Wald asks interesting questions of interesting people in the tarot community, and Ruth Ann creates 7-minute content-rich videos for you to enjoy. We're starting with Readers Studio instructors, but will be talking with many more tarot authors, deck designers, readers and teachers in the months to come.
Enjoy the videos and feel free to share them with your friends!
Carolyn Cushing
As a passionate change maker and Tarot enthusiast, Carolyn Cushing loves to work with people to make positive life transitions, grow spiritually, and develop creatively. In addition to working one-on-one with seekers, she has taught and facilitated Tarot classes and groups in Western Massachusetts; been a guest teacher on the Gaian Tarot Circle; presented on Beyond World's Your Tarot Tribe podcasts, and for the last three years has led meditation sessions at Readers Studio. She is a co-founder of the Massachusetts Tarot Society and you can find her website at www.artofchangetarot.com. Carolyn creates learning environments and circles where deep sharing and exploration are possible.
You are a tarot teacher of long standing, and you have led meditation groups at The Readers Studio for years. You describe yourself as a passionate change-maker and spiritual guide.
I have 3 questions for you, that are related in an interesting way:
- What do you mean when you say spiritual?
- Do you think people really change?
- How is tarot spiritual, and how does it create change?
Katrina Wynne
Katrina Wynne, M.A. is an international metaphysical teacher and soulful counselor. She has studied Tarot and other metaphysical traditions for 40 years and started sharing her knowledge and experience 25 years ago. Best knows for her development of Transformative Tarot Counseling™, she brings a depth of insight and professionalism to her work.
Visit www.TarotCounseling.org
You are living in a small and intimate community in the middle of the Northwest woods. Your base of operations and the people you deal with most seem to be in that community. But at the same time, you have a worldwide audience. For many people, learning how to access that community, and make it both profitable and enjoyable, represents a challenge of technology, energy and organization. How do you manage that?
Rachel Pollack
Rachel Pollack is the author of 34 books (as of this writing), including 78 Degrees of Wisdom, Tarot In Magical Times, and A New Tarot Handbook, and two award-winning novels. With Robert Place she is the creator of The Burning Serpent Oracle.
Visit www.RachelPollack.com
You are one of the pre-eminent people in the tarot universe. But you are also a writer, an artist, a teacher, a thinker and a traveller. Do you identify yourself primarily as one or a combination of these, or do you have a secret identity, something we don't know about?
Jeannette Roth
Jeannette Roth is the co-owner of The Tarot Garden — the world's largest and most diverse specialty tarot store. A tarot enthusiast and collector since 1982, her interest in comparative symbolism and the mechanics of communication and learning styles lead her to pursue studies in cognitive processes; she received her B.A. in Psychology from Iowa State University in 1993.
Prior to opening The Tarot Garden in 2001, Jeannette spent more than 15 years in the personal computer industry as a trainer and consultant. She has been a contributing columnist for Timeless Spirit magazine, and has presented lectures and workshops on tarot imagery and multi-perspective approaches to spiritual growth throughout the Midwest.
Visit her website at: www.tarotgarden.comYou are connected to tarot in many ways. What is the one thing YOU love about tarot above all others?
Kooch Daniels
Kooch Daniels, with an M.A., in psychology from Sonoma State University, is an intuitive who chose Tarot reading as her central career path and has done many thousands of readings in venues from India to California. She has presented workshops on the Tarot and on using the Tarot in psychotherapy in California, Holland, and Mexico. Kooch is lead author of Tarot d'Amour: Find Love, Sex, and Romance in the Cards and co-author with Victor Daniels of Matrix Meditations. She has written the text for Tarot Reports (ACS), a computerized tarot program that interprets card spreads for individual readings. Kooch is the host for a Tarot Guild radio show called Kosmic Koffee.
Kooch, you are a very successful tarot reader with a strong background in psychology. What role has psychology come to play in your tarot practice and thinking?
Victor Daniels
Victor Daniels, who earned his Ph.D. at UCLA, is Professor Emeritus at Sonoma State University, where he taught for four decades and was Psychology Department Chair. He is a Gestalt therapy trainer, has been program organizer for several international Gestalt Therapy conferences, and has written books and articles and done presentations at professional conferences on psychology, meditation, and psychotherapy. He started using the tarot twenty years ago when his wife invited him to go with her to a celebrity event to do readings. Also, he's been co-presenter of classes and workshops on using the Tarot in psychology and psychotherapy in several countries. He is co-author of Tarot d'Amour: Find Love, Sex, and Romance in the Cards, lead author of Matrix Meditations: A 16-Week Program for Developing the Mind-Heart Connection, and lead author (with L.J. Horowitz) of Being & Caring: A Psychology for Living.
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/
Victor, you've had a long career as a psychology professor, who has come to work with tarot. What role, if any, do you feel that tarot can eventually play in academic psychology?
Caitlín Matthews
Caitlín Matthews is a writer and teacher whose ground-breaking work has introduced many to the riches of our western spiritual heritage. She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 60 books, including Singing the Soul Back Home, Walkers Between Worlds and, with John Matthews, the StoryWorld series of storytelling cards. Caitlín's other books include Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Shield, and Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages from Brazil to Japan.
