TWO FOOLS IN ITALIA

This is the tale of two Fools on an Italian tarot journey.
The year is 2007 and on the Summer Solstice in the month of June, a new Museum of International Tarot Art opened in Riola near Bologna, in Italy - the home and heartland of tarot. www.museodeitarocchi.it

Two Sagittarians - Lyn Olds and myself – were invited by the curators of this Museum to be presenters at the Inaugural Festivities. Off we went across the mighty blue Pacific, carrying 16 pieces of NZ artwork between us for permanent exhibition in the Museo dei Tarocchi. Our particular folly is a love of tarot, its art, its history and its people. We set off on our “tarot trip”, knowing our journey involved much more luggage than just a traditional backpack. But like good fools we are, we undertook this jaunt for love and never mind the weight on our backs. Complain we did, but laugh as well. New Zealand is a young country – geologically and historically. Maybe because Kiwis come from very small islands at the bottom of the “Old World”, when they travel they often feel like outsiders from a far-flung outpost. Open-mouthed rustics gawking at the legacy of an older civilisation. But our vision is adolescent and fresh so we can break traditions with boldness that only Fools dare.

We started our tour with Venezia for three days and the heat began. Summer and global warming combined in the city of gondolas to be very ‘wetly’ warm. (The Italians call humidity ‘wet”). Our feet became swollen travesties of themselves, partly because of the heat wave, and partly because, throughout our three-week trip, neither of us would ever want to stop. Head in the air, eyes popping, wandering and wondering at the marvels around us. Poor feet; happy hearts.

So the Saggies tramped through the byways of fabulous Venezia, only occasionally giving their jet-lagged bodies little, grudging rest breaks. Two Hanged Men lying in the hotel room with our feet up the wall, listening to Gondoliers singing whilst they punted tourists up and down the canal outside our window.

Sadly, the Venetian dream ended. With Strength’s struggle and the help of a water taxi, we lugged the art and ourselves to the train station and sweated eventually to Riola which is 60 minutes from Bologna.

It was with much rejoicing that we handed over the heavy burdens of NZ art to Ernesto Faziolo and Morena Poltronieri, the two founders and curators of the Museo dei Tarocchi.

Of course Ernesto is our Magician and Morena our High Priestess.
These two Mages have birthed a magnificent idea into the World. They are alchemists and scholars who have researched the esoteric history and art of their land. Together they bought and transformed into a magical place Il Museo dei Tarocchi, where they live and work.

Picturesque Riola is surrounded by five mountains, one of which has a ruined castle – La Rocchetta Mattei - nestled on it, that looks straight out of a fairy-tale. It was built by a 19th century alchemist, Count Cesare Mattei - who studied and worked with herbs and set up an infirmary there. His fabulous castle now lies in ruins and Ernesto and Morena battle with the local authorities to renovate it.

The two Fools - Lyn and I - promptly decided this was where we want to live.

Under a silvery waxing Moon we unpacked the art. Ernesto scurried up ladders and Morena discovered appropriate frames and walls, and the hanging was done! All ready for the next day’s official opening.

Ernesto’s wife Ornella - in her role as the fabulous Empress - cooked us yummy pasta for dinner which we shared with Robert Place and his wife Roseanne from New York who were also housed in the rambling Museo’s living quarters. Ornella is indeed an Empress – although sometimes she plays a Fool called “Mr. Brown” who teaches other Fools the fine arts of swearing and cursing in Italian. Dalle Stalle Alle Stelle - she so wisely instructed one late night after a few bottles of fine Itallian vino. The Empress claims Merriment as surely as the Fool.

The Inauguration of the Museo lasted three days and nights over the Summer Solstice and was attended by about 100 artists, scholars and tarot enthusiasts, from all over Italia.

Hermann Haindl and his wife Erica from Frankfurt attended with another tarot teacher Ireen van Bel from Amsterdam. Fortunately for us, their English was better than their Italian. There were long speeches in Italian which we endured in the heat, but the audience clapped and cheered our Power Point Presentation of arcana art. Interesting how different our NZ style of art is compared to European art. The two hemispheres coming together was an inspiring event for both. (The World dancing)

It was a privilege for me to meet Hermann Haindl. He is a Magician in the Tarot world, for his deck (1979) was groundbreaking and has been hugely influential. It reflected global images including indigenous(North American) and ancient (Egyptian) cultures in tarot at a time when the English-speaking world was only aware of the Waite-Smith and the Crowley/Harris decks and European tarot was confined to esoteric or card historians and fortune-tellers. His deck represents four continents/cultures and his artistic combination of mythological realities mirrors the quickening of the ‘global village’ reality we now take for granted. His art of course, is magical. Hermann reminds me of The Hermit as much as of The Magician, for he has obviously distilled his experience of life and art into a wisdom that shines forth from his very being. His wife Erica is another High Priestess in her own right as a homeopath and teacher. And together they show us the way to the enduring partnership of The Lovers.

Ireen was a Star for me. Her work in theatre and tarot as well as her sparkling eyes, were a source of inspiration and delight. It feels that we may move in the same constellation despite the great physical distance between us. Kindred spirits meet in space, light travels and so too the world-wide web….There was a wonderful array of activities to honour the Museo’s Opening. A traditional Bolognese puppet theatre written specially for the occasion, as well as a spectacular dance by young people that had been choreographed and rehearsed for 6 months specially for this tarot occasion.

