2020 - 03/2020 Meeting

Page Created: 01/13/20. Last Updated: 05/1720.

MADHAVI GHARE

Official Site: http://www.madhavighare.com/

Tarot Card Website: https://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/

Rider-Waide-Smith Tarot Deck Keywords Reference Guide: http://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/product/tarot-keywords-reference-guide/?

Slide Show Presentation from Meeting: https://www.dropbox.com/s/09bxdz0engp7z8a/Tarot%20in%20Media.pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR0If6ybI3hvTOA6Nt0Z8AKqmDU-d5Lp7Roi04q29g00ExxKF01eBbx3GW4

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: March 14, 2020.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Attendance: 18.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A by Tarot Expert / Science Fiction Writer.

Newsletter Account

The March 14, 2020 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. This was the last in-person club event held before the corona virus shut down all live gatherings in the area.

Pamela Webber led the Ice Nine Discussion which included the films, THE LAST MAN OF EARTH, THE OMEGA MAN, ON THE BEACH, THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, FAIL SAFE, and RESIDENT EVIL, as well as CHILDHOOD'S END by Arthur C Clarke, THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins, THE TIME MACHINE by H G Wells, and other works.

David Willison led the Writers' Space Salon discussion of Mind the Gap: How & When to Bridge Gaps in Time & Logic. One prong of the discussion dealt with the amount of detail needed when an author needed his characters to travel from point A to point B. The other dealt with the amount of detail needed to set up a dramatic moment like the cavalry riding to the rescue in a western.

Madhavi Ghare was the meeting speaker. She is the author of the science fiction novel, JUMP!, and the non-fiction book, TAROT READING USING STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES. Ms Ghare has been a member of the Association for seven years.

Madhavi's talk covered a basic overview of tarot, how movies and mass media typically get it wrong, how to properly depict tarot in your work and how to use it as an idea generator for your writing and for other aspects of your life.

There are 78 cards in a tarot deck with 22 forming the Major Arcana and 56 comprising the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcan are much like traditional playing cards with suits (wands, cups, pentacles, and swords) containing numbers (two of wands, five of swords, etc) and court cards (king, queen, knight, page). The Major Arcana includes archetypes like The Fool and symbolic events like Death.

Tarot is associated with a number of occult disciplines and interests including numerology, astrology, myth, the Kabala, and more and is often employed by their practitioners, but it is not accurate to characterize it as an aspect of numerology, for example. Tarot's other major association is with art, and Madhavi's slide show displayed cards from many different types of tarot,

The exact origin of the tarot deck is a matter of conjecture and hot debate, however by the 14th century they had established themselves in the mainstream of occult consciousness. Early decks were individually painted, sometimes by artists who were tarot practitioners, sometimes by artists in the employ of practitioners.

Madhavi showed examples of some of the tarot decks related to fantasy, horror, and science fiction: vampire tarot, steampunk tarot, zombie tarot, cyberpunk tarot, gothic tarot, Alice in Wonderland tarot, manga tarot, and more. Some of these subjects consist of a number of different decks by different artists.

Our speaker used the traditional Waite Deck as the template deck for her presentation. What Hollywood, etc,, gets wrong is to focus solely on the name of the card (The Lovers, for example) and/or the foreground image on the card. What is happening in the background (sunrise, water, figures) and their symbolism is every bit as important as the foreground figure. For example, Death may not be a literal end of life, but a symbolic transition from one state to another.

A writer familiar with tarot can use the cards for a dialogue with the subconscious. If the author gets to a point in a story where a choice of paths must be made, a reading can be done for each path. The object is not divination (determining which of the two paths is the correct one to follow) but inspiration (playing the cards can unlock pitfalls or solutions by having the reader look at each path from a new perspective).

If a storyteller wishes to use tarot to foreshadow or prophesy an outcome, it is better to do a little research than just pluck cards that look scary or favorable. There are sites which describe what sequence of cards would lead to the result desired by the creator.

Much more information, including links to her YouTube Channel, can be found on Madhavi's web site: http://www.madhavighare.com/.

Our thanks to Madhavi for the presentation, to Moshe for the technical assistance, to Pam and Dave for running the pre-meeting events, and to everyone who made it out despite the looming specter of the corona virus. Had the circumstances been different, we would likely have had a dozen more in the audience. Matthews closed early due to DV, so a group of us wound up at the Stateline Diner for a wide-ranging discussion of time travel, reincarnation, string theory, and other matters.