SO “DIVINE” : A WEEKEND AT THE DENVER TAROT CONVENTION

 Welcome to The Divination Nation blog!
 We are Pleasant Gehman and Crystal Ravenwolf, a duo of divination divas, “spiritual sisters from another mister”. Both of us are life-long Tarotistas, obsessed with all things esoteric and paranormal. We’ve created this blog to share our knowledge and to connect with the vibrant worldwide metaphysical community. Aside from Tarot, we practice many other forms of divination and metaphysical disciplines, including Reiki and energy healing, pendulum divining, dousing, crystal work, mediumship, house cleansings, and more. We read for clients, write, lecture and teach together as well as working solo. For years, we’ve worked as professional belly dancers, and since 2009, we’ve been doing paranormal investigations, exploring public and private sites that are reputed to be haunted.  Currently, we’re working on our book, “ Walking The Tarot Path”.
We’d love for this blog to be relevant for metaphysically-inclined peeps at every stage of development from absolute beginners to seasoned professionals, our posts will range from basic concepts and info that many of you are undoubtedly familiar with, to interviews, how-to’s and reviews on events and products.
We hope this blog is as fun for you to read as it is for us to write…Enjoy!

The Tarosophy Tarot Association brought its moveable feast of knowledge to Denver, Colorado June 26-28, 2015, and what an event it was. TarotCon, produced in conjunction with the Denver Tarot MeetUp, and sponsored by Isis Books And Gifts, took place in the historic Althea Center For Engaged Spirituality. The gorgeous Belle Epoque building in the Congress Hill neighborhood was the perfect spot for a weekend devoted to the esoteric and the art of divination.  For 48 hours straight, the historic hall purred relentlessly with the sound of dozens of Tarot decks being shuffled simultaneously.

The theme Take Your Tarot To The Stars played out literally with a galaxy of legendary Tarot and divination stars including Mary K. Greer, Richard Hartnett, Austin Cappock, Lisa De San Croix, Joy Vernon, and   Tarot Association co-founders Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin…among many more.  The weekend kicked off with a high-energy keynote speech by James Wanless Ph.D about the relevance-and possibilities for- Tarot in modern times.  The workshops and lectures went on all weekend with three scheduled in each time slot, making it really tough to decide which classes to take, because they were all so good.  The rounds of enthusiastic applause at the conclusion of every workshop attested to the expertise of the instructors.

Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz

  

The workshops we opted for were each nothing short of brilliant- in fact, our brains were literally shattered in some of the classes!

 Author of ten books, scholar, teacher Mary K. Greer started off Saturday. Her class, informed by her nearly fifty years   of hands-on experience, “The Fool’s Progress” began with a pictorial history of The Fool through the centuries, went on to explore A.E. Waite’s secret traditions and imagery and culminated in a brilliant way to read   your own individual Soul’s Progress.

 The celebrated author of sixteen books on the occult and magick, Lon Milo DuQuette taught “The Lesser Arcana: Keys To Specific Dates And Geographic Locations”. Also a musician, he began the class by busting out his guitar and jovially singing to the students.   His teaching style is warm and often hilariously funny, tempering the intensity of his knowledge of the esoteric.   The focus, of course, was on Tarot, specifically his own system of divination, but DuQuette pulled info from his background in Hermetic Kabbalah, the I-Ching, and numerology. The class was so complex and multi-layered, it’s a safe bet to say that he officially blew the minds of every person in attendance!

 Another brain-twister / mind-blower was Austin Coppock’s “A Deck Of Faces: The Hidden History Of The Pip Cards”. The young, clean-cut Coppock is an intellectual and highly engaging speaker; a tarot reader, astrological consultant and writer.  For a full hour and a half, without once referring to notes, he lectured on archeo- astronomy, astrology and the Decans, the thirty-six “Faces Of Heaven”, which for many millennia were the often neglected invisible connection between ancient Egypt and contemporary Tarot.  There is no way in hell we could even start to describe how amazing his class was, but we suggest buying his informative book on the Decans, 36 Faces, which was published in 2014 on Three Hands Press.

Offerings from the Tarot Garden

 Thankfully, the workshops were scheduled with a half-hour break between each session, allowing our mental palates to be cleared by browsing the vending area. We had a grand time picking through the vintage, rare, collectable (and often extremely amusing) decks offered up by the Tarot Garden.