And the piece de resistance was - tarot theatre! Nine dramatic pieces of surreal yet strangely wonderful tarot-themed scenes performed in the setting of the town square of a 14th century Scola – a medieval village on the top of one of Riola’s hills. La Morte solemnly painted himself white, rattled the beans inside his skull at us, then stabbed his big belly open. While hideous green liquid dribbled and spurted out, he splattered complaining audience members with the yucky stuff. In the scene named When The Chariot meets Justice - uniformed Post Office workers pulled toy trucks over the cobbled streets pursued by a fascist, goose-stepping soldier with fluffy white wings pinned to his shoulders, (presumably Justice). Side-splitting stuff - the Italians certainly know how to put on a memorable show!

Every evening all the company ate at the Visconti Laconda (inn). Yes folks, Visconti tarot cards and the Visconti inn just down the road from the Museo.
On the Sunday our last meal was a huge “alchemical” lunch in the gardens of the Museo of 100 dishes, all cooked by Empress Ornella using herbs from her garden. Each dish symbolised alchemical and arcana principles. The feast was Ornella’s presentation/event for the Inauguration.

After the festivities, the two Fools set out every day from Riola on our magical mystery tour, exploring the tarot roads. The gods of travel presided over us and we pay homage to the great Italian railway system, which henceforth is named our trusty Chariot. Its horsepower was reliable, fast, and it very nearly always took us where we wanted to go.

Bologna (did I mention it was hot!) uncovered its many treasures. A town of Towers before the 20th century, it still has some pretty impressive specimens albeit leaning ones.

Deep within the Basilica di San Petronio, in its Chapelle Bolognini we discovered Hanged Men in hell – sinners suspended upside down for their treachery, painted by Giovanni of Modena in 1410. A bestial Devil triumphantly dominates the grisly scene. Actually, we discovered Devils and Popes galore – within and without the Churches we visited. The hypocrisy of gilded churches with beggars on their steps seems lost on both trumps. Centuries and centuries of embedded corruption and sumptuous treasures, icons of golden cruxificion set high to worship! Popes and Devils feeding upon ignorance, suffering of innocents and exploitation of “miracles”.

The worst image in my memory’s eye is that of a ‘crucified’ Florentine beggar- woman face down - prostrate on the dirty steaming hot asphalt pavement; mute, unmoving, a bundle of ‘gypsy’ rags. What degradation of the human spirit in the very heart of The Emperor’s civilisation.

In Bologna too, we discovered the hulking, massive stone church of the Dominicans and its large piazza where the witches were burned at the stake throughout the Inquisition. We paid our respects to those women and men – High Priestesses all – who had the misfortune to fall in the face of such implacable hatred of women and heresy.

During our day trip to Bergamo, we explored the walled city on the hill and gazed upon the original Visconti Sforza tarot cards in all their glory at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti. Providence led us to stumble across the most poignant modern bronze Hanged Man in a busy piazza. We were unable to interpret the inscription on its back written in Italian, but its beauty and sadness spoke volumes.

Alas, The Wheel spun and it was time to take our leave from Riola’s delights. The hospitality was grand, the food superb, the company amusing and companionable. Arrivederci dear Morena, Ornella and Ernesto – and Martino too! What pleasure to know we may return one day – or that you too may journey across the ocean and visit us at the bottom of The World.

The Chariot sped us into the north – to Torino, city of Black and White Magia. We were met by our host Susanna Viale, artist and Star extraordinaire. She travels and paints vivid images of third world people and is presently completing a Major Arcana tarot series. We had met her at the Inauguration Celebrations, where she had invited us to stay with her and husband Marco. When we arrived in their fair city, Marco cooked us a beautiful lunch and then they both took us on a whirlwind tour of the magical, alchemical sights of Torino. Their friendship and fascinating insights into the history and alchemy of this wonderful place encapsulate The Star’s reflections of new horizons opening. Visit www.vialesusanna.com to view Susanna’s art.

We had a long and interesting visit with the famous tarot publishers Lo Scarabeo.

They kindly showed us their workplace and discussed their ideas and introduced us to their hard-working and dedicated team. This publishing house is celebrating their 20th birthday this year. They have achieved an incredible amount during the last two decades for they are the pioneers and trend-setters in the field of tarot art and scholarship. It was a great privilege to meet them. They represent The Sun card for they are a success in both publishing terms and artistic terms. Wishing them many, many happy solar returns!!! www.loscarabeo.com

The last leg in the journey is Milano. In Torino, we had met with my niece Kali and her partner Mark– The Lovers - who had flown in from London to visit me for a few days. What heaven to talk in English – my Italian makes me the most foolish of all fools.
Kali works for the Aid organisation Survival in London and Mark is a musician. Not having seen them for over two years since their wedding, it was a blessing to watch how they have blossomed together. We laughed, spent lots of time eating and drinking and sight-seeing –the Sun truly shone on us.

And then we all visited the Master Magician, Osvaldo Menegazzi in his precious and marvellous shop Il Meneghello.
He has been retrieving ancient tarot decks and hand-making old and new tarot art since 1974. His generosity overwhelmed us as he shared his art, his work and his time with us. www.arnellart.com/osvaldo/ Also link to http://www.arnellart.com/museum-visit-fall-07.htm for Arnell Ando's view of his and and Osvaldo's trip to the Italian Tarot museum.

I also met Angelo Marchetto, Oswaldo’s friend who had come to interpret for us. What a beautiful soul – another musician and magician - and for me, an Angel. The Judgment card is sometimes called The Angel and I must gift this title to Angelo. Sometimes across the gulf of culture, language and age we feel a tug to the heart that opens windows to a deep mystery.

