I would love to be part of a virtual Tarot group! Weekends would be best, probably late morning or early afternoon, and I could commit to monthly. I think the purpose and scope of the group would arise out of who shows up! A mixture of discussion and process would keep things interesting. Please keep me posted!
Yep. And Lord knows that I can't do early over here in Seattle. I need lots of coffee and time to wake up every morning, particularly weekend mornings! 🤠
Thank you! How best to choose the specific themes? Should the following meeting's theme be chosen by consensus at the end of the current meeting, or should there be some sort of rotation of members whereby one person selects the theme each month?
I like that six months ahead idea. That would give everyone a great deal of time to contemplate the topic. Thank you! What do you think about moderating the discussion? Hands off, or should it be guided?
I think that guided or moderated discussion could be more structured, and at the same time more dynamic. Or something like a mastermind or round format. 😊
Thank you! Do you have any preference regarding formality or informality? I guess by that I'm wondering do you think it would be better if the group was more guided through the discussions or more free flowing?
Thank you. I agree, a sense of friendliness would be really important. I think that tone would need to be set from the very start, keep things from getting off on the wrong foot.
Do you think that your ideal meeting like this would have a set length, or would you leave that open ended?
Thank you! I do like the combination idea, but one question I've always had. Some people like to talk a lot, and some people want to talk but are shy. How do we make space for both on a virtual platform? In other words, how do we get the first group to yield the floor so that the quieter people have an equal opportunity to participate and don't feel as if they are being run over?
I would be interested in such a group. I think the first distinction would have to be "do I want this to be newbie friendly?", while casting back in time too when you knew nothing whatsover about Tarot. Which is, admittedly hard to do, but it's really common to overlook this and leave the newbies swamped & frustrated, at which point they leave. Which may be okay, if the goal is to focus on those with a certain baseline of knowledge.
Now, on to your questions....
I like Zoom, it's a fairly ubiquitous platform now. I would suggest either weekly or monthly meetings. It seems that repeating things on other schedules get forgotten. I think weekends is best, daytime or evenings would make no difference to me personally, but I think weekend afternoons would probably have the best draw. I'd shoot for 90 minutes, long enough that people don't feel constrained from participating, but short enough that they feel they can stay for the whole thing. Whisk(e)y. The answer is always Whisk(e)y. I would tend towards the "education"/"informative" side, but that's because I know virtually nothing about the topic. The other approaches might work better for a community of more than me. :-)
Thanks! You hit on the dilemma that seems to impact almost all authors to Tarot Books. I love books on Tarot, and I read a lot of them, old ones and new ones. The trouble with that is the majority of them seem to devote large percentages of the pages to taking a new person through all of the newbie stuff. So I end up buying a book, and it seems like half of the content of it is just restatements of the same stuff that has been written a thousand times before.
But... New folks do need all that basic information.
Reading your comment, I wonder. Maybe it is actually two groups? The regular group, and a beginners group that gets people up to speed and feeds the regular group?
Or would people see that as getting seated at the Kids Table and want to avoid that?
Speaking as one of the guys who would be at the Kids Table, I would actually like that structure. I think a big barrier to entry to lots of people, including me sometimes, is wanting to avoid looking like a newbie, despite being a newbie.
Making stuff up, but I could see see a newbie group, with maybe an 8-10 meeting rotating agenda.
I have a monthly priestess group ritual, and we take turns hosting with a variety of themes, content, ect. It works out really well. sometime we all contribute a part.
Bi weekly or monthly? What about a combination of discussion, practice readings, and teaching techniques - like sharing how we work with the cards. It sounds awesome to me.
Cameron, our zoom a while back was amazing, and if we took what we did and added some structure to it, I'm down.
Oh! almost forgot! I used to host a tea and tarot at my house pre-pandemic. also intuitive art on a theme. I love the tea (or bev of choice) and tarot idea.
I agree, our talk on Zoom was great! Even if we never actually got around to pulling any cards! 😎
I am a part of a group here that meets in one of the member's home. It is great fun. Wine and desert seems the order of the day there. It's good to have that sense of community, and I guess that's sort of what I'm thinking here, community over a virtual platform.
