Tarot
When you join us, you will soon discover that the Tarot is not just a deck of 78 cards; it is a real place – a place where your mind meets the mysteries and your imagination floats over the landscape of time itself, gaining insight into your past, present and future. It is into this magical place that we travel together, using the cards as our map and compass.
The tarot cards themselves originated in Italy in the late 15th century, and were used for fortune-telling as well as card games. There are now more than a thousand different decks in publication, and their popularity is growing on a daily basis.
Tarosophy
We believe that Tarot is a a wisdom tool – Tarosophy – to engage life, not escape it. We teach methods of Tarot to divine your life, and make your way better through it – understanding more along the way.
We do not teach Tarot to pass the time nor distract you from real-world issues. We are passionate but not obsessed with our Tarot, we learn and teach it deeply but are open to new opinions. We are focused but friendly, supportive but challenging.
Our aim is to restore the spiritual dignity of Tarot.
Marcus Katz
Marcus Katz is an award-winng and #1 best-selling author of books on tarot and western esotericism. He was the first student in the world to be conferred an M.A. Masters Degree in Western Esotericism (with merit) at the University of Exeter on 7th January 2008. As an academic presenter of tarot history and western esotericism, he has presented at conferences worldwide, including the Golden Dawn Conference in London (2008) and at tarot conferences in France, Italy, Singapore, across the USA and Australia. His work has been included in “Tarot in Culture” edited in two volumes by Emily Auger and the Complete Book of Cermonial Magic, published by Llewellyn Worldwide, as an acknowledged expert in the Abramelin Ritual or Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. His book with co-author Tali Goodwin on “Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot” was said by leading tarot author Barbara Moore to “change everything we thought we knew about tarot.” His ground-breakling first book “Tarosophy” was acknowledge by Rachel Pollack as a “major contribution to the tradition of tarot.”
He more recently gave presentations at the Tokyo Museum of Tarot and delivered presentations and workshops in the Phillipines TarotCon event.
He is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Association. In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of over 35 other titles, including The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Haeg Wica. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.
Marcus was initiated into Witchcraft in 1983 into a Derbyshire coven led by a Priest and Priestess who were personally taught by Patricia Crowther in the direct lineage of Gerald Gardner, the father-founder of Wicca and Witchcraft. His Book of Shadows is a hand-written copy passed down from Gerald Gardner through Patricia Crowther and his Initiators.
He went on to form his own coven and worked daily for over a decade, practicing the Sabbats, Esbats and Drawing Down the Moon, along with developing his own approach in the Alexandrian tradition. During the next twenty years he refined his teaching work and initiatory system, applying it to paganism as the Path of the Seasons. His Far Away Centre work in the Lake District of Cumbria was covered in several magazine and newspaper articles as an academic and respected speaker on Witchcraft and Wicca. His forthcoming book Haeg Wica is a grimoire of hedge witchcraft derived from the landscape, flora and fauna of the English Lake District, Cumbria.
Marcus Katz was also initiated into the Typhonian O.T.O., corresponding with Kenneth Grant, and contributed to the early development of Chaos Magick with the first ever articles on the use of computers in occultism published in Chaos International Magazine. He also contributed regularly to the Lamp of Thoth magazine and other occult magazines. He co-developed a group of magicians in the world’s first network-based magical order, the Illuminated Congregation of Melchizidek and conducted the first ever magical ritual in cyberspace, using the earliest virtual world platform in a live online ritual with a priestess in the USA.
Tali Goodwin
Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs was published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of the Tarosophy Tarot Association and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon.