By Terri C.
I had the pleasure of taking another road trip with Sheri Harshberger and my youngest daughter, Desirae. Our destination… San Francisco, California. Our purpose… to attend SF BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium), have some fun, take some classes, see old friends and make new ones.
The trip begins at O’dark thirty (5am) on Friday morning. We arrived at our wonderful hotel, The Opal and were in our room by 8:30pm, tired but happy to have arrived safely! Funny enough, we had the exact same room last year. I am not sure what time it was when we ventured down to Mel’s Diner for dinner, but for me it was late. The food was incredible! I highly recommend the place!
The next morning, we walked up the block (a nice size hill) to the Universalist Church. Along the way, we met up with a couple of other attendees who had taken a cab from another hotel. We arrived at the church and registered, picked up our agendas, and entered the main room to find an array of vendors displaying their goods for the Tarot Bazaar. We got to draw a Tarot card from the Daughter’s of Divination (DoD) table, I drew the 9 of Coins. We were also treated to chocolate kisses.
A few minute later, we took our usual seats in the back row to listen to Thalassa’s opening remarks. Her keen wit is always fun, especially early in the morning.
Fifteen minutes later, the first of the break out sessions began. I chose to take a class from Joseph Ernest Martin, creator of the Quest Tarot. His topic was “Have people gone completely crazy?” He provided us with several helpful tips for dealing with troubled clients.
The next break out class I chose to take was from Diane Wilkes. Her topic was “Assessing and Analyzing Tarot for Yourself and Others.” This was a fun class about writing reviews and several of us exchanged decks so we could write a practice review about a deck we had never seen before. This was a fun class and an excellent presentation.
Before I knew it, it was lunch time. So back down the hill we wandered. Back to Mel’s. Another fantastic meal!
After lunch, we re-grouped in the main room. Some raffle tickets were drawn and a few fabulous prizes were given away.
Ten minutes later, we were back to break out sessions, this time I decided to take a class from Marcus Katz. His subject was “Becoming a Living Oracle: Tarot True.” This class provided me with several new exercises, both for myself and my students. This class also offered a little interaction with other attendees.
During the next breakout, I decided to take a break and sit outside and chat with a couple of old friends and a new one. I love the free flow of BATS! There are classes available, but if you just want to chill out, there isn’t anyone breathing down your neck. Thumbs Up!!! Or, should that be bat wings up???
The final break out class that I chose for the day was from Emily Carding. Her subject, of course, was “Transparencies.” For this class, we worked with the Transparent Tarot and Transparent Oracle, each of us drawing a couple of cards from both decks and working with the energy of the cards. This was followed up by calling in the elements of each of the Seven Directions and putting all of our cards down on a white table cloth on the floor and sending out to the Universe what we want to create. We then raised the cards and flipped them high in the air. Believe it or not, most of the cards actually landed back on the cloth. It was an amazing experience! …And the energy was AMAZING!
A few minutes back in the main room for more raffle prizes and of course, more shopping at the Tarot Bazaar while the DoD prepared for the Mixer (cocktails and hors d'oeuvres), mixing and mingling. I do believe that I was in the presence of Arthur Waite and Pixie herself. I think GREAT fun was had by all.
There were several hours of panel discussion on Sunday, but this wrapped up MY experience at 2010 BATS, as the next morning, we began our journey back up the highway.
If you ever have the opportunity to attend BATS, don’t think about it, just DO IT!
Next year will be the 20th Anniversary of BATS and it will be all held under one roof at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco, August 27th – 28th. The event will be two full days of Tarot fun, workshops, presentations, panels, readings and the legendary Tarot Bazaar!