As promised, I’m going to share some ideas about extrapolating the painting over journal pages technique to tarot readings. These are just ideas and I’ve not really worked with them enough to know which ones (if any) will prove useful. But that’s the great thing about a public forum, isn’t? We can share ideas and lots of people can play with them—and hopefully share their results and insights. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and hope you’ll do the same. For our experiment, let’s say you’ve done a five-card reading and are dissatisfied with the outcome. We’ll assume a belief that the “outcome” cards in a tarot reading are true if all things remain as they are.

Like many people I keep a journal. I may be inconsistent, but throughout my life there has always been a journal either being actively used or gathering dust. Tarot books almost always expound the benefits of keeping a tarot journal. But I really don’t know what percentage of tarotists actually do this. Because I do and because I think it’s a great magical tool, particularly for tarotists, I’d love to know if you do or don’t and why. Feel free to leave a comment to that effect. Until about 8 months ago, all my journaling has been exclusively written. In February, I took a class on visual (or art) journaling. Visual journaling and tarot are a great marriage and I cannot

Do you identify with a tarot court card? I have always thought of myself as a King of Swords/Queen of Pentacles-type girl. But lately, I’ve been having an identity crisis or sorts. It all started at this year’s MATS. Julie Cuccia-Watts did a workshop on the four Queens. At one point we randomly pulled a court card and had to do a reading for our partner as that card. I drew the Queen of Wands. I’ve never been completely comfortable with the Wands in general and certainly could not relate to the Queen of Wands (although I do admire people who do). Last week I was on vacation and pulled a card about what I need to focus on. I used the special edition Majors Only Gaian Tarot by Joanna

Last fall I spent five weeks in Torino, Italy working at the Lo Scarabeo offices. While there, I did a variety of work, including writing some Little White Booklets (those small booklets that come with decks). After reading the one I wrote for Tarot of the Dream Enchantress, Riccardo Minetti, the editor at Lo Scarabeo as well as a deck designer, said that he could see how I “dragged the image meanings kicking and screaming in line with the Rider-Waite deck in my head.” It is true—I was enslaved to my mental deck, which is the Rider-Waite. After spending so much time with Riccardo, I saw the value in freeing myself from that enslavement. But that is another discussion for another