Hieroglyphs From The Soul

11/28/07 - 6:00 - 8:00 PST
$25.00

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Robert Place sees the Tarot as a spiritual tool that works, through its archetypal images, to assist our Higher Self to guide us to enlightened choices and spiritual wisdom. He recommends three card readings as a Tarot staple, and sets out a guideline for interpreting them called “The Seven Patterns.” These patterns include: linear, choice, central origin, central destination, the central problem and the central teacher.

The course will include an introduction to the method, description of the patterns, and sample readings. For the three card spread. Class notes will be provided in advance to illustrate the patterns. The Rider Waite Smith Tarot and Alchemical Tarot will be used.

The Relationship Spread

12/12/07 - 6:00 - 8:00 PST
$25.00

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Tarot readers are most commonly asked for advice about love or career. By treating these questions as a relationship between the querent and another person, company, or institution this spread can handle both topics. This spread can be applied to relationships between the querent and a lover, a boss, or another person, a job, a home, a culture, a city, or another environment. Instead of predicting the future, it gives insight into what each party is thinking and how they are interacting. Then the cards can provide insight from the Higher Self and tell the querent how to improve the relationship or other advice. This is a truly versatile spread that is capable of bringing insight and guidance to any situation.

The class will include an introduction to the spread, the three stages of relationships and how they relate to the Tarot trumps, and sample readings. This class builds on the lessons learned in Hieroglyphs From The Soul and will expand on the three-card reading.

Class notes will be provided in advance to illustrate the patterns. The Rider Waite Smith Tarot and The Alchemical Tarot will be used.

The Four Elements and the Four Functions of Consciousness

1/9/08 - 6:00 - 8:00 PST
$25.00

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The famous Swiss Psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, is best known for his theories about the unconscious mind but Jung mapped the conscious mind as well. In the conscious mind he found a mandala of four personality types that he called functions. Although Jung started by examining the four humors of classical medicine, he quickly realized that they did not describe true psychological states. He replaced them with the four qualities that he did discover in the human psyche and labeled these qualities: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Although Jung veered away from the theory of the humors, it is still possible to make a connection between his four functions and the four elements of the alchemists and through this connection to link them with the four minor suits in the Tarot.

This class will explore the symbolism of the four minor suits and demonstrate that they contain a mandala like structure that relates to the four directions, seasons, elements, and other fourfold systems including the four Jungian functions. We will learn more about the functions through examples and each student will attempt to discover their dominant function. Through their relationship with the functions, the cards become a valuable psychological tool that can point out difference in personality and harmonize relationships between different personality types.

Dream Divination

1/23/08 & 1/30/08 - 6:00 - 8:00 PST
$50

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We spend about one third of our lives sleeping. When you are asleep you are naturally communicating with the unconscious part of your mind, where the archetypes live and your dreams are that communication. The ability to dream evolved in mammals about 130 million years ago. Like all mammals, humans dream and have always dreamed as long as they have been around. It is not surprising, therefore, that dreams are the oldest and most natural form of divination. They are also one of the most insightful and reliable. Dreams can heal us mentally and physically, they can teach us, they are a source of inspiration, and they can predict the future.

In these two classes we will learn about ancient oneiromanic practices and the modern theories of Jung. We will learn about the principle archetypes and some common dream symbols. We will learn how to remember dreams and we will make use of the methods devised by psychiatrist Montague Ullman to hold a group dream discussion. Bring a pad and pencil and some dreams.

Vampires and the Tarot

2/13/08 - 6:00 - 8:00 PST
$25.00

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Although the Vampire of modern literature and film is a blood sucking monster he or she is also the focus of sexual desire. This is exemplified by the fact that although Bela Lugosi made his reputation playing Dracula, the most famous vampire fiend, women all over the world swooned for him and he received hundreds of proposals of marriage. This paradox illuminates the fact that the modern Vampire of pop culture, particularly Dracula, is in reality an ancient mythological figure who has covertly entered a culture that is consciously attempting to cut itself off from myth. The story of this mythological Vampire is also related to the Tarot trumps.

Stoker’s biographer, Barbara Belford, points out that Dracula author Bram Stoker, was aware of the Tarot and seems to have based many of the characters in Dracula on Tarot trumps. In this lecture we will explore how and why this is so and find out why Pamela Coleman Smith and Stoker were friends, who influenced who, and if Stoker was a member of the Golden Dawn. We will also find that an appreciation of Dracula can deepen out understanding of Tarot symbolism.