I sit in the Salt Lake City airport, waiting to leave for my connecting flight in Detroit. My final destination is the prestigious Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, to attend the 3rd Annual Omega Tarot Conference. I am excited and a little overwhelmed. Robert Place will be there, whose book on Tarot history and symbolism I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as many other famous Tarot names. Rachel Pollack has written a great post about it, posing a great question: What would you ask?
I will be ruminating on what I would ask. Whats your style? What decks your favorite? Want to trade readings? But more than questions for other readers, I am starting to understand what I am looking for in attending this conference: Community.
In the psychotherapeutic community there are many different approaches, but the binding aspiration between therapists is to heal and relieve suffering. I cannot call, accurately, what I do with Tarot fortune telling, so much as fortune wondering, fortune seeding, with a hope that together we can create a moment of healing and relief. I strive to stimulate insight, inspiration, and joy through my readings – and to my delight most readers I have met have had shared my passion for accompanying those they read for on just such a journey with care and compassion.
When I meet another reader, it is no question that our approaches are different. Rather than technicians with stringent procedures, Tarot is rather more an art, like painting or music. There are archetypal fortune tellers, reading with quick, specific (and often impressive) interpretations from their ornate and unusual decks. Spiritually inclined readers may focus on the spiritual journey of the querent, while someone more practically minded may focus upon immediate problems and solutions. Some readers reveal a lot just through the question itself, consulting with the querent lengthily upon the question, letting answers reveal themselves. More academic readers may explain symbols thoroughly and ask questions, while readings with storytellers may spin an engaging and hypnotic narrative.
This diversity makes Tarot exciting and constantly new for querents, but for readers it may feel isolating; that we share a medium but rarely a method. At a gathering like this, our community can sharpen itself to a point. To heal, and to grow. To connect, and to inspire – In one another, our querents, and ourselves. I’m very much looking forward to meeting and sharing with this community, learning from our differences and celebrating our common inspirations.
I Hope to see you there!