New York, New York
Jun. 25th, 2002 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vervain13Well LJ friends and public, we are back from a terrific weekend in NYC. The Marriott staff managed to successfully survive the infestation of Tarot enthusiasts and even expressed the genuine desire for us to return for fufture conferences. The conference was absolutely great as we made new friends, got cool new stuff, and attended some REALLY cool and expansive workshops. It was a great way to celebrate the Summer Solstice.
The first workshop dealt with using Tarot cards as portals to access past life information. I was skeptical at first as to how they were going to accomplish this in just two hours, but my concerns were more than laid to rest. The discoveries everyone experienced were very much like Dorothy opening the door and seeing the beauty and wonder of Oz for the very first time. It really can't be explained...only experienced. If anyone is interested in more details, email me and I will try to explain the process as best I can.
Opening ritual for the conference followed with attendees choosing which suit to align themselves with for the duration of the conference. Each suit was represented by someone acting as the Ace of the respective suit inviting/enticing attendees with appealing offers of various sorts. Needless to say, when Don and I heard the Ace of Wands offer networking, making new friends, partying, and dancing with the Fire, we KNEW which suit we wanted, :-). Everyone received color coordinated bracelets and lightsticks as tokens of their respective suit and we closed the ritual by waving all our lightsticks in the completely darkened room with loud cheers and eager anticipation of what lay ahead. As Don put it, "I LOVE this stuff! It's so five years old (as in fun mentality)!"
Next was the "Meet The Presenters" cocktail party. It was an elegant affair with fabulous appetizers (mmmmmmmm, those shrimp dumplings with sweet and sour sauce), excellent wine and cocktails, and an ambience which made for some great networking among the participants. I had the good fortune of giving some much needed foot massage to one of the leaders of the conference. She and her groom were getting married the following evening (more on that shortly). Ruth Ann and her husband are Lights in the Tarot community and great friends as well. I only knew them through Don prior to the conference as he had taken some teleconference training with them over the past year and a half. Meeting them in person was an honor and a blessing. More can be learned about them and what they have to offer by going to http://www.TarotSchool.com. Another Tarot illuminary I met was Geraldine Amaral, co-author of Tarot Celebrations: Honoring The Inner Voice, an excellent resource which I am currently reading. Don and I were so grateful to add her to our growing list of friends. Geraldine has a website for those interested at http://www.TarotCelebrations.com.
Afer the cocktail party we all returned to our rooms for some freshening up before going out on the town. A bus took us into the Manhattan and dropped us off in the Village where we divided into groups and headed off in various directions to take in the city and enjoy the great restaurants there. Enroute a couple of people on the bus got into some fun antics which had the rest of us rolling with laughter. Thalassa was "channeling" Ethel Merman singing contemporary music as well as showtunes...and James, her seat companion, egged her on with ever increasing mischief. It was hysterically funny and the poor bus driver must have thought he wqas driving a flock of freshly released crazies into town (maybe he was). Don and I adopted Sheherazade, a friend he knew through the teleconference training. Sheherazade is ever the sweet, warm, gracious lady she appears to be and the three of us thoroughly enjoyed the city together. Around midnight, the bus returned and we all headed back to the hotel once again entertained by, you guessed it, Thalassa and James. When we arrived at the hotel, the bus driver (poor guy) simply said, "Get off." I hope he slept well that night, hehehe.
The following morning after breakfast, Don and I attended a workshop presented by James Wanless, co-creator of the Voyager Tarot, a deck which uses collage imagery as a launching point for exploration of the question/issue(s) at hand. His workshop, Tarot Coaching, was designed as a tool for learning how to use the Tarot in an active sense, i.e. what action can be done NOW/TODAY to effect the changes necessary toward the goal desired. This was particularly excellent for me as I spend way too much time in my head as it is. This takes readings from the reflective to the active phase. His approach was so down to earth and practical and we thoroughly enjoyed his encouragement to ACT using the cards rather than merely reflecting on the them. Jim was added to our friends list due to the bond we established with him throughout the conference. More can be learned about Jim at his website http://www.VoyagerTarot.com.
After lunch, we briefly checked out the Magical Merchants Faire where I got a much needed chair massage while Don browsed. We were going to attend a couple of workshops that afternoon but instead ended up helping with preparations for Ruth Ann and Wald's wedding that evening. To Don's credit, he graciously put up with my expressed grumpiness about a growing headache while we worked on assembling a couple of pillars for the wedding. About three hours and a "bit" of angst later, the pillars were completed and looking great. They were the first thing through which the attendants and the Bride and Groom would pass enroute to the altar. We then went to prepare ourselves for the evening's events.
