If I say so myself, and I do, the Tarot Conference just gets more and more wonderful. The diversity of speakers and knowledge they have to offer always guarantees our attendees leaving with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for their Tarot cards.
Each year, as old and new friends arrive through the door, we welcome our ‘tarot tribe’ who, once again, have journeyed from the four corners of our wonderful planet to join us. We come together to expand our knowledge and also experience and learn alternative methods of working with what we all have in common, which is a passion and love for Tarot.
The Conference was officially opened on Friday morning by my dear friend Wicca Meier-Spring performing a short ceremony of welcome and intention. I then presented a workshop on the theme of using Tarot as an Emotional Tool. Half-way through my workshop, I was ‘given’ (yes, voices in my head) a channelled meditation. This was completely unexpected but, as I have learned to do, I allowed this to flow and subsequently we all experienced a meeting with the Court card we had been working with. I surprise myself sometimes! Everyone appeared to enjoy this unplanned addition to my talk.
We then broke for lunch. ……… After lunch, Andrea Aste presented his inspiring talk entitled ‘Tarot as a Story Telling Machine’ which was accompanied by a very beautiful visual video of his work. I was not aware beforehand that Andrea had produced a deck of Tarot cards previously and these were beautiful. Andrea’s presentation certainly gave us all something very different to think about. He is one smart cookie whose words intrigued us which, in turn, ensured he gained our full attention. We soon discovered he also possessed a great sense of humour which caused much laughter several times during his presentation.
John Matthews launched Wild Magic with Mark Ryan joining us by pre-recorded video. Poor Mark had a croaky voice due to being poorly, but we greatly appreciated the effort he made to ‘join’ us from LA. John did book signings and spoke about the creation of this lovely book.
Chloe McCracken kicked off the early evening session with ‘Angels of the Tarot: Temperance and Beyond’. Chloe is always an engaging speaker and delighted us with her in-depth research on the Angels in Tarot which led us to work on an Angel inspired reading with the cards.
Last, but not least, our final Speaker of the evening was the lovely Sasha Graham ‘Tarot and Your Shadow Self.’ Sasha guided us on how to use tarot to unlock and explore the Shadow Self. It was obvious she had put a great deal of hard work in creating visual slides and handouts for us. Sasha was an engaging and enthusiastic presenter. Shadow work, by its nature, is always very revealing to us as individuals, but Sasha took us through the whole process with ease. This led on to our evening event; an opportunity to mingle and socialise with that days Speakers and our fellow attendees. By 10.00 p.m. I was ready for bed, but left the lights on at the venue for the hardened few. Saturday promised to be another busy day.
Saturday:
Wicca once again opened the days proceedings with a hands-on opening ceremony. We were asked to lay 3 cards chosen by Wiccan to represent what we needed to get out of the day. The cards were laid in a row and we were then asked to repeat whatever she said. We all obediently repeated the words she spoke regarding the first card. The same happened with the second card. The words spoken by Wicca relating to the third card, ‘Move to the right’ were also faithfully repeated, As one, we all realised what was said and the room exploded with laughter. This set the tone for the day.
The day began with a wonderful workshop with Carrie Paris; Mediumship & Tarot: Divining with the Unseen. Using her many beautiful assorted charms, casting cloth, Tarot cards and antique photographs, proved to be a very powerful technique. Carrie also guided us through a moving meditation. I very much enjoyed this workshop as I found it inspiring on so many levels.
During our break Zandri, a very talented young photographer from Z.T. Photography joined us and captured many wonderful, impromptu photos of many of us. Take a look at Zandri’s inspirational work which accompanies this blog.
Kirsten Buchholzer guided us through her topic of ‘Temperance: From Despair to Paradise’ – which involved looking at various Tarot card positions in the Tree of Life. This proved to be somewhat challenging but the room was buzzing with discussion and activity which is always a great sign.
Our two lunch-time workshops were hosted by Joanne Watkins from Australia; The Mindset, Understanding Interpretation and Tero Hynynen who has shared details of the spread he worked with via his website https://www.thearcanum.uk/. These taster workshops are optional for our attendees but are always well attended and enjoyed.
After lunch, Steven Bright took the stage with his presentation ‘Looking at The Celtic Cross Through Different Eyes.’ A lovely presentation showcasing his soon to be available Tarot deck Spirit Within. We explored the Celtic Cross and the many alternative ways of working with it, including removing or adding cards. As someone who personally loathes the spread it really did make me think again. I may even be tempted to use it in the near future.
Our final speaker of the Conference was Sasha Graham with her second presentation entitled Tarot, Romance and Your Highest Self. I admit to being a little unsure of how this workshop would work but was pleasantly surprised by a beautiful presentation which used fairy tales to explore ourselves and the cards. Who knew this would work! Fabulous, and a perfect end to a perfect weekend.
Thank you to Eddison Books and Hay House for their very generous gifts for the goodie bags. Julie at http://www.prestige-pa.com/ for her support. The Atlantis Bookshop (Geraldine and Bali) for their guiding hands and Diane, Liz and Cathi my giggly girls who keep me sane when I wobble. Of course, thank you to my wonderful speakers, stall holders and everyone who joined us this year.
See you in 2018 when we welcome Rachel Pollack and Benebell Wen at a new venue to be announced soon. Until then, bye for now.
You can reserve your 2018 place by paying your deposit now http://tarotconference.co.uk/tarot-programme/
Testimonials from 2017
I just wanted to share a big thank you and well done on the conference. It was incredibly inspiring and I’ve made lovely new friends, as well as learnt a lot! Brilliant. LV
Kim, just two words ˜Bl**dy amazing’ Thank you so much GR
Such an inspiring first conference for me, I was so nervous about coming alone but have made some wonderful friends, it was so much more than I dared anticipate. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. HM
