I’ve been attending the annual Tarot School’s Reader’s Studio for five years and I’ve always come back with amazing stories, new friends and excellent tarot lessons. And this year was going to be a biggie for me: I was going to be a main stage presenter!
I was happier than a hippo in a mud bath when Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone asked me to present. Of course, I said yes right away, but then began that tricky inner dialogue that everyone faces when they are offered a big opportunity:
Me? Could I do this? What might I have to offer?
After the initial excitement and anxiety wore off, it was time to get to work. I immediately began crafting my presentation: How To Read Tarot Under Any Circumstance. If there was one thing that I am good at it, it was reading under pressure. I have been in the tarot trenches as a full time reader for almost twenty-five years and have probably read under more extreme situations than anyone I ever met. Sharing my yogic grounding techniques sounded like the most useful thing that I could bring to the Reader’s Studio audience.
I wondered if people would even want to to know this stuff. What if they wanted yet one more technique for pulling a significator instead of this sort of grounding jazz?
I knew my subject might have risks but I felt the information was essential. So I went ahead and trusted that the Universe would be on my side. Little did I know that it would be in a way I didn’t plan (the best laid plans of mice and men, yada yada yada…).
I got my presentation together (including hand drawn slides!), practiced my ass off, and headed to the Reader’s Studio with excitement and boatload of nerves. Time to get it on and not look back.
I hit New York a day early so that I would have time to play in the city. After I dropped my stuff off in my room, I caught the subway into Manhattan. Turns out there was work happening on the subway, so I had to navigate around that mess and deal with a whole lot more waiting than usual. No biggie. I’m chill like that. (Yoga, yo.)
Tuesday was spent stomping around my old haunts and doing a little shopping and loads of walking. After putting on over 10,000 steps (Fitbit One Wireless Activity Plus Sleep Tracker, Black
I cabbed back to the hotel so that I could get up early for Wednesday’s adventures, culinary and otherwise. My original plan was to see one of my best friends in the world, Simone, but that got derailed due to her work (next year, shug!) so I took a spontaneous offer to embark on another mission: to meet Damon Stang (aka revertstar) in person – in Brooklyn! I have never spent much time in that hood so this was going to be different than my usual routine.
Damon and I met at Catland books, a cool metaphysical shop in Bushwick. I’ve always loved connecting with him online but in-person he’s even more magical! Damon is sincere, funny as hell, and full of charisma. It was instant Gemini-twin bonding time (we share the same birthdate) as we hunkered down over healthy food and conversations about business and tarot. After a lovely afternoon, we hugged and said our goodbyes and then it was time to get back to Queens for the bus tour into the city with my fellow tarot readers!
Each year, the Amberstones pick a different location and charter a bus to take a group of Reader’s Studio attendees into the city for a little pre-conference fun. I always take the bus tour because it’s a fun way to hang with my peers – and explore areas of the city that I may not be acquainted with. Last year, I was in charge of getting everyone on and off the bus. I didn’t know what I was doing that time but this year, I stepped up and grabbed that duty…and I had an idea to try out. We were going to Rockefeller Plaza so I studied up on the area and gave a little tour guide speech on the history of the location to my bus mates! (Next year – I’m going to boss up with a tour guide hat and more!)
A bunch of us descended on Morrell’s Wine Bar for a scrumptious, elegant dinner. (I did a Rockefeller pop quiz for a few of my table mates.) Then, it was back to the hotel to get rest up. The next few days would be busy for all.
Thursday is the Tarot and Psychology Conference, a one day event that merges both subjects. This is a passion project of the Amberstones and the third year. Happily, it has grown and this year was a record attendance, which shows that more tarot readers are craving this knowledge. Before this part of the conference began, I ran into Wald outside and asked him about the audio-visual equipment. Wald mentioned that there was a meeting for the presenters the day before but I didn’t get the email (gremlin number one) so he told me to go in and talk with the AV people before the Tarot and Psychology conference began.
As I walked up to the AV person, I mentioned that I missed the meeting and wanted a quick heads up on the equipment. She rolled her eyes at me and make a not-so-kind remark to wait for the other person. The other person shows up and also copped an attitude with me, which made me uneasy. She looked up my presentation and then informed me that her equipment would not work with my Mac or my Keynote presentation. This was not a good omen.
