To top it all, there is news of a Golden Dawn conference right here in London, organised by Atlantis Bookshop, so you know its going to be good.

I find readings in January particularly interesting, as I have noticed over the years that my reading style changes. I never know how, or in what way it does. I certainly do not do any New Year Resolutions, so it is not as if I planned it either. So, I am sitting there, talking to a client, and the magic happens. The way I address the reading, or tackle a particular problem or situation is different. Us tarot readers are lucky - we can make changes, which bring new clients, energies and insights, and we never get bored. I was going to include a longish article on the Tower card, and how I found radically new interpretations for it, but so much has happened this month that I have not had the time.

However, that is what usually happens. This year, January has been very busy with fast-changing events.

New Faces

Nobody can ever be everything to everyone, particularly in tarot. There are so many things I want to do with Supertarot, but I do not always have the time or inspiration. So, when Alison Cross emailed me little bells began to ring. Until recently, Alison was Chairman of TABI, as well as editor of the TABI magazine, and other myriad duties, and now she is kicking her heels. So, we got chatting, and very quickly Alison came up with a number of ideas to improve the site. Expect Alison’s byline to start appearing very soon. Alison is great at ferreting out stories, so credit to her for giving me loads to write about this month.

Butterfly Tarot gets a Unit

Top story in January was about Beryl and Butterfly Tarot, but I had to delete a few critical lines in case the prediction never happened. Beryl has been a stallholder in Camden Market for nearly three years, and out of the blue just before Christmas, the management asked if she was interested in a starter unit beginning New Years Day. We girded our loins in preparation, but things did not go to plan. Deadlines came and went until the dying days of January, when we finally got into the unit, heralded by the traditional son et lumiere opening ceremony in Camden - the management cutting the padlocks with an angle grinder.

We had not been able to inspect what we were getting because the previous tenant had fallen out with the management big time, and none of us had the courage to walk in and ask for a quick once over. We soon found the scale of the problem. As the doors opened, we discovered that the jewellery shop (for that is what it was) had not been cleaned in years. We also found the keys to the padlocks thoughtfully placed by the previous tenant behind the counter. The management expected us to do apply a quick lick of paint and open two days later, just as every tenant had done previously. This would have been the case, but fortuitously we found ourselves moving with into adjacent units with our neighbour Steve, who also happens to be a jeweller. In a bizarre twist of fate, we did not know he was interested in a unit until he made a comment to Beryl the previous week. Confusingly, he did not want the unit that was a jewellers, which is why we have all the trash to move out. This is when we discovered that he was a builder in a previous incarnation. So that is how I spent most of the last week of January as a builder’s mate, fetching and carrying while Steve did the work. With Steve on the case we raised our ambitions, and gutted the unit. This week we have to put in a level floor over the cobbles, paint, decorate, do electrics, etc, etc. With any luck, the unit will be open next week, so come down and visit.

Tarot Decks

I have been busy adding artwork from two talented artists who self-publish their own decks Arnell Ando and James Ricklef.

Paul on the Pier??

Here is a great example of how journalists get things wrong, but in a weird way they get things right. This reporter (never spoke to him) managed to conflate two people - the tarot reader on the pier, and myself. The photo is misleading - if you looked at the side of the gypsy caravan, you would see his name. I am of course under the pier. The links go to supertarot, which is great. The funny thing is that I intend to do readings for business - is this reporter psychic?

Course News

Even if you did not make any resolutions, now is the time to brush up on your tarot skills.

Mick Frankel

Mick is running a weekend course on 9th/10th February 2008 at New Aeon Books, Oldham Street, Manchester.

It’s an Introduction To Tarot course that’s ideal for beginners or for people who want to deepen their knowledge of the Tarot cards and practise face-to-face reading.
Here are some of things that people have said about the course:

"The course was a perfect introduction to reading the Tarot"
"Great atmosphere, relaxed, easy to absorb the information"
"Excellent teaching input with plenty of opportunity to share ideas"
"An excellent course for beginners"
"Exactly what I hoped"

We’ll be going through the Majors on Saturday and the Minors on Sunday. The course is very interactive and everyone will be encouraged to participate as much as possible. You just need to bring along a 78-card Tarot deck.

