Judika Illes review of The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot--EVER!!

Hey gang, Judika was kind enough to let me know what she thought of my book on the Tarot. As she is a super-amazing witch, expert on spells and many-things magical, I thought I would post her opinion here. This is completely unedited (so I hope she spelled my name right!).

Review: The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot- EVER!!

Dusty White has created the perfect text-book for a tarot course whether in a class-room setting or for self-study. I have been a professional tarot card reader for over two decades: I wish The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot— EVER!! had existed when I was first learning and that is the highest praise I can offer. Furthermore, even now, as an extremely experienced and well-read tarotista, I still received many new insights, perspectives, and information from White’s wonderful book. This is a book to keep close at hand—it serves as a reference and a guide through the tarot as much as an instructional manual. I expect to return to my copy repeatedly.

The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—EVER!! is exceptionally well-organized, lucid, practical and extremely comprehensive but also tolerant: White appreciates that there are many varied and disparate ways to read tarot and presents readers with a wide selection. A particularly nice aspect of this book is that it may be used with any tarot deck although White recommends that beginners use a Waite-Smith or Waite-Smith derived deck—I concur—and explains precisely why. The book contains suggested exercises and workbook pages. Each card is discussed in depth as are a variety of spreads. This book is highly recommended for beginners and adepts alike. My only suggestion: perhaps Dusty White would like to expand this series by adding similar volumes focused on astrology and runes. – Judika Illes, author of The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, The Encyclopedia of Spirits, The Weiser Field Guide to Witches, and Pure Magic: A Complete Course in Spellcasting.

Please be sure to check out Judika's books. They are easily on par with Buckland, Cunningham, and Silver. She really knows her stuff, and you can learn a LOT from her.

New Tarot Podcast! (is here .... finally)

Hi everybody!

So, the new tarot podcast is here, and it is free, and it is fun (well fun to do--hopefully to listen to as well). Here it is:

http://easytarotlessons.podomatic.com/

Once a month or Cairelle and I will be covering the Tarot and cartomancy. We will teach you the EASIEST WAYS to learn the Tarot ever. The show is about two hours of instruction per episode (listen in buts or all at once) and is based on my basic Tarot book, The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot--EVER!! but you can follow along and learn even if you do not have the book yet. We want to help everyone learn this amazing skill and perfect their abilities to predict the future and to manifest their goals and desires.

Please join us! It is free to download and learn from. Here is the iTunes link. itpc://easytarotlessons.podomatic.com/rss2.xml Just post that in your iTunes (in the top menu bar look for Advanced, and then Subscribe to Podcast, and paste that address in it--or you can search for us in the iTunes store--or you can just click on the link above (this one: http://easytarotlessons.podomatic.com/) and scroll down a bit and look for the giant button on the right side of the page that says "Subscribe with iTunes!"

We will help you master the Tarot quickly and easily.

Thanks for reading :-)

The EASIEST way to learn the tarot

Okay, so you have an invitation to a party tonight and you have three hours to master the Tarot and impress all of the hotties there. What's a single person to do? You could order my book (The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot--EVER!!), but Amazon can't deliver in 3 hours, so you have to do it on your own. Okay, so let's get to it, since time is short. You do have a deck of cards, right?

Okay, so this method ONLY WORKS if you have cards that have actual images on them. Some decks have only pictures of coins, crystals, wands, swords, or whatnot--just like "regular" playing cards have diamonds, clubs, and hearts. What you need is something with a picture. This helps you decipher the card's meaning, but it also gives your audience something to focus on, rather than other hotties at the party.

Take your deck (I will just assume you have one) and start flipping through cards. make two piles. the first pile will be cards that grab your attention, the second will be cards that do nothing for you. What we are doing is looking at each card for a few seconds and seeing if you can figure out what is going on in that card. Is someone fighting? This may indicate a fight in the future. Are two people kissing? Well, good times await! Is someone getting paid? (Hopefully not for kissing--but I have no desire to judge people's lifestyles)

This is not going to help you master the Tarot, or convince people that you have magical powers, but it will familiarize you with the cards you hold, and see the real purpose of the cards is to b able to react to the images you see. See something you don't like? Congratulations, you are reading the Tarot (on a very basic level--but it is a good start). A card that offends you is a warning sign to change directions. If the whole deck offends you by the way you should set it down and go do something else, like fix a car, or play Canasta. Maybe go read a book or something. Only education can overcome religious prejudice.

Okay, so let's say you see some cards that look like fun (someone has a lot of money, or they are happy, or they have a date, they are dancing, or if you think fighting is fun: they are fighting); and you see cards that look miserable. All you are doing is seeing snapshots of life. Every day brings fun and dismay to people all over the world. Some people have easy lives, others have hellish existences (usually because of other people). The Tarot shows us life--not some candy land reality where we only see what we want to see. Again--if you are afraid of the future, you should have mommy and daddy protect you even when you are 40. It's a harsh world out there.

