ATA Quarterly Journal - Fall 2011

The American Tarot Associations
Fall 2011
Issue
Featuring

Tzaddi

Agony! Ecstasy!

Eye Candy

Tarot Floor
Plans

The Fool meets
the Devil
Fall 2011Table of Contents

Presidents Letter - page1
ATA Tarot News - page 2
Tzaddi is not the Star by Linda Gail Walters - page 3
Have URLNow What? by Stephanie Arwen Lynch - page 7
The Agony and Ecstasy of Repeat Clients by John Marani - page 10
Tarot Classics: Out-of-Print Eye Candy, Part I by Sherryl Smith - page 13
Laying Out Your Tarot Floor Plan by Janina Renee - page 16
Stars & Cards: Fooish Uranus and Devilish Pluto by Elizabeth Hazel - page 20
Review: Intuitive Tarot - page 26
Submission Guidelines and ATA Membership information - page 27

Quarterly Journal EditorElizabeth Hazel
On the Cover
The Fool card from the lovely Tarot of a Moon Garden deck by Karen Marie
Swiekhardt (1996) shows a Pierrot-type fool with a painted face and extra arms and
legs. Bells hang from his hat and clothing, so he jingles when he walks. He appears to
be doing several things at oncejuggling balls, painting, and dancing with a dog and a
butterfly. Night and day are on either side of the Fool. He stands at the edge between
them. The space between opposites, the edge, is where things change, where decisions
are made, and where innocence can become either wisdom or foolishness.
What will he choose? What will you choose?

Card used with permission from U. S. Games Systems, Inc.
Presidents Letter

A man has chosen one dream out of many possible dreams. He has let go of dithering over this fantasy or that option and has
made his choice. Its the moment of commitment for him. Perhaps he listened when a wise one encouraged him: Say no to the good,
in order to say Yes! to the great.
The above phrase comes from part of the description of the Seven of Water from the Gaian Tarot. Its a gor-
geous deck but this is one of those cards that always throws me in a reading. I have to take into consideration
everything else that is in the reading to see which way this card turns.
Likewise, I have to take into consideration everything that occurs in things reported to be about the American
Tarot Association. Lately Ive been hearing primarily good things with the occasional bad. Like most people, I
focus on the bad rather than the good. I get genuinely angry about our name being tarnished. We have
worked very hard to regain the Tarot publics trust. We received a note about brochures not making it to a
Tarot event. Now, even though our raffle items made it and our check to sponsor the coffee service made it,
the only thing we heard about was missing brochures.
I had to regroup. At first I defended the person saying that they were concerned we werent reaching out.
Then I realized that I was wrong. That person was too focused on what was wrong. They hadnt opened their
eyes to all that was good including the coffee cup in their hand. I didnt respond in kind. I simply noted that
the ATA board member who was going to attend had a family emergency that kept them from the confer-
ence.
So what about you? Are you overly focused on what is wrong rather than shining the spotlight on whats
good? Are you swift to criticize but slow to praise? Do you just expect that the good in your life is your entitle-
ment? Why not try an experiment? Every time you are going to criticize, kvetch, moan, bitch, complainwhy
not stop yourself? Why not challenge yourself to make a different choice then the one that only serves you a
bitter drink. Try choosing a different cup. Honey really will catch more flies than vinegar.
As we head into this final three months of 2011, I want to wish you all a season of deep joy that brings you to
a place of contentment. Its Thanksgiving in many places this fall. Take a moment to draw a card. What are
you forgetting to be thankful for? I know I forget to be thankful for the people who help make the ATA what it
is. People like Liz Hazel, Rickey Hite and Jessica Fischer-Wilson who manage our publications, our office, and
our website. And a double nod for Sheri Harshberger who serves on the ATA Board as well as edits the ATA
Reflections. Without their dedication, the American Tarot Association would be a much poorer place.

In Tarot,
Stephanie Arwen Lynch

ATA Quarterly JournalFall 2011 page 1

Three of Cups You Are Cordially Invited

How social are you? Im talking about Social Net-
working, of course. For those that enjoy this type
of online interaction, The ATA has a Facebook
(URL) page as well as a Twitter (http://
www.twitter.com/ATA_Tarot) account. Please
join us online to share your love of Tarot with oth-
ers.
Speaking of being online, please be aware that
the Board is working to move towards a more en-
vironmentally conscious way of doing things.
One of those will affect this publication that you
are reading now. We will be moving away from
printing and mailing the Quarterly out. But dont
fret! If you love to have the publication in your
hands or your eyes prefer that, you will still be
able to get it. And you are in charge of when and
how. We will be setting up a link to an online Print
-On-Demand company where you can order the
Quarterly for yourself. Those of you who have
paid for the print version will have your accounts
adjusted to make up for this as well. There will be
other changes coming so that you can order the
educational materials in a similar way. Your
board is very excited about the upcoming im-
provements.

From Edward Goreys Fantod Pack
All these old letters of my Book are aright but
[tzaddi] is not the Star. (AL I:57)[1]
The two predominant Tarot decks today are the
Rider-Waite Tarot[2], created by Arthur Edward Waite
and Pamela Coleman Smith, and the Thoth Tarot [3],
created by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris.
Scores of artistic, specialty, and novelty decks derive
from each of these seminal works. Yet, these two decks
differ in important ways. The most obvious difference,
the illustrated pips of the Rider-Waite versus the pips of
the Thoth, stands out with even a casual look at the
cards. A second difference, the names of the Court
cards of the Minor Arcana, I have discussed in earlier
articles (see ATA Quarterly Journal Spring, Fall, Win-
ter 2008 and Spring 2009). The Major Arcana, the
topic at hand, contains the biggest, and to many, the
most perplexing differences between these decks. Some
of the differences are immediately recognizable and
fairly clear-cut, whereas others, including a reordering
of cards, take a bit of reading and research to under-
stand.
The first, and one of the least obscure, of the dif-
ferences is the name for Trump I. In the Rider-
Waite it is The Magician, but in the Thoth, it is The
Magus, which also means a worker of magick. While
the image is significantly different from that of The
Magician, the same symbols of wand, cup, sword,
and pentacle are still there along with certain Thel-
emic symbols. Indeed, most of the differences found
in the Thoth Tarot come from Thelema, the mysti-
cal religious philosophy founded by Aleister Crow-
ley. The familiar magician has undergone a number
of name changes over the centuries. In the Tarot de
Marseilles, he is called Le Bateleur - The Juggler or
Montebank - a street confidence man whose modern
equivalent is the urban three-card Monte dealer. In-
deed, there were several versions of this card
painted by Frieda Harris and in The Book of
Thoth[4], Crowley refers to this card as The Jug-
gler. Both Waite and Crowley elevated his status
from common petty street criminal to that of a
worker of magick.
Another obvious and simple change is the re-
naming of Waite's The High Priestess to The
Priestess. In Crowley's Thelemic religion, Ecclesia
Gnostica Catholica (Gnostic Catholic Church),
there are priests, priestesses, and deacons, but no
high priests or priestesses, so the name change is
obvious and clear. Again, Crowley, perhaps fol-
lowing Emerson's injunction that "A foolish con-
sistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", still calls
this Trump The High Priestess in The Book of
Thoth.
The next change is not so obvious; it is the at-
tribution of Trump IV - The Emperor to its cor-
responding Hebrew letter. Since this is the biggest
single change in the Thoth Tarot and the main
topic of this article, we will leave a full examina-
tion of it for later.
The next change involves both a swapping of
position and a change of names of two cards from
those of the Rider-Waite. In the Rider-Waite
deck, Trump VIII is Strength with its familiar im-
age of a woman taming a lion with nothing more
than the strength of her will and Trump XI - Jus-
tice. In the Thoth deck, Waite's Trump XI - Jus-
tice is renamed Adjustment and it is swapped with
Trump VIII Strength which is also renamed to
Lust. The name change is more easily explained
than that of position. According to Crowley, the
name change due to the fact that, "Nature is not
just, according to any theological or ethical idea;
Tzaddi is not The Star:
The Trumps of the Thoth Tarot
by Linda Gail Walters, CPTR
but Nature is exact. (from the Book of Thoth) Yet
even this seemingly simple renaming has deeper
consequences in Crowley's philosophy. There are
connections to the Egyptian goddess Ma'at through
the ostrich feathers and deeper connections to "The
Woman Satisfied" with all of the connections to sex
magick which that statement entails.
The renamed Justice/Adjustment has swapped
position with Trump VIII - Strength, which has also
been renamed to Lust. This name change has a
deeper connection for Crowley than just his sex
magick and The Scarlet Woman (the Whore of
Babylon). He changed the name to point to a
deeper, and perhaps darker, aspect of strength and
power. That aspect being "...the joy of strength exer-
cised. Its vigor, and the rapture of vigour.(BoT)
The rationale for the swap is based on the corre-
spondences of the Trumps to the letter of the He-
brew alphabet and the attributions of both the cards
and the alphabet to the signs of the zodiac. The tra-
ditional order of the Tarot can be seen in older
decks, such as the Tarot de Marseilles, where La
Force - Strength - is Trump XI and La Justice - Jus-
tice - is Trump VIII.
There is, however, a problem with this order-
ing. It is a problem that occurs when we try to
combine more than two esoteric systems into a
consistent set of correspondences: there may be
some things that don't fit. This is one of those
cases. If we follow the traditional ordering, then
Strength/Lust which is attributed to the sign of
Leo would be the attributed to the ninth Hebrew
letter, Teth and Justice/Adjustment to Libra, the
attribution of the 12th Hebrew letter. The adepts
of the Golden Dawn, who worked out this set of
attributions, had no trouble in swapping the posi-
tions of these two Trumps. In the Golden Dawn
Tarot, Trump VIII is Strength and Trump XI is
Justice. Waite, being an initiate of the Golden
Dawn, retained this newer, non-traditional order
in his deck. So, we see that Crowley really did not
make a change in the order here, but rather undid
a change to restore the traditional order. We shall
see later how this traditional order of the Trumps
figures into a big change that Crowley did make.
Another one of Crowley's name changes was
to Trump XIV. He changed Waite's Temperance
to Art. In The Book of Thoth Crowley states,
"This card is the complement and the fulfillment
of Atu VI, Gemini." Let's think about that for a
minute - Trump (Atu) VI is The Lovers, even in
the Thoth deck. What can Crowley possibly
mean by this statement? The statement is based
on the esoteric meaning of Trump VI. This card
relates less to romantic love and marriage than it
does to the alchemical Union of Opposites. If it is
a marriage, then it is of the form of The Chymical
Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz [5], an al-
chemical, metaphorical union of opposites. This
is why this Trump has also been called The
Brothers, Gemini, and even The Hermaphrodite.
Temperance/Art is, like The Lovers an al-
chemical card that deals with the union of oppo-
sites and the creation of a new third product from
the combination of two constituent parts - often

