11 million adults in the UK are potentially interested in the Tarot!
© Alex Sumner 2013
News today that Britons still believe in miracles, angels and ‘spiritual forces’. From a sample of 2000 people, the following numbers were crunched:
% of the population who think spiritual forces have no influence on earth: 25%
% of Christians who think such spiritual forces can influence people’s thoughts or the human or natural world: 62%
% of non-religious people who think the same: 35%
% of people who said they or someone they knew had experienced a miracle: 16% – including 8% non-religious people.
(Source…)
More interestingly though (from my point of view), the full report also says:
Nearly a quarter (23%) of people say they have had their tarot cards read, whilst 17% have had their star sign read, and 12% have had a reflexology session.
- Smaller numbers had experienced more esoteric spiritual experiences, such as having a reiki session (8%), having their aura read (6%), or healing with crystals (5%).
- Women are considerably more likely than men to undergo these experiences (51% vs. 26%).
- Interestingly, while 39% of the overall population admits to having undergone at least one of these experiences, so do 38% of the non-religious(compared to 40% of the religious). When it comes to these more obviously non-religious spiritual activities, there appears to be no difference according to whether someone is religious or not.
The United Kingdom is a nation of 63 million – including 49 million adults. Hence assuming that the sample reflects the nation as a whole, that means that 11 million adults have had or are likely to have their Tarot cards read. To those 11 million people I say: I can be contacted via this website and my rates are very reasonable. 😉
. The advantage of this spread is that it is fairly short and easy with which to get to grips, and is thus suitable for answering simple questions.
The Golden Dawn was my entry into occultism generally, and consequently the Tarot as well. Hence Robert Wang’s 
was the first deck I ever bought: it was the one on which I learnt. The trumps struck me as the most impressive, although I confess I thought the art-work was a bit ordinary. Nevertheless this is still my default deck today, the one which I most use for doing readings. I have to admit though that if I were buying a Golden Dawn deck for the first time today, I would probably get 
instead, mainly because the art-work is livelier.
Aleister Crowley’s 
).
This is not really a Tarot deck per se, more a Cartomancy deck. It is not based upon the traditional Tarot format at all: instead, each card represents a portion of the Enochian Watchtowers and the Tablet of Union. Meanwhile, the reverse of each card instead of having a uniform backing has elemental symbolism (corresponding to the Enochian associations on the obverse side) which can be used in skrying. The meanings of the individual cards take a bit of getting used to, although there is a logic to the general scheme which is based on GD teachings.
Given that the 
I decided to get hold of this after seeing a fellow Tarot reader use this. What I find most appealing is that the creators of this deck have based the artwork on Greek mythology. Hence: the suit of Cups is the story of Cupid and Psyche; Wands is the story of Jason and the Argonauts; whilst the characters in the Major Arcana are identified as Greek gods and goddesses. This is a visually appealing deck because, like the Rider Waite one, all 78 cards are fully illustrated. Also it is refreshing to see a deck which goes with an original idea for a change which comes off successfully.
Of all the Tarot decks which are available, the ones that particularly interest me are those created by Occultists – as opposed to the many which appear to be novelty decks, or created by people with only a superficial understanding of the subject. Hence my reason for being drawn to not only the Golden Dawn, but also the Crowley Thoth, Rider Waite, etc decks. I suppose it was thus inevitable that I would seek out the Builders of the Adytum, given that it was designed by not only an occultist but by an actual Tarot scholar, Paul Foster Case. The thing about the BOTA deck is that it comes uncoloured: the point being that as a student learns about the Tarot, they use their own knowledge of the esoteric associations of colour to colour it in themselves. Unfortunately I discovered that the BOTA deck is very hard to come by on Amazon – with one going for over £100.
This is something of a curiosity which came into my possession, and of which I have not made use since acquiring it. The trumps feature a lot of lurid artwork – dragons, monsters, scantily-clad buxom women, etc – which only vaguely references traditional tarot imagery. Meanwhile the accompanying booklet puts a Vama-marga Tantric spin on interpretation of the cards.
by William Lilly (1602 – 1681). Wikipedia claims that Lilly was the last major practitioner of Horary Astrology. I can asssure you that although it is not so well known as Natal Astrology there are still some of us who practice it today!
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
There Is Power In A Union
It is not often that your humble blogmaster has anything good to say about Nazi-propaganda rag, the Daily Mail. However I note today that they have run a story which basically confirms what most people have suspected for a long time, that Telephone Psychics are a con.
Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who aspires to be a reputable tarot reader, the question naturally arises – how can one ever guarantee that any psychic who offers his or her services for money is not a con?
The only possible way, in my opinion, is to institute Professional Standards across the “industry.” In other walks of life, members of a Profession all belong to a Professional Body which has the roles of guaranteeing quality, and administering discipline to members who fall short of the body’s code of conduct. There are actual bodies who do provide certification for professional psychics, thus giving members of those bodies the veneer of respectability.
However, the problem as I see it is that in order to get rid of the scammers, these organisations ought to go further than just providing certification and adopt the role of a Militant Trade Union – e.g. by actively campaigning to block disreputable psychic organisations from trading, and turning current psychic companies into “Closed Shops” so that only Psychics who have been fully accredited can be employed by them.
There is a joke that you never see a poor Lawyer, but also there is another joke that no-one has ever seen a rich Psychic! Why? The lawyer is able to maintain his high fees because he belongs to a profession with a pro-active professional body, whilst the Psychic does not!
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