Review: The London Tarot Festival @ Islington Ecology Centre 4th June 2016
We started early to set up for the day, the building is beautiful but a little disjointed for the amount of things we wanted to do. Thankfully the weather was kind and the free talks were to go outside. This venue is a stunning find, tucked away in the middle of London surrounded by nature. The wonderful people at Watkins and Kindred Spirit sent copies of their magazine as a giveaway to everyone who attended, Geraldine manned the door adorned with a garland of flowers. The day was ready to go.
The fabulous thing about the day was with over 100 people coming through the doors it never felt overwhelming, the energy flowed and people scattered for workshops, talks even a walk around the park. I feel that especially for those who live in busy city’s this venue offered so much more than the usual hotel room.
I kicked off the event with a talk about connecting with spirit through the cards. How a client may ask for connection with a loved one even though as a tarot reader this may not be the vibration you work on. I showed how this could be done through the cards, the talked flowed and I ended up pulling a card for everyone and giving a very short reading for each of them. http://www.kimarnold.uk/
The joyful Tiffany Crosara started the workshops rolling, I love Tiffany she is such a lovely lady to be around, I cannot imagine anything ever phasing her! Her workshop on how to dramatically step up the synchronicity in your life through tarot was well received, she always leaves a buzzing energy wherever she goes. http://tiffanycrosara.co.uk/
Geraldine Beskin did a popular talk on associating the major arcana with Hollywood stars done in Geraldine style, of course she was fab! http://theatlantisbookshop.com/
Richard Abbot led his workshop ‘The Voice of Light and how it speaks through the cards’, Richard is always a popular speaker at our events and engages us in an intelligent and entertaining manner. His workshops are always busy and he has a wonderful way of sharing his vast knowledge and making it easy to understand. http://www.yourwayforward.co.uk/
At lunchtime Geraldine wandered in to the undergrowth (ha ha) with a crowd from the Festival, meditation was the theme and I also found a little fairy grotto and took those who missed the walk with Geraldine on a journey through the cards via meditation.
Sue Merlyn’s talk ’Should the Hero be the Prisoner’? (Exploring the Tower in general) was brilliant, if only I had Tower pendants I would have made a fortune as all were Tower crazy after the talk.
Chrissie Astell the Angel Lady, those of you who know my experience of Angel ladies (one in particular) may be surprised to know I loved her. What a wonderful energy Chrissie had, so sincere and friendly. Her Guardian Angel Oracle Cards are stunning (published by Watkins), her talk was inspiring, in fact it is still be talked about on Facebook. I know I will see her again, hopefully for a glass of wine but also I have a feeling we may work together at some point, she has restored my faith in Angels! http://chrissieastell.com/
Betty Jane Ware arrived all the way from Canada to attend, and had a rapturous applause for her talk ‘Get better at what your best at’ which looked at life coaching through Tarot. http://www.bettyjaneware.com/
Joyoti McKie who was visiting the UK on her travels from Australia hosted a workshop ‘Healing your Life’. Her cards are stunning and she privately told me the story of the journey of the cards, this really is a labour of love, you can see some images here http://jyotimckie.com/
The lovely Anton Rossi was fabulous with her talk on Death and the Transformation of Life. It always amazes me how we embrace death in the Tarot, the feedback from this talk was brilliant. Well done Anton. http://www.holistic-lightworker.co.uk/
Chloe McCracken as always gave an informative and engaging workshop, I don’t know what it is with me and Chloe but we always have a technical hitch when working with projectors, but bless her anticipating this might happen and hosted a wonderful workshop on’ Using Tarot to End Negative Behaviours’ without the prepared visual. (Chloe I PROMISE I will get this sorted) lol http://www.innerwhispers.co.uk/
The day completed with the talented reader and Medium Helen Hall who gave a delightful demonstration contacting spirit.
Throughout the event the Tombola wheel was spinning with generous gifts donated by Watkins, Llewellyn, Lo Scarabeo and Hay House, we can’t thank them enough for all their support. This really is what makes our events special in that we have the support from the major players in the MBS field. We feel very blessed that we have a relationship with these publishers.
This was a wonderful day, I was unsure of the venue purely because of the lay out, however, the chance to be in this wonderful oasis of calm in the middle of a big city worked its magic. Despite a really good flow of people at no point did we feel crammed, in fact it was hard to believe how many people were there. People went for a walk in the grounds, had readings from our wonderful team (Cathi Bew, Helen Hall, Betty Jane Ware and Nina Kyprianou). And finally the weather was kind to us, giving time to sit in the garden where Geraldine and I both did meditations listening to the birds singing and enjoyed the peace and tranquillity this venue offered.
We will be back next year, again we learnt a lot on how we can improve things and as always our commitment to you is to make tarot accessible to all.
Finally a huge special thank you to Watkins Publishing who were our media sponsors, your input was very much appreciated.
Right ……. Better start cracking on with the UK Tarot Conference in October and Tarot in the Castle Fest (Zurich) June 2017.