with the synergistic effect of the whole being greater
than the sum of its parts.
In the Thoth deck, Art is performing an opera-
tion that is more clearly alchemical than the simple
pouring of liquid from on chalice to another as seen
in Temperance. The Latin motto above the figure
reads "Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies
Occultum Lapidem." - "Visit the interior of the
Earth. By rectification you will find the hidden
stone" [translation by the author]. The stone in ques-
tion is a reference to the ultimate quest of alchemy:
the Philosopher's Stone.
In The Book of the Law: Liber, the central sa-
cred text of Thelema, the preternatural intelligence
who Crowley claimed dictated the Book to him,
states at one point, "All these old letters of my Book
are aright but tzaddi] is not the Star." By his own
admission, this statement perplexed even Crowley
until he revisited the attributions and inversions of
Strength/Lust and Justice/Adjustment that we dis-
cussed earlier. The Golden Dawn had attributed the
Hebrew letter tzaddi to The Star. What if that was
incorrect and the gods had given Crowley the means
of correcting the order of the Tarot? Was this cryp-
tic statement the key? To Crowley it was.
The Golden Dawn had restored the natural
order to the zodiacal attributions of the Tarot, but
in doing so had taken it out of its traditional or-
der, which changed the order of the attributions
to the Hebrew alphabet and took those corre-
spondences out of order. Crowley realized that
this message that he believed he had received
from the gods meant that things could be set
aright if The Star were not attributed to tzaddi,
but to some other Hebrew letter.
When the traditional order of the Tarot is at-
tributed to both the Zodiac and to the Hebrew
alphabet, either the zodiacal order is wrong or the
Hebrew alphabetical order is wrong. Either one
causes a sort of loop to form, turning the band of
the Zodiac into a kind of Mobius strip. Crowley
took a long time in considering this puzzle, but
finally hit upon the answer. If Tzaddi were attrib-
uted to Trump IV - The Emperor, and The Em-
peror's Hebrew letter, He, were attributed to The
Star without changing their zodiacal attributions,
then a loop opposite to the one caused by the tra-
ditional order of Adjustment/Justice and Strength/
Lust was formed, thus evening out the band of the
Zodiac and bringing it back into balance. In his
work, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth
Tarot [6], Lon Milo DuQuette gives what is possi-
bly the clearest explanation of this process, com-
plete with tables and illustrations of the zodiacal
loops.
Finally, in the Thoth Tarot Trump XX is The
Aeon, rather than the more familiar Judgement.
This removes this Trump from any semblance of
Christian reference to the dead rising at an ulti-
mate final judgment and replaces it with a similar
allegory from the religious philosophy of
Thelema. According to Crowley, the Equinox of
the Gods, the ending of the aeon of Osiris and
the start of the new aeon of Horus, occurred on
March 20th or 21st in 1904. Thus like the Judge-
ment of Waite's deck, this card marks the start of
a new era. Crowley replaced the familiar Christian

-based imagery of Judgement with Thelemic images
of Horus, Nut, Hadit, Ra-hoor-kuit, and Hoor-pa-
kraat.
Thus, the unfamiliar and perhaps strange images,
names and order of the Thoth Tarot have been, I
hope, made a bit more accessible.

Acknowledgements
Rider-Waite Tarot images copyright 1971 and
Thoth Tarot images copyright 1978 by U.S.
Games Systems - used by permission.

References
[1] Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law: Liber Al Vel
Legis. Centennial Edition, San Francisco, CA, Red Wheel/
Weiser, 2004.
[2] Waite, Arthur Edward and Pamela Colman Smith.
Rider Tarot Deck. Stamford, CT, U.S. Games Systems, 2005.
[3] Crowley, Aleister and Lady Frieda Harris. Thoth Tarot.
Stamford, CT, U.S. Games Systems, 1972.
[4] Crowley, Aleister. The Book of Thoth by the Master
Therion: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians. Lon-
don: O.T.O., 1944. The Equinox III (5), Reprint, York
Beach, ME: Weiser Books, Inc., 1997.
[5] Joscelyn Godwin (trans). The Chemical Wedding of
Christian Rosenkreutz. Grand Rapids, MI, Magnum Opus
Hermetic Sourceworks Series, Phanes Press, 1991.
[6] DuQuette, Lon Milo. Understanding Aleister Crow-
leys Thoth Tarot. San Francisco, CA, Red Wheel/Weiser,
LLC, 2003.

Author Bio
Linda Gail Walters, CPTR is a writer, tarot
reader & teacher, and engineer. She is an initiate
in several orders of Ceremonial Magick and the
founder of the Darkstone School of Tarot &
Magick. http://tarot.lindagailwalters.com


The first thing I did when I real-
ized how important the Internet
was going to be was buy a com-
pletely useless URL. My personal
site was www.anisoptera.com. I
taught myself to build that webpage
by viewing the source code of other
pages online. That was a while ago.
As in 199something-or-other.
For a while, I ran my Tarot con-
sulting business via a back page of that site. Then
I realized if I wanted to come across as a profes-
sional, I needed to get my own URL for the busi-
ness. Strangely enough, tarotbyarwen.com was-
nt taken. I grabbed it and then called a friend
who is a professional designer. She and I bar-
tered readings for her work. I highly recommend
having a professional design your website if you
dont have the skills.
So lets say you are at that same point that I
was. You have a URL (Uniform Resource Loca-
tor). You have a good hosting company. If you
dont, I highly recommend A Small Orange.
They just bought out my original hosting com-
pany, Drak.net. Ive been very pleased with their
service.

What do you, the brand-new online Tarot
consultant, need to know about running an
online business?