Like any pro, I have my own equipment and brought it with me so I was ready for potential issues but I still felt uneasy. If these people were not Mac-friendly, could I trust them with my equipment? Then I noticed that two of the Tarot and Psychology presenters were both hooking up their Macs with special cables to the AV equipment. I was relieved to see that they were Mac-savvy and knew how to make the Reader’s Studio AV equipment work just fine with Macs. Okay – maybe I didn’t need to worry about this after all. (Both of their slideshow presentations were flawless so I assumed I’d be plug-n-go and ready to roll like a boss when I hit the stage on Saturday.) Turns out we weren’t the only Mac fanatics – Carrie Paris was using one as well so we agreed that we would just load my program on her computer so that we didn’t have to lug out two. Easy peasy, right? WRONGO. Back to that later.
Dr. Art Rosengarten lead the Tarot and Psychology Conference with a fabulous lecture on Psychological Tarot: A Psychospiritual Approach to Therapy that had the audience enraptured.
This was followed by Rick Bouchard‘s excellent talk on how to use tarot in a clinical practice.
The last presenter was my friend, Andy Matzner, who finished this part of the conference off with a lively and fun class on tarot and expressive arts. He did such an amazing job – I was duly impressed – and so were the the other attendees. This was the best Tarot and Psychology conference I had attended thus far.
The next morning, Reader’s Studio was on!
This was a full house of tarot fanatics, ready to roll. After the Amberstones lead the opening marks and ritual, they introduced the main presenters and we had an opportunity to get interviewed and reveal our topics. Donnaleigh de la Rose was my interviewer (we’re exciting the stage in the pic below).
Next, it was time to pick a “foundation reading” partner. This is genius part of the conference: the first day, you pick a partner and do a reading for each other, making careful notes of the cards picked. At the end of the conference, you reconnect, and using the techniques you learned in the conference, you revisit the reading and see it through new eyes. It’s always effective and I always end up with a new perspective!
This year, my partner was Gina Thies. I asked about my presentation. The Hanged Man turned up and she mentioned that there would be a sacrifice or hang up of some sort but I would come out like a boss (King of Coins). What kind of hang up could there be? I couldn’t imagine one because I practiced so hard. Would I get stage fright? Might the audience hate my talk? (Omen number two.)
No time to speculate because soon deck creator Ellen Lorenzi-Prince took the stage and rocked it! She taught a class on the elements and it was deep + inspiring. We were having lots of synchronicities at our table and the rest of the audience was really engaged.
I joined a few fellow tarot peeps for a dinner at the local diner where I also got the pleasure of meeting a fan, Ireanna (pictured above on the right with her mom, Angelo Nasios me), who made me a lovely cross necklace. I decided to wear it onstage tomorrow for luck. I was also going to be wearing a bracelet made specially for me by one of my long time clients, Katie. Taking those good energies into my lecture proved to be necessary. Turns out, I needed all the mystical help I could get.
In the morning, I attended a rousing breakfast roundtable with Kingston Psychic Marilyn Shannon, who spoke about fear, kindness and happiness. Marilyn is a class act and such a fun speaker. I loved her talk!
Then, it was time to get set up for my presentation. Carrie met me at the AV table with the AV people and they began setting up her computer. Annddd….it would not work. Madness ensued as they tried in vain to get this thing to work. It should have worked just fine. It worked with Rick’s and Art’s presentations! Rick came over to try to help but nothing was working. And now it was too late to run upstairs and get my equipment (lesson learned: bring your own equipment down just in case). Basically, I was screwed because Ruth Ann started the introduction and I was onstage. With no slideshow. And chaos at the AV table (you can see the little crowd gathered around the AV equipment in the pic below).
I asked the audience to give a few minutes to see if things could get set up. No such luck. After five minutes, it was time to get the show on the road, slideshow or not.
To say that I was unhappy was an understatement. I was seething and embarrassed. But my presentation was about reading under any circumstances so it was time to put the rubber to the road and become grace under pressure. I was not going to waste any more time and I was determined to be a pro, no matter what. And I nailed that presentation like a BOSS!
