World Tarot
Congress 1997World Tarot
Congress 1997This conference, hosted by the International Tarot Society, was outstanding in every way. It was well planned, well attended and no detail was left undone. Upon arrival each attendee was given a large manila envelope which contained the conference program book, personalized name tags, which used Waite-Smith cards to indicate which events you were registered for, and two raffle tickets - one for the opening ceremony and one for the closing ceremony.
The opening ceremony was a panel discussion on Psychological
vs Predictive Tarot Readings. Most of the guest speakers had
input to the discussion, but the highlight for me was Eden Gray.
At 96 she was articulate, wis
e and funny. She
explained how she came to write her popular Tarot books while
running a metaphysical store in NYC in the 1950's. Customers
would often ask her about Tarot cards and she said her clerk knew
more about them than she did. She set about remedying this
situation, but found that most of the available books were
difficult to understand translations. She researched the subject
and decided to write her own book. Two more followed, and many of
us who started reading in the late 60's and early 70's owe a huge
debt to Ms. Gray for making Tarot interpretation and reading
accessible.
The Conference schedule is given below. As you can see the first problem is that there were four presentations scheduled for each one and a half hour period. Choosing between four subjects that all sounded like "must see" events was very, very difficult, but somehow I did it. I will be honest though - part of the time I spent in each lecture was devoted to wondering what I was missing in the other three rooms.
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Saturday night was the Banquet/Costume Party, however, I did not attend. Instead two friends from Tarot-l and I went to an excellent Seafood Restaurant. I had the Blackened Amberjack and a pint of Stout. Yum! My dinner companions and I did make it back to the hotel in time to see the judging of the costume contest. There were some really imaginative costumes. Some of my favorites were a great Tower, a group three of cups, and a great Wheel of Fortune (no description will do here, you had to be there). There were several categories of prizes but the overall winner was an excellent Ten of Swords. Once she flung herself onto the floor, there really was no choice. She was also the audience favorite. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at the time.
Sunday I had an early breakfast scheduled with John Gilbert, Secretary of the American Tarot Association. John related how he came to work with the Tarot beginning in the 1950's. He is a wealth of history on Tarot before its popularity explosion in the 1960's and 1970's.
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This page is Copyright © 1997 by Michele Jackson