Marketing: Funny that the first thing isnt
how to do a consultation on-line, isnt it. Well,
think of it this way. If you dont have a client,
theres no point in doing the consultation. So you
need to attract cli-
ents.
E-bay is a good
way to attract clien-
tele. I offered low-
cost readings over
the course of a year.
At first I listed 3-5
per week, but then
weaned myself
down to zero. I still have clients coming to me
from E-bay marketing.
E-mail signatures are a must. Common
courtesy says your signature shouldnt be
more than four lines. And please dont include
an image because that uses up other peoples
data.
E-mail loops and on-line communities
are great ways to connect with others. This is
about networking rather than BUY MY
STUFF interactions. You want to let your
signature do your talking.
Start a blog and keep it up. Even if its
only twice a month, make sure your content
changes. My site is run through a Word Press
blog so my blog posts are the front page. This
keeps people coming to your site for reasons
other than BUY MY STUFF.
Podcasts and internet radio are two other
methods. I do a monthly podcast for Tar-
otscopes that gets anywhere from 200-400 lis-
teners a month (small beans for some, but it
keeps me hopping). I routinely run contests or
specials on readings for that month.
Find your niche. For me, I have a three-
HAVE URL - NOW WHAT?
By Stephanie Arwen Lynch

way niche. No, its not what you think! I read for
the GLBTQI (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans-
gender, Queer, Intersexed) community. I also
read for other authors like myself. Lastly, I offer
spreads for polyamorous folk as well.
Teach. Teach free mini-workshops or offer
classes. Contact local shops and community col-
leges about teaching. I lead the Austin MeetUp
for Tarot (http://www.meetup.com) which is
another way of connecting with the community.
I also do quite a bit on internet radio shows
where we do free readings.

The point of all of this is to get your name out
there. If you are a shy, retiring type, knock it off.
You are your best promoter. And, please, re-
member that what you say online can be saved
and researched for the rest of your life and be-
yond. There are things out there that I would
much rather werent. The products of a fiery
youth, I guess.
Navigation: Wait a minute! Ill bet you
thought how to do an online consultation would
be next. Sorry, but we need to talk about this.
Once you have clients coming to your site, they
need to know where to go. Its very important to
have redundancy on your site. Let me repeat
that. No wait. That would be redundant. Any-
way, having a navbar at the very bottom along
with the main one on the top or side is never a
bad idea.
Do not bury your information. That bears
repeating. Do not bury your information. Make
sure your potential client can find out how to get
a reading. Mine is at the top on the right. It is
creatively titled Get A Reading. Cute word
play is not appropriate for this. Make it plain.
Make it simple.
On the page where clients click to get a
reading, put the prices in plain sight. Do not
hedge. Do not make them click again. This is an-
noying and sometimes can be seen as Hi,
hello, I dont really want to do a reading but
some friends told me I should. You dont
want that. If you go to McDonalds , they
have their prices on the menu.
Payment is gold. I have a PayPal account
so each of my readings has a button that links
directly to PayPal. I have found the business
tools on PayPal to be invaluable. They allow
me to create buttons easily. I have never had
any issues with PayPal. And, it is easy to issue
a refund as well when necessary.

Consultations: Yes, yes, I can hear you
breathing a sigh of relief. Finally weve
reached the instructions on how to do an
online consultation. I will state that this is not
for every reader. Some prefer the proximity of
face-to-face. I read in a variety of ways includ-
ing email consultations. Here are a few ways
to do this.
E-mail: This is how I started. I do many
readings this way. I have a template developed
that has an image from my website as the
background. This helps with brand recogni-
tion. Each template has a place for the ques-
tions with a place to include either the card
image or a link to the card image. I use images
with copyright watermarks on them or I link
to the artist/author page.
Phone: Kind of a no-brainer, but the
thing to consider is caller ID. Do you want
your clients to have your phone number to call
you whenever? Did you know that as mem-
bers of the ATA, you can get your own 1-800
number? Check the last page of this publica-
tion for more information.
MP3: This option has become very popu-
lar with my clients. I like it because I can do it
whenever I have time. I am not locked into a
time frame. I use Audacity (http://
www.audacity.com) to do the readings. Its a free
program and its easy to learn.
Skype: Ive done a few Skype calls. The ad-
vantage is the face-to-face contact and I can
show my client their cards. Drawbacks are that it
does have a cost if you dont have the other per-
sons Skype ID. I have done overseas readings
this way.

The final piece ties back into Marketing. Its
networking. To be clear, networking and market-
ing are kissing cousins but they are different
beasts. Here are two ways you can network your-
self.
Twitter: This is one of my favorite tools. I
was a somewhat early adopter (June 2008). I cur-
rently have over 2000 followers. I interact with
people I find interesting. I tweet more social
chatter than business. The goal is to be human.
You can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/
tarotbyarwen if you like.
Facebook: I have a business page with my
blog tied into it. I dont do much with it. Ive
seen some that do a lot. Ferol Humphreys Liv-
ing Tarot page is always hopping.
This is just an overview of what I have found
useful in my online business. Other things you
will want to consider are how to show your testi-
monials. I have a post that is sticky so it is al-
ways at the top of my page. On my template is a
request for testimonials. Theres a direct link to
that post so that they can leave their remarks.
You want to provide a website that is easy to find
as well as easy to comment on. I like to have my
word-of-mouth in lasting digital memory. An-
other recent step I took was to list my business
on Yelp (http://www.yelp.com). I have gotten
several local calls from that free site. I am cur-
rently running a Yelp Deal but have only seen
my views go up. No one has taken advantage of
that yet.

Good luck in your own on-line Tarot con-
sultation business. Remember to always have
current business cards with you as well. You
dont want to miss a potential connection.
Stephanie Arwen Lynch has read profes-
sional since 1985. Her online business, Tarot
By Arwen, was launched in 2005. Her sister,
the CPA, says shes done all right since then.
You can visit her online at http://
www.tarotbyarwen.com or listen to this
months podcast at http://
tarotbyarwen.podbean.com .

By John Marani
You cant live with them, and you cant live
without them. If you read cards professionally,
your repeat clients are an important part of your
ongoing income. Consequently, long-term client-
reader relationships take special care, and they
have very specific challenges.
While we might play favorites, there are some
regular clients that we are always willing to go that
extra mile for. Theyre appreciative, provide us
feedback, are reasonable in their requests, and
dont bat an eyelash at the price of their reading.
And they tell us how great we are, too. You walk
away from a reading with them feeling like you
helped them, even if you didnt feel like you were
as on target as you normally are.
As much as we have some clients we adore,
we all have a few repeaters that when we see
an email from them, watch them walk through
our door, or have their number show up on our
caller ID, we inwardlyor outwardlygroan,
grumble, or grouse, and steel ourselves for our
reading with them. We even have nicknames for
them, like Cries on Command, Dances with
Weed, Throat Chakra Overload, and
Subscription (in other words, lots of issues).
[NOTE: These are NOT actual nicknames of my
clients but they represent the style that I would
probably use if I ever chose to do such a thing,
so please feel free to use them yourselves.
Youll thank me later.]
Where does all this leave us? Well, we have
to find a way not to give away the farm and al-
low our wonderful clients to take advantage of
us, and keep our professionalism and sanity in-
tact when the clients from hell darken our door-
way.

Angels and Demons
Its easy to label clients but be warned: Your
favorite client can turn on you, and a problem
child can become a pleasure in the span of a
few moments. So lets start with the big love
and leave the fear and loathing at the end.
Great Expectations. Your angels may love
you, but the longer the love-in continues, the
more they will expect from you. In a positive
sense, this allows you to raise your game as a
reader. But these clients can expect precise an-
swers at times when in their lives there are
none.
Into the Weeds. If you have a client asking
you a question that seems overly detailedWhat
kind of mustache will my next boyfriend have?
might be one examplethen you may need to
bring them back down to earth. That may be
harder to do if youre afraid of irritating someone
you enjoy working with.
Amateur Hour. Some of your favorite clients
may become inspired to learn the tarot themselves
because of the great readings youve given them.
Thats fantastic, until they start expecting an expla-
nation of every card and asking questions like,
How did you get THAT from the Tower and the
Ace of Wands?
Time Bandits. It may not seem like a lot if you
give clients an extra five minutes here or there,
especially when they are nice to talk to. But unless
theyre a personal friend, that can be a dangerous
way of getting behind, especially with multiple
readings to do in a specific time period and a short
timeor nonebetween readings.
A Few Good Cards. Some people may be drawn
to you because youve always given them good
news in the past. Now, personally, I always like to
leave the client with a positive message, but
theres a big difference. Giving your favorite clients
bad news may be a little easier for you, but that
doesnt mean hearing it is easy for them. When the
good times train goes off the tracks, your angels
halo may lose its shine.
Its great to enjoy reading for people over and
over again. But this is a professional relationship;
they are paying you to perform a service. While its
nice to have a good time, enjoying the reading
isnt in the job description.