I include these asides, as you will find when reading that people come to you seeking answers but they also bring personal prejudices with them, like baggage in an airport--and they will want to share their beliefs with you; as if you want to hear them and instantly agree. Everyone has an opinion on the future: some don't want to know what will happen to them tomorrow or next week. Others plan their future carefully. Still others plan YOUR future and try their best to make money off of it. The tarot simply allows you to see if you can guess what might be coming up, and therefore be forewarned. Forewarned is forearmed.

So, how do we take these random images and make them make sense and have some fun at the party (you are going to buy a copy of my book, right? It comes with free online support!) and get you dates with all of the hotties? Well as for dates you are on your own (that's my OTHER book :-) ) but for right now I want you to see how the cards are merely pictures of things happening to people. That is the real secret of the Tarot. The skill is in you. When a card comes up look at it as a day, as in the phrase: "Ever have one of those days?"

So what is that day like? Payday? break up with your boyfriend day? Girl's/guys's night out? One card can sum up a day--or it can show an event to come. Or it can describe a mood you are in, a goal you want to achieve, o something left behind. This is why we have spreads. "Spreads" are blank charts where you put cards. Place #1 shows this, place #2 shows that... that's all they are. Here is an easy party spread:

Place #1 (Put a card down): This is what you want.
Place #2 (Put a card down next to it) This is what stands in your way.
Place #3 (Put a card down next to card #2) This is what wants to help you.
Place #4 (Put a card down next to card #3) This is what you will probably get.

See? Nice and easy.

You can do lots of spreads, but the point is to relax and have fun pointing out what you see in a card and allowing your querent ("querent" the person who asks you for a reading) to yap with you about what that card means to them ("Oh! That must be my boyfriend! He is...") and make the process fun. Don't try to impress everyone with your "mad skills." Just have fun. TELL THEM you are a student and are just practicing. They will not mind at all, and some people will even try to teach you some useless information about the Tarot. Occasionally you will even meet a real Tarot journeyman (skilled reader) who will show you a few neat tricks.

Combining cards: For now let's stick to two cards. Remember the kissing and the fighting above? (Is someone fighting? This may indicate a fight in the future. Are two people kissing? Well, good times await!) Well what if two people kissing leads to people fighting--and doesn't this happen a LOT at parties anyway? Or, what if two people fighting leads to two people kissing. Here we are simply telling a story with the images on the deck. First you kiss and then her boyfriend comes over and says "not with MY girlfriend!"

See how easy this is?

Try putting two cards together and seeing if they make sense. If not, pick two other cards. This is not a crash-course in the Tarot. It is just a fun article on how to get through the night and have some fun. Don't take anything you see too seriously. You will just spook yourself. And if you are reading at a party and you don;t know what you are doing, take out all of the "major" Arcana cards and put them back in the box, or stuff them away safely (so they don't get wet, lost, or bent). No sense confusing yourself or scaring people when the "Death" card shows up, or "The Devil." people's superstitions will rise up and make up all sorts of idiotic nonsense and ruin the party. Just have fun, and all will be well.

If you really would like to learn the Tarot, please check out a copy of my book, The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot--EVER!! on Amazon. It really works, and it is really EASY, and I like to think it is fun. So far people like it. I am very lucky that way. And it comes with free online support from the author (me!)

Alright, now take your deck (but not the "major" Arcana -- the ones with the names on the cards) and go play!

TODAY!! One-day only event!

SUNDAY! 

SUNDAY! 

SUNDAY!!

Hey! Are you tired of Guitar Center, Monster truck madness, and giant used-car tent extravaganzas having all the fun? Well we have a sale-a-bration for you!

(And it's today only)

As you may, or may not know, today is Samhain. The real Samhain. Trick or treat day was a week ago and I hope everyone got lots of candy, slutted it up (for those of you who are into that kind of debauchery), and watched scary movies. Now it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Samhain is 15 degrees Scorpio--the exact middle of Fall, or "the Fall of the Solar Year." This is when the veil between the living and the dead is said to be at its thinnest. Thus it is the perfect time to dig yourself a grave for old, nasty, worn-out, bad, unhappy habits, ex-friends, ex-'s of any kind really, old jobs, boring lives, and anything else you want to get rid of, bury, put to rest, and never hear from gain.

"I quit!"

That's what you would say if you were using the infamous "Take this ____ and shove it!" spell. You can use any words you like, but today is a great day to burn a bridge or two. there are even songs about quitting, leaving, saying "Goodbye to You!" and whatnot to help strengthen your resolve and cement the last few nails in the coffin as you kick old garbage to the curb (for the trash man to come and haul it away).

I have done this before (several times actually) and it is a grand and glorious feeling to remove yourself from rubbish, and release yourself from restrictive bonds you have outgrown. "Just do it!" Get a small container (like a coffee can or something) and make it an impromptu trash can. Start gathering clutter (and actual trash! -- nothing like a banana peel and some coffee grounds to make your point) and things that represent your undesired nuisances and toss them in as well. Get a piece of paper and write down descriptions or draw pictures of anything you don't have a physical representation of.