I’m a natural comedian so I was able to not only make the best out of this situation, I turned it to my advantage and became the grounded example of exactly what I was teaching. I delivered the class of my lifetime with polish, good humor and total professionalism. About thirty minutes into my talk, the presentation finally worked and now we had our slideshow – which I then went back to point out my hand drawn images. Audiences love an underdog and I sensed they were rooting for me.
At the end of my presentation, I gifted the audience with a free copy of my new e-book and then took a bow to a standing ovation. I knew that I just kicked some serious ass and knocked it out of the ball park. As I stepped off the stage, Wald greeted me with a big smile and a hug – and mentioned that this was divine timing because I was able to display incredible calm under chaos like a true pro. He was right. The rest of the weekend, all I heard was about how great my lecture was, how cool headed and professional I was, and how this was one of the best presentations ever! WOW.
Thankfully, there were no tech issues for Carrie Paris and she was able to finish off the lectures with a smooth operation and a deep class that explored Satya (yoga again!) and sacred gazing.
Then it was time for relaxing and feasting at the banquet. I loved having dinner with my tarot friends. It’s one of the best parts of the conference.
Dinner entertainment was a hilarious skit with Nancy Antenucci, Dan Pelletier, and Rhonda Lund. They had the audience rolling with their crazy antics.
This was followed by a new feature: the Reader’s Studio Disco! Revelers could boogie all night to disco beats with glow sticks on the dance floor. I was exhausted so I headed up to my room to rest but not before taking a peek and a pic.
The next morning came early and Mitchell Osborn (aka Intuitive Messenger) lead another breakfast roundtable on how to handle it when your loved ones don’t dig what you do. This was a subject that many of us could relate to so a lively discussion ensued.
After the roundtable, it was time to revisit our foundation readings and check in with the new techniques. I loved adding in the information that I learned from Ellen and Carrie – and I finally understood what that Hanged Man was all about. Gina’s reading for me: totally accurate. BAM!
Sunday afternoon was also time for the Tarot Incubators, another popular Reader’s Studio feature. The Incubators are similar to roundtable discussions. You have a nice choice of subjects and hosts to pick from so there is always something of interest for everyone. I decided to join Ellen-Mary Keogh‘s discussion on alternate and creative ways to use tarot. This was an smart decision because I loved hearing Ellen-Mary talk and I walked away with a few ideas that I wanted to implement with my tarot posse back home.
This was followed by the closing ceremony, which included handing out certificates and announcing next year’s presenters. The 2016 lineup includes this triple goddess threat: Sasha Graham, Barbara Moore, and Heatherleigh Navarre! You can bet your sweet bippy I’ll be there with bells on!
After all was said and done, I was elated and so was the rest of the conference goers. What I heard all weekend long: best tarot conference EVER.
Why do people come to Reader’s Studio and events like this?
It’s the learning but, also, the camaraderie. We’re here to meet like-minded tarot fans and peers. The Reader’s Studio creates a welcoming space for these relationships to begin and flourish. This year, I met many new faces (it was a record year for newbies) and was happy to see my familiar tarot buddies too. That’s always the best part of the weekend for me (and I suspect for most attendees).
The Amberstones nailed it this year and they continue to raise the tarot conference bar year after year. They listen to what their audience wants and provides quality in a smart framework. Which is why you’ll see me there, every year. And what about you? I hope to see you there next year, my friends.
(The picture below is me with my Wisconsin crew: The Wisconsin Association of Tarot Superstars aka T.W.A.T.S. These funny guys surprised me by wearing these t-shirts in the front row during my lecture! Ha ha!)
Blessings!
Theresa
pictures from personal collection and the poster was created by Robert Place
I’m Theresa Reed (aka, The Tarot Lady). I’ve been a full-time tarot reader for 30+ years — which, in my industry, makes me pretty badass.
I’m definitely not your average Tarot expert — I drop the F-bomb, I quote rappers, and I’m obsessed with pop culture + reality TV. Folks come to me for straight-talk + tough-love — without the woo-woo fluff. 
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