A Sheep in Wolfs Clothing
When it comes to problem clients, we can all
become jaded. Oh, no, you wail. Shes going to
ask me about her dogs health again. Thats a
topic that just doesnt interest us. Or maybe your
attitude is even worse: He never listens to me
anyway, so why does he even bother coming to
see me? Wowwhat a great way to rationalize
not giving your full effort toward a reading.
News flash: Even though you might think that
your client isnt that intuitive, likely they can
sense that something lies beneath when they
come to see you and youre not happy about it.
Here are some opportunities that our difficult
clients present to us.
Adjustment Bureau. Check your attitude. If
youre not happy to see a client, ask yourself
why. For me, most of the time its my ego gone
wild. Working with people that are kind of a pain
is a reminder to me that every client deserves
my full attention, effort, and expertise, and that
if I was paying for any service and I was a pain
to them they would still do their best to be pro-
fessional and courteous.
Ruthless People. The tarot is not a weapon to
drive off clients you hate. Be sensitive to the
feelings of your demons, in some ways even
more so than your favorites, and show some
compassion for their situation. Working with a
difficult client allows us the opportunity to chan-
nel some of that inner strength and put it to
good use helping someone. Youre not reading
cards to get rich, right? [Note: If you are, better
use those cards to get some insight on which
world markets arent going to tank.]
Steel Magnolias. Sometimes you dont like
working with someone because they have lots of
very serious problems to deal with. Its hard to
read for someone who has just lost a spouse,
parent, or child, for example. But by asking for a
reading they are requesting your help. You
should feel honored that theyve asked. While
they may need additional support or assistance
from others, you may be able to give them a
moment of solace that they desperately need,
and that will be remembered.
Push. Maybe one of your difficult clients
never says a word during readings. If that is a
reason why you run the other direction when they
come for a reading, perhaps its time to push them
a little. Ask for feedback. Find out if theyre getting
what they need from you. Or maybe its time to
shake things up on your side: A new spread or dif-
ferent technique might be just what that client
needs.

The Green Mile
In the end, it comes
down to money. You
are providing a service
and receiving compen-
sation for it. Your regu-
lar and repeat clients
are an important
source of income that
you cannot afford to
irritate, mistreat, or undervalue, even if they are
maddening sometimes. So here are a few parting
shots to keep in mind with your angels and de-
mons.
Super Size Me. Your clients are a great source
of income now, but they also represent future
earning potential. Many of my clients have recom-
mended me to their friends; in one case, I got four
or five new clients because of one very satisfied
customer. Both the favorite clients and the problem
children can do this for you. Just because you
might not care for them personally doesnt mean
you cant do an outstanding job for them. Satisfied
clients help propel your business forward.
Dangerous Liaisons. Keep your feelings about
your clients to yourself. Let your mouth run away
with you once and that could be a serious reputa-
tion problem. You may find yourself saying, I cant
stand [insert person X here] to someone, but be
careful: People talk, and email, and Facebook, and
Tweet, and IM, and Skype, andwell, you see
where this is going.
Me, Myself and Irene. Natural disasters aside,
perhaps the client is not the problem. If you are
having personal problems, battling an illness,
not sleeping well, or generally are struggling to
keep it together, you shouldnt be reading right
now. Ive done a few readings and thought af-
terwards, I should have postponed that read-
ing. While thats not always possible for big
gigs, you need to take care of yourself, too. Be
honest enough to change your schedule as nec-
essary for readings if youre just not up to it.
Youre doing both of you a favor.
Titanic. Sometimes theres just no hope. If all
else fails and you get to the point of detesting a
client that muchfor whatever reason respect
them enough to tell them you no longer want to
read for them. No in-depth explanation or justifi-
cation is necessary; youre just re-arranging the
deck chairs at that point. But dont take their
money and do slapdash work. Thats not fair to
you or to them. [It also makes your colleagues
look bad, too, and we have enough obstacles to
overcome, thank you very much.]
I was lucky enough to work at McDonalds for
parts of five years in my youth. One of the axi-
oms I learned there was, The customer is the
most important person in our business. Thats
something to keep in mind when your regular
clients come to you asking for readings, whether
they are Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.

Rev. John Marani, CTC, is the tarot reader at
13 Magickal Moons of Occoquan, VA. He is the
Head High Priest in Training of the Tradition of
the Witches Circle, Occoquan, VA, where he
teaches Intermediate and Advanced Tarot, As-
trology and Witchcraft. John is an interfaith min-
ister for the Ministry of Light Interfaith Church of
Occoquan,VA. His blog, Metaphysical Meander-
ings by Johnnietwobrows, can be found at john-
nietwobrows.blogspot.com, and covers a variety
of tarot-related, astrology, and other metaphysi-
cal topics. John welcomes email and you may
contact him at hierophant@cox.net.
Once there was a time when lovers of Tarot
looking for card images to enjoy were forced to
(gasp!!) buy a book! In that long ago timesay,
1976 there was no Google, no wikis, no surfing
nor clicking. To indulge your tarot obsession, you
drove your Ford Pinto to a local bookstore where,
if you were lucky, Gettings' beautifully illustrated
book would be waiting for you on the shelf. This
article is the first in a series describing colorful
"coffee table" tarot books from the 70s and 80s, a
time when printed images were the only media
for experiencing tarot.
Gettings summarized his approach to tarot
by saying, "The cards are intended to be spring-
boards for intuitive judgments rather than
happy hunting grounds for scholars of esoteri-
cism." Throughout the book he speaks scorn-
fully of esotericists with their lists of arbitrary
tarot attributions and pseudo-Egyptian imagery.
He teaches that a card's meaning can be ascer-
tained from a close look at its internal geometric
structure. There's no need to go outside the
card to draw in meaning from other systems.
At one point he refers to 18
th
and 19
th
cen-
tury esotericists as "grinning Aunt Sallies, to be
bowled over with a minimum of research."
Then he goes on to give the grand masters of
occult tarot an over-the-top tongue-lashing. He
calls Etteilla a hairdresser whose sterile verbiage
may have irreparably harmed Tarot and sug-
gests his fantasies about tarot would be fertile
material for a psychiatrist. Eliphas Levi has a
"dangerously strong" imagination, while Papus
has a "charming way of revealing nothing be-
hind a veil of obscure symbols." Court de Gebe-
lin started the whole mess in the 18
th
century
because "his ignorant assertions have lent an
almost divine aura to the cards, and this malig-
nant influence has persisted to this day." He's
especially scornful of A. E. Waite, who, he be-
lieves, completely distorted the original Tarot de
Marseilles structure when he designed the Rider
Waite Smith deck. Gettings ignores the fact that
Waite was not trying to improve the Tarot de Mar-
seilles, but was designing a very different deck to
illustrate his own spiritual beliefs.
Gettings is scornful of fantasies about tarot's
origins, saying that what passes for historical re-
search is actually ". an extended commentary on
human credulity, duplicity, inventiveness, igno-
rance and superstition." He was ahead of his time
in asserting that Tarot is a product of late-medieval
Italian culture, not of ancient Egypt or of neo-
Platonic Renaissance thinkers. Yet, he sees the
Tarot de Marseilles as the true, original tarot and
ignores 15
th
century decks that are closer to
Tarot's origins. Although Gettings has no use for
esotericists, he aligns himself with them when he
turns up his nose at the minor arcana because it's
a pack of lowly playing cards, while be believes,
incorrectly, that the major arcana was originally
designed for divination.
Gettings says that because the very structure of
each major arcana card conveys meaning, people
have always sensed there was something pro-
found about the cards, but went about discover-
ing this meaning in a misguided way, inventing
fanciful origin stories set in the mythic past and
mining esoteric systems for attributions. Gettings
tells us that we don't need to go outside the cards
to systems like Kabala or alchemy for their mean-
ing. The cards themselves reveal their meaning
when we look at the images closely and ponder
their basic geometric structure.
The heart of the book is his analysis of the struc-
ture of each major arcana card. By looking at the
geometric shapes implicit in each card's structure,
he sees astrological and alchemical symbols, as
well as letters of the Hebrew alphabet, embedded
in the card's design. His anti-esoteric stance breaks
down considerably as he reads symbols into
the cards that buttress conventional meanings
rooted in 19
th
century occultism. For instance,
he sees the veil behind the Papesse as the
horns of Isis, the round object on the Juggler's
table as a pentacle, and the Hebrew letter
Aleph in the Juggler's arm positions. He sees
the symbol for Taurus in the Justice card's struc-
ture, but then goes on to say, for no apparent
reason that Justice corresponds to Libra. He
could have mentioned that both Taurus and
Libra are ruled by Venus, but he doesn't make
that connection. He arbitrarily assigns a con-
ventional attribution to the card. This is rather
disappointing in someone who was so ada-
mant about Tarot's medieval roots.
You can try Gettings' method for yourself by
laying paper over a card and tracing its basic
outline in black pen. Try to see the underlying
geometric structure and see how parts of the
design relate to each other and to the whole.
See if the lines you trace remind you of an as-
trological or alchemical symbol. Does this add
anything meaningful to the card?
Gettings' book introduces an intuitive
method of reading the Tarot de Marseilles to an
English-speaking audience. The book is also a
good introduction to tarot history and the
study of comparative imagery. Every page is
profusely illustrated and packed with ideas, cor-
respondences and insights. There's something
for everyone, no matter what your approach to
tarot.
The book is hard bound and measures 8 x
11 inches. Every double page spread is illus-
trated with historic cards, medieval and Renais-
sance art, alchemical illustrations, and geomet-
ric figures. Gettings wrote numerous illustrated
books on tarot, astrology and palmistry in the
1970s and 1980s which are easily found online
for a few dollars.
The Book of Tarot by Fred Gettings. Triune
Books, London, 1973.