After Kali and Mark returned to London, Lyn and myself returned to Il Meneghello for our last morning. Oswaldo worked, Lyn watched and I swooned. What a joy to be in his extraordinary place, watching the maestro work surrounded by wealth of the soul.
An epiphany of sorts – the Judgement calls again. The Sun outside and The World too, as the final piece of puzzle falls into place. Completion, fulfilment and success. Halfway across the world from home, and yet home.
What lucky Fools.

FERN MERCIER
2nd August 2007

THE DA VINCI CODE
The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown and published by Bantam Press in 2003 has just been announced as Best Book of 2005 by the Booksellers Association.

Here is a review I wrote for our Tarot Pages in September 2003.

“If you’re anything like me, you may be quite bowled over by this modern thriller picked up from an airport bookshop. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a rollicking, action-packed read with an unusual mix of surprise twists, scholarly insights and a clever plot. There's a smart French dame and a worldly American academic playing the lead roles and I defy any Tarotist to put it down very easily until you’ve turned the last page.

It begins with a murder in the Louvre Museum, Paris and ends in Rosslyn Chapel just out of Edinburgh, sometimes called the Cathedral of the Codes built by the Knights Templar in 1446.

You’ll learn some awfully interesting facts along the way about the history – or rather herstory – of the Christian Church. And then there’s the delightful feminist take on the legend of the Holy Grail. Tarot gets an honourable mention, as does Venus and her pentacles, Mary Magdalene, Numerology and the Golden Rule.

Intrigued? Go get this book and you’re guaranteed a good read, not to mention a heap of stuff that will add to your understanding of the Tarot mystery.”

Since I wrote this review the book has become an international bestseller – 26 million copies sold and rising – and has provoked the Vatican to employ an official Da Vinci Code debunker and code buster (a cardinal who is closely affiliated with the new Pope no less). A movie has also been made starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.

In 2005 and 2006, Cosmica Oosting and myself escorted interested groups of travelers following the trail laid out in Dan brown’s best-selling novel. Our small group tours examined some of the themes, sites and great artworks in the book. Our quest took us through Rome, Milan, Paris, London and Edinburgh.”

As my own personal herstory has involved early bible study, ongoing research into goddess mythology, symbology and imagery and of course the study of Astrology and Tarot’s history, philosophy and practice – I felt particularly suited for this pilgrimage seeking Europe’s underground esoteric stream. The main impetus of my work has long been recovery of the Feminine in myth, images and symbols– and its restoration into modern mainstream consciousness.

THE PROFILERS
TV2 July 17th and 24th 2003

For as long as I can remember, all the arms of the New Zealand media – radio, newsprint and TV – have always chosen to represent practitioners of the divinatory arts as pariahs or charlatans.
(see below in Paranormal article)

Under cover of their objectivity myth, the typical agenda of TV documentaries and print articles is to debunk and mock anyone who works outside the conventional institutionalized ‘scientific’ boundaries in so-called parapsychology or psychic fields of human behaviour.

All kinds of snide remarks, sensational headlines, emotive adjectives and downright lies are used to discredit anything oracular – whether it be astrology, tarot or numerology.

Under this kind of attack most of my colleagues tend to shun any kind of public profile or media spotlight. Because we have been so unfairly and consistently mistreated, most of us turn our collective back on New Zealand’s Fourth Estate.

Despite the propaganda however, the public still comes to us for readings, regardless of the barrage of scorn from the oblivious chattering class. A huge proportion of the population go on reading their star signs, believing there is meaning to be found in the patterns of the stars at their birth. When something works - and has done so for a long time - ordinary folks tend to go on using it.

The sceptics call it superstition preferring not to actually investigate or study occult phenomenon in a truly scientific spirit or even with real scientific method. In fact, sceptics are just like religious fundamentalists. They straitjacket ‘science’ into mechanistic dogma and equate intelligence with technology. Their minds are so closed they’ve turned septic. The media - an industry of illusion - operate as a mouthpiece for materialistic rationalism, and are just as toxic and one-sided.

However, at the grass roots, most people maintain open hearts and minds towards the ancient oracular crafts. Folk wisdom and esoteric knowledge generally don’t have much truck with the masters of the universe, whatever the historical age.

This year in March 2003, Uranus moved into Pisces. Uranus is the planet that symbolises sudden reversals, revolution or breakthroughs in progressive and scientific thinking. Pisces is the sign most concerned with mysticism, the dreamworld of the unconscious and the imagination, not to mention show business and the arts.

New Zealand is particularly likely to be effected by this seven-year long transit of Uranus because our founding astrological chart (of the Treaty of Waitangi) is strongly influenced by pioneering Uranus in sensitive Pisces. We might also surmise that the divinatory arts will also be changed in startling ways, for indeed they are susceptible to both Uranus and Pisces.

Along comes Julie Christie, New Zealand’s Reality TV queen, producer of such well-known programs as Treasure Island, The Chair, DIY Rescue and Mitre 10 Changing Rooms. Her TV studio, Touchdown Productions, is clearly a market leader and she herself a formulator and gatekeeper of popular television.

Out of the blue, I was approached along with several other long-time practitioners of the mystical arts, to be part of a program called The Profilers. Its format was not a documentary, which in itself promised a new approach. Its concept was simple – six practitioners working in their different modalities such as Clairvoyancy, Astrology, Tarot etc, within an entertainment format.

Although under normal working conditions we are accustomed to working alone with a client, looking from the present into the future - here we were to become part of a team, peering back into a stranger’s turbulent past (which is of course verifiable.) An innovative and dramatic idea (Uranus) that turned topsy-turvy the conventional TV wisdom (Pisces) of how our crafts are traditionally presented.

