Tarot Diva Read online

  About the Author

  Sasha Graham teaches tarot classes and produces tarot events at

  New York City’s premier cultural institutions, including the

  Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has appeared on film, television. and radio, and in the Wall Street. Journal. She resides in New York City.

  Visit her online at http://www.sashagraham.com.

  i

  Diva

  Sasha Graham

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  Ignite Your Intuition Glamourize Your Life Unleash Your Fabulousity!

  Copyright Information

  Tarot Diva: Ignite Your Intuition, Glamourize Your Life, Unleash

  Your Fabulousity! © 2011 by Sasha Graham.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced. transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

  Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

  First e-book edition © 2012

  E-book ISBN: 9780738729077

  Book design by Rebecca Zins

  Cover design by Ellen Lawson

  Cover image by Image Source/PunchStock

  Card illustrations from Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt, Gilded

  Tarot by Ciro Marchetti, Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot by Chic and

  Tabatha Cicero, Legacy of the Divine Tarot by Ciro Marchetti,

  Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson. Mystic Faerie Tarot

  by Linda Ravenscroft. Robin Wood Tarot by Robin Wood, Rumi

  Tarot by Nigel Jackson, Sacred Circle Tarot by Anna Franklin,

  Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, and Shining

  Tribe Tarot by Rachel Pollack are reproduced by permission of

  Llewellyn Publications. Card illustrations from the Egyptian

  Tarot, Sola-Busca Tarot, Universal Tarot by Robert de Angelis,

  Tarot of Marseilles, and Visconti Tarot are reproduced by permission of Lo Scarabeo. Further reproduction is prohibited.

  Rider Tarot card illustrations are based on those contained in

  The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite, published by William Rider & Son Ltd., London, 1911.

  Tree of Life illustration on page 187 by Llewellyn Art Department.

  Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide

  Ltd.

  Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have

  any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

  Any Internet references contained in this work are current at

  publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

  Llewellyn Publications

  Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

  2143 Wooddale Drive

  Woodbury, MN 55125

  www.llewellyn.com

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  For Isabella ...

  It is choice, not chance, that determines your destiny.

  Jean Nidetch

  Note to Reader

  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

  Miss Piggy

  Embarking upon the path of becoming a tarot diva is exciting

  and profound. You will be asked to venture deep within yourself to seek your intuition, wisdom, and inner grace. No part of this book is meant to replace a licensed physician, therapist, or

  professional counselor.

  The author and publisher assume no responsibility for consequences that result from the use of this book, including but not limited to last-minute trips to Paris, bodacious behavior, pestering paparazzi, and an urge to profess self-love each and every day.

  Table of Contents

  List o f Cards

  Foreword

  Acknowledgments

  The word diva to me means doing something supernatural

  with something natural.

  Patti LuPone

  How to Use Tarot Diva

  Welcome to a Diva's Chamber

  The Tarot Test

  Diva Power Questions

  Tarot Intuition

  Choosing Your Deck

  Creating Sacred Space

  Tarot Charms

  Tarot's Mysterious Past

  Super Sexy Tarot Divas

  What Is an Archetype?

  Know Your Majors and Minors

  Time to Suit Up

  Divalicious Definitions

  Kitchen Tarot

  Major Stvlista

  Understanding Court Card Energy

  The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up

  on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

  Anna Quindlen

  Suit o f Pentacles

  Suit o f Cups

  Suit o f Swords

  Suit o f Wands

  Funtastic Divinations & Readings

  A Little Black Book o f Shadows

  A Final Word

  A Diva Dictionary

  A Diva Bibliography

  List of Cards

  The cards reproduced in this book are from the following

  decks;

  •

  Egyptian Tarot (Lo Scarabeo)

  •

  Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt

  •

  Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti

  •

  Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot by

  Chic and Tabatha Cicero

  •

  Legacy of the Divine Tarot by Ciro Marchetti

  •

  Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson

  •

  Mystic Faerie Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft

  •

  Rider Tarot

  •

  Robin Wood Tarot by Robin Wood

  •

  Rumi Tarot by Nigel Jackson

  •

  Sacred Circle Tarot by Anna Franklin

  •

  Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

  •

  Shining Tribe Tarot by Rachel Pollack

  •

  Sola Busca Tarot (Lo Scarabeo)

  •

  Universal Tarot by Robert de Angelis

  (Lo Scarabeo)

  •

  Tarot of Marseilles (Lo Scarabeo)

  •

  Visconti Tarot (Lo Scarabeo)

  We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

  Anais Nin

  LIST O F CARDS BY PACE

  y. Priestess/Rumi

  7 Star/Legacy of the Divine, Shadowscapes, Visconti

  .9; Empress, Magician, and Devil/Universal

  11: Hermit/Llewellyn

  17: Ace of Wands/Legacy of the Divine

  21: Anfore Regina/Sola Busca

  24; High Priestess/Universal

  27: Fool/Legacy of the Divine

  37: Fool/Shadowscapes

  4.5; Hierophant/Tarot of Marseilles

  57: Lovers/Visconti

  6 0 : 3 of Pentacles, 10 of Swords/Universal

  6.3: Queen o f Wands/Legacy of the Divine
r />   6 6 : Lovers/Shining Tribe, Golden Dawn, Shadowscapes