Sherryl Smith: has been studying Tarot for
nearly 40 years. Her website www.tarot-
heritage.com offers an illustrated history of tarot
and instructions for reading with historic decks.

Sample pages from The Book of Tarot:
abovepage 54
To leftpage 92
by Janina Rene
In discussing tarot spreads, we often use the
term layout, the same term we may use when
talking about the floor plan of a house. By this
logic, we can create tarot spreads in imitation of
house structures, with the card positions relating
to rooms and other spatial features. Such a layout
allows us to interpret the cards in the context of
the different rooms metaphorical functions, be-
cause the rooms and other features of a house can
symbolize so many different areas, phases, and
aspects of our personal lives. Among the other
possibilities this suggests,
*
you can create a layout
based on the floor plan of your own house to gain
insight into the metaphorical house of your life,
as well as the ways you engage the various fea-
tures of your house or apartment in a uniquely
personal way.
To use your floor plan as a tarot layout, you
must first think about which spaces to assign as
card positions. While there is no space or feature
of your house that is too small or insignificant to
hold symbolic meanings, your layout can get to
be complex if you include smaller areas like
porches or pantries, so you may want to concen-
trate on just the main rooms. For example, if
you have a typical six-room ranch-style house,
you could lay out two rows of three cards,
even if the rooms dont actually line up in a
perfect grid of six squares. You can add card
spaces for the bathrooms, entries, halls, and
such if you want to, though that makes for a
messy, less symmetrical arrangement, which
may still not accurately reflect the division of
space. Because it doesnt have to be perfect for
my purposes, I compromise by laying out the cards
for the main rooms first since they command more
attention, and then pull additional cards to denote the
secondary areas and fit them into the layout. If you
have a two story house, you could represent your sec-
ond floor with a second layout grouping. If you have
a basement or attic that you want to include, a single
card might do for either, unless you have those floors
subdivided into meaningful activity areas. Note that you
could render your floor plan on a large piece of paper or
poster board and use that as a layout mat. To be-
gin your reading, shuffle your cards as you pose a re-
quest like, Please give me a look into my house of life,
and then lay out your cards to simulate your floor plan,
as discussed. You might want to start with your front
entry area, and work through the rooms in a clockwise
order, unless some other sequence makes more sense,
perhaps based on the flow of foot traffic. To better ori-
ent yourself, you could lay out the cards while sitting at a
table facing your main entryway.
As you proceed, think about how the cards apply to
the metaphorical associations of different rooms, as well
as how they apply literally to the way you use those
rooms. Consider whether the imagery in the cards is har-
monious with the rooms functions (such as Cups cards
in the kitchen or dining room), or discordant (such as
Swords in a bedroom). Reversed cards may point to
avoidance areas, rooms that you dont own, perhaps
due to some physical or psychological discomfort. Court
cards emphasize roles played and identity issues, whether
for yourself or other household members. Major Arcana
cards denote zones of the house that have special bear-
ing on your life plan. Or since they can denote spiritual
matters, they can denote more spiritualized spaces in
your home.

Here is a run-down on individual areas:
A front porch has a lot to do with your personal
presentation and how you extend yourself into your
community. The entry area is similar, but also says some-
thing about what sort of energies you are letting into
your life, or that are appearing at your front door.
The word living room is metaphorically loaded, so
cards here can provide an overview of your life situation.
Because both living and dining rooms are places where
we spend time with family or entertain friends, they also
say something about our relationships and degree of
connectedness.
The interpretation of a dining area may differ,
depending on whether its a formal dining room or a
dinette. Formal dining rooms are more for displaying
social status and passing on traditions. With these and
other rooms, you also have to consider how often
you use them, and whether you are using them for
their intended purposes. For example, in many
homes, the dining table gets turned into a workspace.
The kitchen and dining areas are places where we
take in nourishment. The kitchen is also the place
where food is processed and therefore a place of
transformation. Cards with scenes of feasting and
conviviality are auspicious for these rooms, whereas
hardship cards may signal emotional starvation. Cards
denoting imbalance might warn, literally, of some
imbalance in your nutrition.
Bathrooms are both places of elimination and
purification, so issues here can also have bearing on
your health, as well as psychological concerns.
A home office is more or less significant based
on its importance to your home management or live-
From the Whispering Tarot
lihood, so you might notice whether the cards are denot-
ing productivity or interference.
Family rooms and dens are intended as major activ-
ity areas, so if you have one, you might notice how cards
associated with this area differ from those of your living
room.
A bedroom is a private space for rest and renewal if
you live alone, but if you are partnered, cards here have
bearing on the quality of your relationship.
Because hallways enable passage from one room to
another, cards there can say something about how well
you are able to make transitions between the different
departments of your life.
Similar to in dream interpretation, a cellar can sym-
bolize things below the level of consciousness like bur-
ied memories and unconscious motivations. An attic
can denote things that are uppermost in your mind, such
as conscious plans and intentions.

If there are other members of your household,
cards associated with their rooms would pertain more
to their issues, though because the reading is framed
from your viewpoint, it will also indicate how you are
affected by their concerns. Significators for other
household members may pop up in different rooms.
For example, when the significator card for my
friends husband came up in her kitchen, she admit-
ted that she doesnt care to cook, but her husband
has made the kitchen his special domain. Zodiacal
associations are also significant. For my sons room, I
drew the King of Cups, and he is a double Cancer;
also, when he is out of town, my father, another Can-
cer, occupies that room.
Because different rooms can have elemental asso-
ciationssuch as Fire for a kitchen or Water for a
bathroom--it is interesting to note whether your
cards suits reflect some of these. Also, is there a pre-
dominance of cards relating to Fire, Earth, Air, or
Water? That could say something about whether your
household has a strong elemental orientation. (How
might an Air household differ from a Water
household?) Although elemental psychological and
philosophical symbolism is important, sometimes the
cards get quite literal, which is why we commonly see
reversed Cups cards in association with kitchens and
bathrooms that are having plumbing problems.
Despite the architectural framework of the Floor
Plan reading, tarot cards rarely portray domestic
scenes and interiors, (though there are exceptions,
like when I got the 10 of Cups for my living or dining
room while reading with the Legacy of the Divine
tarot, whose illustration of a dog and cat snuggled by
a fireplace reflects our pet-centric household). While
domestic imagery is not necessary for this type of
reading, it is conceivable that someone could create a
tarot based on interior scenes or architectural fea-
tures. Thinking about tarot symbolism in relation to
our living spaces truly opens doors and windows into
inner worlds.
King of Cups From the New Hurley Tarot

* Note: Because I previously wrote an article for the
Llewellyn Journal on The Dollhouse Oracle, which
also suggests ideas for a house-themed layout, I didnt
rehash that information here, but provide fresh informa-
tion on relating the cards to the house you live in. If you
would like to learn more about working within the meta-
phor of the house, you can find that article at http://
www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2044.
Janina Rene is a scholar of folklore, psychology,
medical anthropology, the material culture of magic, rit-
ual 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 run-
ner-up, Spirituality). Janina continues to work on multi-
ple books, with ongoing research projects exploring the
ways folk magic and medicinal techniques can apply to
modern problems, including the modulation of Asper-
gers Syndrome and other neuro-sensory processing dis-
orders. Janina offers regular tips on tarot magic and dis-
covery at http://TarotMagicAdventures.blogspot.com.