The course costs £65 which includes lunch on both days.

To book a place, please ring New Aeon on 0161 839 9293.

I have met Mick on a number of times, and he is very knowledgeable on the Tarot.

One Hundred and Twenty Years of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn established the Tarot as an esoteric and magical tool, so it is always worth finding out what this mysterious organisation is really about. Clearly there are plenty of questions and conundrums, and who better to help illuminate us than the Golden Dawn Conference organised by Atlantis Bookshop? Chic and Tabitha Cicero head the list of speakers along with R.A. Gilbert. In the evening there will be a re-enactment of the Rite of Isis.

I am sure tickets will sell like hot cakes, so if want to know more about the event at the Swedenborg Hall, Bloomsbury, London on March 1st 2008 contact the Atlantis bookshop

Lon Milo DuQuette

Also on the same weekend, but in Chicago, Lon Milo DuQuette is running a seminar on Oracles, Kabbalism and Thoth Tarot. I met Lon several times at Atlantis Bookshop when he was over here several years ago. He is very engaging and funny.

Tarot, Black Magic and Art

If you can get to Liverpool Tate, this looks to be fascinating. At last, tarot art is being taken seriously.

In the 1970s, after seeing Gaudí’s Park Güell in Barcelona, she dreamed up a sculpture garden based on the tarot pack. An Italian patron offered her land, and she completed her Tarot Garden in Garavicchio, Tuscany, four years before her death. The drawings for it at Tate Liverpool made me want to see this weird place, to sit at the table that represents the card called The Empress, to stand at the foot of her tottering Tower.

The garden works because the tarot pack is one of Europe’s most seductive arcana. The oldest surviving tarot cards were made for the 15th-century Dukes of Milan: they are hand-painted Renaissance masterpieces. Yet De Saint Phalle based her garden on the coarser, more popular French deck: unlike the medieval packs, which had their most ill-omened images superstitiously removed, it features the ultimate arcanum, the wildest card of all: Le Diable.

De Saint Phalle’s Devil stands in Tate Liverpool in lurid triumph, nude and winged and nearly lifesize (in the Tarot Garden itself he is colossal). He is flanked by two servile demons, in a sculpture that precisely re-creates the design of the Devil card from the 18th-century Marseilles pack.

Full story at the Guardian

Prada Bags the Tarot

This is a first for me, fashion victim that I am. Famous Italian designer

So many things have happened in the last twelve months, and 2008 looks to be just as busy…

"The only interesting journey remains the journey deep into the psyche"

This quote by Marc Forster appeared in the news while I was writing this newsletter. Who’s he? The new director of the next James Bond movie, thats who, and he wants to ‘concentrate more on Bond’s mind and less on his body’. So, no shots of Bond getting his kit off on the beach. This is a perfect metaphor for the Tarot. For years, the concentration has been on image - new decks, new designs. While this is excellent for tarot deck publishers,  Tarot afficionados deserve more meat on the bone. We need mental stimulation, we need to be challenged. With this is mind, scroll down to the Mystical Tarot section at the bottom of this newsletter.

Butterfly Tarot

I am now spending more time in London, particularly Camden Market where I have been sharing a stall with my good friend Beryl Stockman. Beryl is also a very talented translator, and I am looking forward to seeing her translation of Papus’ Tarot Divinatoire published by Aeon Books in early 2008. If you would like a reading, and you do not want to trek down to sunny Brighton, then drop me an email. Beryl is a great tarot reader and clairvoyant, so you can always see her instead of me. We don’t mind.

I have not abandoned Brighton, as I will be down on the seafront most weekends and other odd days in the week. Beryl and I are also working to increase our Corporate and Party readings, which are very successful, and a great opportunity to meet and do readings for people who may never have considered having a reading before.

