 Newsletter of The Tarot School
http://TarotSchool.com ISSN: 1529-0565 Vol. 13 #13 / September 1, 2021
In this Issue: - Welcome
- Tarot Tip: 5 Things a Child Knows About Tarot That You Don't - Tarot School Aphorism - Meet the Reader: Scott Martin - Diviner's Corner: Acultomancy - Upcoming Events Welcome to a new issue of Tarot Tips!
And a special welcome to our new subscribers.
 It's September. That means it's BACK TO TAROT SCHOOL time! And in these days of remote learning, our Zoom classes (aka Tarot Salon) and distance learning programs are perfect. Here are some quick links to learn more: • Tarot Salon • Correspondence Course • Birth Card Course • Audio Courses • Study Guides Last month, we published a very fun list of silly tarot article titles, and challenged you guys to write an article to go along with a title. We expected any such submission would be goofy, but Trinity Rose surprised us with a really useful piece based on the title, 5 Things A Child Knows About Tarot That You Don't. It's this month's featured Tip. If you missed last month's Just For Fun column with the full list of title suggestions, you can read it here: https://tarotschool.com/TarotTips210801.html We're still accepting article submissions, serious or silly! Also in this issue is a new Tarot Aphorism by Wald Amberstone, a brief exchange with Scott Martin in Sharonah's Meet the Reader column, and an introduction to another obscure divination system. And one more thing...
 We are excited to announce that Wald Amberstone has been nominated for a World Divination Association Award! Wald pours his heart and soul into his classes and coaching, so it's gratifying to have his love for tarot and for his students recognized in this way. If you believe he should be honored as Divination Teacher of the Year, please vote for him at: https://www.worlddivinationassociation.com/awards Thank you! Wishing you health and bright blessings, Ruth Ann and Wald
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5 THINGS A CHILD KNOWS ABOUT TAROT
THAT YOU DON'T By Trinity Rose Children are a treasure. They have the amazing power to astonish and delight us while we watch them play, learn and grow. They also have some very important lessons to teach us, the adults. For those of us who read the Tarot, five of those lessons stand out. Incorporating those lessons into our Tarot practices can be beneficial, by helping us to understand ourselves and our clients (“seekers”) better and help them more effectively...and perhaps, to have more fun doing so. Several of the points below are inter-related, so to get the most use out of this article, I suggest that you read all five. May the child-wisdom within them bring you blessings! 1) Honesty The saying, “From the mouths of babes,” has become a common way to express the raw honesty of their speech. This is because young children haven’t yet learned how to censor their words. Children will generally say whatever pops into their little heads, no matter how awkward or hurtful those words are, because it is natural to them to be honest. (On the plus side, you will definitely know where they stand!) This is something which some readers may find helpful to bear in mind: Sometimes, information comes through in a reading which may be difficult or unpleasant to know and to say, yet we have a responsibility to tell our seekers about it. However, we often downplay these things, or even gloss them over entirely out of a desire to reassure the seeker that all will be well; instead, we choose to focus solely on the positives of the situation. The problem with this approach is that it ends up doing a great disservice to the seeker by not preparing them for the possibility that things may go differently than they would wish. Also, respect for the seeker demands that we respect their right to the truth, even the unpleasant parts of it. If you had a reading done for you, and the reader saw something they should warn you about and didn’t, then you have a problem down the road that you could have avoided if the reader had warned you about it in the first place, wouldn’t you be upset? I sure would be! The part that we, as adults, have to concern ourselves with is how to take responsibility for communicating these unwelcome truths to the seeker, in palatable and constructive ways. It might help to remember that (most) seekers are not snowflakes! They can typically take it. Just be careful about how you dish it out. 2) Playfulness Children are playful. They engage each other in play all the time; through this, they learn how to interact with each other. They also put play into its proper perspective; once they leave the playground, they are going home to eat, bathe, perhaps do homework, then maybe play some more before bedtime. Obviously, opportunities for play are very important to them, but so are the other things. Sometimes, children can be quite serious in their play, taking on certain roles and playing them to the best of their abilities. However, they know that in the end, it’s a game; rules can change, different people may take part each time the game is played. And, there is always the chance for a do-over. We can approach Tarot in the same way. For