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Category Archives: conferences

Readers Studio Rundown, Days 1–3

All 3 days of the Readers Studio Conference in one large post!

Otherwise known as Day 1 1/2: the half stands for the fact that I arrived at the hotel on the Thursday afternoon to make sure that I was there for Heatherleigh Navarre’s Crystal Ball by Candlelight evening study group that I had been planning on attending for months. The reasoning? I have a crystal ball already that I will sometimes place on my reading table when doing party readings, but is more decoration than actual divination tool for me. I wanted to change that by attending Heatherleigh’s class.

On Thursday the Tarot and Psychology conference was going on (one-day conference), so I drove to the hotel after finishing up beauty appointments (hair and eyebrows, respectively), checked in, put my stuff in my room, and came back down to the lobby area to scan and see who I knew that was already there. Lo and behold, the lovely Jaymi Elford immediately finds me and hands me my copy of her tarot deck, The Triple Goddess Tarot (if you want to check it out, it happens to be my deck of the month for May’s card of the day pulls on social media). Squees and hugs ensued, but we quietly made our way out of the way to not disturb the tarot and psychology attendees that were still in the ballroom taking their classes.

During one of the breaks, I snuck into the ballroom to cruise the Merchant Faire tables that are situated around the perimeter of the room, taking special note of what was where and trying very hard not to start my shopping spree right then and there. Said my hellos, and went back out into the lobby area to hang out with other people arriving for the main conference the following day.

Some of us made our way to the bar area where dinner was being served, and I had an early dinner with people there for the main conference, and also attendees of the Tarot and Psychology conference who took advantage of the break time between the 2nd and 3rd session of their conference to eat before returning to the ballroom. I returned to the lobby area to kill time before the cocktail reception happening at 8pm, and the start of the evening study groups at 9pm.

Crystal Ball by Candlelight: Divination in the Depths

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Shopping List for Readers Studio 2017

The last time I attended a tarot conference was in 2015: Readers Studio. Last year, I took a year off from tarot conferences in order to save up for big life events, like my wedding (my husband and I paid for most of it ourselves) and our honeymoon (a year delayed, so it was more like our first anniversary/honeymoon).

But this year? I make my triumphant return to Readers Studio next week, and I have some shopping to do!Continue Reading

Beltane Blessings, Readers Studio Round-Up, and Tarot and Talismans

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Instead of doing a Readers Studio roundup which I normally would be doing at this time of year, I will have to do a Beltane round-up/rundown instead and talk a little bit about the class I taught over Readers Studio weekend (thought not AT Readers Studio): “Tarot and Talismans.” The Readers Studio roundup of links is at the bottom of the post, so if you’d like to skip and go straight to that particular bit of goodness, go ahead! No offense taken!


It’s been a busy few weeks! A few weekends ago, I attended a beer festival with my husband for the first time. This is something he has been attending every year for the past six years. I have not, because the Readers Studio tarot conference usually falls on the same weekend. So, he runs off and samples beers for a weekend, and I run off to see my tarot peeps, play with new decks, and learn from some of the brightest minds in the tarot world.

It all works out. Usually.

He’s been saying for a couple of years now that I should attend his beer festival one year with him. With this being our first year married, I decided that this year would be the year, and I chose to go with him for the beer festival over Readers Studio… only to find out that they were NOT on the same weekend, for once.

A relatively accurate depiction of how my husband had been describing the beer festival, via GIPHY

By then, my decision had already been made… and I had Beltane weekend free (because I hadn’t realized that Readers Studio fell on Beltane weekend).

This time last year, I had taught Using Tarot for Spell-Work at the Beltane festival, so I approached the organizers and asked if they wanted me to teach again this year. They said yes!

“What should I teach?” I asked.

“Tarot and magick!” they said.

Ummmm… ok. It was time to create a new class, specially for Beltane, that combined two of my loves: tarot and magick. But what to teach?

I thought about it for a few days, mulling over class proposal after class proposal, searching for inspiration anywhere and everywhere. Then, the inspiration came to me as I looked down at my own arm.

… where my High Priestess tarot card tattoo sits, always looking up at me, chastising me frequently and guiding me often.

What was it about the High Priestess card that made her the High Priestess? What were the symbols on her that I absolutely needed to make that card her and mine?

And then it hit me. The pomegranate. The symbols. Often, when I am having trouble interpreting a tarot card with regard to a client’s situation, I soften my gaze and look at the symbols on the card to guide me to the most correct interpretation for their situation.

We can take those symbols, that are already imbued with that tarot card’s energy, and we can turn those symbols into talismans.

This is how “Tarot and Talismans” was born. I excitedly sent off my class proposal to Bernadette of Brid’s Closet, and we were off and running!Continue Reading

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