Sunday 18 October 2009

London Tarot Conference 2009


This was the first time I have attended the London Tarot Conference and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mix with other Taroists and like-minded people. On arrival we were signed in and given a name badge by organiser Kim Arnold's helpful husband Martin. I didn't attend the Friday evening workshops and Cocktail party so can't report on them. In the large conference room we choose our seats and received our goodie bags which included a pack of The Llewellyn Tarot cards - very nice. We had a short welcoming speech by Kim and then into a talk by Liz Dean who is a former editorial director in mind, body, spirit publishing, writer, editor and poet. Liz talked about the Major Arcana's dark beginnings in a brutal Roman festival and its first appearance as a hand-painted deck commemorating a royal wedding in 1441. We were taught how to play the card game of Tarot which was quite fun once we got the hang of it.
Following a coffee break there was the workshop, The Living Celtic Cross by Corinne Kenner the well-known tarot master and author of several books. Corinne gave us very large tarot cards and chose eleven people (yes, eleven) to arrange in a Celtic Cross spread whilst holding the cards. The "querent" asked their question and Corinne read the cards. Then it was the turn of the people holding the various cards to speak to the querent and give their version of the messages from the cards they were holding. Three readings were performed in this manner - the first with a relationship subject read by Corinne, the second with a money subject was read by Emily Carding and the third with a health subject was read by Corinne's husband, Dan.
We then had our lunch break and the optional lunch time workshops - Reading Professionally by Mary Collin, the Transparent tarot by Emily Carding and Tarot & the Creative Process by Kay Stopforth.
After lunch we were treated to an hour long talk by Richard Abbot showing us how to find and explore our Inner World using tarot as the link to familiar themes and anchors and finding out where common experience ends and personal experience begins. Richard runs a print and publishing company, organises festivals and events, has written six books and numerous magazine articles.
Another much needed coffee break brought us to the workshop: Hunting the Lady by Caitlin Mathews. Caitlin taught us how to discover where a querent's deeper issue is located in a Tarot Reading and using some intriguing spreads we hunted the significator and revealed the hidden agendas.
This was followed by a Tarot Meditation led by Emily Carding which was enjoyed by many and I overheard some positive feedback.
Kim closed the Conference by asking all the speakers of the day up to the front for a round of applause and a photo call.
A very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday and the chance to meet up with some more TABI members

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lori! Dan and I just got home from London last night. (We spent a week sightseeing after the conference ended.) It was great to see you in person there!

Lori Green said...

Hi Corinne and Dan,
I hope you enjoyed your week sightseeing and got to see everything you wanted to - some good memories to take home with you? Lovely to meet you both.