Unusual Card Meanings
The King of Wands is usually a pretty upbeat fel-
low. But if this card appears near the Seven of
Pentacles or another grim card, he might experi-
ence an unattractive attitude adjustment.
A client recently got this King-Seven combination.
The spread showed that the King was a man she
was involved with. But the Seven of Pentacles next
to it showed that this King was a grump. He com-
plained a great deal and often criticized others,
sometimes about problems or faults he had him-
self.
The Three of
Swords is another
card that can
change like a cha-
meleon. Although it
generally means
sorrows, betrayals,
gossip and losses, if
you find it near an
Ace, it can mean
everyone starting
things at the same
time and the chaos
and noise that can
cause. It may refer to people starting up ma-
chines all at the same time, like when everyone
is running air conditioners during the summer,
or when several people are all starting loads of
wash at the Laundromat. The Three is still a
Sword card, so there will probably be noise or
hectic activity.
Consider how this card may implies something
about timing, and when people initiate things.
If its near the Ten of Pentacles, it might mean
everyone is looking for apartments in the same
desirable neighborhood at the same time and
causing a shortage
of good rentals.
Or if the Three of
Swords is next to the
Knight of Cups, it
might mean that
more than one
woman is trying to
get the Knights at-
tention at the same
time. That would
certainly lead to con-
flict and gossip, too!

From the Whispering Tarot
From the Ravenswood Tarot
Stars and Cards
by Elizabeth Hazel
Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn are engaged
in a long-term square (90) aspect. It began when Uranus
entered Aries in the spring of 2010 and came within two
degrees of a square to Pluto in astrology, thats close
enough to count. The square will linger until the spring
of 2016. This long-term aspect is making a huge impact
on society, the economy, and on Earth herself.
In esoteric terms, the spiritual fires of creation of
the violent Sky God (Uranus in fiery Aries) is engaged
in a titanic power battle with the dense, unyielding,
and implacable Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld in
earthy Capricorn. This struggle knocks the material
and spiritual worlds out of balance. There are upheav-
als taking place in the areas of life ruled by these signs,
along with clashes between these areas. Examples in-
clude the global economic crisis triggered by the 2008
Crash, the revolutions in the Middle East, the growing
disparity between the haves and have-nots, and the
extreme weather patterns that include Hurricane
Irene, flooding rivers, and lands so dry they are burn-
ing. Many seem to think these are signs of the end of
the world, but perhaps they are signs of the rough and
rocky events that occur at the beginning of a new age.

The Nature of the Gods
To examine the nature of Uranus, lets review an early ver-
sion of the Greek creation myth. Ouranos (Uranus), the great
sky god, wrapped himself around Gaia, the Earth, and forced
her to give birth to the myriad of creation night and day,
gods, planets and stars, humans, animals, and plant life,
oceans, mountains, pastures, all lands and terrains. Eventually
Gaias children, the Titans, conspired to overthrow the domi-
nation of their ruthless father Ouranos. His son, Cronos
(Time) fashioned a scythe and chopped his father to bits and
threw the pieces into the sea. Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
rose from the foam of the churning waves. In myth-speak, this
means that Love was made by Time out of Space.
Pluto (or the Greek Hades, often called Aidonos) is one of
the sons of Cronos-Saturn. With his brothers Jupiter and Nep-
tune and many allies, the young Olympians engaged in a war
with Saturn and the Titans. Saturn was overthrown, chopped
to bits, and tossed into the darkest corner of Tartarus, the un-
derworld. The victorious Olympians divided the management
of the realms. Jupiter became king of the gods and ruler of the
sky, Neptune became ruler of the oceans, and Pluto became the
lord of the underworld. Pluto has a horse-drawn battle chariot
and a helm of invisibility, and he gave Mercury the caduceus so
he could travel from Olympus to Tartarus carrying messages
and guiding souls. He is a much-feared god with few temples.
Oaths are witnessed by Hades when the oath-taker stamps on
the ground three times after speaking the words.

The Nature of the Signs
Individuals dont embody the pure, unadulterated energy of
any single zodiac sign. People are composite mixtures of the
traits of the elements, signs and planets grafted together into
unique wholes. Pure zodiacal energies are understood a bit
differently, and are rarely an accurate picture of people born
under that sun-sign.
Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, an infant creature
freshly hatched from the egg that perceives the world in idealis-
tic blacks and whites. Aries is the sign of innocence, full of
energy and joie de vivre. It wants the world to be a fun place to
explore with lots of cool stuff to discover and play with. Its still
warm from the fires of creation, and its soul is bright and un-
tarnished by reality, cynicism, and pain. Aries is optimistic be-
cause it has no reason to be otherwise. The Sun enters Aries at
Spring Equinox, and although the symbol for the sign is a ram,
it truly embodies young lambs playing and racing around on
fresh, green rolling pasture land. Aries rules the head, which is
why the sign is said to be headstrong, acting without thinking
first. Full of enthusiasm, Aries rushes into every new thing
without concern for pesky details like consequences. The
Aries house in a birth chart is where the individual will
have boundless energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity to explore
and experiment, and a lust for freedom.
Similarly, in its pure form Capricorn is old, wise, and
cynical. The Suns entry into Capricorn coincides with the
Suns metaphysical death at winter solstice. This is a sign
geared for sheer survival. It knows that life is often a lot of
grubby and thankless labors with a few sprinkly drops of
happiness here and there like rain on the parched desert
soil. Its been there, done that, and has the T-shirt to prove
it. It has plenty of reasons to be world-weary and depressed.
Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn relates to time, measurements,
control, and discipline. Capricorn isnt a happy sign, but its
got stamina and the endurance to slog through lifes big
piles of poop with a sarcastic grin.
Capricorn is one of the most difficult signs, but its also
indispensible. Where Capricorn appears in a birth chart is
where the individual may have to slog through difficulties,
develop a thick skin, and persist with uncompromising en-
durance until the goal is reached. There will be wear and
tear and uncomfortable realities in that area of life. This is
where the inner parent says to the inner child life isnt fair,
thats just how it is.
Capricorn is a sign of foundations, fundamental princi-
ples, and things at the root or base of any earthly matter.
But it also has deeply mystical and metaphysical underpin-
nings. It rules the bone
structure and the spine.
Kundalini energy is con-
tained at the base of the
spine. Kundalini is diffi-
cult to awaken, but with
control and discipline
(Saturn-ruled things), it
uncoils and rises up
through the spine and
radiates through the top
of the head. Once it is
active, it connects hu-
mans to the divine energies of the universe. In effect, kun-
dalini is the super-creative link between Ouranos and Gaia
(sky and earth), miniaturized and installed in the human
machine so these energies are accessible. Its possible to
activate it, although its not easy.

Reality Explosions
Just as pure zodiacal energies arent quite the same as sun-
signs, the planets arent quite the same as the deities for whom
they are named. Modern concepts, ideas and inventions have
been woven into the meanings of Uranus and Pluto since these
planets were discovered in 1781 and 1931, respectively. As-
trologers have had many decades to observe Uranus and Pluto
in action, adding layers of meaning to the planets (similar to
the layers of divinatory meanings tarot cards have acquired over
time) and acquiring an understanding of how they operate in
birth charts, transits, and event charts.
In the myth, Uranus was a bully and a wife-beater who was
overthrown by his children. Uranus was discovered around the
time of the French and American revolutions and is associated
with the desire to seek liberation from protracted conditions or
situations that no longer serve needs. It rocks established pat-
terns and conditions without caution and without moral refer-
ence points. At its most extreme, it crushes anything that gets
in the way of its quest for freedom.
Uranus can be violent and can throw out the baby with the
bath water while hes making a clean sweep, but time and
again, this Uranian energy has proven necessary for collective
renewal. Its a Silkwood shower for thoroughly removing the
toxins in the system and environment.
Individuals tap
into this energy of
creation and re-
newal, too. The
individual reaches
a moment where
he or she becomes
aware that patient
tolerance for unac-
ceptable circumstances has vanished. Unrecognized thoughts
can burst to the surface in a flash of realization like a lightning
bolt a condition described the by the Tower card, which is
sometimes associated with Uranus. Things must be changed,
no matter what the price.
On both individual and collective levels, Pluto mostly in-
habits the underworld of the unconscious. But when it is acti-
vated, it awakens these buried feelings, thoughts, perceptions,
and instincts and slams them into conscious awareness. This is
why Pluto is sometimes associated with the Judgment card. It
can prompt a rude and painful flash of reality into the con-
scious mind, and this reality can no longer be ignored or hid-
den in the dark. Pluto reveals scandals and crises in the sign it
transits, and shows how the resources and powers associated
with that zodiac sign are being misused, corrupted or sub-
verted. Like the goop popping out of a squeezed pimple,
Plutos revelations shoot to the surface so the nauseating
ickyness can be seen by all.
When Pluto is provoked by a square, conjunction, or
opposition from Uranus, realities can flood unexpectedly
into sharp awareness. The 2010-2016 Uranus-Pluto square
is emphasizing a whole spectrum of conditions that are un-
acceptable and creating havoc. Conflicts are evident in the
chasms between political parties, and around the globe in
oppressed societies. For the first time, the many potential
problems of a global economy are being felt. Wars are shift-
ing from clashing armies to intelligence-gathering groups
instructing small assault squads who make swift incursions
into enemy territory. High-tech war is a new animal.
A person never knows when these reality explosions are
going to happen, but rude awakenings are invariably fol-
lowed by frenzied actions to change realitys stinky diaper.
This isnt about daily, street level annoyances. You know
youve become Uranuss meat puppet if you wake up one
morning saying Im SO sick of ____!!! (fill in the blank
with the composure-obliterating irritation of your choice).
During Uranuss transit through Aries, violent awaken-
ings can unleash headstrong responses or violent knee-jerk
reactions. The reaction is stronger because Aries is so ideal-
istic, and at the shock-zap moment, whats judged as good
or bad can be polarized to extremes.
The things that Uranus and Pluto awaken can be shock-
ing, horrifying, or mind-blowing in intensity. These are not
realizations that can be managed with ordinary coping
skills. These awakenings take us into unexplored territory
where there arent maps, directions, or rules for surviving
the encounter. A good example of Uranus-Pluto on a collec-
tive level can be found in the thousands who have lost a
home to foreclosure. Their lives have been torn apart and
few have much experience or knowledge to quickly find a
road back to domestic stability. Just as the awakening takes
the mind outside of its normal boundaries of awareness, the
solution must often be found in this same unfamiliar realm.
Most people put a great deal of energy into avoiding these
kinds of explosive reality checks and work hard to repress
them. Sometimes that worksfor a while.