Shortly before 6:00 p.m, we joined the growing crowd and excitement waiting outside the grand ballroom where the wedding was to take place. Minutes later, we were allowed inside to seat ourselves and get ready for Ruth Ann and Wald's Magical Tarot Wedding. Without going into all the details, it was a spectacular event with Tarot obviously being the theme for the evening. The decor was magnificent and truly expressed the essence of this life cycle occassion. And of course, Don and I paid careful attention to the details, :-). The outfits people wore varied from the mundane to beautiful expressions of celebration. James, our sweet friend of bus ride notoriety, arrived dressed all in black complete with a cape featuring the Tree of Life. We immediately christened him, The Qabalah Fairy. He basked in the attention and then went to settle in for the wedding. Afterward, we attended the banquet given in honor of the newly wed couple, complete with more lightsticks, music, comedy, and magic tricks. We were happy to have Jim share a table with us and enjoyed meeting the new people who joined us as well. Cindy, a young lady from Wisconsin kept looking at us in a rather unusual fashion until she could no longer keep in her thoughts. She came to our side of the table and told us what she was seeing. Explaining that most people have individuated auras when seated together, she told us that to her amazement we SHARE a single aura. She had never witnessed this before and it was a beautiful and heartwarning experience for the three of us. We are definitely going to keep in touch with her. Things were still going strong when we finally had to obey the edict of sleep at 11:30. The last thing we enjoyed was the chocolate swan dessert with creme filling and fruit...yummy!
Sunday morning, the last day of the conference, Don attended a final workshop about the Osho Zen deck which was a tremendous experience for him and I hung out with Wald, Ruth Ann, James and others. More than a few of us were writing notes in each others' conference notebooks. We did some last minute shopping at the Faire that afternoon and attended one final workshop before gathering our gear and ourselves for the return trip home. Closing ritual was held by yet another new friend, Robin Wood, author and creator of the Robin Wood deck. Her artwork is amazing and beautiful. More can be learned about her and what she does at http://www.RobinWood.com.
We shared our flight home with Sandy, a girl we met at the table at the banquet. While waiting for the flight and even enroute, we engaged in lively conversation about Tarot, our favorite decks, and knowledge we had acquired using them. Arriving safely in Boston, we bid our farewells and cabbed it home.
While we were worn out by the conference, we are so grateful we went. Don and I each learned things we needed to make some great changes in our lives. We are already actively putting them to use and looking forward to the results. And the best part of the whole event was the people. We exchanged contact information with all our new friends and are looking forward to seeing them again. James (the Qabalah Fairy) is hosting a Tarot conference in Toronto next July and we are hoping to attend. I made it a point to mention LJ to a lot of people and many expressed an interest in it.
That's it, folks. If you've read this far, then hopefully you haven't been too terribly bored with all the hooplah, :-). Until next time...
Blessings and Light,
David
The first workshop dealt with using Tarot cards as portals to access past life information. I was skeptical at first as to how they were going to accomplish this in just two hours, but my concerns were more than laid to rest. The discoveries everyone experienced were very much like Dorothy opening the door and seeing the beauty and wonder of Oz for the very first time. It really can't be explained...only experienced. If anyone is interested in more details, email me and I will try to explain the process as best I can.
Opening ritual for the conference followed with attendees choosing which suit to align themselves with for the duration of the conference. Each suit was represented by someone acting as the Ace of the respective suit inviting/enticing attendees with appealing offers of various sorts. Needless to say, when Don and I heard the Ace of Wands offer networking, making new friends, partying, and dancing with the Fire, we KNEW which suit we wanted, :-). Everyone received color coordinated bracelets and lightsticks as tokens of their respective suit and we closed the ritual by waving all our lightsticks in the completely darkened room with loud cheers and eager anticipation of what lay ahead. As Don put it, "I LOVE this stuff! It's so five years old (as in fun mentality)!"
Next was the "Meet The Presenters" cocktail party. It was an elegant affair with fabulous appetizers (mmmmmmmm, those shrimp dumplings with sweet and sour sauce), excellent wine and cocktails, and an ambience which made for some great networking among the participants. I had the good fortune of giving some much needed foot massage to one of the leaders of the conference. She and her groom were getting married the following evening (more on that shortly). Ruth Ann and her husband are Lights in the Tarot community and great friends as well. I only knew them through Don prior to the conference as he had taken some teleconference training with them over the past year and a half. Meeting them in person was an honor and a blessing. More can be learned about them and what they have to offer by going to http://www.TarotSchool.com. Another Tarot illuminary I met was Geraldine Amaral, co-author of Tarot Celebrations: Honoring The Inner Voice, an excellent resource which I am currently reading. Don and I were so grateful to add her to our growing list of friends. Geraldine has a website for those interested at http://www.TarotCelebrations.com.
