Denver / Longmont Tarot - Classes Forming!

Intuitive Reading Parlor & Paranormal Events Co.
Serving Denver, Longmont & Boulder, CO

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Beginning Tarot Introduction Class now forming!

 "Beginning Tarot Introduction" - Saturday Nov. 3rd 10 A.M. to NOON! 

Mr. Perez and Mr. MacKenzie lead the group through the beginning areas of the Tarot. This includes history, usage, and an introduction to both the cards and a complete system on how to begin using them. There is plenty of one on one time and practice sessions. Everyone receives a course book and study material. Either bring your own favorite deck or one can be purchased or borrowed for the class. This is a fun and educational 2 hour class at only $35 per person and is limited to eight students so that everyone receives the individual attention they deserve. Use the link below to sign up! Arcanus will contact you to confirm!

http://www.arcanusmagickus.com/Classes.html

Announcing the opening of the Arcanus Intuitive Reading Parlor & Events Co in Longmont CO!

Although we will be having the Grand Opening Party the weekend of July 27th - 29th, the parlor is ready and we are currently taking appointments! If you are in the area please set up a time to come by! (BTW - during the grand opening we will be taking walk-in business only from 9am - 5pm each of the three days).

Readings are $50 per 30 minutes for Tarot, Runes, and more.

By appointment only. Cash, Check, or Charge.

Presenting Rune Master David MacKenzie (720) 253-9050
And Tarot consultant Dennis Perez (303) 803-3210

Heres the website for all the info:

http://www.arcanusmagickus.com/

Enjoy!

Full Services Menu!

Everyone has such a great time at the fairs, but I get lots of questions about the services I provide outside of the fairs and what the pricing structure is.

So for your pleasure, here is the menu:

Email Readings - $30 

 This is a nice 3 card reading done via email. You provide your birth date and one question that you may have, and receive a nice detailed reading within 48 hours.

Phone Readings - $40 

This is a 30 minute session over the phone. This is a fairly full reading where we can answer questions and go into a good bit of detail. Phone readings are booked about a week ahead of time. Paid in advance.

Private Readings - $50/30 minutes 

Private sessions are where we can meet face to face and go into the best detail. These sessions are $50 per half hour (up to 90 minutes) at my home office in Mead, CO. I can also travel to your location (minimum 60 minute reading) in the Boulder / Longmont area, or further with a travel allowance. Usually booked about two weeks ahead of time. Paid in advance.

Girl's Night Out! 

Invite 6 - 10 of your best friends over. We will do an introduction to the Tarot for the group, and keep the focus of the evening on metaphysical discussions - or it can just be cocktail hour! Everyone will receive a nice 10 minute reading! The fee is only $25 per person for 6 to 10 friends, and the hostess/host gets a FREE reading! Three weeks advance booking. Note: This is a specific themed party. If you are holding a Birthday party, etc, please see the next item . . .

Parties / Events 

Birthday parties, Bachelorette parties, Halloween parties, you name it! Although I am a serious private reader, I understand the needs and atmosphere of a party or event, and the emphasis is always on ensuring that your guests are amazed and entertained! Make your next event something your guests will remember for a very long time! Standard event fee is $150/hr. Two hour minimum booking for events/parties. Travel allotment applies dependent upon location. Minimum 3 weeks advance booking. Deposit required.

DETAILS! 

To get all the details and find out how to book a service, just visit my website www.privatetarot.com! Always try to book as early as possible, as my calendar for private readings and events stays pretty full! I very much look forward to seeing you in the future!

Thanks!

Dennis

What IS the Tarot? . . . Part 3

So now . . . what can the Tarot do for you?

Let’s start out with what the Tarot does NOT do. This may be contrary to everything you’ve heard before, but this is NOT FORTUNE TELLING. Forget the gypsies in the wagons and the mystical bearded men in the smoky rooms. Folks have seen too many movies already. The Tarot will not tell you exactly what the future is going to be. It can tell you what the future MIGHT be, or which future is POSSIBLE, but it cannot tell you what the future WILL be. The reason for this is a simple little thing called “free will”. It is an undeniable cosmic force and there is no way to change it. Someone can tell you that on such a day in the future a certain thing will happen to you, but every decision you make between now and then can alter the likelihood of that event coming about. This is because of the ‘butterfly effect’ that rules all creation (Google that if you’re interested).

If this is not fortune telling, then what is it? Well, this is about using a powerful tool to enable confident decision making! The symbology of the Tarot touches the core of the common Human experience, and allows us to take a deep look inside ourselves. A.E.Waite (remember him?) said: “The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs”.

When we lay out the Tarot cards and begin to interpret the symbols presented, we see a conversation (or story) begin to form. The images on the cards speak to us on such subjects as relationships, money, career, health, faith, and so on. This introspection leads to intuitive awareness and focus on the future that could be. By tuning into those intuitive messages, we can clearly see the different courses of action that are available to us, and evaluate which are beneficial and which are destructive. We also get feedback on how we typically handle things, how others perceive us, and how we can change our responses to the world and people around us for the better. This clarity allows us to make the right decisions to bring about the future we need; the best future for us and our loved ones. You might want to read this paragraph again to process it properly.

