He’ll be holding three weekly 2-hour sessions starting Wednesday, August 8th at the New York Open Center on East 30th Street.
Using his incredible book The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination as a guide, Place will start the course by exploring the historical symbolism found in the original Renaissance decks.
He’ll go on to teach techniques for developing your intuition and for reading cards as a message from the Higher Self.
Take a look at his website to learn more. If I were in NYC in August, I’d definitely be at those classes.
Paradis’ screenplay is adapted from the Jonathan Carroll short story called A Wheel in the Desert, the Moon on some Swings.
It looks at the story of a young gay man who finds out that he’s going blind. In his quest to avoid dealing with what’s happening to him, he discovers the real miracle of vision.
I’m not sure exactly how the Tarot is incorporated into Paradis’ adaptation, but from the sounds of it, the cards play an important role.
Tonight on Beyond Worlds we have the surprise return of Robert M. Place! He was just with us a couple of weeks ago talking about alchemy, but there wasn’t nearly enough time to learn all we wanted to.
Harper/Collins in London published the original version of this deck in 1995, and Place himself republished it in 2007. Both editions have sold out.
Fortunately for me, I got myself one of the originals back in 2003. But if I’d known it was going to be worth as much as $2,000 just a few years later, I might have treated it more gently, or at least kept the box.
It’s a gorgeous deck, filled with magic. The images are beautiful, but even more importantly the messages are brilliant. It’s alchemy expressed through the lens of the Tarot, and is unlike any other.
The second edition of the deck, called The Alchemical Tarot: Renewed, updated the first version. And the third edition has even more changes, including a second Lovers card.
Apparently, Harper/Collins thought Place’s original depiction of the Lovers was too risqué. Now we can decide for ourselves. I can’t wait to see it.
Also updated in this third printing, are the card backs and the little-white-book, which has become a little bigger.
Place is ready to go to print, and he’s going to do it no matter what. But he’s got an IndieGoGo page and is offering some wonderful gifts for those who’d like to help him raise the cost of printing.
Take a look at his page and consider helping an inspired deck be reborn.
It’s been out since 2005, but I finally read it last week and it’s amazing. I might even say it’s the best Tarot history book I’ve read to date.
To understand the origins of the Tarot, it’s important to understand the European culture from which it grew. Renaissance art, alchemy, hermeticism, neoplatonism – it’s all part of the story, and Place tells it very well.
He takes us card by card through the Major Arcana of the Tarot of Marseilles, explaining the symbols and why they may have been chosen.
As the ‘blueprint’ to all occult decks to follow, understanding the symbols in the Marseilles is vital to understanding how the ideas in the later decks developed.
Ultimately, Place’s focus is on the Waite-Smith Tarot, designed by Arthur E. Waite and painted by Pamela Colman Smith.
He looks at all 78 cards in the deck, and as an added bonus, offers some tips on how to use them. There are exercises, spreads and a summary of the six patterns found most often in readings. All very useful.
It’s a fantastic book for new readers, and old, and anyone who’s interested in Renaissance art, history or philosophy. It left me wanting to learn more.
