
brought to life in this deck.
Those of you familiar with
the Lord of the Rings Tarot
deck will find a very different look in The Hobbit Tarot
deck. Although developed
by the same author/artist
team, the cards are much
simpler in presentation,
without suit symbols or text
descriptions. The result is a
cleaner feel that draws
you further into the story of
The Hobbit, but presents
challenges for effective reading. Because The Hobbit story has more the tone of an adventure, in
contrast to the epic heros journey so wellchronicled in both the Lord of the Rings and the traditional tarot, melding the story of The Hobbit into a
tarot deck was likely a greater challenge for the developers.
The card backs are nicely done, with the elvish
runes of The Ring inscribed in an octagonal grid on
a dark blue background. The artwork in the cards
is dominated by greens and blues of mountain and
forest backgrounds. Characters and scenes are
depicted in a mainstream fantasy style neither
too cute nor too harsh. The space at the bottom of
each card gives the card title, following the traditional RWS card names. This is important, because
few of the cards give any other indication of the
As an exercise to get familiar with the deck, I examined each of the cards and laid them out in a sequence that appeared to follow the story line. This
was trickier than I expected. Even after re-reading
The Hobbit prior to this review, I was challenged to
identify the scenes and constantly had to refer to the
LWB to understand what was being shown. Text
descriptions on the cards would have been helpful
here.
Laying out the cards in the traditional order of the
tarot was no more enlightening. As expected, Bilbo
leads off as the Fool, as he leaves behind his cozy
Hobbit hole for the great adventure. Gandalf follows as the Magician. So far so good. Once we arrive at the Empress, however, they lost me. The Empress card shows Bilbo and the dwarves sitting under the trees, while in the background Gandalf
points to the path ahead. How this relates to the traditional message of the
Empress is obscure, to say
the least. While most of
the Major Arcana depicts
characters or concepts
more or less appropriate
to the cards traditional
meaning, some of them
illustrate specific scenes
from the book. However,
the scenes are out of sequence when the cards
are laid out in the traditional tarot order.

The LWB is nicely done, and is indispensible for
getting familiar with The Hobbit Tarot. The cover is
in full color and the artwork is taken from the
cards themselves. The LWB is 96 pages. Although
images of the cards are not shown, the card descriptions are detailed and do give full explanations of the scenes represented in each card. There
is good presentation of the divinatory meanings,
which hold closely to the RWS tradition. The challenge is in relating the card images/scenes to traditional tarot meanings.
The LWB also includes suggestions for three
spreads. Using one of these, I was surprised at how
well the cards read, in spite of the limitations described above. By letting the artwork speak for itself, without trying to interpret specific scenes from
the book, it worked. However, some of the card
messages would have still been incomprehensible
to me without hints from the printed titles. This
deck grows on you if you take time to work with it.
This is not a deck for beginners. The Hobbit Tarot
stays true to the Hobbit tale, but struggles with its
application to traditional tarot. Those readers who
can relate to The Hobbit story as a model for life
may resonate well with this deck for routine use.
For others, it may work well for those special readings which probe an
adventure or pursuit
of a specific goal. Certainly, it is a deck for
Tolkien fans, and it will
no doubt find a welcoming market once the
movie is released.
The Hobbit Tarot.
U.S. Games Systems,
2012, ISBN-13: 978-157281-677-0, 78 cards
with instruction book,
$20.00.
Art of Life Tarot Deck

By Charlene Livingstone
Review by E. Hazel
This is an out-of-the-box
deck that happens to come
packaged in a really cool box.
Deck designer Charlene Livingstone has selected 78
pieces of fine art (mostly from
the past 300 years) and
matched each with a relevant
quote. This rather simple concept offers an ingenious kind
of new deck for contemplation.
The choice of painting for each card is an utterly subjective task, but Livingstone uses her background in art
history to create a self-help tarot deck that is an interactive tool for people to
access when they were feeling uncertain or lost and
searching for direction or
answers. The quotations
supplement the card meanings, and give the reader
something to contemplate.
This is intended to be handy
for beginning tarotists, making meaning look-ups unnecessary.
A small LWB is included with the deck, but the artand-quotation format makes each card rather selfexplanatory. What is new and exciting about this deck is
the package. The attached box lid includes a clever, selfstored frame that can be used to store a particular
card for examination (while protecting it from flying popsicles, sticky fingers and doggie chew). The frame can be
popped up or can lay flat as a box-top.
An elaborate gold frame is certainly appropriate for a 78-card