Here is the only review I have found of The Profilers that featured in the N.Z. media - The Dominion on Saturday July 19th 2003.
I present it as a good example of journalistic ‘objectivity’ about divination. Do note the emotive terminology such as “circus act”, “tarot tosh” “airy fairy, turban-wearing, spiritual gig”. etc etc.

JULIE CHRISTIE’S GOT A WINNER
by Jane Bowron

“Don’t tell Holmes, but according to one of the “profilers” on TV2’s new show Profilers (Thursday 8:30pm), most Pauls are liars.

This bold assertion heralds from a profiler specialising in name significance and made this viewer immediately spare a thought for poor old St. Paul, Paul McCartney and the already mentioned current affairs host. Apparently the problem stems from the name’s “rubbish-collecting” U and a trailing L.

This new Julie Christie-written and produced show had all the usual suspects on its panel. There was a tarot card reader, a face reader, an astrologist, a numerologist, a male clairvoyant who almost looked like a woman, the name-reading P basher and Malcolm, an Aussie handwriting analyst who was also the show’s brash and amusing host.

As each of these experts was presented the studio audience clapped with furious gusto. Surely one should hold back the claps until someone actually does something to warrant applause and to give the profilers their due, the panel delivered the parapsychology and the astrological goods.

If you actually missed this highly entertaining circus act, the profilers had to identify an event or the cause of a trauma connected to some of New Zealand’s biggest news events. Aha, you say and I say, if this were the premise then surely the chosen profilers would have had time to do a trawl through the archives to familiarise themselves with the dramatic local events that have occurred in the past 60-odd years and would have been able to make a pretty good stab at guessing mystery guests’ pasts.

But who cares, the way they all worked together with their cards, charts, numbers and wands (kidding), sharing their divinations, was fascinating to observe.

On the show they were granted two questions to put to the mystery guest, in the manner of that prehistoric American show What’s My Line but the profilers had been given a private audience previously. Still, the results were pretty spot on with one astonished mystery guest beseeching a profiler on a roll furiously unraveling the nature of the man’s trauma, to put a sock in it, in the nicest possible way. “Stop there, you’re spot on,” he cried, both vindicated and probed by the profiler’s findings.

And if you thought this was a lot of tarot tosh, Malcolm the host was enough of a card to keep one amused with his interviewing style.

At the show’s beginning the audience at home was instructed to write down on a piece of paper the sentence, “I think life is very interesting”. Between ad breaks it was revealed that it was all in the way you stroked your T. Feeling quite chuffed with my loftily stroked T’s (it sounds vaguely sordid) I immediately warmed to Malcolm, the former police detective now turned graphologist.

To a senior mystery guest with 80-odd rings around his truck, Malcolm looked at his I-think-life-is very-interesting sentence, noted a downward slant and immediately prescribed: “Yeah mate, you need some Berocca, or Viagra, or both.”

Without Malcolm this show wouldn’t have had half the cred. Blessed with the brash charisma of the Crocodile Hunter – they could be cousins, Malcolm gives a bit of much-needed corporeality to what is essentially an airy fairy, turban-wearing spiritual gig. His crude flesh and blood endorsement of Its All Done With Mirrors crowd will draw the Doubting Tommies in. Hate to admit it, but I predict through this TV reviewer’s crystal ball that Julie Christie’s got a winner here.”

Well in her back-handed way, I think she was saying the show was successful entertainment. Certainly the feedback I have been given has been very positive. My only criticism of the program lies in its inherent sexism. There were 6 profilers – 3 men and 3 women - and one male host.

However, the working teams of 4 were more often made up of 3 male profilers and one female, and never the other way. Which meant the viewer was usually watching 4 men on stage, with only one woman. This subliminal sexism may have been unconscious in a well-intentioned attempt to prove how authoritative the profilers really are.

But the assumption behind that is the general public would only respect men in the role of expert. In the real world, in this line of work, 95% of practitioners are women. The program did not accurately represent this.

Believe it or not, women convey spiritual authority just as well as men, albeit in quite a different way.

Notwithstanding, I applaud Julie Christie for her groundbreaking and original concept, and Touchdown Studios for their expertise in producing such a tight, riveting and interesting piece of ‘reality’ TV. For my part, it was a fantastic experience and a joy to be part of a ‘circus act’ that brought all those different modalities together into a functioning team.

I believe Julie Christie has done a great service for astrology, tarot, clairvoyancy and all the intuitive and healing arts represented.

The show gave us a new voice in the public forum that was both dramatic yet respectful. It was brave of her to take the punt with us, and I hope she feels vindicated after the profilers’ performance. It feels like Touchdown – and we – have together pioneered something quite exciting, something quite Uranus in Pisces.

There are rumours of another series featuring The Profilers. Watch this space. Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled for Uranus in Pisces - coming your way! Shock treatment for our culture’s soul as outer space collides with inner space. Let head and heart unite!

The tarot cards used throughout are from The Transformational Tarot by Arnell Ando.

FERN MERCIER
5th September 2003

The 3rd World Tarot Congress in Chicago
The International Tarot Society hosted the World Tarot Congress on May 10th -12th in Chicago springtime. The world tarot community gathered together and quickly began to feel like a family reunion.

The Internet has already brought us so much closer and enables us to share our ideas with ease and depth, but getting together and meeting our peers and heros in person was heartwarming and exhilarating.