She is the originator of three tarots: The Arthurian Tarot, The Da Vinci Enigma Tarot and The Celtic Wisdom Tarot, as well as many divination systems including The Celtic Book of the Dead, Celtic Wisdom Sticks: An Ogam Oracle and the forthcoming Celtic Ancestor Oracle. She also specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature or on the ancestral spirits for answers. Caitlín has always been interested in the many ways in which the sacred has interwoven both myth and history. For her, the creative spark of life kindles when we each discover where our vocational gifts and the world's needs meet. This practical application of skills to life is exemplified in her writing and teaching.
Caitlín appears frequently on international radio and television. She was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer's 2004 film King Arthur. With her partner, John Matthews, she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. She has a shamanic practice in Oxford, England dedicated to healing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Caitlín lives with her husband John in a book-cave which they share with two white cats.
See: www.hallowquest.org.ukYou have spent a professional lifetime with shamanic practice and also with tarot. These are two large and different worlds, each intense and absorbing in their own right. How and where do they intersect for you?
Nancy Antenucci
Nancy Antenucci is a seasoned tarot reader, as well as a teacher of intuitive and creative strategies. Her book Psychic Tarot — Using Your Natural Abilities to Read the Cards is a compilation of 25 years of hard-earned wisdom, practical know-how and unending passion of the creative unknown to her clients, students and colleagues.
Nancy is the creator of “Twin Cities Tarot Collective” which acts as a monthly meetup that explores the combination of tarot and natural psychic abilities. She also hosts the annual Midwest North Star tarot conference.
Visit her website: www.BetweenWorlds.us
Some people *think* tarot, some people *feel* it. You dance and act tarot. How is that different from all the other ways to relate to it?
Mary K. Greer
Mary K. Greer is a scholar, writer, teacher and professional tarot consultant. With more than forty years experience in tarot as an author and teacher, she advocates a revolutionary approach to learning and using the cards that emphasizes personal insight and creativity. As an expert tarot reader, she works as a 'midwife of the soul,' using techniques that are interactive, transformational and empowering.
Mary is the founder of Tools and Rites of Transformation (T.A.R.O.T.) and is a member of many international tarot organizations. She is a featured speaker at tarot conferences and symposia around the world.
The author of twelve books on tarot and magic, including the classic Tarot for Your Self, and Women of the Golden Dawn, a biography of four female magicians, Mary's latest book is Who Are You in the Tarot? (RedWheel/Weiser, 2011). Her previous book, 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (Llewellyn, 2008) won the COVR award for best divination book.
Mary is the proud recipient of the 2007 International Tarot Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Tarot Studies, and the 2006 Mercury Award from the Mary Redman Foundation for “excellence in communication in the metaphysical field.”
With an M.A. in English literature, Mary was a faculty member and administrator of a college in San Francisco for eleven years, and is currently a research partner in Le Tarot Associazione Culturale (Italy). She is an Arch-Priestess/Hierophant in the Fellowship of Isis. As a world traveler, she has lived in Japan, Germany, England, Mexico, six states in the U.S., and currently resides in Northern California.
You'll find Mary's excellent blog at:
http://www.marygreer.wordpress.com
You are well-know for your interest in, and development of, the psychological aspects of tarot. How has that combination of tarot and psychology affected your own personal and professional evolution?
Sheilaa Hite
Sheilaa Hite is a tarot master, astrologer, certified hypnotherapist, natural intuitive, author, teacher, and workshop leader who specializes in deciphering the mysteries and meaning of our soul's passage through life and sharing that guidance with others.
The internationally-acclaimed author of The Infinite Tarot, The Spiritual Hedonist, and Secrets of a Psychic Counselor, she is also listed in Paulette Cooper's directory, The 100 Top Psychics in America. She is a favorite guest and consultant on radio and network TV, including NBC's groundbreaking 'The Other Side,' 'Leeza,' 'E! Television' and 'Entertainment Tonight.' She also writes a popular monthly forecast column, Tarotscope – Ancient Archetypes for New World Guidance©.
In addition to her expertise in tarot and astrology, Sheilaa has led workshops, lectured, and consulted in the fields of palmistry, psychometry, dream and symbol interpretation, mediumship, channeling, meditation, energy healing, mentor/life coaching, and motivational speaking and writing. She is also an ordained minister and an expert at House Blessings.
One of only a handful of people in the world permitted by the British government to enter and conduct ceremonies in the sacred inner circle of stones in Stonehenge, she is also the first metaphysician authorized by the city of Malibu, California to teach in their facilities.
In addition to writing, speaking, teaching and consulting, she works with private clientele, leads tours to the most magnificent spiritual places in the world, studies, and enjoys life.
Visit Sheilaa's website at:
http://www.sheilaahite.com/
In addition to being a tarot author and practitioner, you are a very highly effective intuitive. Can you teach someone to be as effective as you are?