collection of some of the worlds
greatest paintings. Livingstone has
a penchant for the French impressionists, but the collection includes
a wide range of artwork from the
worlds most notable artists, including: Jacques-Louis David, N. C.
Wyeth, da Vinci, Burne-Jones,
Raphael, and a few Dutch masters
like Bosch. Historic portraits of
royalty grace the Strength card
(the Armada portrait of Queen
Elizabeth I), the Emperor (Henry
VIII by Hans Holbein), and the
King of Pentacles (King Charles II).
One of Joseph Turners luminous
landscapes is featured on the Sun
card. The collection is dominated
by European art, but some American painters are represented in the group.
The quotations are uplifting and thoughtful, and like
the paintings represent some of the worlds greatest
thinkers and writers. The 5 of Cups, which can be a
rather miserable card, features
a touching portrait of a thinking woman by Sir John Everett
Millais, with the quote Better
by far you should forget and
smile than that you should remember and be
sad. (Christina Rossetti).
For people who love visiting
museums to see work by the
worlds finest artists, and for those who adore classical
fine art, this is a truly lovely deck to acquire for contemplation.
Art of Life Tarot. U. S. Games Systems Inc. 2012;
78 cards with 31 page booklet in custom box with attached frame. $21.95.
TAROLOGY
The poetics of tarot with
Enrique Enriques
DVD review by Paul Nagy
Tarology: The Poetics of Tarot with Enrique
Enriquez is a film by Chris Deleo and Kimberlie
Naughton, released in 2012. It offers a patchwork quilt
of ideas and pictures about how to discover ourselves
in world and word through the early modern Marseille
tarot deck as guided
by conceptual artist
cum tarot reader,
Enrique Enriquez.
The film opens
with street scenes
and the sound of
traffic. Negligible
Enrique re-envisioning the alphabet as
bell sounds carpet
tarot process
the background, a
brisk winter day, a man walks alone on sidewalks by
walls, down alleys, by a tree, placing tarot cards near
analogous structures or displays. Enrique Enriquezs
smooth Venezuelan accented voice introduces the mosaic narrative effect of the film. Stating his doubts,
tarot seems a marginal anachronism to the 21st century, out of place to mainline enquiries into the predictive sciences or idols of mass celebrity.
Other minimally identified voices chime in with
summary accounts of tarot and Enriques unique approach to tarot. Most of these commentators are well
known and respected tarot teachers and readers: Marcus Katz, Mary K. Greer, Donnaleigh la Rose, Shawn
Nacol, Rachel Pollack, and Robert Place among others. Here this chorus of tarot talking heads provide
brief introductory statements contextualizing how Enrique Enriquezs approach to tarot is fresh and alive
and cuts to the core of the way tarot reading is as
much of an art form as is painting a picture or composing a poem. The film unfolds, actually unrolls around
the gentle voice and demeanor of Enrique Enriquez,
showing tarot cards as glyphs of Manhattan street
scenes and graffiti and explaining how the simple im-
ages offer visual messages in their juxtaposition and

gesture to body and buildings.
There are two major stars in this film. The gentle
and dignified artist tarot-reader, Enrique Enriquez
and his then tarot deck of choice, Jean-Claude Flornoys superb Jean Dodal Marseille facsimile (http://
www.tarot-history.com/). The film is a paean to
these vibrant restored images, primarily of tarot
trumps but also to inside and outside spaces of New
York City, where selves are served up as potentiating
stories. Eventually the story of how to read tarot
weaves round and round again, a feast for eye and ear
that gives some idea of how the magic or art of symbols as embedded in our lived environment if we but
pay attention. In the back drop are some of the luminaries of tarot reading and interpretation, popping up
with stationary commentary about tarot goals and
practice, while Enrique is incessantly in and around
Manhattan, cards in the ready, displaying visual puns
and anagrams of surprise. Enriques ambivalence
over what is expected of tarot readers and what he
can actually do becomes a theme. Some may find the
lack of didactic organization a little disorientating.
The film is gentle in its instruction and pays off in
multiple viewings, if you care to learn from Enriques
examples. If nothing else I would suggest, if you want
a distinctive tarot reading when visiting New York
City, schedule a reading with Enrique at Quest Book
Shop (details below).
The DVD extras include 130 minutes of fuller commentary by some people who know tarot and can appreciate Enriques unique position. They also represent some of the most learned and highly respected
tarot personalities in the USA, if not world. There are
two especially fruitful outtakes, where Enrique at
length explains how to see the Trumps and some simple combination readings and where he embodies
postures on the cards. Scenes from Readers Studio
2011-2012 highlight the annual gathering of about
200 plus professional tarotists, avid hobbyists, collectors, writers, readers, publishers and artists, which is
definitely the East coasts premier tarot gathering of
the year. (http://www.tarotschool.com/RS12/
index.html).
Enrique Enriquez has published a book entitled