Launches

Druid Plant Oracle

Now that I am spending time in London, I can get to more talks, book and tarot launches. Atlantis Books and Treadwells are always very welcoming, and I get to catch up with friends surrounded by books and the odd glass or two of wine. I was at Treadwells recently for the launch of the Druid Plant Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. The artwork is really beautiful.

Mercarina Oracle

A few days later as I was pondering which train to catch back to Brighton on the Friday afternoon, word reached me of another tarot deck launch happening that evening - two in a week. I couldn’t remember anyone emailing me any info, but my source was impeccable. The promise of champagne proved irresistible, so I found myself in a very expensive designer shop near Marble Arch where Carina was already doing sample readings with her Mercarina Oracle Cards

The Mercarina cards were developed by Holistic Beauty Therapist Carina Coen and Artist/Designer Isabelle Bricknall. I didn’t get to speak to Carina until late in the evening, and by then I was very merry. Hopefully there will be a more sober interview with Carina soon. The oceans and the environment are skilfully combined with a powerful awareness of Celtic roots. The deck is printed on recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks - how long before the big Tarot publishers follow suit?

Tarot Gallery

Have you visited my Tarot Gallery? I am slowly building up the number of decks on show. If you have a deck that is not there, please send me some jpgs and info. I am going to re-organise the reviews, very soon, I promise.

Tarot and the Magus

There are still copies available - I found one in a bookshop in the middle of the New Forest recently. For ages I did not have a copy for myself, but now I have just received a large box from the publishers. I was so out of touch I had not realised the price had increased, but being the generous soul that I am, you can still get a signed and dedicated copy from me at the old price of £12.99 plus p&p.

T&M was written ages ago, and I am surprised I have not done more. I was expecting to be on my third book at least by now. There have been plenty of ideas for books, but to be honest, I do not think I have been ready to write, as seeds planted in T&M have taken a while to germinate and sprout. In the meantime I have found myself involved in two projects that come out in 2008 - a Tarot magazine, and a book on the Goetia.

Tarot World Magazine Launch

Early 2007 I was contacted by the Editor of Tarot World Magazine to write an article for the Magic and Mystery column of a new Tarot magazine that comes out in January 2008. The compliment was slightly backhanded in the sense that nobody else wanted to do it, so I was not first choice. You would think that tarot writers would be chomping at the bit at the opportunity. Still, I was given a completely free brief to write about whatever I wanted, and I did not have to compromise - no need to dumb down. The deadline was five months away, and I had visions of me desperately banging out something a few days before. As it happened I was visiting a good friend of mine, Gabriel Duffy a phenomenologist and expert on Husserl, so we have great discussions on tarot, consciousness and philosophy. In amongst the piles of books that fill his house, I spotted Hermits by Peter France, which I borrowed (yes Gabriel, I will bring it back), and I was so inspired that I wrote four articles in a week on the subject of the Hermit tarot card and Hermits, which have all been accepted by TWM.

Howlings

In late November I was contacted by Peter East, Publisher of Scarlet Imprint to write about the Goetia. Peter saw me speak on the Tarot in Brighton about the time that I spoke at the Occulture Festival. My original idea was to write about my experiences of the Goetia, which go back many years. I had written several pages, and then I went to my regular Sufi Zikr in London, and I found the Goetia waiting for me. Now, Sufism and Goetia are not topics you would expect to find together, but that is what happens. The Goetia wanted me to write about the visions I had that evening, which I did. I sent off the article, and I got a very favourable response. However, the Goetia were not. It seems there were some things I had omitted, and at the next Zikr the vision continued, and I was able to send off another emended version. I do not know who the other contributors are, but having an expert on tarot along with all the ceremonial magicians is going to be good. Geraldine Beskin of Atlantis Books tells me that the Goetia are a hot topic at the moment.

That is my spin - here is the publishers:

Scarlet Imprint is proud to announce HOWLINGS a bestiary of essays on Grimoire Magick to be published in early Spring 2008.

Taking the established experts and ranging them alongside raw and hungry voices, we are creating a quite beautiful monstrosity of staggering scope.