one thing, according to modern research, Tarot was originally a game. For another thing, we sometimes take ourselves and our roles as readers a bit too seriously. Issues explored through the medium of the Tarot can indeed be serious; however, the reading itself doesn’t have to be solemn or fatalistic; in fact, appropriate humor and anecdotes may help us to get our points across better. Nor does anyone have to stress out about the results: We do what we can, then we let the rest go and return to our daily lives and our priorities, just as children do. As adults, however, we return with a new perspective, hopefully with some helpful answers thrown in. 3) Non-judgment Children, being young, have much less experience of the world than adults do. This means that their opinions are based upon what they directly see and experience, without baggage and hence without judgment. Not that children can’t form opinions about things! It’s just that they know what they know, and what they don’t know, they’ll tell you they don’t know, or else they’ll give you their best guess. Most children, in my experience, will say that they don’t know, but they’ll try to figure it out for you, to keep the game going. This is a valuable lesson for adults, too. It is, to my mind, absolutely fine to tell your seeker that you simply don’t know what to say, that sometimes the requested information doesn’t come through for us to give them. It’s okay! Really, it is. What is important is that you are honest about it. And sometimes, they ask us to give them our best guesses. That’s okay, too. My point here, though, is that when you just don’t know, then you can’t pre-judge. That momentary ignorance helps to keep your personal biases out of the reading, because you have to go back to square one and just tell them what you see. I, personally find this refreshing. It reminds me that there is so much out there that we don’t know, we finite human beings nipping pieces of knowledge from the Infinite. This light touch of humility also helps us to re-set our egos, because it reminds us that we’re all human, readers and seekers alike. So, who are we to judge? 4) Inventiveness Kids can be very clever. They are generally adept at “thinking outside the box.” My son, for example, continually astounded me when he was little with his solutions to problems he was presented with. Not only did I not consider those solutions myself, they seemed beyond the scope of a child’s thought process. Boy, was I wrong! Children also enjoy stories, especially when they can actually participate in the story. They commonly read picture books and delight in imagining themselves to be part of the world that is visually depicted on the page. Sometimes, they will even take the story in a direction other than the one in which it’s heading in the book. They also enjoy that “a-HA!” moment of discovery, and love to share that with others they may be reading with. What this can teach adult Tarot readers is how to adapt to changing circumstances and different seekers. We can learn ways to resolve and work around problems, both in readings and in the situations surrounding them. Use a little ingenuity, suspend judgment for a moment and just see things as they truly are. 5) Descriptiveness Once a child has jumped into an image and begun to experience it internally, asking that child about what he/she sees may elicit a lot of description about their experience, i.e., “Well, I went into the castle, past the moat—the crocodiles were scary!—and then I went into the throne room and the queen got the sword from the king and came down to me where I was kneeling down and she knighted me.” Very descriptive, indeed! Using this level of descriptiveness in readings can naturally lead a Tarot reader to develop and hone their ability to visualize and create and tell stories which explain the action in the Tarot cards in detail to a seeker, which in turn helps them to understand the reading better. Ultimately, they take away more information they can use. In sum, when we engage in reading with these five qualities in mind—honesty, playfulness, non-judgment, inventiveness, descriptiveness —not only do they help us to approach our readings with a fresh perspective, they can also help us to rekindle that childlike sense of wonder which drew so many of us to the Tarot in the first place. Happy reading! About Trinity: Trinity Rose has been practicing divination since the ‘70s, starting under the tutelage of her father, then branching out on her own since that fateful day when she discovered Tarot in the early ‘80s. Since then, Trinity has taught many classes and workshops on Tarot and other forms of divination, founded the Secret Garden Psychic Faire & Referral Service and read at events both within and outside New York City, where she lives with her family. Trinity is available for private readings and events; you can request a booking at KnowTheSeeds@gmail.com or 929-286-7457. Tarot School Aphorism  Meet The Reader SCOTT MARTIN By Sharonah Rapseik, Ph.D., CMAP  Scott Martin has been involved in theater since he was a high school drama student. He pursued these interests in college, earning a B.A. in Speech and Theater