TAROLOGY, published by Camilia Elias (she appears in the film and extras) of EyeCorner Press. It
collects a healthy group of Enrique Enriquez 's
pataphysical (the science of imaginary solutions)
tarot experiments and examples of his performancebased poetic tarot readings. TAROLOGY is a
book that may inspire or confound many tarot readers.
Unlike how-to or recipe books on basic card reading
and manipulation of the cards, TAROLOGY is likely
to appeal to the mavericks among truly adept tarotists
(which is just about any serious tarot reader beyond
tyro stage), who has experienced being struck by symbol glut or associationist salad into a state of occult
ennui, a malady well-understood by readers with decades of dedication to their craft.
If you count yourself among such readers, when the
cards seem staid and your readings seem rote to the
point of boredom, perhaps a bit of serious perusal of
Enrique Enriquezs TAROLOGY may nudge you out
of that subconscious doldrums into a wondrous state
of poetic afflatus and maybe, at its very least, encourage us to take lessons, as Enrique has, from poetry and
the poets, those universal editors of the divine utterance or oracular tarot readings.
TAROLOGY (film) 87 min run time, 130 min extra material, $49.95 (http://tarologyfilm.com/)
TAROLOGY (book) EyeCorner Press, 2011, $20.00
(http://eyecornerpress.com )
Quest Book Shop, NYC: 240 East 53rd Street, New York,
NY 10022 tel: (212) 758-5521, Monday-Friday, 10am 7pm, Saturday & Sunday, 12 noon - 6pm.
Email: manager@questbookshop.com
Site: http://questbookshop.com/home/
Author Bio
Paul Nagy is an esotericist and mystic who has studied world
religions and reads tarot. Paul hosts a talk show, and is a
writer and editor at Wordtrade.com. His focus is on humanistic and theosophical philosophies, and he is a member of the
Theosophical Society and the International Society of Neoplatonic Studies. Paul is a graduate from the Pacific School
of Religion (Master in Divinity), and has traveled extensively
to do pilgrimages and to learn about esoteric practices including Buddhism, Sufi and Wicca.
Ghosts & Spirits Tarot

By Lisa Hunt
Review by John Marani
When I heard about this tarot deck, I was very curious to
see which route the designer would take. Part of me wondered
if we werent dealing with a Casper the Friendly Ghoststyle deck that would try to tell us that spirits are generally
helpful, kind creatures who are providing us with wisdom, or
if the deck was going to go more serious and try to shock the
reader with disturbing images. As it turns out, neither answer
was correct.
The backs of the cards are fairly simple: A triad of ghosts
surrounded by a circle of light green bones. The rest of the
area contains different shades of dark blues and very pale
greens, reminiscent of the ocean in Massachusetts in the wintertime. The ghosts themselves are expressionless. Overall, I
liked the feel of the deck immediately, which is a standard
tarot size. The cards were not too slippery or inflexible, even
the first time I pulled them out of the box.
When you turn the cards over, this 78-card deck impressed
me much more than many decks I have seen recently through
its extremely intricate artwork. You have to take your time
looking over these cards or youll miss something. The color
scheme continues from the back: lots of blues of all kinds
with mostly dark backgrounds. This deck wont make you feel
good just by looking at it; color is definitely taking a back seat
to detail here.
If youre looking for another RWS clone, this is definitely
not one of those. Almost none of the traditional symbols appear on these cards. In this case, however, I think its an asset
and not a liability.
The images depict ghosts, and spirits from many different
cultures, and youll need to keep the little white book handy for
that reason. Some you will recognize right away, like Jacob
Marley on the Devil, appropriately enough, chained to all his
strongboxes. The Headless Horseman from The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow makes his appearance as the King of Swords.
And what would any deck in this vein be complete without the
Grim Reaper on the Death card?
Hunt threw in a few ghost-related holidays and spirit-related
stories or legends, like the Day of the Dead on the Ten of Cups
and Davy Jones Locker on the Four of Cups. Others were
more obscure, but if you enjoy ghost stories, youll get a real
education just going through the deck and the LWB. One that I
didnt expect but enjoyed was the story of the Hawaiian hero
Hiku on the Knight of Wands descending into the depths to
bring his wife, Kawela, back to life.
Probably the most chilling image for me was the Queen of
Swords. I knew this was not a spirit to be trifled with. Her face
has the most incredible look of agony and distress as she holds
the sword behind her. This is the well-known banshee of Celtic
folklore. On the flip side, the simple beauty of the doppelganger on the Two of Wands was very striking, with the mirrored image of a red-haired woman in the window behind her.
For what its worth, I would LOVE to see a full-color book
with card images and meanings for this deck. It would make a
fantastic coffee table book.
If youre a fan of anything that goes bump in the night,
youll really enjoy the Ghosts & Spirits Tarot. I definitely
wouldnt give it to a beginner tarotist, unless the person really
gravitates toward the spirit world and is willing to learn the
various traditions. But its a great opportunity for intermediatelevel tarot students and up to learn some more spirit folklore
and legend. And speaking personally, I think I just found the
deck Im going to use in October!
Ghosts & Spirits TarotU.S. Games Systems, 2012, $18.00
Mirror of the Free