From unpublished manuscripts on demonology to the accounts of working magicians, this is a unique publishing event.

Prepare to be delighted, inspired and intoxicated.

Contributors include experts in their fields, the authors of acclaimed modern grimoires and sundry sulphurous others.

Scarlet Imprint are in a unique position to gather together these voices, and let them be heard.

Texts examined in depth through eighteen original essays include:

• Qutub
• Liber 231
• The Goetia
• The Picatrix
• The Greek Magical Papyri
• The Voudon Gnostic Workbook

Anyone intrigued by the idea of the grimoire tradition will have their personal understanding and Work enriched by this collection.

The 72nd Spirit Andromalius is the star of my article.

Supertarot

If you visit Supertarot on a fairly regular basis, you must have noticed how much it has changed. I cannot resist tinkering. For me, Tarot is alive, and my perceptions change as a result. You might not believe it, but I had slimmed down the site, moving topics that were more peripheral to other sites, but I have never been happy with this. There are so many aspects and facets of tarot to explore and write about that it can be overwhelming.

Mystical Tarot

Thus far, the mystical and spiritual aspects of Tarot have not been fully explored in any detail. There are a number of reasons for this. In particular the heavy reliance on the Kabbalah placed by the tarot community is stifling creativity. There are billions of combinations of tarot cards representing the myriad beliefs, paradigms and models of human awareness, not to mention experience and actions, but there is only one Tree of Life. If it was a business we would have the Monopolies Commission investigating!

When the internal structure of the Tarot is used rather than borrowing from an alien structure, new possibilities arise, and we start to see something more than mere divination. The articles for TWM and the Howling are there because Tarot is at the heart in theory and practice. Tarot has its own theory and structure not just practice. Seeing the new possibilities brings insights into other magical and spiritual systems, such as the Goetia .

I have been working with a small group of clairvoyants and magicians for several years now. I have published some of the visions which are an aspect of the ongoing spiritual work. The direction I want to take the Mystical Tarot into the hermeneutic and phenomenological realms of philosophy so that it can be discussed in terms of contemporary philosophy. The spiritual dimensions of Tarot in terms of Sufism is another fruitful area . In preparation for this, Tarot needs to be stripped of the kabbalistic attributes and meanings, otherwise Occam’s Razor applies.

The practical application of hermeneutics, phenomenology and Sufism is already in place. In the minds of magicians, ‘tarot’ and ‘magic’ are separate entities. Probably the best book on the subject is ‘Tarot and Magic’ by Donald Michael Kraig (Llewellyn), and the title presents us with the dichotomy between the two.

The problems caused by the separation between tarot and magic is exemplified in the very scary experiences described in ‘Tarot and Magic’ where the author invokes spirits from the ‘Dark Side’ (a term that describes the separation within the Tree of Life) of Liber 231, and nearly dies as a result. My own experiences of the spirits of Liber 231 and of the Goetia has always been, and continues to be very natural, easy, relaxed, insightful, and productive.

If I say ‘Tarot is magic’ that statement is likely to be construed as ‘Wow! Tarot works - the prediction came true..’.However, for me tarot and magic are synonymous terms that describe powerful spiritual and mystical synergies that bring new insights and spiritual power.

Best wishes for 2008
Paul

Butterfly Tarot moves in

It has taken far, far longer than I could have ever imagined, but the unit at Camden Market opened on the first two days of March. Beryl and I took turns throughout the day as we still had the stall open.

You would think that an area only 9 by 10 feet would not require much work, but you have to take into account the spiritual aspects. This is the third place I have turned into a tarot booth, but the first two were created when I was with my teacher Punditt Maharaj, and it is now painfully evident how much he protected me from danger.

There were a number of delays getting the project underway, then we had the fire in the market next door. Clearing out and renovating the unit became as much a painful physical process for myself. I am not talking about the shock of going from sedentary work to picking up a hammer and saw. There were periods of intense purification that are still going on. Before I sound too much like a martyr, it is worth mentioning that I have been doing clearing work for years.

