Friday at the UK Tarot Conference 2018

So, I’m a bit late posting this, but life has been non-stop since the conference!

I was fortunate that my day job travels took me to London in time for the 2018 UK Tarot Conference. I used to attend regularly, but there’s a conference I go to for my day job that usually overlaps, so I miss the Tarot conference. This year, however, the dates aligned, and I was able to attend! Being the fifteenth year of the conference, the theme was The Devil card—an enticing topic, indeed!

I said good morning to the charming Kim Arnold, organizer of the conference, who was her usual wonderful self. I collected my badge and goodie bag, and chose a spot at a mostly empty table near the center of the room. I marked the place, and wandered off to find coffee. When I returned, a few people had also settled at the table, including my friend Sue, who I have not seen since the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) conference in 2008! That was a lovely surprise, and a wonderful start to the weekend. I also ran into the delightful Mary Collin, and several of the TABI folk and others I’d met at prior UK conferences.

Rachel Pollack was there, with several of her amazing necklaces. This one is made of garnet (my birthstone) and citrine, and is called “The Star” (my astrological Birth Card). How could it not be mine? (Spoiler alert: it is now mine.)

Star Necklace by Rachel Pollack

I then spied the stunningly talented Benebell Wen across the room, and introduced myself. We were both wryly amused that we live 15 minutes apart (no, really), and yet, this is the first time we’d met in person. I picked up my copy of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot.

Spirit Keeper’s Tarot – Image by Benebell Wen

Tempted as I was to open it and dive in, I put it away to look at later so I could focus on the conference. Such discipline! I’ll post a separate review of it later.

After a few remarks from Kim, Rachel took the stage for a lively discussion of The Devil and the Magician. Rachel raised some interesting points of consideration:
More alike than either of them care to admit, they pretend to be opposites in order to define their identities.
Pride transforms the Magician into the Devil.
The Devil is card 15, which is 1 and 5, the Magician and the Hierophant; consider the possibility that the Magician subverts the Hierophant and becomes the Devil.

Rachel concluded the workshop by leading us in a group reading of a spread examining the relationship between the Magician and the Devil.

After a break for lunch, Tero Hynenen took the stage. He opened his presentation with a slide show of historical depictions of devils and demons, with some wonderful images.This was one of my favorites:

He traced the progress of the Devil as moving from the personification of evil, through the idea of Lucifer as the Bringer of Light, and onto the 19th century, where the Devil was re-imagined by the Romantics as the outcast angel, wrongfully banished from Heaven. This theme is prevalent in much of the literature of the time, especially in the works of Charles Baudelaire. He discussed Lilith, Adam’s first wife in the Garden of Eden, and also Lilas, the wife of Satan—the Devil’s playhouse is not just a boys’ club! Lilith also featured in the spread he created for the conference.

Then a necessary break for tea and biscuits and to clear our minds a bit, and then back to it with Benebell Wen for “Tarot and Katabasis”. She led us through a guided journey to do the Tarot reading. “Katabasis” is a Greek word meaning “descent”, and the journey was a descent into the Underworld in search of understanding and for healing. A complex reading with 11 cards mapped to selected Major Arcana, it gave me plenty to think about at the time, and even now, when I revisit it, I have new realizations.

We then had a longish break for dinner and a bit of rest, and then the social began! Geraldine Beskin of Atlantis Bookshop did a fascinating presentation on Pamela Colman Smith, and had some wonderful images to share. The evening concluded with a prize raffle, and an auction of special items. (Tarot Media Company contributed a copy of Rachel Pollack’s “Soul Forest” to the auction, as well as a set of David Palladini‘s “Journal of An Artist” and “Painting the Soul: The Tarot Art of David Palladini“.) The auction raises money for the following year’s conference scholarship fund to allow attendance by people who might not be able to participate otherwise, so it’s definitely a good cause!

Then, somehow, it was after 10:00 PM, and time to sleep, so we would be ready for the Saturday program!