By Nicholas Swift
Review by E. Hazel
Im going to begin this review by quoting the back cover
of the book:
The images on the Marseille
Tarot cards started out as illustrations of Sumero-Bablyonian
(sic) myths, preserved through
the centuries on cylinder seals.
They were copied by people
who didnt understand them
but who also had access to
some form, whether written or
oral, of the wisdom encoded in those myths and
in Bible stores. That wisdom is identical with Sufi
teachings as espoused by teachers like Ibn al
Arabi, Rumi, and others including Gurdjieff and
his teachings about the Enneagram. The myths
and stories are decoded in this book using the
multiple meanings conveyed by Arabic consonantal wood roots and by reference to those doctrines and to modern discoveries about conditioning and the hemispheric specialization of the
brain. Arabic is the closest existing descendant of
the ancient Protosemitic language. The Kabbalah,
long rumoured to be linked to the Tarot , is
shown to come from the same sources, and
originally had eight, not ten, sefiroth. The visual
evidence alone is overwhelming: the mystery of
where the Tarot comes from has been definitely
solved. Nicholas Swift was born in St. Catharines,
Canada, and is a graduate of the University of
Toronto.
A regular sledgehammer to the brain, huh?
Brace yourself, because its a representative
sample of whats within the covers. Swift follows
up on Helena Blavatskys premise that the real
Tarot, in its complete symbology, can be found
only in the Babylonian cylinders (Collected
Writings: Miscellaneous. Vol. XIV) Theres no
evidence given for how cylinder seal imagery and
Sufi wisdom were incorporated into the tarot
trump. Deviations from cylinder seal images are
mistakes on the part of the TdM

artist. Blavatskys and Swifts premise
has to be accepted at face value.
The author identifies the deities and
scenes on the cylinder seal images
insomuch as that is possible. Connections to the trump images are offered, along with relevant concepts
from Sufi writers and that ubiquitous
philosophical reprobate, Gurdjieff.
The author explores Arabic etymology
and homonyms, alike-sounding words
that are spelled differently and mean
different things (i.e., there, their, and
theyre). Homonyms are a common
device in ancient philosophical writing
used to emphasize multiple levels of
meaning.
As a summary of content, this appears to be an
awesome collection of mind-tickling information.
But the reader should be prepared to contend
with Swifts writing style. American readers in
particular will have to pick part some of the extremely lengthy sentences and be patient with the
round-about passages that eventually
(sometimes, maybe) get to the damn point. Swift
is a new entry into the school of tarot writing
where an aggressive onslaught of bedazzling facts
and ideas substitutes for coherent conclusions, or
making the information useful beyond the mere
possession of said facts.
The work presents other challenges. There are
no chapters or section headers to give the reader
a moment to pause and absorb before moving to
the next set of ideas. Its a rambling dissertation
with little internal organization. Cards, cylinder
seals, and ideas dont appear in any deliberate
order. This chaotic format could be intentional on
the authors part, as its reminiscent of late 19th
century occult writing, particularly of Madame
Blavatsky. The images of the cylinder seals are
grainy and sometimes indecipherable, too.
To add to the collection of disconcerting deviations from contemporary literary conventions,
theres no ending to the book no concluding
summary or final statement. The discussion simply ends, as though the writer dropped off a cliff
with a thud. The next page turns to the References cited in the book, and a list of Sources.
This is all the more remarkable as Swifts bio indicates the author worked as an editor.
This might be a brilliant book, but the lack of
basic presentation devices and organization turns
it into a mountain-climbing expedition. Only the
reader can decide if the climb is worth the while,
because the making the material coherent and
useful is foisted onto the reader. The pity of it is
some less-able writer will come along in a few
years, do a better job of organizing and presenting the material, and sell a lot more copies of his
book than Swift will of this volume.
On the positive side, the long-neglected writings of the Persian and Arabic wisdom schools
and mystical movements (the Sufis) of the 8 th
12th centuries CE are finally leaking into the
sphere of western esotericism and astrology. It
was inevitable that someone would kick open the
door between the Wisdom schools and the tarot.
A number of other reviews can be seen at:
http://www.dodona-books.com/books/mirror-ofthe-free. The reviews, like the book, are garbled
and uneven. Some reviewers were wowed by the
contents. A few coughed up a remark or two
about the difficult presentation and grainy images. While all the reviewers agreed the book
offered a fascinating collection of information,
not one suggested that it offered useful tools for
tarot readings. A telling omission, that.
Plenty of tarot books go overboard in spoonfeeding the reader a puree of regurgitated, watered-down information. This presentation is the
diametric opposite of the spoon-feeding variety.
If readers are willing to tackle the challenges,
there are gold nuggets to be mined.
With that in mind read the book. But curb
your expectations for immediately accessible
tools to use in tarot readings. It isnt that sort of
book.
Mirror of the Free. O Books (Dodona Books,
John Hunt Publishing) 2011. Second edition of a
limited edition printing in 2005. Black and white
illustrations. 184 pages, $19.95 paperback.
The Steampunk Tarot