Check out the fabulous reviews and photos on the International Tarot Society's website www.tarotsociety.org

Go to http://www.tarotpassages.com/wtc2002fern.htm if you would like to read a review/synopsis of Fern Mercier's talk on:
The High Priestess as Professional Tarot Reader, Her Big Brother the High Priest and The Future.

BRIAN WILLIAMS
"Brian Williams died on Monday April 15th 2002. He was 44 years old and left behind an extraordinary legacy for the Tarot World. He was an artist, author, scholar and teacher - our "Rennaissance Man of Tarot".

If Brian was a tarot card, I think he would be The High Priest - Hierophant of mysteries, a presiding priest and interpreter of our esoteric art that is the Tarot. It is in this role of teacher, guide, and mentor that I knew him best. Although northern Italy was the crucible in which my personal relationship with Brian was formed, his Tarot decks and books are the extraordinary legacy he as Hierophant has bequeathed to me and the world at large. In Venice in September 2000 at the end of our Tarot Art History Tour, when I mentioned how he carried this role of Hierophant, I think he felt slightly discomforted. The hierarchical and conservative aspects of the card sat unquietly with his unique wacky brilliance. His visionary, iconoclastic and non-conformist self wanted out of the ceremonial robes, especially since it was the end of our trip and he was discarding the professional role of teacher and guide and coming back into his personal life - the life of Brian.

Yet the Hierophant gives us not only the idea of hierarchy - but also tells us about 'hieros' that means sacred. Brian did indeed perform a sacred role for many of us in the Tarot world. His art, like his guided magical mystery tours through Italy's cultural landscape showed us the way, lighting the path through the arcane and the antique into contemporary relevance and insight. The clarity of his deep, enriching scholarship traced direct routes from the past into the present.

In 2000, Brian had asked me to read his astrological birth chart. Astrology, like Tarot is a traditional language system that draws from the treasury of images, symbols and myth that lies embedded deep within the western cultural heritage. I'd like to explore some of my ideas about Brian's life and work using the language of his horoscope as a mirror to reflect upon - just like reading a tarot spread.

He was the true Aquarian, humane, intellectual and intense. Here was a man who would march to the beat of his own drum - yet always be a loyal friend. A strong independent spirit with the paradoxical need to play both the outsider and insider; wanting to be different from the herd, yet still defining himself within a community of peers.

His Sun - the central organizing Star around which all the other planets (or parts of his psyche) revolved - was in the 8th House. Traditional astrology speaks of this placement as 'recognition after death, although in life nature's genius goes begging.' Venus, goddess of love and beauty was both combust with the Sun and retrograde, emphasizing his unconventionality, requiring him to develop his own unique social and aesthetic values often in periods of reclusion. Retrograde Venus yearns for a perfect ideal, is eclectic and attracted to art forms extremely modern and /or extremely ancient. Venus gifted Brian a loving tender heart, popularity, artistic and aesthetic refinement, a highly charged sensitivity, and above all grace.

Brian's Sun and Venus worked as a team but were in tense relationship with Uranus and Neptune - transpersonal planets. This combination impels an individual to reflect and transmit his generation's - the larger collective's - concerns and dreams.

Held tight in the grip of Neptune and Uranus, Brian was compelled to actualize a variety of vehicles that could express not only the gods' sensual and emotional theatricality but also their immortal visions. This is the signature of the artist who translates our human longings into fusion with the Divine.

Uranus in opposition to Sun/Venus powers a trail-blazer who pushes into new frontiers of thought and action, expressing views ahead of his time, cutting across conservatism and tradition. An ambassador of the cosmos to planet Earth, Uranus made it impossible for Brian's unusually creative spirit to settle into one field of specialization. Such a constant urge for stimulation, variety and excitement would have sought periodic radical and maybe dramatic changes throughout his life.

Neptune in Brian's chart was not only in a challenging square aspect to his Sun/Venus, but tightly involved in a conjunction with Jupiter and his north Node of the Moon. This opened him to the intangible forces in the cosmos and drove him on an idealistic search for greater meaning and wisdom. Neptune endowed a fertile imagination fueled by divine discontent. Jupiter demanded a constant internal struggle to practice what he preached. He would have needed always to approach worldly affairs from a broadened philosophical - even magical - perspective. Neptune invested Brian with a special capacity to inspire - the ability to act as a medium for the thoughts and feelings of others as a guide, an artist and writer. Indeed such a potent brew affirms Brian as the consummate 'Renaissance Man'.

Brian's Ascendant was in the sign of Cancer, which describes a sympathetic mild, reserved demeanor. Emotionally private and psychically sensitive a Cancerian personality identifies strongly with his family. The Moon in Gemini in the 12th House highlights a natural bent for writing combined with a subtle attunement to inner perceptions and an innate poetical sense. This Moon gave access to a rich reservoir of images and feelings that enhanced any form of communication Brian chose. Remarkably versatile, quick-witted and resourceful, the Moon in Gemini, sign of the twins, illuminates why Brian had two homes - one in California and one in Italy - and his facility with language(s).

Mercury in Capricorn not to mention Saturn and Mars conjoined in Sagittarius ensured that Brian had the necessary discipline, worldly ambition and organization to provide sturdy vessels to hold his dreams. His delight in the classical world coupled with his strong sense of composition and structure has resulted in art forms that will stand the test of time. Mercury in the 7th House bestowed the ability to work in partnership and communicate with the public. The Saturnine drive to achieve distinction as an authority through systematic efforts in the Sagittarian fields of higher learning, philosophy and education was hugely evident. The Saturn/Mars combo made for a hard taskmaster as those of us puffing to keep up on his famous 'breakneck tours' will vouch.