You can do this is you are a witch, or christian, a buddhist, voodoo, hoodoo, or any other path of belief (sorry if I didn't include yours--my fingers are tired from all of this typing). Just get rid of unwantables today, and start your new life tomorrow! It's like a mini New-Years "rebirth" but you get a head start on everyone else. You also have the flow of the energy of the world around you to push you along downstream.

Of course you can also do this tomorrow if you miss your chance today--but instead of a 100% off sale-everything-must-go extravaganza, it will be more like a "50% off event!" DON'T put this off, or you will miss out!

*Supplies limited to stock on hand, no returns-all removals final, end-consumer is responsible for discarding their own baggage, limited quantity, MSRP of items discarded varies with ejection, please be aware that once discarded possessions may not be recoverable or may be taken by someone else.

Another astrology post. New Tarot one coming soon

Hi again :-)

I am getting ready for our scorpio podcast tonight, and I was reading someone's post on how their Jupiter is here and their Uranus is there, and they included something that looked like a paragraph of generic computer read-out, and it just made me want to set a few things straight. With all due respect, assignation of individual traits to outer planets who change signs at the least every year (Jupiter) or take several years to change signs is a tricky business. You see, you have a generation of people to describe, not just one.

Let's take Jupiter for example: It takes Jupiter roughly twelve years to go around the sun--or one Jupiter year (trip around the sun) is twelve "earth trips around the sun," or 12 earth-years. So, here we are with a full year in Aries (I have Jupiter n Aries, and I think everyone should).

133 million new screaming babies enter the world every year. That's a lot of Huggies(tm)! That is 133 million new "Jupiter in Aries" brats, all with the same description above. That means that EVERY ONE OF THEM is an individualist. If you were born in (Jupiter in Aries year) you are this. That much I subscribe to, as I am a professional astrologer of many decades. However, we have to be careful how much personality weight we place on it and how much individualism. I can see how Sag's born with Jupiter in Pisces differ from me, but there is a lot more to be considered. In the case of outer planets, especially trans-Saturn, where planets stay in signs for 10, 12, even 21 years (oops! Pluto is NOT a planet), assigning characteristics to individuals means you are describing generations of people. Not everyone born with Pluto in Scorpio is dark, mysterious, sexy, powerful, and interested in the occult.

This presents a real problem. We can't--and shouldn't--ignore the location of the outer planets, but as they are more of an overall backdrop (e.g. we had a picnic in SUMMER, not we had a picnic on Tuesday at 6pm before the sun set) instead of an event or specific quality we can point to we have to see them as a trend, and their importance now becomes clear when we see how they relate to other planets by sign and house position.

Let's say my Jupiter is in Aries. Okay, woohoo--so are 133 million other people, and then another 133 million who are 12 years older than I am, another 133 million who are 12 years younger than I am, another 133 million who are 24 years older than I am, and another 133 million who are 24 years younger than I am (and so on...) The numbers are FAR worse for Saturn, and onward.

But, *my* Jupiter is squaring Mars! Ah....ha! Oh shit. Thanks "God!" dammit! This sucks! Well, my Jupiter is conjunct my midheaven (yaaay!). Okay, so I have hat going for me. Well, you take the good with the bad. My Saturn is in Aquarius (along with over 250 million other people who are 1 year older or younger than me) but it aspects----nothing. So it is not as much of an issue. It is not a stone around my neck. But, I have 4 primary planets in Capricorn (dammit!--again). Well now Saturn is super-powerful in my chart. I am a stone around my own neck. I feel like Sisyphus some days.

So, this is not for casual perusal. Otherwise we get into useless stereotypes. Astrology works, but it takes some real digging to get to the facts beyond the "sun is up-that mean's it's daytime all over the earth" mentality that is so prevalent in pop-astrology. Unfortunately there has not yet been a computer programmed with enough information to really create a valid horoscope interpretation. We can paint images in broad strokes with a fat brush, but detail eludes us. Until someone who knows all of this stuff intimately sits down and spends a few years inputting all of the variables--and it would be best done as a team project, like the pyramids--we simply cannot trust generic computer meanings and MUST rely on competent astrologers.

This is a non-Tarot specific post, but I love this FREE website/software so much I have to share the love. It's called:

http://pixlr.com/editor/

It is a free online Photoshop clone. It does not do everything PS does, but it does far more than most of us ever need to worry about, and it is free (not $1,000), available anywhere you have an internet connection--super easy to use--and perfect for quick photo edits (complex or simple).

I have had PS before, and I may break down and but a new copy again when I can afford it for my new computer (I lost it when my old computer died). But for now I am using Paint Shop Pro, which is fairly powerful, but slow and takes forever to load up.

http://pixlr.com/editor/ starts right up and you can even log-in and save your images online. At least I think so. I have signed up but not saved anything online. I am in love with this simple tool as it is easy and it works. I guess this would be "cloud computing," something I am not a huge fan of, but in this case, being as it is free, I am a big fan, and wanted to spread the love. I highly recommend you try it. It works for me--and there is no money involved at all. I make nothing off of this, and you can't either. But you can edit your photos fast and free in a "Photoshop lite" online environment.