At Omega with Sasha Graham
This summer, the Omega Institute offered a Masters of Tarot weekend workshop featuring me, Theresa Reed, Sasha Graham, Mary Greer, and Rachel Pollack. One of the signs of a good teacher is that they are always investigating and exploring. Even if you’ve had classes with them before or read their books, they always have something new to offer…or perhaps a new approach to an old favorite topic. It was a wonderful weekend for both us teachers and for the students.
Sasha is well-known for her books Tarot Diva, 365 Tarot Spells, and 365 Tarot Spreads. She is working on another book that we are very excited about and will be able to tell you about in a few months. In addition to her very practical and easy to apply to life style of work, Sasha has been doing some great deeper, inner, creative work…the kind of stuff that takes tarot to a new level.
At Omega, she taught a technique called Fairy Tale Readings. While I cannot share her exact presentation here, I can tell you something about it so that you might be inspired to explore the interplay between stories that resonate with you and tarot.
Start with a story that has meant something to you. Think about three things in the story…items, characters, scenes…that feel symbolic to you and write them down. Tap into what you feel they represent and write those down. Finally write down how you think each of those ideas expressed themselves in your life. Assess whether you think the ideas are expressed in your life in a positive manner or a negative way. Pull a card for each item to determine how to express that energy in an even better way or how to turn it from a negative expression to a positive one.
Activities like these, combining other important symbol systems (even if you don’t realize they are symbols) with tarot, can really open up areas of personal reflection and exploration. The steps Sasha led us through at Omega were much longer and more detailed and included a guided visualization. Almost everyone was moved, sometimes beyond words, by the end of the workshop.
You can get a taste of Sasha’s power and poetic approach to tarot in any of her works, but I particularly love her guided meditation for each of the elements found in Tarot Diva.