How long would your ideal meeting like this be? An hour, 90 minutes, 2 hours? Something else?
I've long believed (having sat through about a bazillion of them through the years) that meetings longer than 90 minutes are more than what people want. But then I see all these really, really long podcasts on Youtube that are really popular!
But the podcasts are largely "passive" and are always time-shifted. I often listen to longer podcasts, but like my audio books, I feel no compunction about pausing the speaker in mid-word until the next sunny day.
Oh that's tricky. I think Saturday would be better as Sundays can be a popular day for downtime/family time/no devices. But for me, personally, I can do either.
I have not read the other comments so I may repeat some here. 1. Virtual on Zoom seems the best, maybe once a year a face to face day. 2. A minimum of once of month, twice being better. 3. Weekend or weekday, but after 1 PM. Evenings reduces the number due to family events. 4. One hour minimum. 4. Start with basic Tarot education. 5. Use a round table discussion but don't push every attendee to have to speak. 6. Only focus on Tarot, history, cards, application, decks, etc. 7. At times be practical with hands on practice. 8. Maybe start with a book club format where we all read one chapter at the same time and then meet to discuss the chapter. 9. Have a practice session to apply the learning. 10. Once a year have a face to face gathering of those available in a central location. This would allow for "expert" presentations, book reviews, actual readings, may vendors, workshops, etc.
I really like the once a year in person gathering idea. It would be a good deal of work, particularly advance work, but it would certainly be a solid way to build cohesiveness in the group, and a heck of a lot of fun!
Speaking from personal experience I don't think tarot over a digital medium is any kind of good idea. The Person for whom the cards are being read needs to be present. Otherwise all sort of ick can happen. They will be inaccurate and will reflect the practitioners spirit wellbeing more than the person on the other end. Just MY 2cents....
This is an interesting perspective to me. I'd appreciate hearing more about your bad experiences with this if you are willing to share? Particularly as I believe that readings over virtual platforms are growing exponentially now.
I was looking to build one through the app FYI where I share my lectures and workshops that I do through the Philosophical Research Society. We’ve talked about how we might be able to launch one through PRS so if that might be of interest happy to discuss!
Thank you for this. It's gratifying to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that something like this could be great. I presume that the discussion facilitator/moderator would be of great importance. Done skillfully that work could keep the group interesting and fun, but done poorly, probably not so much.
Agreed! Perhaps it could be a rotating roster so the responsibility isn’t so heavy on one person’s shoulders. Happy to discuss offline if it’s of interest and perhaps with some commitments we could even present it to PRS and them help promote as well as infrastructure.
Rotating responsibility seems like a superb idea to me. In addition to lightening the load, that would probably help to keep things interesting as well.
Thank you for the kind offer of assistance. I would be extremely pleased to discuss it offline. Do you use the direct chat feature here on Substack?
I would love to be part of a virtual Tarot group! Weekends would be best, probably late morning or early afternoon, and I could commit to monthly. I think the purpose and scope of the group would arise out of who shows up! A mixture of discussion and process would keep things interesting. Please keep me posted!
Thank you for this. I really appreciate the feedback! Monthly on the weekends seems agreed to by most of the comments here. Saturday or Sunday?
Sundays would work best for me.
I think best for me too, but I wonder how many others have family obligations that would prevent attendance?
I’ll be curious to see what days and times others suggest. I really want this to happen!
I just want to point out that late morning eastern time winds up being early pacific time, so not great.
Yep. And Lord knows that I can't do early over here in Seattle. I need lots of coffee and time to wake up every morning, particularly weekend mornings! 🤠
Hummmm lots of questions. My preferences would be monthly on weekends, with specific themes, like a work group or mastermind , and focus on research 😊
Keep me posted too, please .
Thank you! How best to choose the specific themes? Should the following meeting's theme be chosen by consensus at the end of the current meeting, or should there be some sort of rotation of members whereby one person selects the theme each month?
What about a calendar for 6 months ahead (for example) by consensus?