  Some of the workshops were a little less intense in…. ahem…spirit, while at the same time being incredibly informative. Carrie Paris taught “ Collection Oracles and Charm Casting With Tarot For Accurate Results”.  A Lenormand deck author, she also has an interactive website, Talking Tarot.com.  After a short history of ancient casting divination (bones, shells, dice) she handed out pre-made bags of charms and dice and taught divination with these articles in conjunction with Tarot.

 On Saturday and Sunday during the lunch break, the engaging Shaheen Miro hosted  “The Gypsy Tea Party: Exploring Tasseography”. Tassepgraphy, or cup divination, can be done with coffee, tealeaves or even wine sediment, but Shaheen focused on tea leaves.  The multi-talented Shaheen is Tarot reader, energy worker and fashion designer, as well as a blogger.  He had an incredibly detailed and visually pleasing information packet full of great graphics, and taught in a humorous, easy style. The week before the convention, TarotCon volunteers scoured Denver’s many thrift stores for a variety of vintage tea cups and saucers, which each attendee got to select for use in class as well as keep for a souvenir- and future readings. This class was so much fun, that Mary K. Greer even joined in, rolling up her sleeves and tipping her tea cup!

 

Erik C. Dunne and Pleasant at TarotCon

 On the first day of TarotCon, we met-and bonded with- a charming, witty guy. During the course of our first chat, we discovered that he was also involved with feral cat rescue, which made him all the more endearing.  After a little while- please imagine a teenage girl saying “Duh!” while rolling her eyes- we realized we were talking to none other than Erik C. Dunne, artist extraordinaire and creator of the absolutely exquisite Tarot Illuminati, one of the most coveted decks on the market today.

The beautiful Tarot Illuminati, created by Erik C. Dunne

Not only was Eric a delight to hang out with, he appeared on the immensely informative Deck Creators Panel. Along with   Erik, a number of artists discussed their varied creative processes, and the nuts and bolts of Tarot deck creation, from conceptualization to self-publishing vs. going with a major company.

 Appearing were Toney Brooks of Chrysalis Tarot fame; Jonathan Saiz, Jason Gruhl and Andi Torado, makers of The Fountain Tarot; Beth Seilonen, creator of The Blue Cat Tarot and many more decks, Lisa De St. Croix of the eponymously named Tarot De St. Croix, and   Darkana deck-meister Daniel Donche.  Everyone on the panel shared info freely, and there were quite a lot of laughs too.

Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz moderating the Tarot Deck Creation Panel at TarotCon, Denver

 The weekend concluded with authors  &  event producers Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin teaching a brand new workshop called  “Practical And Profound Tarot Reading”, jam-packed full of information on the Tarot and Kabalistic connections, plus in-class exercises as well as a great spread.

All in all, this was an amazingly well organized event- it ran like clockwork!

 The Tarosophy Association has two more up-coming events in 2015, one in the UK this September, and one in Miami in October.  If you’re interested in quality education- and a having a damn good time while you learn- check them out.

 Links to the Tarosophy Tarot Association, there worldwide events, plus the websites of   the instructors and artists mentioned here are below, please visit and support them.

 

The Tarosophy Association. www.tarotassociation.net/

 Info on upcoming Tarosophy  Tarot Conventions: http://www.tarotconvention.com/

Mary K. Greer’s wonderful blog: www.marygreer.wordpress.com

Lon Milo DuQuette’s website: www.londuquette.com

Austin Coppock’s website: www.austincoppock.com

 Carrie Paris’ websites; www.carrieParis.com , www.talkingtarot.com

 Shaheen Miro’s website: www.shaheenmiroinsights.com

Erik C. Dunne’s Tarot Illuminati  Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tarot-Illuminati/283151041725608

Purchase Tarot Illuminati: http://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738737904

 Rare and  collectable decks at The Tarot Garden:  www.tarotgarden.com 

The Denver Tarot Meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/DenverTarot/

#

We’d love to connect with you!
Visit our website: www.thedivinationnation.com
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDivinationNation?fref=ts
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TarotAlimah
To find out more about Pleasant click here: http://www.pleasantgehman.com/
For more on Crystal, click here http://www.crystalravenwolf.com  
Send an email here: divinationnation@yahoo.com    

 LEARN TO CONDUCT YOUR OWN PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS.... AND COME ON A GHOST HUNT WITH US!
  SAT. AUGUST 8, 2015 IN THE FRESNO, CA.  AREA
 All info is here: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/933092746729155/