Afer the cocktail party we all returned to our rooms for some freshening up before going out on the town. A bus took us into the Manhattan and dropped us off in the Village where we divided into groups and headed off in various directions to take in the city and enjoy the great restaurants there. Enroute a couple of people on the bus got into some fun antics which had the rest of us rolling with laughter. Thalassa was "channeling" Ethel Merman singing contemporary music as well as showtunes...and James, her seat companion, egged her on with ever increasing mischief. It was hysterically funny and the poor bus driver must have thought he wqas driving a flock of freshly released crazies into town (maybe he was). Don and I adopted Sheherazade, a friend he knew through the teleconference training. Sheherazade is ever the sweet, warm, gracious lady she appears to be and the three of us thoroughly enjoyed the city together. Around midnight, the bus returned and we all headed back to the hotel once again entertained by, you guessed it, Thalassa and James. When we arrived at the hotel, the bus driver (poor guy) simply said, "Get off." I hope he slept well that night, hehehe.
The following morning after breakfast, Don and I attended a workshop presented by James Wanless, co-creator of the Voyager Tarot, a deck which uses collage imagery as a launching point for exploration of the question/issue(s) at hand. His workshop, Tarot Coaching, was designed as a tool for learning how to use the Tarot in an active sense, i.e. what action can be done NOW/TODAY to effect the changes necessary toward the goal desired. This was particularly excellent for me as I spend way too much time in my head as it is. This takes readings from the reflective to the active phase. His approach was so down to earth and practical and we thoroughly enjoyed his encouragement to ACT using the cards rather than merely reflecting on the them. Jim was added to our friends list due to the bond we established with him throughout the conference. More can be learned about Jim at his website http://www.VoyagerTarot.com.
After lunch, we briefly checked out the Magical Merchants Faire where I got a much needed chair massage while Don browsed. We were going to attend a couple of workshops that afternoon but instead ended up helping with preparations for Ruth Ann and Wald's wedding that evening. To Don's credit, he graciously put up with my expressed grumpiness about a growing headache while we worked on assembling a couple of pillars for the wedding. About three hours and a "bit" of angst later, the pillars were completed and looking great. They were the first thing through which the attendants and the Bride and Groom would pass enroute to the altar. We then went to prepare ourselves for the evening's events.
Shortly before 6:00 p.m, we joined the growing crowd and excitement waiting outside the grand ballroom where the wedding was to take place. Minutes later, we were allowed inside to seat ourselves and get ready for Ruth Ann and Wald's Magical Tarot Wedding. Without going into all the details, it was a spectacular event with Tarot obviously being the theme for the evening. The decor was magnificent and truly expressed the essence of this life cycle occassion. And of course, Don and I paid careful attention to the details, :-). The outfits people wore varied from the mundane to beautiful expressions of celebration. James, our sweet friend of bus ride notoriety, arrived dressed all in black complete with a cape featuring the Tree of Life. We immediately christened him, The Qabalah Fairy. He basked in the attention and then went to settle in for the wedding. Afterward, we attended the banquet given in honor of the newly wed couple, complete with more lightsticks, music, comedy, and magic tricks. We were happy to have Jim share a table with us and enjoyed meeting the new people who joined us as well. Cindy, a young lady from Wisconsin kept looking at us in a rather unusual fashion until she could no longer keep in her thoughts. She came to our side of the table and told us what she was seeing. Explaining that most people have individuated auras when seated together, she told us that to her amazement we SHARE a single aura. She had never witnessed this before and it was a beautiful and heartwarning experience for the three of us. We are definitely going to keep in touch with her. Things were still going strong when we finally had to obey the edict of sleep at 11:30. The last thing we enjoyed was the chocolate swan dessert with creme filling and fruit...yummy!
Sunday morning, the last day of the conference, Don attended a final workshop about the Osho Zen deck which was a tremendous experience for him and I hung out with Wald, Ruth Ann, James and others. More than a few of us were writing notes in each others' conference notebooks. We did some last minute shopping at the Faire that afternoon and attended one final workshop before gathering our gear and ourselves for the return trip home. Closing ritual was held by yet another new friend, Robin Wood, author and creator of the Robin Wood deck. Her artwork is amazing and beautiful. More can be learned about her and what she does at http://www.RobinWood.com.
We shared our flight home with Sandy, a girl we met at the table at the banquet. While waiting for the flight and even enroute, we engaged in lively conversation about Tarot, our favorite decks, and knowledge we had acquired using them. Arriving safely in Boston, we bid our farewells and cabbed it home.
While we were worn out by the conference, we are so grateful we went. Don and I each learned things we needed to make some great changes in our lives. We are already actively putting them to use and looking forward to the results. And the best part of the whole event was the people. We exchanged contact information with all our new friends and are looking forward to seeing them again. James (the Qabalah Fairy) is hosting a Tarot conference in Toronto next July and we are hoping to attend. I made it a point to mention LJ to a lot of people and many expressed an interest in it.
That's it, folks. If you've read this far, then hopefully you haven't been too terribly bored with all the hooplah, :-). Until next time...
Blessings and Light,
David
