About this site
This website is a project in the next phase of my long journey with tarot. In particular, it is the most recent of my publishing platforms for tarot-related writings that I began in 2015 with a series on Facebook titled Journeys into Tarot. About a year after that series wrapped up, a slightly edited version became the basis of my section on tarot on Visionary Roads, my website dedicated to visionary work in general, including my work in Active Dreaming (an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork, shamanic practices, and unique methods pioneered by my teacher Robert Moss). I'm now ready to expand upon my tarot writing, as well as make my work as a tarot reader and guide more available to the public.
I have a long-time interest in tarot that began about age 11 or 12 when I was given my first deck (a Waite-Smith deck) by my parents. I was fascinated with the images–they spoke to me on a deep level even if I didn’t quite understand how or why. Like many people who first encounter tarot, I believed it to be solely about “fortune-telling” as that was the only context I had, and lacked any first-hand experience with the subject. At the time, fortune-telling for me was akin to getting a peek into one's fixed fate, a kind of "special access" to coming events.
Over the years, tarot weaved in and out of my life for short periods of time--weeks here, months there. I pondered the images and used them as a fortune-telling tool for both myself and friends. And when I lost interest, or my interest was diverted to something else, tarot would recede into the background. At this slow pace, it was only over the course of a couple of decades that I discovered some of the nuances that “divination” implied as my experience of the world deepened outside of tarot. I began to have a sense that there was something much more meaningful and profound in the ways that tarot could be approached than what I had been doing.
A renewed wave of interest hit me in 2012 and has stayed strong since, leading me down much deeper than ever before. Not only did I begin working with different approaches to tarot, but I also began researching the history of tarot along with various groups and traditions that have incorporated the use of tarot for a variety of ends beyond divination. This latest wave of interest has not yet waned. When I began my initial training with Robert Moss to teach and facilitate Active Dreaming for others, it lead me down a more personal journey to get closer to tarot. Working with deep images has always been key to a meaningful life for me, and I felt a call from tarot to connect. From that impulse, the _Journeys Into Taro_t series was born and continues to transform and unfold here.
This site goes farther than I have before in that I'm opening up my work in a much more public way, both in writing and offering readings. This site is a way for me to share my love of tarot with you, and an invitation to engage me more directly if it feels right to you--whether that comes in the form discussion about all things tarot, taking a workshop, or receiving a reading. Welcome, and may you live the best and brightest of your dreams with wisdom, compassion, and joy!
- Tim