The Fool and the Devil
Although Uranus has been attributed to the Tower card
by some, Aleister Crowley assigned Uranus to the Fool. In
the Golden Dawn system, the Devil is attributed to Capri-
corn. And while Pluto may reflect worst-case-scenario Judgment
experiences, as the lord of the underworld, Pluto clearly shares
a lot of characteristics with the Devil, and can apply to the
Tower card, too. Where the Tower and Judgment cards de-
scribe events or experiences, the Fool and the Devil represent
archetypal individuals. The square between Uranus and Pluto
is on par with a violent struggle between the Fool and the
Devil. On a societal level, it may better be described as a clash
between the Tower and Judgment.
At some point in the archetypal journey, the Fools inno-
cence, goodness and purity will encounter the filth and corrup-
tion of the Devil. The Fool is forced to survive the ugly reality.
Goodness takes a lot of effort, and purity doesnt survive the
first assault. It dies a tragic Death, but it can achieve rebirth
(Temperance) with effort and concentration once the Fool ac-
knowledges his inability to remain stuck in a tainted and toxic
environment.
Its impossible to thrive in the Devils dense, materialistic
realm without learning to mimic the corruption in it. Upon
the Fools arrival hes initially overwhelmed by excessive stim-
uli, wrong language, bad smells, and has no knowledge of how
things operate. The material world chains the Fool to build-
ings, cars, phones, billboards, traffic, and the clock. Worse, he
becomes totally disconnected from nature, animal life, the cy-
cles of the sun and moon, agricultural cycles, and green,
healthy environments. The separation from nature and the
immersion in corruption are at the root of the current imbal-
ances of the material and spiritual worlds.

Herders and Planters
To the ancient Mesopotamians who created the zodiac we
still use today, Aries was a pastoral sign, easily understood
in an agrarian culture where shepherds watched grazing
flocks in the remote countryside. The shepherd was sur-
rounded by the innocence, purity, and silence of the world,
unpolluted by modern technology. His clock was the sun,
moon, stars, and seasons.
With Uranus in Aries, the shepherd, our erstwhile Fool,
is torn from this peaceful setting. He cant turn back the
Capricornian Devil-ish clock and regain his lost innocence.
But he can recognize that his innocence has been lost, and
manage the corrupting factors around him more carefully.
He can choose what he buys, consumes, believes, and takes
into his mind. He can decide how to handle what is unac-
ceptable. He can choose to embrace the corruption of the
Greed Machine, or reject it as faulty, short-sighted, and ut-
terly lacking in spiritual substance. He can learn that wealth
and power are not synonymous with fulfillment, personal
happiness, and contentment with a life well-lived. By the
same token, he can learn that reality demands that a person
sets a value of worth to his talents and labors so his energies
arent consumed without recompense. The belief of self-
worth is an intangible, spiritual construct, but it is an im-
portant one that translates into the cold, hard coins that are
necessary for survival in the Devils environment.
Consider Pluto as the exploding Tower in the Devils
Capricornian realm. Pluto exposes the corruption hidden
within the material world by shattering its veneer of civiliza-
tion. When the Fool reaches the Pluto-Tower, he discovers
that all things created by man eventually fall into ruin. Cap-
ricorn and Saturn both represent limits and restrictions, so
one potential rude awakening is hidden within the faulty
assumption that Large equals Good. Theres no guarantee
that the people running the Devils Greed Machine are
capable of good judgment, ethical standards, proper use of
resources, proper disposal of waste, or equitable distribu-
tion of profits. Since theyre inconvenient, the Devil simply
pushes them out of the way. The Tower, however, has the
capacity to remind even the Devil that those intangible
moral-ethical constructs are what sustains the civility in civi-
lizations.
Where Aries is the shepherd and his flocks in a pastoral
setting, Capricorn is the earthy goat scaling the mountain-
side. Mountain goats arent sheep and they dont need a
keeper. The goat is independent, self-reliant and has eyes on
both sides of his head to see danger coming from any direc-
tion. The problem here is that even independent goats can
wind up on a crumbling ledge with no retreat. Goats pro-
tecting their territory or vested interests will lock horns with
The Falling Tower by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely
at Il giardano del tarrochi, Toscana, Italy
any creature seen as a threat, too. Change is always a threat. Its
a quake or avalanche that sends rocks and boulders catapulting
down the mountainside smashing everything in the path. The
Pluto-Tower is a huge threat to the Capricorn Goat. It will fight
it off and defend its territory until it can no longer stand
against it. In todays world, it doesnt take a genius to see that
there are some stubborn goats perched on crumbling ledges.
These zodiac signs are the sharp corners in the cycles of
survival. Capricorn coincides with the transition from autumn
to winter, when food supplies start to become limited; Aries
coincides with the transition from winter to spring, when win-
ters stores have dwindled to naught and will only be relieved
when the earth is restored to living abundance in spring.

