Review: Rider Waite 100th Anniversary Celebration
With Guest Speaker Mary Greer & Paul Hughes Barlow
Saturday December 5th 2009,
At the Devereux, Temple, London

The decision to host this special event was not taken lightly. The concern of the date being so close to Christmas was very much in our minds. However, there was no need to worry, the event was sold out with not a seat to be had. Marking the anniversary of such an important tarot deck could not be ignored, and we are thrilled with the response and feedback. The venue was chosen to create an atmosphere of Edwardian London, the Devereux, this traditional English Pub was the perfect venue.

The lovely Mary Greer joined us from the US to be our key speaker, her talk on “Waite and the Secret Tradition” was enlightening, I am sure even the true scholars of tarot who were in attendance learnt something new. Mary talked about Arthur Edward Waite and what he called the Secret Tradition, a wisdom veiled in emblems and symbols. Mary shared examples of the hidden messages that Waite embedded into the Tarot through the symbolism of both the Major and Minor Arcana.

Mary’s talk was followed by coffee and cake made especially for the occasion donated by Diane Ebeck of the Harbour Bakery in Birchington. This was a stunning centre piece and was delicious!

Paul Hughes Barlow took the first afternoon session talking about “The Influence of the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Rider Waite Tarot” he asked the audience how many people were members of the Golden Dawn and we were pleasantly surprised when a few put their hands up, Paul’s talk also touched on symbolism and how influential this is in the Tarot, he spoke about the Thoth deck, another deck of Tarot which has been influential in the development of Tarot throughout the decades.

To complete the afternoon Mary Greer once again took the session sharing “Pamela Colman Smith’s Instructions for Reading the Cards”. This was a fascinating exercise where we choose one card, then took a journey inside the card whilst sensing different emotions and experiences through each step of the exercise. I randomly chose the Page of Cups, my partner chose the 9 Pentacles.

The evening event was great fun, some people came dressed as tarot cards and we had a competition for the winner chosen by a ‘clapometer’ i.e. the audience, (well done Marisa for pipping Caitlin and Ann to the post). The food and drink flowed and no one wanted to go home!!

This was a wonderful day and we certainly honoured the Rider Waite Tarot in true style. We have recorded the talks and will be loading these on to the site in the near future.

Illustrations from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck®, known also as the Rider Tarot and the Waite Tarot, reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright ©1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck® is a registered trademark of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

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