Book by Barbara Moore, Illustrations by Aly Fell
Review by E. Hazel
In case youve missed it,
steampunk is a trending art and
design style that recaptures the
fashions and early industrial
gadgetry of the late Victorian
and Edwardian periods
(roughly 1880-1910). Images
are blended with mists and
mysticism. Interlocking gear
wheels, featured on the card
backs, are a common theme in
this sort of artistic imagery.
Card backs
Barbara Moore, a huge fan of steampunk style, dives

into an explanation of the Steampunk aesthetic and its
relevance to current society and the tarot. She mentions
that the very best steampunk literature includes the mysterious and magical as well. Generally steampunk has a
note of the British Empire, too. The book includes an
overview of tarot basics and descriptions of the 78 cards,
and a half dozen useful spreads.
One of the first things you might notice while scanning
the cards is that the dominant color scheme centers on
brown. Scenes tend to occur on dark, foggy streets, ala
Sherlock Holmes. The 10 of Swords features the foggy,
polluted skyline of late 19th century London. The penchant
for gears, gadgetry and gizmos
is conveyed in the Ace of Pentacles, where the hand of a
metal automaton lifts the pentacle disk into the air. Women
are a dominant presence in
the Court cards, as the Pages
and some of the Knights are
young women in male attire.
Where the Knight of Cups is a
young woman with a strange
mix of Henry VIII pantaloons
and a WWII bomber jacket,
the Knight of Pentacles looks
like Allan Quatermain on his quest for King Solomons

mines with some sort of jet pack on his back. (and yes,
books by H. Rider Haggard are totally protosteampunk since they were written in the 1880s-1890s.)
Aly Fell, the creator of the images, digs deeply into
the steampunk idiom and weaves iconic steampunk
themes through the suits and trump cards. The color
palette and imagery remains tightly focused and well
modulated while following the RWS canon.
Theres a bit of tongue in cheek humor as the Judgments angel, wearing goggles and a black jacket, gets
the attention of the earth-bound with a classic Victrola.
The trump images are mostly successful in combining
the theme with the traditional image.
Steampunk Tarot. Llewellyn 2012, 294 pg paperback
book and 78 card deck, $28.95
The steampunk trend is hard to miss. A Steampunk
Tarot was created by Charissa
Drengsen in 2010 using photo
collage. (see: http://liber.us/
tarotbot/en/tarot/steampunk-tarot
and http://www.etsy.com/
listing/54493666/steampunk-tarot
-deck).
King of Wands from HEXEN 2.0
Yet another Steampunk Tarot is

going to be released this fall by
Caitlin and John Matthews.
http://www.facebook.com/
Steampunktarot?ref=ts
Fans of this new-old look can
find a deck that suits their style.
The Magician card from Drengsens