Cain and Abel
In one of the worlds most enduring legends, Cain was a
farmer and his younger
brother Abel was a herder.
Scholars believe that this
story is an ancient Sumer-
ian tale telling of a time
when there was a territo-
rial struggle between mo-
bile hunter-herders and
sedentary planter-
gatherers.
In the Biblical version, God rejects Cains offering of grains
and accepts Abels animal sacrifice. In his anger over Gods
rejection, Cain commits the first sin by murdering his younger
brother. Any myth or story that sets forth the legend of a first
crime is going to be heinous and abominable, like the Greek
myth of Ixion who committed the first kin-slaying. The story-
tellers want to make sure that listeners are so sickened by the
crime that no one looks any deeper for hidden meanings.
But the story of Cain and Abel and its aftermath are full of
mysteries. Cain was the first-born, the son who hypothetically
was entitled to be first in line. In storytelling, the first-born son
can be code for the side you should be rooting for. Why did
God accept one offering but not another? Why did God mark
Cain but not punish him?
This tale can be deconstructed and analyzed in many ways.
In astrological terms, Aries is the herders sign and belongs to
Abel. Capricorn (the Devil) is the farmers sign and belongs to
Cain. In the Greek New Testament [1], Cain is called
, of the evil one, suggesting that Eves firstborn son
came from the serpent. What if the serpent is simply Draco,
the constellational dragon that circles the North Pole and the
solstitial portal? Per-
haps this story has
cosmological under-
pinnings. The new life
generated during
Abels season, the
spring time of Aries,
is always subject to the
death of Cains season, the winter solstice. What can be
more evil to life than death?
Apocryphal writers of the late Classical period explored
this legend in depth. According to the Coptic Book of Adam
and Eve [2] and the Syriac Cave of Treasures [3], after many
days of mourning, Abels body was placed in the Cave of
Treasures, a place where Adam and Eve and their descen-
dants offered their prayers. The Testament of Abraham [4]
tells that after his death, Abel became a judge of souls. In all
myths, the judges of souls are seated at the solstitial portals,
the path souls follow to the underworld or afterlife. In this
tale, the afterlife is called by the lovely euphemism, the
Cave of Treasures. The days of mourning may refers to
the days around the winter solstice that became known as
the feast of Saturnalia, when the rules of the world were
overturned and masters served slaves.
After the murder, Cain was marked by God so he would
be known, and went into the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Where and what are east of Eden? If Eden is a cosmological
location, other myths from the Mesopotamian region associ-
ate Paradise with the Galactic Center. Whats east of the
galactic center is the solstitial portal at the edge of the Milky
Way (see photo below). In the tale of Ouranos and Gaia, a
conduit of creative and destructive energies connects the
earth and sky. The cosmos is a vast universal organ that
creates and recycles. What is created must return to the
origins.
It seems strange that God reserved Cains punishment for
himself. Any human who attempted to punish Cain, Gods
marked man, would have his evil returned seven-fold. The
mark of Cain is a translation of Oth ). This mark made
Cain distinguishable from other men. The Hebrew word can
mean a sign, omen, warning, letter, talisman, or remembrance.
In Judaic thought, the mark is not a punishment but a sign of
Gods mercy. Scholars suggest that Cains mark might refer to
tribal tattoos or identifying marks that protected members from
attacks from other tribes.
After the mark was given, Cain was set to wander the
world. Who or what else is a perpetual wanderer? A medieval
legend says that Cain eventually arrived at the Moon with a
bundle of twigs; Dantes Inferno (Canto XX, 126) uses the ex-
pression Cain and the twigs as a synonym for moon. The
word Oth is used in the Old Testament to describe the stars as
signs or omens. Von Dechen and Santillana pointed out that
the older a legend is, the more its symbolic language is resistant
to corruption through generations of retelling.[5] In this case, it
seems clear that this is a cosmological legend alluding to time,
cycles of life and death on earth, the heavenly clock of the stars
and planets, and the portals to the afterlife.

Fighting Back
Like a good Symbolist poet, Baudelaire sympathized with
Cain in Les Fleurs du mal.[6] In his poem Abel and Cain,
Cain represents the downtrodden and defeated peoples of the
world. In the last lines he writes Race of Cain, storm up the
sky/And cast God down to Earth!
Baudelaire appears to have spotted the similarities between
the story of Cain and Abel and the clash between Gaia and
Ouranos. The ancient Greek story of creation and the
(possibly) Sumerian legend of Cain and Abel share common
threads that apply to the current clash between the Fool, the
Devil, Judgment, and the Tower. The beauty of these stories is
that they can apply to individuals, families, groups, nations,
and the globe.

If spreads contain any combination that includes the
Tower, the Judgment, the Devil or the Fool, consider if the
cycles of life and death are especially active in the clients life.
Look for signs of rude awakenings, upheavals in job or lifestyle,
or for ways the Fool may be struggling to survive in the Devils
realm. Until 2016, the battle between creation and destruction
will be visible in the material world created by humanity and in
the active forces of Nature as the earth meets the sky.

Abel and Cain by Charles Baudelaire
I
Tribe of Abel, sleep, drink and eat, for God gives you his indul-
gent smile.
Tribe of Cain, crawl in the shit, die like a dog.
Tribe of Abel, how sweet your offerings smell in the nostrils of the
Seraphim.
Tribe of Cain, will your agony never end?
Tribe of Abel, see how your seed prospers, how your cattle thrive.
Tribe of Cain, your guts howl with hunger like an old cur.
Tribe of Abel, warm your belly before the patriarch's hearth.
Tribe of Cain, tremble with cold in your hole in the ground, you
miserable jackal.
Tribe of Abel, be amorous and increase: your gold also will multi-
ply.
Tribe of Cain, however much your heart might burn with love,
beware of all great desires.
Tribe of Abel, bloat and guzzle like woodlice.
Tribe of Cain, drag your hounded wife and children with you
down the roads.
II
Tribe of Abel, one day your carcass will manure the fetid soil.
Tribe of Cain, your task is not yet done.
Tribe of Abel, your shame will come when the sword is shattered
by the peasants' stake.
Tribe of Cain, ascend to heaven, and throw God down to earth.
Francis Scarfe, Baudelaire: The Complete Verse (London: Anvil, 1986)

Endnotes
[1] New American Standard Version, Douay-Rheims Bible, English
Revised Version, World English Bible, Youngs Literal Transla-
tion, etc.
[2] The Book of Adam and Eve. London, 1882, 2:1-15
[3] E. A. Wallis Budge, translator, The Book of the Cave of Treasures.
The Religious Tract Society, 1927, at http://www.sacred-
texts.com/chr/bct/index.htm
[4] M. R. James The Testament of Abraham, the Greek Text now first
edited with an Introduction and Notes. With an appendix containing
extracts from the Arabic Version of the Testaments of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, by Barnes in "Text and Studies", 2.2, Cambridge 1892,
A:13 and B:11
[5] Hertha von Dechend and Georgio de Santillana. Hamlets Mill.
Godine, 1992.
[6] http://fleursdumal.org/poem/190

Elizabeth Hazel is an astrologer, tarotist and mystic
scholar. Contact her at ehazel@bex.net, or visit her
website at www.kozmic-kitchen.com. Liz is the author
of Tarot Decoded and the Whispering Tarot deck and book.

With more than 20 years in the making, The Intuitive
Tarot reflects a style of the times. Cilla Conway actually did
her first drawing of the Fool in 1973, but the deck itself
was not published until 2004.
Looking at the backs of the cards, you can see why
this deck might go unnoticed; they are completely purple
with a grey oval surrounding the middle of the card, a very
simple image. Conway states that the idea of the oval,
which is carried through on the front of the cards, was one
that came to her very early on in the development of this
deck. If you're looking at the deck for the first time, you
may be surprised at the lack of any sort of activity here.
Overall, the cards felt slippery to me, and they tended to
be a little less rectangular than most decks I've worked
with in the past.
Turning over the cards, once again you see the oval
shape, which frames each card image. Each frame is col-
ored to match the card, so it tends to not be as obtrusive
as it might have been if they were all purple, for example.
The images were drawn in such a way as to suggest that
there is more to the picture outside the oval frame, which
I liked. Its almost like you are looking through a window
or ovoid portal onto each
card.
What youll find here is an
interesting mix of styles. Some
cards, like the One of Rods
the term Ace is not used on
any of the suits of this deck
are very abstract; youre not
really sure what youre looking
at. I had to struggle to figure
out what this card was trying
to convey. On others, espe-
cially the court cards, there is
more detail. But the human figures on all of the cards are
different. Some have defined facial features while others
do not. Some reminded me more of unfinished artist
sketches than a finished product.
From an im-
agery perspective,
this is far from a
RWS clone. The
Fool has a man on
the card, with the
sun in the back-
ground and a few
birds in the red-
orange sky. Thats
it. There isnt much
to go on, and that
was likely Conways
intent; take away
imagery and what you see has to come solely from
within. On others, like the Two of Cups, the reader is
given more information to spark the subconscious
mindtwo people embracing on the card, even though
the people are somewhat abstract. Sometimes there is a
clear reference to RWS imagery in this deck, but it is
far from the norm. One example is the Nine of
Swords. An abstract figure whose face you cannot see
is holding its head in its hands with the nine swords in
the air above, but there is no bed and a mountain range
is set in the back-
ground.
The book that comes
with the deck is essen-
tial to understanding
what Conway was try-
ing to achieve. I dont
know that Id give this
set to a beginner, be-
cause when Conway
talks about using the
book to see the mean-
ings of the card, she
tells people to discard
the book and go with
their intuitive feelings. While Im all for letting the in-
tuition guide a reader, I think an inexperienced reader
might not know where to begin.
As much as our intuitive minds are finding the
meanings for us, I dont know that I could use The In-
The Intuitive Tarot by Cilla
Conway
Review by John Marani
tuitive Tarot in my professional practice, at least not regu-
larly. Even though the cards are for us and not for the
client, I doubt that this deck would have a great appeal
among my clients. For me, the bottom line is the artwork.
If you connect with Conways artwork and that 1970s
abstract style, youll love it. If you dont, Id definitely pass.

The Intuitive Tarot. St. Martins, 2004, ISBN 0-312-
32972-5, boxed deck-book set, $24.95

ATA Quarterly Journal
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Submission deadlines for 2011!
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Were looking for:
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