Saturn plays an immensely important part in Brian's chart because it is the co-ruler of his Aquarian Sun. It is conjunct Mars in Sagittarius, which is in mutual reception with Jupiter in Scorpio. The Sagittarian desire for adventure and wisdom in the 6th House of hard work is integrated with the need to know the truth at any cost. There is a definite resemblance between this Sagittarius/Jupiter/Saturn mix and the tarot card the Hierophant.

And yet Brian is much much more than a Hierophant. Obviously Brian's genius can't be encapsulated in just the one tarot card. For good measure then, I'll deal in the Magician and the World.

The Magician - the Magus - because he made magic happen. His wit and humour, his leadership of those merry traveling bands he directed around Italy, his creative imagination captured in his art and scholarship - all these were instruments of the magic that he wrought.

He gave us the World and he belongs to the World. The attic dance that was his life has emerged triumphant and transcendent. It hangs suspended now in our memories like the animus mundi of The World card, surrounded by the laurel leaves of the victor. Brian's really a whole tarot spread - his life's work laid out for eternity.

'When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all
Ye need on earth, and all ye need to know.'

FERN MERCIER, 25 April 2002

"To read more about Brian you can read about him on
The Hero's page www.tarotpassages.com

Tarot in Italy
Here's an article I wrote after coming home from a Tarot Art History Tour of Northern Italy in September 2000

Two score and more years of studying and working with the Tarot cards, led me to make a pilgrimage to their birthplace in September 2000. I joined Brian Williams, creator of Renaissance Tarot (and several other tarot decks and books), who was guide to a merry and motley crew of thirteen tarot folk through Northern Italy from Milan to Venice.

Our mission was to source Tarot's cultural context, to explore the art and ideas that first inspired its creation. Favored by Fortune, I found myself in the company of Americans Mary Greer author, and Arnell Ando artist - women of formidable talent and renown - as well as other delightful tarot fiends on Brian's breakneck tour.

Ancient tarot and playing cards hidden away in the Castello Sforzesco's collection came alive under the enthusiastic tutelage of Dr. Milano - President of the International Playing Card Society, scholar, historian and collector of traditional board games, popular prints, calendars, decorated papers and tarot decks. Frescoes in private palaces and awesomely old churches were oftentimes unveiled just for us.

We visited Italian artists and publishers including the great and most prolific 76 year-old Osvaldo Menegazzi himself in his wondrous Milanese bookstore and studio Il Meneghello. We feasted our eyes on the original (1440) Visconti Sforza cards and soaked up Renaissance ambiance in the elegant and lively medieval Italian hilltop towns of Bergamo and Asolo.

We paid homage to Trump no.13 and visited the mountain village of Clusone to see one of the great surviving Renaissance fresco cycles of the Danza Macabra - The Triumph of Death (1485).

The curator Dr. Mino Scandella, of this extraordinary and marvelous work, led us behind the restorers' scaffolding and talked passionately about its significance.

Our visit was followed by an article complete with photo appearing in Milan's daily newspaper.

In Venice - oh most enchanted of cities - we visited the oldest local firm specialising in decorative paper printing, a technique used to produce the old woodblock decks like the Tarot of Marseilles. And we reveled in that surreal stage-set/artists' colony/ sinking Atlantis - that is Venice, city dedicated to Neptune and Mars.

We completed our magical mystery tour hosted by the Temple Of Isis with our own Venetian Masquerade (and yes I did bring home to Aotearoa a mask made from Tarot cards!) New Zealand's very own Tarot deck Songs for the Journey Home sat in the window of this Venetian esoteric bookstore alongside Mary Greer's and Brian Williams's books and cards and of course all the Italian 16th and 17th century decks.

Tarot decks in Italy are not only to be found in New Age shops, but sit together with other playing cards in the local tobacconists. The game Tarocchi - a complex trump-taking card game rather like Bridge, is still played in the back of bars all over Europe, as well as the cards being regularly used for divination. A popular TV game show uses the Tarot cards as a device for playing the game.

I found Tarot Readers and Astrologers on TV as a matter of course doing their job (reading for clients), sitting as comfortably in the modern medium, as the naked classical god/desses and pagan masterpieces sit alongside the tortured Christ and the gorgeous Madonnas in the art of churches, palaces and museums.

Italian culture, rich and old is soaked in the pagan as well as the Christian aesthetic. To find icons, images and symbols that I've long studied within the tarot cards, but in the living and breathing culture from the 14th century through to our 21st century was overwhelming. I will be downloading the precious cargo of epiphany that lies bursting within my heart and soul for some time to come. Tarot - and Astrology - are such an integral part of the spiritual experience of our Western history. For me, the distilled wisdom of these disciplines reflects our cultural heritage at its best and most profound.

I journeyed home from my pilgrimage to the heartland of Tarot, laden with antique decks and art images; home to an adolescent culture obsessing about Olympic prowess and money for sport. Once the Olympic Games were part of a larger Arts Festival dedicated to the Great Goddess Hera, Queen of Earth and Sky. I wonder and dream if Kiwis might one day marry athletics and art, spirituality and sport as the Greeks and of course the Italians did. Meanwhile I will go on working with the Tarot and its enigmatic images in the deep belief of its soul therapy.