photo-collage Steampunk Tarot
HEXEN 2.0 Tarot

By Suzanne Treister
Review by John Marani
History buffs, conspiracy theorists, and computer geeks will all love this deck. Its a sequel to
Treisters paperback HEXEN 2039, which
imagined new technologies for psychological
warfare through investigating links between the
occult and the military in relation to the histories
of witchcraft, the US film industry, British intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing and behavior control experiments of the US Army.
If it seems overwhelming, let me assure you
that it is. Just the subject matter alone sounds
way too heavy for a tarot deck. But stick with me
here and I think youll find some value in it just
the same. If you feel burned out or need to have
your tarot world violently shaken, not stirred, this
deck will do that and then some. For me, it is this
centurys equivalent of Morgans Tarot, the
counter-culture tarot deck of the 1970s.
My first suggestion is unless you are an expert
on 20th century American history, cybernetics,
and world intelligence agencies, please buy the
HEXEN 2.0 coffee table book ($29.95). It discusses how the deck came about, and contains
full-color photos of each of the cards as well as a
historical context to each. There is an incredible
amount of detail that youll absolutely want, and
the deck will make much more sense to you.
The backs of the cards are black with white
outlines of mirror-imaged mushroom clouds, like
those made by nuclear explosions. The cards
themselves are quite a bit wider than a standard
deck, and while handling them can be a challenge, theyre flexible enough to shuffle right out
of the box.
Various figures and concepts adorn each card,
reinforcing philosophical ideas or showcasing
influential people and places of the aforementioned ideas. While it is obvious that the cards
were chosen with a few standard tarot meanings
in mind, there is little to no RWS imagery. Clear
white borders with black titles adorn the long
end of all the cards, while the majors have a sec-
ond border at the top with a Roman numeral.

The Empress, for example, is all in black and
white. Its a collection of
cartoon explosions and
each one contains the acronym of a known intelligence agency in black letters. Over 50 of these balloons adorn the card. For
me, this was the
abundance of information in the world and how
so many agencies are trying to obtain it. Mathematician Ted Kaczynski, also
known as the Unabomber, also has a place here on
the Hermit, appropriately enough. If you wondered what
his address was, check the top right-hand corner and
youll find it there.
On the pip cards, the Five of Swords represents cyber
giant Google, and lists some important dates in their
history as well as their span of control, which includes
the Android operating system, Gmail, and YouTube.
Some of the information is downright scary: Entire Web
stored in Google database and Online Domination
are written here. Taking a look at some standard meanings for the card, I felt like Treister was trying to say how
badly Google was in a position to screw us because of
how powerful they are. Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and The Social Contract is on the Nine of Chalices;
his idea that Man was born free and he is everywhere
in chains was an interesting choice for a wish card.
Perhaps the desire for total freedom, and the fact that
as human beings we often chain ourselves down to material things, was the impetus to place him here.
Nikola Tesla makes an appearance on the King of
Wands for his attempts to provide free electricity to the
world, and his desire to theoretically connect the material and the spiritual. This was a perfect match to the
element of fire for me. Different types of drones
unmanned aircraft used for various military and intelligence purposescan be found on the Queen of Swords.
These machines allow war to be made from a neutral
positiona control roomand it evoked the Queens
Lie to me at your peril attitude.
Overall, these cards are filled with detail, and the
work is amazing. The card that struck me the most,
however, was probably one of the simplest. The World

has only grey letters on it: WWI, WWII, and
WWW. The card can represent a movement forward,
and the meaning is clear: The last two wars were
conventional, but the next will be in cyberspace.
Using this deck for divination is probably not a realistic endeavor. Theres so much on each card that
they will fry the brains of all but the most experienced
tarot readers. But absolutely no collector should be
without it, and be warned: You may find your perspective on history changed.
HEXEN 2.0 Tarot. Black Dog Publishing, 2012, tarot
deck $19.95; book - Hexen2.0 ($29.95)
The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern
Review by E. Hazel
Welcome to Le Cirque des
Reves, where magic hides in
plain sight. This marvelous debut novel scoops the reader
into the lives of two young
magicians, Celia and Marco.
The circus is a venue for a
magic competition devised
by their mentors. And this is
one of those contests where
the winner is the last one
standing.
The books structure is, like a
circus, a labyrinth of timelines
that all lead to the critical moment of the
story. Morgensterns creativity and deft handling of literary devices is an exquisite recipe
for the readers delectation a cup of Balzac,
a tablespoon of Gaiman, a teaspoon each of
Cagliostro and Houdini, with a soupon of
Sweet Genius and a spritz of fine perfume

from Houbigant. It reads American but feels
European.
The drama begins in the 1870s and continues through the early 1900s. Morgensterns
characters blossom and then writhe under the
tension of the contest. The circus appears,
grows, delights and takes its toll as it appears,
without notice, in cities all over the world. The
books fine crafting is apparent in the careful
pacing and the intricate, alluring way the
storylines are braided together.
In the ever-grinding best-seller competition,
Morgenstern is a big winner. The book has
been rated as one of the top 10 books of 2011.
Doubleday won a bidding war for the book,
and Morgenstern received a high six-figure
advance for the novel. [1] Rights have been
sold to 30 foreign publishers.
The book, which was released
in September 2011, was swiftly
optioned by Summit Entertainment, the film company
that produced the Twilight
series.
The character of Isobel is a
tarot reader. This is one of the
most realistic portraits of a
tarotist in modern fiction. The
meanings of the cards she
pulls are accurate and relevant to the storyline. A single
tarot card plays a spellbinding role in the drama.
Morgenstern created a
monochromatic tarot deck
while she was writing the
book. It hasnt been published yet, but the images of the Phantomwise Tarot can be seen
at: http://www.phantomwise.com/gallery/
On her site, Ms. Morgenstern says, As some
of you may know, during 2006-2009 I painted a
78-card tarot deck in black and white and
shades of grey. I spent the same approximate