I like that six months ahead idea. That would give everyone a great deal of time to contemplate the topic. Thank you! What do you think about moderating the discussion? Hands off, or should it be guided?
I think that guided or moderated discussion could be more structured, and at the same time more dynamic. Or something like a mastermind or round format. 😊
That makes sense to me as well. It would help keep some people from dominating the conversation, and make space for everyone to contribute.
That would be wonderful! I totally agree with Margaret here!
Thank you! Do you have any preference regarding formality or informality? I guess by that I'm wondering do you think it would be better if the group was more guided through the discussions or more free flowing?
I'd enjoy the free flowing, discussion based, friendly space.
Thank you. I agree, a sense of friendliness would be really important. I think that tone would need to be set from the very start, keep things from getting off on the wrong foot.
Do you think that your ideal meeting like this would have a set length, or would you leave that open ended?
It depends on the initial subject or timing of the guests)
That makes sense.
I agree with Margaret and Helena. A combination of practice and discussion as well as research.
Thank you! I do like the combination idea, but one question I've always had. Some people like to talk a lot, and some people want to talk but are shy. How do we make space for both on a virtual platform? In other words, how do we get the first group to yield the floor so that the quieter people have an equal opportunity to participate and don't feel as if they are being run over?
Usually the moderator has to intentionally rotate the discussion and ask the quieter ones - what do you think?
Yeah, I think you are right.
I would be interested in such a group. I think the first distinction would have to be "do I want this to be newbie friendly?", while casting back in time too when you knew nothing whatsover about Tarot. Which is, admittedly hard to do, but it's really common to overlook this and leave the newbies swamped & frustrated, at which point they leave. Which may be okay, if the goal is to focus on those with a certain baseline of knowledge.
Now, on to your questions....
I like Zoom, it's a fairly ubiquitous platform now. I would suggest either weekly or monthly meetings. It seems that repeating things on other schedules get forgotten. I think weekends is best, daytime or evenings would make no difference to me personally, but I think weekend afternoons would probably have the best draw. I'd shoot for 90 minutes, long enough that people don't feel constrained from participating, but short enough that they feel they can stay for the whole thing. Whisk(e)y. The answer is always Whisk(e)y. I would tend towards the "education"/"informative" side, but that's because I know virtually nothing about the topic. The other approaches might work better for a community of more than me. :-)
I think Vegas Rules are always in style.
Thanks! You hit on the dilemma that seems to impact almost all authors to Tarot Books. I love books on Tarot, and I read a lot of them, old ones and new ones. The trouble with that is the majority of them seem to devote large percentages of the pages to taking a new person through all of the newbie stuff. So I end up buying a book, and it seems like half of the content of it is just restatements of the same stuff that has been written a thousand times before.
But... New folks do need all that basic information.
Reading your comment, I wonder. Maybe it is actually two groups? The regular group, and a beginners group that gets people up to speed and feeds the regular group?
Or would people see that as getting seated at the Kids Table and want to avoid that?
Yeah, I like Vegas Rules too.
Speaking as one of the guys who would be at the Kids Table, I would actually like that structure. I think a big barrier to entry to lots of people, including me sometimes, is wanting to avoid looking like a newbie, despite being a newbie.
Making stuff up, but I could see see a newbie group, with maybe an 8-10 meeting rotating agenda.
1. Intro to Tarot
2. Major vs Minor
3. Inversions
4. Standard tableaus
5. The secret teachings of all ages
6. History of Tarot
7. Importance of context in readings
8. Quick Readings v Detailed readings
9. Asking good questions
10. Etc.
>>>I think a big barrier to entry to lots of people, including me sometimes, is >>>wanting to avoid looking like a newbie, despite being a newbie.
This makes a great deal of sense to me, I am the exact same way!
I have a monthly priestess group ritual, and we take turns hosting with a variety of themes, content, ect. It works out really well. sometime we all contribute a part.
Bi weekly or monthly? What about a combination of discussion, practice readings, and teaching techniques - like sharing how we work with the cards. It sounds awesome to me.
Cameron, our zoom a while back was amazing, and if we took what we did and added some structure to it, I'm down.