Fern Mercier
30th September 2000

Here is an article written by Arnell Ando about Tarot in Milan.
http://www.artoftarot.com/milantarot.htm

TAROT IN AOTEAROA 2002
The Tarot is a deck of picture cards that originated in Northern Italy 600 years ago. For 300 years Tarocchi was the most popular card game all over Europe, but it wasn’t until the time of the French Revolution that it became definitively linked with the Occult. The English-speaking world became acquainted with its mysterious images at the beginning of the 20th century, but it is only during this last decade that Tarot has been enjoying a Renaissance all over the world. Thousands of artists have taken the 78 cards of a traditional Tarot deck as a challenge to their creative genius and are turning out a wonderful but often bewildering array of various decks with images from different cultures and mythologies.

The deck has 22 Major Arcana (or Trumps) and 56 Minor Arcana. The 22 Majors feature enigmatic and provoking figures that remain remarkably similar to the original Italian and French woodblock originals drawn long ago by unknown hands. They seem to feature what Carl Jung would call ‘archetypes’ that give us glimpses of the human condition. For example – the Virtue Justice mediates with her sisters Fortitude and Temperance; the Stars and the Moon remind us of our relationship with the cosmos; while the Papess and her brother the Pope give us an idea of why the Christian Church called them the Devil’s Picture Book. (Although why female spiritual authority is such an offensive concept remains a mystery to a pagan such as myself.)

The Minors are in four familiar suits but carry the unfamiliar titles of cups, wands, swords and pentacles. And the Court cards show us a real family of Queens (Mum), Kings (Dad), Knights (Adolescent) and Pages (Child) in each suit. Put them all together and a modern Tarot reader will use this deck of picture cards as clues to ‘read’ the past, present and future, and as keys to unlock the secrets of our psyche. We interpret the patterns of any random spread, weaving its treasury of images symbols and numbers into a word-tapestry our culture calls ‘fortune-telling’.

Divination is a word that comes from the word Divine. Tarot certainly connects us with our deeper and higher selves and is a wonderful tool for channeling insight, healing and self-knowledge. Anyone can use the Tarot for themselves as a meditative path to inner understanding and for creative or spiritual affirmation.

Fern Mercier

NEW ZEALAND'S FIRST TAROT SUMMER SCHOOL 2002:
Pat Martin Reports

The first New Zealand Tarot Summer School, held in Auckland from January 11 to 13, was voted an overwhelming success by those who attended the weekend.

It was a milestone in the development of Tarot Aotearoa, with Dwariko von Sommaruga presenting a workshop using the NZ Tarot deck, Songs for the Journey Home, and the emergence of Mala Mayo, and Sarah Carrington Fortune as confident new presenters. The established figures of the NZ Tarot scene, Fern Mercier, Tony French and Franchelle Ofsoske-Wyber held their own with the international presenters, Anne Shotter and Neil Giles. We were delighted to learn that Neil Giles has the intention of relocating to New Zealand in 2002, as both his presentation at the Summer School and his post conference readings and workshops were very well received.

Anne Shotter's presentation on the Tarot Major Arcana cards got the weekend off to a flying start. Anne, who is well known in Australia, is an articulate and knowledgeable speaker. Everyone was left wishing that they could hear more from her.

Neil Giles talked on the Merlyn deck, using it as an example of how the way we think is determined by our cultural context. Neil is a charismatic and thought-provoking speaker. He left us all with something to mull over.

Mala Mayo demonstrated in her seminar how Tarot and bodywork could be integrated together, to the enrichment of both disciplines. As she worked with a volunteer from the group, visible changes could be observed in the way the subject moved and spoke. All those in attendance were most impressed with her demonstration.

Sarah Carrington Fortune tackled the vexed question of the place of fortune telling in serious Tarot practice. She took the contentious position that fortune telling is important and necessary - a bold step when presenting to a group who had been exploring Tarot principally as a tool of self-revelation. She argued her case with honesty and conviction, supplying the attendees with much food for thought.

Dwariko von Sommaruga demonstrated how to use her cards as a vehicle for meditation and creativity. Her session represented a welcome change of pace at the end of a very stimulating day, and offered yet another way of using Tarot cards for personal development and change. Songs for the Journey Home has been selling well both in New Zealand and overseas, particularly in the United States. Their gentle imagery makes them very "user friendly" and down to earth.

Tony French uses mandalas as the corner stone of all his work. He showed participants in his workshop how to integrate word and Tarot mandalas. In addition he shared with everyone his wonderful Tarot artwork, and gave us a sneak preview of the interactive website he is developing, which should be going on line any day now. Watch out for it! Tony continues to refine and develop his work - we look forward to seeing what emerges next.

Franchelle Ofsoske-Wyber is well known for both her Tarot and astrology work. In her lecture she demonstrated how to improve psychic sensitivity, better to serve the Tarot process. She has developed a range of essences that assist with this development, cleansing the aura and activating the chakras. Her talk was very well attended.

Fern Mercier, one of the co-organizers of the weekend, presented a paper on the Fool. Fern is well known for her monthly Major Arcana Card workshop explorations. The Fool was a good choice for the Summer School, since the Tarot journey begins with his step into the void, and the Summer School was a leap in the dark for its organizers.

The leap was both a success and a failure. Those who attended were delighted with the weekend. They felt that it lived up to all their expectations and then some. They were challenged, entertained and extended in their Tarot work. But the majority of attendees were students of the Tarot, using it for self-exploration rather than professionally. Both Fern and myself have attended Tarot conferences overseas where the majority of the attendees have been Tarot professionals looking to develop their craft and improve their skills. Where were New Zealand's Tarot professionals? Are they not interested in professional development? Have they no more to learn, nothing to contribute? This was the biggest disappointment of the weekend - the absence of the professional readers. The other disappointment was the narrow geographical spread of the attendees - again, a stark contrast to the other conferences we have attended. Most of the live-in attendees were from Auckland! There was no one from the South Island at all. Apparently it was easier to get to the Summer School from Australia!