You can certainly spread the cards and do your own reading, and I encourage you to do so for fun. However, understanding the Tarot and being able to pull truly valuable meaning out of the symbology on the cards can take as much study as becoming a good Astrologer. For this reason, it is always best to seek the services of a professional Tarot consultant. Try to choose a reader who has a good track record and a professional approach. Also, make sure your reader is a person that you feel comfortable working with, as you may be sharing some very private secrets over time. A Tarot reading should be a very personal conversation between you and your reader. Together you interpret what the cards have to say about past influences, current issues, and possible outcomes. If this is done by you in a truthful manner, and your tarot consultant is knowledgeable and skilled, the outcome can be truly life changing.

I encourage you to pick up a Tarot deck and have a go at the cards. Pay attention to the symbology of each card and try to figure out what it says to you. Even if you never get around to doing this, I hope that you have learned something interesting today that you can file away in your spirit!

What IS the Tarot? Part 2 . . .

Yet it wasn't until the late 1700s that Tarot cards became strongly connected to fortune telling, psychic powers, or the occult. The writings of Antoine Court de Gebelin in 1781 were hugely influential on the public image of the Tarot deck. An amateur scholar, Gebelin suggested that the pictures on the Tarot deck were related to occult Egyptian hieroglyphics. As mentioned before though, this was pure romantic history being written.

Tarot divination really gained popularity during the 19th century, spurred on by a growing interest in psychic spiritualism. Everyone was holding séances, Houdini was busy debunking the Mediums, and ghosts and fairies were everywhere. People became very interested in the Tarot, Runes, Pendulums, Ouija Boards, and everything related to metaphysics.

This is about the time that the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck was produced (created in 1909 to be exact). If you are vaguely aware of this deck, you will notice that I called it “Rider-Waite=Smith” instead of simply “Rider-Waite” as it is commonly known. The reason for this is that Pamela Smith is the lady who produced the artwork for this deck, but because of the culture of the times, only the man involved in the project, A.E. Waite, and the publisher, the Rider Card Company, were credited in the name of the deck. This is now often considered the "standard" deck in the English world. It is certainly the one that most people are familiar with, and can be purchased at any major book store or metaphysical shop, or even on Amazon!

Although the symbols in this deck are more a product of the late Victorian age than the Italian Renaissance period that they seem to reflect (much less ancient Egypt), they are still pretty close to some of the early Tarot decks, and so are considered ‘traditional’. Wherever they claim to come from, these days you can find a Tarot deck in any style or theme conceivable. There are Fairy decks, Druid decks, Alice in Wonderland decks, and of course Vampire decks for the “Twilight” fans. Any of these choices is perfectly fine, as divination with the Tarot has little to do with the origins of any given deck. It is the symbology of the deck we choose that we must learn to work with on an intuitive level.

What IS the Tarot?

What IS the Tarot?

First some history review . . . careful, you might learn something fun . . .

The Tarot's origins are perhaps as misunderstood as the mystical symbols on the cards themselves. One of the earliest decks of Tarot cards to be documented was a hand-painted set created around 1440 for the Duke of Milan. However, these cards were not used for intuitive or ‘reading’ purposes as the Tarot cards of today are. They were used for a card game similar to bridge, and as a muse to inspire and create entertaining poetry.

Lots of people through the ages have promoted the images and text on some of the early decks as having really ancient origins or gypsy ancestry. We have all seen the movies about the early gypsies traveling around in their wagons reading peoples fortunes with Tarot cards, and several ‘scholars’ even claimed to have ‘proven’ that the Tarot was developed by the priests in ancient Egypt! While these tall tales are all very nice, and some are even convincing, they are all romanticized versions of how the cards came to be in the form that we now know them. Most serious sources agree that the roots of these symbolic cards can be traced to traditional playing type cards, developed for traditional card games popular at the time.

The Tarot deck itself is actually made up of two decks, which are called Arcana’s. The “Minor” Arcana has fifty six cards that fall into four suits, and is likely the predecessor of the modern deck of cards that we are familiar with. These cards are numbered one through ten, and the reason that it has fifty six cards instead of fifty two is that each set of court cards has the usual Knight (Jack), King, and Queen, plus an additional card called the ‘Page’, who is the messenger to the court. This deck was used to play games that would be recognizable even today. The ‘Major’ Arcana is a deck of twenty two cards numbered zero through twenty one that carry images such as ‘The Fool’, ‘The Magician’, ‘The Lovers’, etc. This deck was created later and added into the larger deck to be used as trump cards in games that require that.