Oh! almost forgot! I used to host a tea and tarot at my house pre-pandemic. also intuitive art on a theme. I love the tea (or bev of choice) and tarot idea.
I agree, our talk on Zoom was great! Even if we never actually got around to pulling any cards! 😎
I am a part of a group here that meets in one of the member's home. It is great fun. Wine and desert seems the order of the day there. It's good to have that sense of community, and I guess that's sort of what I'm thinking here, community over a virtual platform.
How long would your ideal meeting like this be? An hour, 90 minutes, 2 hours? Something else?
an hour? if there is a larger crowd, 90 min? Everyone has thier own time contraints, so maybe a group vote.
I've long believed (having sat through about a bazillion of them through the years) that meetings longer than 90 minutes are more than what people want. But then I see all these really, really long podcasts on Youtube that are really popular!
But the podcasts are largely "passive" and are always time-shifted. I often listen to longer podcasts, but like my audio books, I feel no compunction about pausing the speaker in mid-word until the next sunny day.
Your point is well taken. I do the same.
I would also be interested in this group, if it could be timed to allow me to attend from Wales!
Thank you! Time zones are a killer, but there should be a window that would work on both sides of the Atlantic.
If it were a weekend gathering, do you think Saturday or Sunday would be better?
Oh that's tricky. I think Saturday would be better as Sundays can be a popular day for downtime/family time/no devices. But for me, personally, I can do either.
Thank you. I know that no day would work for everyone, but I hope that a day could be found that would work for most.
I have not read the other comments so I may repeat some here. 1. Virtual on Zoom seems the best, maybe once a year a face to face day. 2. A minimum of once of month, twice being better. 3. Weekend or weekday, but after 1 PM. Evenings reduces the number due to family events. 4. One hour minimum. 4. Start with basic Tarot education. 5. Use a round table discussion but don't push every attendee to have to speak. 6. Only focus on Tarot, history, cards, application, decks, etc. 7. At times be practical with hands on practice. 8. Maybe start with a book club format where we all read one chapter at the same time and then meet to discuss the chapter. 9. Have a practice session to apply the learning. 10. Once a year have a face to face gathering of those available in a central location. This would allow for "expert" presentations, book reviews, actual readings, may vendors, workshops, etc.
I really like the once a year in person gathering idea. It would be a good deal of work, particularly advance work, but it would certainly be a solid way to build cohesiveness in the group, and a heck of a lot of fun!
Than you for sharing this detailed feedback!
Speaking from personal experience I don't think tarot over a digital medium is any kind of good idea. The Person for whom the cards are being read needs to be present. Otherwise all sort of ick can happen. They will be inaccurate and will reflect the practitioners spirit wellbeing more than the person on the other end. Just MY 2cents....
This is an interesting perspective to me. I'd appreciate hearing more about your bad experiences with this if you are willing to share? Particularly as I believe that readings over virtual platforms are growing exponentially now.
Tequila and Tarot. No one will remember what happened so nothing leaves the chat. Guaranteed confidentiality.
Tequila and Tarot! I like it! Two great loves coming together!
Right? Perfect combo.
Yep!
I was looking to build one through the app FYI where I share my lectures and workshops that I do through the Philosophical Research Society. We’ve talked about how we might be able to launch one through PRS so if that might be of interest happy to discuss!
Thank you for this. It's gratifying to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that something like this could be great. I presume that the discussion facilitator/moderator would be of great importance. Done skillfully that work could keep the group interesting and fun, but done poorly, probably not so much.
Agreed! Perhaps it could be a rotating roster so the responsibility isn’t so heavy on one person’s shoulders. Happy to discuss offline if it’s of interest and perhaps with some commitments we could even present it to PRS and them help promote as well as infrastructure.
Rotating responsibility seems like a superb idea to me. In addition to lightening the load, that would probably help to keep things interesting as well.
Thank you for the kind offer of assistance. I would be extremely pleased to discuss it offline. Do you use the direct chat feature here on Substack?
Sounds good and yes I do! Feel free to ping me here.