  69: Moon/Universal

  71: Fool, Magician. High Priestess, Empress, and

  Emperor/Universal

  73: Emperor/Shadowscapes

  77: Knight of Pentacles/Gilded

  85: High Priestess/Legacy of the Divine

  97: Fool/Fairy Tale

  103: Magician/Tarot of Marseilles

  111: Hierophant/Gilded

  114: Lovers/Mystic Faerie

  12 1: Wheel of Fortune/Llewellyn

  122: Wheel/Legacy of the Divine

  124: Justice/Universal

  126 : Hanged Man/Shadowscapes

  128: Death/Mystic Faerie

  130: Temperance/Visconti

  132: Devil/Legacy of the Divine

  134; Tower/Fairy7 Tale

  j.36: Star/Gilded

  1,38: Moon/Rumi

  UfV. Sun/Mystic Faerie

  143: Judgement/Mystic Faerie

  14.5: World/Rumi, World/Robin Wood

  147.: Knight of Cups/Gilded

  Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself.

  Rita Mae Brown

  150: Page of Pentacles/Robin Wood, Page of

  Cups/Shadowscapes

  153: Page (Princess) o f Wands/Golden Dawn Ritual, Page of

  Swords/Legacy of the Divine

  155: Knight (Prince) of Pentacles/Golden Dawn Ritual, Knight

  of Cups/Shadowscapes

  157: Knight of Wands/Legacy of the Divine, Knight of

  Swords/Gilded

  1.58: Queen of Pentacles/Robin Wood, Queen of Cups/Visconti

  16 1: Queen of Wands/Mystic Faerie. Queen of Swords/Robin

  Wood

  iGv. King of Pentacles/Robin Wood, King of Cups/Visconti

  16.5: King of Wands/Mystic Faerie. King of Swords/Robin

  Wood

  167: Ace of Pentacles/Universal

  169; 2 of Pentacles/Robin Wood

  i7_o; 3 of Pentacles/Shadowscapes

  17.3: 4 of Pentacles/Gilded, Shadowscapes, Robin Wood

  17.5: 5 of Pentacles/Rider

  178: 6 of Pentacles (Coins)/Legacy of the Divine

  18 1: 7 of Pentacles/ Rumi, Rider

  183: 8 of Pentacles/Gilded

  185: 9 of Pentacles (Coins)/Legacv of the Divine

  18 6 : 10 of Pentacles/Universal

  189: Ace of Cups/Universal

  192: 2 of Cups/Shadowscapes, Legacy of the Divine. Robin

  Wood

  I.9.7: 3 ° f Cups/Robin Wood

  19.9: 4 of Cups/Universal

  200: 5 of Cups/Universal

  203: The Sun/Sacred Circle

  204: 6 of Cups/Shadowscapes, Universal

  207: 7 of Cups/Universal

  209: 8 of Cups/Robin Wood

  2 10 : 9 of Cups/Rider

  2 11: 10 of Cups/Robin Wood

  213: Ace of Swords/Universal

  216: 2 of Swords/Robin Wood

  219: 3 of Swords/Gilded

  220; 4 of Swords/Universal

  223: 5 of Swords/Robin Wood

  225: 6 of Swords/Rider

  227: 7 of Swords/Gilded, Robin Wood

  228: 8 of Swords/Rider, Legacy of the Divine, Shadowscapes

  231.: 8 of Swords/Gilded

  23.3: 9 ° f Swords/Mystic Faerie, Robin Wood

  234; 10 of Swords/Legacy of the Divine

  2.37: Ace of Wands/Universal

  240: 2 of Wands/Universal, 3 of Wands/Robin Wood

  Let's face it: I want it all—just like you and everybody else. It

  may not be in the cards, but the prospect is so dazzling that I

  have to try.

  Lauren Bacall

  24.2: 4 of Wands (center) and Star (top right, going clockwise),

  Magician, Wheel of Fortune, and Empress/Universal

  24.6: 5 o f Wands/Robin Wood

  247: 6 o f Wands/Gilded

  24,9: 7 of Wands/Robin Wood

  252: 8 o f Wands/Legacy of the Divine

  253: 9 of Wands/Rider

  255: 10 of Wands/Robin Wood

  257: Chariot/Fairy Tale

  271: Moon/Fairy Tale

  272: 2 of Cups and 2 o f Swords/Rider

  276: 7 of Cups/Rider

  277: 10 of Cups/Rider

  279; Fool/Rider

  280: Hermit/Rider

  281: Tower/Rider

  282: World/Rider

  285; Queen of Cups/Rider

  287: Chariot/Gilded

  288: Shining Woman (The World)/ Shining Tribe

  [contents]

  Foreword

  Now and then, people interview me for a magazine or radio

  show and at some point, usually at the end, they almost always

  ask. “What will happen next with tarot?” or “Where is tarot

  going?” It’s probably the effect of a new century, or maybe it’s

  the excitement of the flood of apps, tweets, and “friends” that

  suggest everything is different now in the new millennium, so

  tarot should be as well.