Now you may ask, if this was a deck of cards used for playing games, when did it turn into a deck of cards used for divination? I will explain that, but be warned, there are a few references coming up to writings and people with very long and possibly funny names, but we’ll get through it quickly!
Divination using playing cards is documented as early as 1540 in a book entitled “The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli”. Manuscripts from 1735 (The Square of Sevens) and 1750 (Pratesi Cartomancer) document simple divinatory meanings for the cards, as well as a system for laying out the cards. Giacomo Casanova wrote in his diary in 1765 that his Russian mistress frequently used a deck of playing cards for divination; but that tale has far more interest to it than what applies to just the cards!

About the Tarot Deck

Now to the meat of the matter, the Tarot deck itself. Remember, you don’t have to memorize the whole thing, just let your subconscious mind embrace it. Your readings will come from there.

As previously mentioned, the Tarot deck consists of seventy eight cards. These seventy eight cards are divided into two distinct parts, or houses, that are referred to as the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The word “arcana” itself basically means “secrets”, so we have a collection of major and minor secrets. Sounds mystical, doesn’t it?

The Major Arcana of the Tarot contains twenty two cards. Each of these cards is numbered from zero to twenty one, and represents people or ideas like “The Magician”, “The High Priestess”, “The Moon”, “Judgment”, etc. These are sometimes referred to as the “trump” cards, and are considered to be the cards in the deck that speak of the most important issues.

It should be noted that from deck to deck, while concepts of the Major Arcana will remain relatively the same, the order of some of the cards may differ. The first card in the Major Arcana, card zero, is typically The Fool, but in some decks this card is placed at the end and numbered twenty two. Likewise, the position of the two cards Strength and Justice, typically card numbers eight and eleven respectively, are reversed in some decks. Be aware of these differences but do not pay too much attention to them as again, there is no right or wrong here.

The Minor Arcana consists of the other fifty six cards in the deck, and are the cards that most closely resemble the normal decks of playing cards that everyone is familiar with. The Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits in the same manner as regular playing cards, although the names of the suits of the Tarot are not the same as those of playing cards. We will cover this in detail in the next section.

The cards within each suit are numbered one through ten (ace through ten), and then include the court cards as do playing card decks. The difference here being that the court of the Minor Arcana of the Tarot includes four cards for each suit rather than the three found in playing card decks. In a deck of playing cards you find a Jack, Queen and King; whereas in the court of a Tarot deck you find first a Knave (or Page), then a Knight (Jack), then the Queen and King. The Knave represents a younger version of the Knight, perhaps an apprentice. You will see how they fit in as you work through your own deck.

Handling Your Tarot Deck

Now that you have a deck of Tarot cards, let us take a moment or two for a brief word about handling them. Remember that your Tarot deck is about energy, and more importantly, about positive energy. It should not be tossed about like a deck of regular playing cards, but should be treated with much more respect and care.

Many readers like to keep their cards not in the case they came in, but rather wrapped in a silk cloth or something similar. Thus wrapped, the cards and cloth can then be stored in either a nice velveteen bag or perhaps an ornate wooden box that is just the right size. You may have things like this around your house already. These may be gifts from family members, or family heirlooms, or if needed you can easily find such items at metaphysical stores or online shops. Storing your cards in this manner shows them respect, and goes a long way towards helping them hold on to any positive energy that you and your sitters put into them.

When you and you sitter are working with the cards, do not handle them like regular playing cards. This is why we use the term ‘mixing’ the cards, rather than ‘shuffling’ the cards. The cards should be gently mixed, not shuffled and cut as if we were preparing for a hand of poker. It is also traditional to lay a cloth upon the table and lay your card spread upon the cloth, rather than upon the bare table.
When you bring your cards out for your sitter, do so as if they are something special. When you are finished, put them away immediately so that they may rest.

Treat your cards with the care and respect they deserve and they will in turn serve you well and deliver positive energy for years to come. Have fun together!

Choosing a Tarot Deck . . .part 3

I personally mostly use a deck based on what is sometimes called the “Medieval Tarot”. It was illustrated by Guido Zibordi and is published by Lo Scarabeo. The deck itself has what is referred to as an “Italian theme” that depicts scenes from a time gone by. I chose this deck to use for no other reason than the fact that the symbols in the deck speak to me. If you are interested, you can find such a deck fairly easily online or at most major book stores.

Whichever deck you end up using as time goes by is an individual choice that reflects your personality and how you relate to the Tarot. You can use more than one deck, and you can change decks as the mood strikes you. At some point you may have different decks for different types of readings. I have a very special antique deck that I use for answering very special and specific questions.

One important note here:

With so many different kinds of decks available, obviously the symbology on the various decks is going to be quite different from one to the other. That is why we discussed the fact that there is no ‘set’ meaning for individual cards. There are general guidelines, but the true meaning of the cards comes from how the symbology specific to the Tarot deck you use speaks to your imagination, and how your intuitive mind interprets that symbology and translates it into words that you can relate to your sitter. So spend some time shopping the decks available and find one that moves you, then make it yours!