Will the Summer School be the first of many? Too soon to ask! But the vote of all the attendees was for more! more! more!

Pat Martin, co - organizer, First New Zealand Tarot Summer School

Songs for the Journey Home
Did you know that New Zealand has its very own Tarot deck?
It's called Songs for the Journey Home and was designed and produced by two Auckland women Catherine Cook and Dwariko Von Sommaruga in 1993. Now well into their 2nd edition, the innovative and beautiful cards are extremely popular both here in Aotearoa as well as overseas.

I find the cards a wonderful 'working' deck, which people readily identify with. Although the 4 suits and the Court cards have been renamed, their new system has firm precedents in occult traditions, based as they are on the 4 elements and the cycles of Nature.

The images are pure 'kiwi'. For example, The Hermit card is shown as a gender-free person gazing into a bush pool overhung by a native fern tree. Humans are placed into the larger context of Nature, instead of featuring humans in their usual dominant role. The High Priestess and The Empress are shown as different aspects of a tree. This emphasis on Nature is quite innovative and offers a uniquely New Zealand vision which nevertheless works on deep archetypal levels.

Explore their website www.tarotjourney.co.nz

Do you believe in the Paranormal?
Made by Greenstone Pictures shown by TV2 November 6th at 8:30pm

TRIAL BY MEDIA

Or just a plain old Witch Hunt?

Once again television has done a disservice to its watching public. If a program is named a documentary, there is an expectation the thing will be reasonably objective with information and documentation laid out in a balanced way. It might be expected that both the opinions of the documentary creators and those of the different protagonists would be put into a context that will be fair to all parties who are exposing their reputations for the camera. No such luck with Paranormal. Although labeled a documentary it was really just another form of "infotainment" we have become accustomed to over the last decade or more. Misinformation, misrepresentation, misconceptions have become part of a formula TV editors churn out in the name of the god they worship – the lowest common denominator.

Dishonesty ruled, not only in its intentions, but also towards the people who were interviewed. For example, it was stated at the beginning that the 'huge business’ of prediction in NZ raked in $40 million a year. Where that figure comes from remains a mystery and probably is truly paranormal. No source was given and nowhere was the mythical figure broken down into areas of work or who might be on the receiving end of all that loot. At no time was any one asked, "how much do you earn? "-or anything else on the subject of money. In this business of course, very few make a lot of money. Millionaires are NOT renowned in our marginalised profession. But right from the start the makers of Paranormal have cast the suspicion that there is some rip-off going on here.

Unfortunately the exploitation is real. The filmmakers are the profiteers – cashing in on the public’s gullibility, as well on the goodwill of the folk they used to make their silly program.

A good example of exploitation is the scene in which the sceptic Vicki Hyde does a ‘cold’ Reading’ using her non-existent knowledge of palmistry. A woman who thought she was getting a genuine Reading was used quite cold-bloodedly to show how gullible she, and by extension the general public is. A charlatan poses as a charlatan to prove she really is a charlatan.

All she managed to uncover was self-evident; how much psychology readers use (of course!) but more importantly, how unethical Vicki Hyde and the filmmakers were in their treatment of people. They seemed to have missed the point entirely.

What is the intention behind a ‘paranormal’ Reading? Why do people want readings? Do Readers think about ethics? Questions never asked in Paranormal. I am a Reader myself, and speak from years of experience of my intentions, those of my colleagues and a deep understanding of the clientele I represent. Readers are in the Service Industry. Yes Vicki Hyde, often more listening is done than talking in a Reading. We perform many functions - professional friend, confessor, coach/motivator, intermediary for the dead, lost property officer, as well as fortune-teller and oracle. To comfort, to inspire, to empower, to heal is a good mantra for our work. Compassion is the main driver of the Readers I know. Not a concept known in the sceptics camp.

Divination has been deeply embedded in our western culture throughout history. It shows no sign of disappearing despite the scientific and technological Revolutions of the last 300 years. In fact there is a Renaissance going on right beneath our modern eyes. Now why would that be? Apparently the sceptics and the production team of Paranormal believe it is because the general public are gullible fools. "Why do people believe"? was a question asked in the program, but only the sceptics had right of reply. Their pernicious and patronizing complacency exposed only that they know nothing about the subject. Quite obviously they have neither studied nor understood the basic premises of the ancient crafts of astrology, tarot or palmistry or their philosophical paradigms. Their bottom line was the materialism and sensationalism of our times. More fools them.

The program was so intent on grinding their axe of veracity - testing Readers ‘ powers’ – it forgot to put the paranormal into any kind of cultural context. What function in our society do readers serve? Have they an historical role? Why has there been a renaissance of their activity? Why do the skeptics, academics, scientists and the media gatekeepers hate them so irrationally; constantly intent on ‘proving’ them ‘wrong’? Prediction after all, is not only the province of psychics. Economists and weather forecasters are not subject to slander with impunity. Gambling, i.e. betting on your predictions that just might come true, is surely a much bigger grossing industry than humble fortune-telling.

Reasonable questions in a real documentary maybe, but not here. Instead the program-makers put up a personable, albeit nervous frontman to wander around, sizing up what’s on offer from the weird, witchy and wacky. If the practitioners filmed didn’t fit in with their prearranged weirdness criteria, the production company did their darnest dishonest best to edit and discredit them. Entertainment was the ultimate goal, certainly not education, spirituality or the truth - alas poor truth was stretched to its outer limits with spooky music as accomplice.

FERN MERCIER
9 November 2001