February 2017 Mass Tarot Meeting: Courting the Court

Please join us on Saturday February 3rd from 1PM to 3PM at the Lilly Library in Florence, Mass for our monthly Mass Tarot meet-up.  Catherine has offered this description of the presentation she has planned for us:

Courting the Court

Carl Jung believed that the world changes when we each have the courage to engage with the characters and forces of our own psyches, then bring that awareness into our relationships. Where in us does the voice come from that speaks with irritation, kindness, jealousy, rationalization, or longing? In this cold month of love we will look at the sources of our elemental differences and similarities. Tarot can teach us how to play with the archetypes that determine who we are and how we interact.

Which Court Card are you? It is helpful to know your psychological type but if not, come explore! Bring a tarot deck and if you have an extra Rider Waite Smith deck, please bring that too.

Hope to see everyone there!

Mass Tarot Meeting, January 6, 2018: Wheel of the Year Spread

Start the year with Tarot! Our next Mass Tarot session will be Saturday, January 6th, 2018 from 1pm to 3pm at the Lily Library in Florence.

Come to our annual Wheel of the Year session where we’ll reflect back on 2017, identify a focus for 2018, and use a special spread to glimpse the lessons of upcoming seasons of 2018 as well as best ways to meet these lessons.

If you did a Wheel last year, feel free to bring it, but no worries if you did not. Bring a Tarot deck – or more than one – or any oracle deck really.

You’ll leave with a handout that includes ideas for working with the spread throughout the whole of 2018 as a guide for goal setting, reflection, and perceiving the wider patterns in your life.  RSVPs are helpful to know how many copies to make.

Mass Tarot Meeting, Dec. 2, 2017

Mass Tarot Friends, we will be meeting this Saturday as planned, but our presentation has been postponed. As such,  I thought we might take an open discussion journey through the Major Arcana, and try a Majors only spread. It would be wonderful if anyone who is joining me for the meetup could bring something interesting to share about a major arcana card. I am requesting that stewards come a few minutes early to discuss topics for future presentations.

December, 2017 Mass Tarot Meeting: A Golden Dawn Study presented by Wayne Limberger

We will be meeting on December 2nd, 2017 at 1PM at the Lilly Library in Florence, Mass for a presentation by Wayne Limberger on the Golden Dawn and their contribution to historical and modern tarot. This is an important exploration for anyone who is serious about their study of the tarot. Tarot is not just a tool, it is a system that has persisted for hundreds of years for a reason. I encourage all tarot practitioners and explorers to make time for this session, And I would like to thank Wayne for putting it together. (Jill)

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a British esoteric society that existed in its original form for approximately fifteen years at the end of the19^th Century (1887-1903). Although their main focus was the study and practice of various occult disciplines, they were responsible for laying much of the groundwork for modern tarot decks, including those of Arthur Edward Waite and Aleister Crowley, and for furthering the use of the tarot in divination. Beside the development of a comprehensive set of keyword meanings, the Golden Dawn’s chief contributions to tarot were the system of occult correspondences for the cards based on numerology, astrology, mythology, qabalah and color symbolism, and the comparative method of Elemental Dignities. We will cover a brief history of the Order and its luminaries, and then explore its signature tarot spread, the Opening of the Key. Bring a Thoth or Golden Dawn deck for the exercise if you have one, although any RWS deck will do.

November Mass Tarot Meeting: Building Confidence to Read Tarot for Others

Saturday, November 4th, 2017 we will meet at the Lilly Library in Florence, Mass to discuss how we can build up our confidence and prepare our mindset to open our reading practice to others.  This session, led by Jill Scott,  will offer tips, discussion topics and a chance to exercise your ability with partner readings.  We will be looking at a tarot Simplicity Spread that will be easy to memorize and utilize in your practice.  This session requires a basic knowledge of the cards, and a deep compassion for others.  Please bring a tarot deck, or two, that you are very comfortable working with.

**Reading for Others tip #1,  Choose your deck carefully.  Decks with extreme images, such as those that are overly violent, sexual or disturbing in some fashion, may not be the best choice when reading for others. The deck sets the tone for the reading. Choose something visually neutral as best you can. You may want to consider offering the client a choice of several decks.

Mass Tarot Meeting, October 7th, 2017: The Keystone to the Tarot is the Court Cards

We will be meeting on October 7th, 2017  from 1PM to 3PM at the Lilly Library in Florence to explore the tarot court cards with George Barham.

The Keystone to the Tarot is Court Cards

A keystone is a central stone at the summit of an arch locking the whole thing together. To me the count cards/people cards represent that keystone. When we look at the Major arcana and its connection to the Minor arcana through numerology we often forget that they both have similar ties to the court cards. We will explore together this almost three dimensional relationship and maybe, with any luck, learn something new.

 

Mass Tarot Meeting for September, 2017: Exploring Tarot Archetypes Through Stories for Children

Please join us on Saturday, September 2nd, from 1PM to 3PM at the Lilly Library in Florence, Mass for a presentation by Sandra Haynes: Exploring Tarot Archetypes Through Stories for Children. Sandra writes:

“I thought I came to the Tarot as an adult, but now know the Tarot archetypes are everywhere and in every story, especially the favorite books of my childhood. I share some striking examples from those books, then we will work with the cards to investigate how the archetypes of the Tarot influenced us through the stories we loved as children. Please bring your favorite (or maybe your child’s favorite) story book along with your decks. Majors only decks are well suited to this exploration.”

     (Pictured: The Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt)

 

 

 

 

Mass Tarot Meeting, August 2017: Tarot Mini Lessons with Paris

We will be meeting for our August MTS meeting on Saturday, 8/5/17 at the Lilly Library in Florence, Mass.

Paris will present a series of Tarot mini-lessons each of which is designed to create an “Aha” moment​ for participants​. The lessons cover court cards, colors, astrological insights, numbers, seasons, compass directions and more. Any non-black & white deck with illustrated minors will do.

REMINDER: MASS TAROT IS MEETING JULY 8th. NOT THIS SATURDAY! :)

Mass Tarot Meeting: July 8th, 2017, Elemental Dignities with Wayne Limberger

PLEASE NOTE:  The date of our July meeting is not the first Saturday, but the second Saturday of July, to account for the Independence Day holiday.  The date of our July meeting is July 8th, 2017 from 1PM to 3PM at Lilly Library in Florence, MA

This presentation will explore the practice of Elemental Dignities, both in a traditional sense and in ways that go beyond a strictly rule-based approach. Bring your favorite tarot deck to join in practical exercises at the end of the session. All other materials will be provided.

The system of Elemental Dignities was created at the end of the 19^th Century by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a British esoteric society, as a way to fine-tune the relative potency of the cards within a spread. This is done by relating a card’s assigned element to those of neighboring cards and looking for sympathetic or antagonistic combinations. Elemental dignities work with cards in pairs and triplets, using the four classical elements of Empedocles: Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

These elements in various combinations are either friendly (Fire and Air, Water and Earth and any two instances of the same element), unfriendly (Fire and Water, Air and Earth), or neutral but supportive of one another (Fire and Earth, Water and Air). Elemental friendliness with adjacent cards strengthens a card and augments its effectiveness, unfriendliness weakens and dilutes it, and mutual supportiveness creates a complementary situation, one card providing what the other lacks. There are six possible combinations of the four different elements within this matrix, and matching any two cards of the same element brings the total to ten pairs. Working with three-card sets produces sixteen possible permutations for each element, for a total of 64 variations.

In the words of Elizabeth Hazel in The Tarot Decoded: “Elemental dignities should be regarded as a flexible dynamic between neighbors rather than a set of ironclad rules.”