  Now, you would think that as a tarot reader and sometime science fiction writer, I would be well set to predict the future. But the fact is that aside from asking the cards themselves, I really

  have little idea of what will happen with tarot. Predictions are always based on right now, which is why readings are more like a mirror than a newspaper of the future (albeit a mirror that can

  show what is under the surface). Over a decade ago, when we

  were all worried that Y2K computer implosions would doom

  civilization, who could have predicted that politicians would

  spend their days tweeting their fans?

  But if we cannot say just what will happen to tarot, we can, in

  fact, say what it needs. And what tarot needs—right now, at the

  start of the second decade of the twenty-first century—is Sasha

  Graham.

  Okay, let’s put that a little more broadly. It’s time for tarot to

  open up, to find a new audience, and especially to become part

  of the larger society without losing its long tr adition as a tool for

  self- knowledge and a program of spiritual transformation.

  Tarot Diva and its author bring tarot into our world now,

  showing us how to weave the cards through our lives so that

  tarot becomes almost a part of our DNA. This book covers

  everything— the meaning of the cards but also intuition, intimacy, art, clothing, romance, family, food—life itself We learn how to use tarot for everyday spells geared to particular cards,

  and we learn to identify our own styles through consideration of

  the tarot archetypes. This delightful book even gives us recipes

  to make tarot part of our diet—in a sense, to literally take the

  cards into our bodies.

  Sasha is always practical. After giving us a capsule history of

  the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the famous “secret

  society” that defined tarot for the last century (with an interesting argument that links the Golden Dawn to Modernism), Sasha suggests we start our own secret society. What a wonderful idea.

  Tarot Diva brings tarot into the present... by embracing the

  image of our times, the diva.

  Rachel Pollack

  Tarot became popular in the 1960s and fyos (half a century

  ago!) because it seemed to match the hippie spirit of those

  times, just as another half-century earlier, the mysteries of the

  cards were taken up by the poet T. S. Eliot and the surrealists.

  More recently, however, tarot seems to have become the domain of specialized groups. Its image today is part “gypsy” fortuneteller, part hippie, part witch, and part mysterious psychic.

  Tarot Diva brings tarot into the present, into the age of Lady

  Gaga (and whoever will come after her), by embracin
g the

  image of our times, the diva. We can use the cards to live large,

  to speak and act with all our energy and love. Tarot is, in fact, a

  great tool for such a life, because its great variety of images allows each of us to see our own way. The book does not simply take a diva slant to tarot or graft an attitude onto existent knowledge and approaches. More exciting, it shows us, in very real and practical ways, how we can use tarot to open up who we are.

  In the nineteenth century, tarot became viewed as the secret

  path of great mages removed from the world. No doubt most of

  the great occultists would consider the diva approach a kind of

  indulgence. But in a way, Tarot- Diva is a fresh version of the

  nineteenth-century7 concept, from Paul Christian, that tarot

  forms a course of spiritual magic, a training system to transform our lives and consciousness. Sasha Graham also wants us to rise to our highest level, the most we can be. She just recognizes that this power should be there in our daily lives. How else can the cards bring us to “massive internal growth, revealing the directions our hearts want us to follow”?

  RACHEL POLLACK

  [contents]

  Acknowledgments

  This book is a result of intense love and support from my

  friends and family. Allow me to take a moment to thank the

  souls upon whose shoulders I rested this laptop: Mia Borrelli

  and Holly Buzeck for holding me accountable; Susan

  Weinthaler for barging in with a printer; Karl Giant, whose talent leaves me breathless; Laurie Knoop, goddess of food and fine taste, for help with the recipes; Sindi Bauer, the fashionista

  of Madison Avenue, for martini advice on fashion archetypes;

  Jim Steward, my ambassador of punctuation; Lisa Finander for

  telling me I am a writer; Corrine Kenner, who sensibly suggested I write an outline; Barbara Moore, heaven-sent author’s guardian angel and acquisitions editor at Llewellyn; and Ruth

  Ann and Wald Amberstone for profound Monday evening tarot

  teachings and without whose tutelage Tarot Diva would not

  have been possible.

  YOU O N L Y LIVE O N C E , BU T IF YOU DO IT R I G H T ,

  O N C E IS E N O U G H .

  Mae West

  Warren Etheredge for challenge, guidance, and reaching for

  corners you could not see but felt from so many miles away—

  and for writing my favorite book fifteen years before our paths

  were to cross. My grandmother Mimi, essence of woman, who