and in graduate school, an M.F.A. in Directing. He taught theater and directed plays in high school, community, and regional theaters for 36 years. After retiring from full time teaching in 2002, he pursued his fascination with the tarot. His studies began at The Tarot School with Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone. He has also studied with Rachel Pollack, Ellen Goldberg, Elinor Greenberg, Robert Place, and Mary Greer. Scott has written Bringing the Tarot to Life, Embody the Cards Through Creative Exploration which won "Best Mass Market Book of the Year for Innovation and Insight" by The Tarosophists Association. It has now been translated in Russian. He also wrote The Silent Doorkeeper, The Alchemical Tarot Shines a Light on Covid-19. He is currently working on his third book. Scott is available to conduct workshops and teach classes, based on the material in his books. Sharonah Rapseik: Scott, what makes your tarot practice unique and how do you express it? Scott Martin: I want to make it clear that I do not use spreads from books and adapt them, instead I try to tailor-make a spread as closely as possible to each particular client's questions so we can most directly arrive at the core of the issue. I approach the reading as a story, which comes naturally from connecting my theatre background as an actor, director and teacher to the cards, and delving first into the back story. This is also part of tarot's history when tarot cards were used as a kind of parlor game, where players made up stories about each other based on picking a card and imaging a narrative that the card inspired. The client of course, comes with his or her own story so we meld all of those stores together to unravel their particular plot. Sharonah Rapseik: Thank you Scott, it’s a pleasure to meet you! You can purchase both Scott Martin's books on amazon.com The Silent Doorkeeper can also be purchased   About Sharonah:   Sharonah Rapseik is an Artist / Designer, Author, Tarot Reader, Radio Host and Producer for Psychic Talk Radio. Visit her at: https://psychictalk.net/sharonah/ Diviner's Corner
ACULTOMANCY
 Acultomancy is a form of divination that uses needles for readings. Using needles comes from the olden days where Romani peoples used to read people and use needles as their pointers. The word acultomancy is a composed term that combines the Latin word acus (nominative singular), a needle or a pin, and the Ancient Greek suffix mancy (from μαντεία, manteía), divination. Literally it means divination by needle. Readers place between seven and twenty one needles in a shallow dish. They are covered slowly with water, then their movement is observed. How they are crossed against each other is then interpreted. Needles may also be dropped onto a flat surface that has been coated with powder or flour. Here are some ways to read them: • If one needle crosses two it reveals that an enemy is working against you. • Broken lines may mean traveling or heading on a new journey. • Parallel lines may mean money in the future, either given or taken away. • Vertical lines are meant as guided roads to take. • Horizontal lines may mean what the fate will be. • Crosses are an indication of long-lasting problems. They represent a multiple of changes in one's life: a sign that adversaries may want to cause one harm; outside influences that may be causing stress; or indicators of how one is handling their spiritual side of life and mental state of being. • Grilles signify negative indications and also represent problems and adjustments. A grille is said to represent bewilderment and insecurity, and therewith interruptions to an individual's advancement due to hindrances to life's ventures. • Squares are a positive sign, they can symbolize good luck from outside forces. On the other hand, a square can be a sign of being boxed in if it rests on vertical lines. • Stars indicate success and good fortune. If appearing at the end of a vertical or horizontal line, it can indicate fame, notoriety and great accomplishments (also on relationship levels). When found at the end of parallel lines, it is a sign of misfortune and a lack of confidence in one's career. • Triangles are generally lucky markings and indicate success. They indicate the ability to analyze situations effectively and that the individual has the brainpower to accomplish many things. Triangles work as enhancers when laying on top of other lines. • Tridents is a very lucky marking. It is generally believed to bring good fortune in threes and the person will be happy, healthy and wealthy in life. Tridents increate the quality of the lines they lay on top of. Signs should be read separately when they don't overlap, but overlapping signs need to be considered together. Source: http://www.hogwarts-school.net/wiki/index.php/Acultomancy Upcoming Events:  • Monday, September 13, 20 and 27 There is no class on Sept. 6 (Labor Day) • Monday, October 4, 11, 18 and 25 Tarot Salon on Zoom! 7:00 - 9:00 pm EDT Our popular Monday night classes are now online so you can attend no matter where you live! http://tarot.salon  Join our 11K+ fans and join the fun!
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