Readers Studio Recap

Okay, now that I’m back and I’ve talked marketing a little, here’s more on what went down at The Readers Studio!

I’ve found a couple of updates so far that are bound to be much more involved than this one will be. Debbie has a detailed four day recap, Joanna has a lovely wrap-up as well. Any others? (Keeping my peepers peeped for one from Corinne, whom I didn’t get to talk to much - dang!!)

The highlight of the weekend for me was meeting old friends and making new ones, without question. I hadn’t seen Barbara Moore since… goodness, I can’t even remember. It had been a while! And she gave me some of the very best readings of the weekend, hands down - like, sit-and-ponder-change-your-life kind of readings. Very helpful to me, indeed. And Mary Collin, UK business coach and leader of the popular Readers Studio Tarot Round The World webinar series - what a lady! You guys are in for a treat because Ms. Collin is quite the expert on marketing herself and shared some great ideas at my workshop, which I’ll be passing on to you shortly here on the blog or in the newsletter.

Also wonderful was getting to thank James Wells in person for his expert interview here on BYMB (if you haven’t nabbed it yet, be sure to sign up for the newsletter in the upper right hand corner of the BYMB homepage). And Matt Brooks! Holy smokes, Matt Brooks in the house! I’ve known Matt since the ATA days (for some reminiscences, see this post on my personal blog). And the Aeclectic peeps!

See what I mean? The Readers Studio is all about the people.

I can’t do a play-by-play ’cause it would take too long. Here are some highlights…

One of the big themes that kept coming up again and again: oracles as the antidote to what Thalassa calls “our fractured culture” - our sound-bite culture, our lack of connection to one another and the speedy dwindling of all that is Sacred-With-A-Capital-S in the dominant culture. This “fractured culture” stuff is a big theme for me (it’s something I think about a lot) but I’d never considered my work with Tarot as “subverting the dominant paradigm” or a remedy to that particular rift. Of course, it makes perfect sense. Psychics as agents of change. Definitely something to chew on.

Kevin Quigley shared an amazing 7-card spread to evaluate ourselves as readers. Check out Debbie’s post for positions and details. This was incredibly useful to me, not to mention illuminating… in that Tower sorta way, if you know what I mean. (”Wait, I do what?” “Them cards don’t lie…”) I highly recommend you check it out - I might even ask Kevin if I can pass it along it here.

Like Kevin, the highlight of Thalassa’s session for me was the spread - this one about how to move through massive change. I am very much a how-to/practical solutions kind of reader, so it resonated. (Again, Debbie’s got the deets on positions of the cards.)

The deck highlight of the weekend for me was the Bohemian Gothic, hands down. I know the BG is probably old news to everyone reading this (after all, there is that massive thread on Aeclectic), but still, I’d not yet gotten around to ordering one of my own. Well. Barbara had her silver out for the Foundation Reading (first session), and let me tell ya - I made a “do not pass go, do not collect $200″ beeline to the Tarot Garden table. It was “I cannot be without this deck for a minute longer” moment! My freebie goodie back deck was Tarot of the Thousand And One Nights, featuring Léon Carré’s splendid illustrations (not seen since a Sir Richard Burton edition of The Arabian Nights from the 20’s) - also good stuff. (And apt- I have a webcomic that’s a modern-day send-up of the Arabian Nights called Scheherazade, incidentally. It’ll be a Real Big Project someday when I have the leverage to do it right.)

It felt like I got a lot of messages this weekend, which is probably not a bad thing for a Tarot conference. From the cards I drew to what my session partners were telling me to the mid-session doo-dads (”You are POWERFUL!” on an affirmation card), it felt like the antennae were UP more than usual. Now to ponder over it all…

I’d love to hear more Readers Studio stories, so if you’ve got ‘em, be sure to leave ‘em in the comments!

Last but by certainly no means least, here’s the link to my pictures on Flickr - I’ve added a few since I posted last.