time writing and re-writing The Night Circus. I
lived in monochrome for
a good long while there,
and there are references
to the circus in some of
the cards.
Destined to become a
cult classic for anyone
who enjoys fine storytelling and magical realism,
this is a must-read book!
[1] CNN Living, 9-12-2011

article
The Lovers card from the

Phantomwise Tarot. A limited
edition by Adam McLean is
already sold out.
The Night Circus. Doubleday, 2011, 387 pages,

$26.95 hardback
The Lenormand Cards

By Donnaleigh de la Rose
Mademoiselle Lenormand was at the time a woman from
twenty-four to tweny-nine years of age, short and stout in
figure, vainly attempting to disguise that fact that one shoulder was higher than the other; she wore
a turban adorned with a bird of paradise. Her hair fell in long curls around
her face. She wore two skirts, one above
the other: one was short, scarcely falling
below the knees, and pearl-gray in
color; the other was longer, falling in a
short train behind her, and was cherry
colored. The table upon which she
made her experiments was nothing but
a common round table covered with a
green cloth, with drawers in front, in
which she put her different materials.
One side of the door was an oak bookcase filled with books. Facing her seat
was an arm-chair for the person who
was consulting her. Quoted from
Alexandre Dumas The Whites and
the Blues, Vol 2. Kessinger Publishing, 2007.

Marie Anne Lenormand was born in Alencon,
France on May 27th, 1772. She died on June 25th 1843 at
the age of 71. Not only did she have clairvoyant powers,
she also taught astrology and cabbalistic and was well
know all over Europe.
The majority of her clients consisted of members of

the French nobility, including Napoleon who appreciated her for her soundness, his wife Josephine and
several other well-known politicians of that time.
Madame Lenormand amassed a considerable fortune
and left a stately home and a beautiful castle in Paris.
So you want to learn how to read the Lenormand
Deck? If you have searched for how-to books, you
may have found that it can be difficult to find resources in English.
Heres a list to get you started on your journey. My
webpage will be updated as resources continue to become available, and as I continue to discover them
myself. Feel free to contact me with your suggestions
if you've found good resources I've not listed here.
These books and resources present different card
reading systems. Take what you like, leave what
doesn't fit you. I follow the traditional system as
much as possible as I continue to learn.
http://www.donnaleigh.com/apps/blog/
show/14716898-so-you-want-to-learn-to-read-thelenormand
Lenormand Starter Tips
Get a deck with images that are easy for you to see.
Traditional decks are great to start. I happen to like
the French Cartomancy deck, and the Lo Scarabeo
Lenormand deck. Unlike tarot, the imagery itself
does not alter the meaning of the card, except in a
very few cards that may have directionality. Find one you feel is attractive and
with clear imagery.
1.Learn the individual card meanings, or
get a sense of understanding them in singles before trying blending two cards.
2.Learn 2-card combination blends -- it
gets exciting here!
Then get on your journey as to how to
read the cards deeper in spreads, and
these resources will help you with the
blends and the spreads.
FORUMS
There is a Facebook Lenormand Card
Study Group
AECLECTIC has Lenormand forums, both for those