The amount of dirt, filth, negativity and inertia in that small unit was surprising, especially considering that Beryl and I have been clearing the market for well over a year. The unit is in a corner of the market that has been depressed for years. The previous tenant had fallen out with the management, and the units were only opening on the weekend, when they should have been opening for at least five or six days a week.

I am sure you have seen guides to setting up a tarot business. Here is the reality. Tarot businesses often end up where they are because no other business is feasible or profitable. It can be the location, but it can also be the spiritual problems associated with that place. Having said that, market traders generally like having a fortune teller there because it is a service, not selling products.

Before I sound too much like a whinger, I learned an incredible amount of spiritual knowledge at the same time. Practicality always wins over theory.

Space clearing is something like Feng Shui - I actually work with a Feng Shui expert on clearing energies on a regular basis. It is very difficult to describe what happens during a space clearing, as it happens as much internally as externally. There can be many layers that have to be removed, while changing energy in one place can change things elsewhere - it is like a multidimensional game of chess, and very often you are one of the chess pieces!

The power of the Thoth tarot is it’s ability to be perceived in so many ways, and here is a good example:

Kashmir Tarot Decks

The Kashmir Tarot serigraphs, a hand-silkscreened Limited Edition Major Arcana deck, was a special project by artist Nicolaas van Beek of the Netherlands that was completed in 1984. Since that time, it has become a collector’s item around the world.

You can see Nicolaas van Beek’s works of art , with a section on the Kashmir Tarot, and also a special page on the Kashmir Tarot.

The Devas of Creation Exhibition

I always have great chats with Cilla Conway on the tarot whenever we meet at various events. She is very knowledgeable, so I am very pleased to let you know about her latest project. I am rather suspicious of the anthopromorphism of deities and angels, so it is great to see www.devasofcreation.com. The artwork looks stunning on the site, so to see them in flesh as it were is an opportunity not to be missed.

About the Devas of Creation:/

The images were painted between 2002 and 2005, after a conversation at a talk on angels, where I wondered why there were no angel decks which depicted angels as the incredibly vibrant, enormously powerful beings I intuited them to be. I said idly,’Maybe I should paint them’. The speaker looked at me. ‘Go for it’, he said. I began the next morning.

The concept kept expanding until, three years and seventy-two images later, the Devas were complete - insofar as anything that aims to depict a holographic epresentation of Divinity and the whole of creation can be complete! (For the full set of images, see www.devasofcreation.com/cards.htm).

The paintings were mostly produced on A4 paper or cardboard and printed as a deck of 125mm x 90mm cards, but over the years many people have suggested they would love to see an exhibition of large versions of the Devas. The exhibition at Lotus Lounge begins that process, with fifteen large signed, limited edition prints showing the Divine and Angelic energies of the Devas of Creation.

You are invited to the private view:
*4pm - 6pm, Saturday 8th March*
The Lotus Lounge
Unit 1, Heritage Courtyard, Sadler Street
Wells

Between 12-3pm, Lotus Lounge is launching their juice bar - so if you get there early, treat yourself to a juice.

Once again, I have been surprised at how much is going on out there. Thanks to Alison who keeps on ferreting out events that are going on. If you want yours included, email me.

Mysticism encompasses and unifies the psychic, clairvoyant, and magical powers, and as a result adds power to all of them.

I believe you can change your life - it is not fixed. I can give you the Keys to make change happen the way you want.

Tarot readings can be about

• Love and relationships
  • Finding love
  • Improving your relationship
  • Changing your relationship
• Work and Career
  • Finding a job
  • Changing your career
  • Find out new directions
  • Problems at work
  • Going self-employed
• Finances
  • How to improve your finances
• Travel and moving
  • Where to move to
  • Will I move?
• Education
  • Learning new skills
• Spiritual
  • Finding your spiritual direction
  • Developing your psychic gifts
  • Becoming more clairvoyant

All these aspects of your life can be enhanced with a tarot reading from Paul. If you are not close to London or Brighton, you can arrange a telephone tarot reading with me. Spiritual healing is also available to help you achieve your goals.