Renewal and Networking for the Tarot Minded, San Jose California 2013 By Christa Lore Urban In my career as a nurse, I always had to maintain a certain number of CEUs to maintain my practice. The side benefit of those conferences was always the fun and networking: Participating in discussions, shop talk, and healing each other with laughter. There are always so many great benefits, beyond just the technical training, that we derived from professional gatherings.  Whether Tarot readers and psychics need CEUs is a whole different soap box that we are not climbing on.  Do they need to refresh themselves, get their cards read, find new ways to enhance their practice, discover how some of their favorite decks are born and created?  Of course they do!  Enhance the proceedings with live entertainment, theater, and costumes – well, how can you go wrong? Take all the winning ingredients of a successful professional conference, mix in a group of Tarot people who were simply amazing in their creativity and joy, throw in the usual enticements of raffled door prizes and donations to favorite charities, add the pageantry and enthusiasm of spirit-workers all celebrating together, and you have BATS: The longest running Tarot Symposium held in the San Francisco Bay area. I was blessed to attend BATS for the first time this year. This great symposium had classes for all levels and included some other esoteric tools.  The opportunities to learn and discover were abundant.  At BATS there were so many classes — three breakout sessions offering something for everyone, novice to expert– that I was sometimes torn about which topics to attend!  Being a student of Tarot satisfies me on so many levels that even if I left the world of professional card reading, I would still be in love with the art and many things a tarot deck can do.  So I was more than thrilled with the many Tarot offerings.  On top of that, the BATS vibe was amazing.  I could tell as soon as I arrived that a spectacular group would be there. Let me admit that, in the past, I have been to groups of the psychically inclined and have sometimes encountered energy problems. Not at BATS!  Positive energy abundant everywhere and it all turned out divinely. This event was not only educational, but a renewal where experts shared their gifts of reading and healing. Here is just a taste of what happened at this three day conference: I took my first short class on palmistry. It was awesome!  Another highlight of the symposium occurred when a grand gathering of the Group Daughters of Divination created a wonderful first time meet-up for members of this “online” society.   The most fun, of course, was the Theater show:  A production of the Runaway Tarot Cards rocked the house. On the subject of Tarot, beginners and pros enjoyed learning about their favorite decks and meeting their favorite tarot deck creators.  The Big News? Artist and deck-creator Julie Cuccia-Watts premiered her new deck, Journey into Egypt. This deck and book contain amazing stories and images drawn from Egyptian history, all beautifully, carefully painted and researched by this consistent powerhouse of the Tarot world.   As you know, Julie Cuccia-Watts’ decks are so internationally revered and beloved that they were pirated last year.  Despite that, she continues her astonishing work:  Ancestral Path (now in new release), Blue Moon, a majors-only deck, her Ma At deck, and now, Journey into Egypt, all available through her website. I got my new Julia Cuccia-Watts deck at BATS and slept with it next to me, something Tarot folks do with new decks.  I can’t wait to start working with it. I also got my first look at Belline, an antique oracle from France that is still being printed today.  It gave amazing readings to a group that sat in circle as part of this great class. Gina Jean, a frequent visitor to Paris, did a lovely job explaining the uses and the power of the Belline Oracle. I can’t wait to get mine. As I mentioned previously, the Theater offering was a special treat.  This year, The Carnival of the Arcana Arts presented the story of three runaway tarot cards in “The Bad Trump Blues.” According to this tale, once upon a time a hostess asked her reader to remove the bad cards. What would happen if they didn’t return? This was a wonderful performance by the three actors.  It was laugh-till-your-sides-hurt funny and an accurate interpretation of the Tarot archetypes of these cards.  Kudos to Dan Pelletier as the Devil, Nancy Antenucci as The Tower, and Rhonda Lund as Death. Finally, before I leave the subject of BATS incredible Tarot presentations, I must mention Mark Ryan, who gave a great talk about the Bow Spread and Wildwood Tarot. He uses the bow as metaphor in readings to help move people forward. I don’t have a copy of Wildwood Tarot yet, but it is on the list. The Tarot vendors were also plentiful and diverse. Start saving and make your list for next year:  If you are a deck collector, you may find it at BATS. All in all, Thalassa and her BATS minions once again produced a winner. It’s been an incredible 22 years and she’s already planning for another. Can BATS 2014 possibly be even greater than this year’s event?  Consult your cards and be on the lookout for special super Early Bird Discounts, which Thalassa warns might be coming sooner than you think.  Watch the signs, the internet, and mark your calendar.  Come to BATS next year!  You never know what you will learn, and who you will meet.

Christa Lore Urban has been an informative and entertaining guest on CBS radio, Mixtalk and Blogtalk shows as well as Liquid Lunch Show, Streaming TV from Toronto. In 2011 she placed 5th in The International Psychic Challenge in Ukraine as seen on STB Television. She is a frequent contributor to several other Metaphysical Publications. For more information about Christa, visit her website: http://www.christaloreurban.com/ Views:

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