who want to use the stricter, traditional methods, and
for those who want to learn a looser, wider oracle use
for it (see: Facebook Lenormand Cards Community)
Tali Goodwin is teaching a free class in the TarotTown forum (www.tarot-town.com), files are accessible there. Go to Forums and look for "Lenormand."
The "Files" section at top of Tarot Town holds the
PDF's for each lesson. She is also releasing a book on
learning the Lenormand, expected release date in
June of 2012.
The Cartomancer's Forum, Lenormand Section at
http://cartomancy.forumotion.com/f9-lenormandoracle-cards
WEBSITES
andybc ~ Journal of a Cartomante http://andybctarot.wordpress.com/
The Language of the Lenormand by Madame Whodun at http://languageoflenormand.blogspot.co.uk/
Online Lenormand Dictionary, "My Wings of Desire" (list of card meanings) at http://mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.com/
p/lenormand-dictionary.html
Serena's Guide to the Cards of Mme Lenormand at http://www.serenapowers.com/lenormand.html
The Lenormand Oracle at http://spiritsong.wordpress.com/
Mary K. Greer's post on Mme. Lenormand at http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/madame-le-normand-themost-famous-card-reader-of-all-time/
Jozefa Seaqueen's Learning the Lenormand Cards at http://seaqueen.wordpress.com/
Janna's Lenormand Card site at http://lenormandcards.blogspot.com/
Lenormand Oracle Cards at http://lenormand36.wordpress.com/
ONLINE COURSES
Britta's Courses (and deck) at http://www.fortune-telling-lenormand.com/
Treppner Course -- People who don't speak German will need to use Google Translate or BabelFish to read the page, because the website is entirely in German.
Melissa Hill's Video Course: only $35, download at http://lenormand.info/lenormand-101/
Sandy Cristel's Interactive Lenormand Oracle at http://www.lenormand-oracle.com/
BOOKS
THE GAME OF DESTINY - Fortune Telling with Lenormand Cards By Mario dos Ventos
Caitlin Matthews is currently writing a book, soon to be released
Tali Goodwin, The New Lenormand: Modern Reading of an old-fashioned oracle, has a BOOK soon to be released on
the Lenormand Published by Forge Press, May 2012.
As is Rana George (and creating a Lenormand deck with Ciro Marchetti) at http://ranageorge.com/
The Secrets of the Lenormand by Sylvie Steinbeck (some complain this is not true to the traditional system; I like it and
learned from it). Createspace Publishing, 2007. 252 pages, Amazon $18.99. Four star rating by readers.
ATA Quarterly Journal

Submission guidelines
Your intrepid editor is seeking new writers to
contribute articles, spreads and reviews.
Submission deadlines for

2012!
Fall 2012due September 1
Winter 2012due December 1
Spring 2013due March 1
Were looking for:
Tarot Book and Deck Reviews (300 to 800
words) A great way to get started!
Tarot Techniques Articles (1,000-1,500
words)
Tarot Business Practices (1,000-1,500 words)
Topical Articles (1,000-1,500 words).
Tarot Cover Art and Illustrations
A copy of submission requirements and formatting guidelines is available upon request.
Material previously published on the internet or in other forums may be accepted for
the QJ. Author retains full copyrights to any
published material.
Editor E-mail Address: Send QJ submissions to Liz
at: Quarterly@ata-tarot.com
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Mission Statement
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by supporting a variety of educational programs. We require a high level of ethics in
tarot readings by asking our members to agree to our published code of ethics.
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n

ATA Quarterly JournalSummer 2012

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 1

conflicts with their personal/

ST: The Macy Conferences, which were

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 2

The main thing to grasp is the idea of a feedback

losophies of Rationalism and Scientism (drivers of

ST: I get concerned that many people are retreating

QJ: Youve used a notably occult device to explore

In 1993 the psychologist James Hillman wrote a

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 3

book called, We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy

where the writer says, Ive been

Artist BioSuzanne Treister

I just saw a write up about the HEXEN 2.0 deck on

The Crow Stone Oracle

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 5

Tarot Symbols in the

Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck by Francene Hart and the

Rain after drought

Awareness, life plan,

So, the Sun card is an obvious choice for an eastern wall,

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 6

magical academy, The

so they can all be materially reproduced as magic squares

In addition to the obvious planetary cards like

Because Vastu and its yantras are part of a larger cultural

In the previous issue, we looked at the Lo Shu, a magic

Aside from the amuletic uses, when we think seriously

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 7

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 8

Crystal Power, Crystal Healing, by Michael Gienger

This book takes a more scientific approach to stones than

The Illustrated Directory of Healing Crystals, by Cassan-

dra Eason - Packed with information, this book includes

The Crystal Healer, by Philip Permutt Descriptive

Gems of Wisdom, Gems of Power, by Teresa Kennedy

An excellent guide which examines the most important

Love is In the Earth, by Melody This is a popular and

comprehensive series, which altogether seems to cover

tion Resources listed above include several that I refer to

some time after the painful ending of a relationship. Using the

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 9

sion, at that time.

Popular Companion Stones

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 10

your life - FOREVER!

Heres an interview with Jean

QJ: I understand you are

This had a big impact on me because, as a reader, you

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 11

JHF: I made that decision

My blog, Journey through

ATA Quarterly Journal Summer 2012page 12

sen called the cultic

The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu, and

The first 100 pages

In the mid-1970s, Danny Jorgensen moved to a

Breaking into the esoteric scene wasn't easy in the