On the August 17th episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg received a tarot reading from Sandy Anastasi. See my comments on the reading here.
Thanks to Steve Schreiber for pointing this out to me. Check out my TV & Movie Watch List.
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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me HERE.
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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me HERE.
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August 17, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Beth Owl's Daughter
Thanks for posting this, Mary! Interesting.. but..hmmmm…
Origins lost in the mists of time with the earliest ones coming from the Gypsies, probably to train psychics, did they? Sigh..
Would love to know if there was more, or what Whoopi’s response was..
– Beth
August 17, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Steve
Hi!
I saw the segment on TV, and it just about ended at this point. Whoopi did confirm that it was relevant by saying “Yes, it’s accurate” but there was no additional discussion about the cards or the reading.
Steve
August 17, 2009 at 4:59 pm
mkg
Beth –
It was pretty awful that Sandy didn’t know anything about the real history of tarot when so much is available now in print and on the web. I wrote her “assistant” (she doesn’t take emails herself) about my concern that a tarot author and media spokesperson for tarot could be so unaccountably ignorant. I hope others will let her know that this is not very professional.
I wish we could have seen more of the reading. Although Sandy’s interpretations were not exactly as I would have read things, she seemed to be doing a decent reading – if she hadn’t been interrupted so much.
August 17, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Jim
This Tarot segment is one part of an entire episode about John Edward’s InfiniteQuest website and Sandy Anastasi gave the Tarot presentation because of her association with that website.
It indeed puzzles and yes saddens me that the old myths seem to still be more prevalent in the big media than the actual historical facts.
August 17, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Gayla
If she just would have talked a little bit more about the more accurate history….this was a GOLDEN opportunity to educate the world about Tarot…in my opinion, she blew it…to me it seemed it came across as a ‘novelty’ to them…just a ‘fun’ type of reading.
Barbara Walters would have made a better, more astute querent….
My two cents worth, anyway.:)
August 18, 2009 at 5:17 am
Julia
I just wanted to smack that blonde woman for jumping in and turning the cards the other way!
August 18, 2009 at 6:03 am
Beth Owl's Daughter
Oh, Julia! Yes, me too! And NOT because the Universe will crack open and demons will fly out if you touch a reader’s cards!!!
Mary, you inspired me to also write to her assistant. Hope it’s okay if I share some of it here…
I doubt her handlers will share any unfavorable feedback with her, but I told her that as a reader for nearly 40 years, I take my profession very seriously. “So I was thrilled to see that a fellow Tarotist was being given an opportunity to educate the public about what the Tarot is, and demonstrate what we do.
“But my hopes were dashed by your unfortunate blunder about the origins of the Tarot, and the way you framed its use, history, and intention.
“I realize that the TV show was approaching the whole thing in a very casual, goofy attitude. And it was a rotten shame that you didn’t have more time for the real reading and interpretation.
“But I was really disappointed that you didn’t turn that around by clearing up their misunderstanding. Once again, Tarot is made to look ridiculous and freaky, and life for REAL Tarot people is made that much more difficult.
“I know you did your best, but I hope you will take your own mission statement [that is on her web page] to heart for yourself, and get educated about our art.”
Not wanting to be unkind, I wished her well. But I am so sick of this sort of thing! Makes me wonder what the heck is in her books and lessons (on her website). And I felt like Whoopi was actually getting something out of it, but I guess we’ll never know.
Thanks for nudging me to take action.
– Beth
August 18, 2009 at 8:35 am
Marcus Katz
Mary
My gosh, that’s so god-awefully typical on so many levels. It really doesn’t progress anything for anyone, does it? More reasons for Tarot Professionals to start getting involved in media – but proactively rather than reactively (which I doubt gets us anywhere anyway).
Thanks for drawing it to our attention – although it is somewhat dismaying.
Marcus
http://www.tarotprofessionals.com
August 18, 2009 at 11:52 am
mkg
Beth –
Thanks for letting us know what you said. I thought it was very diplomatic and encouraging, while also letting the reader know that not knowing tarot history really isn’t acceptable anymore.
Julia –
I agree about the interviewer. However, even watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert it becomes clear that you need to get your info in quickly and concisely and not get sidetracked. Not that I think I could have done better. It seems to help going in if you realize they want a clever ‘sound-bite,’ not an answer.
August 19, 2009 at 5:33 am
shadowfoxtarot
I was hopeful that this would be a good representation of what the Tarot truly is, and unfortunately, those hopes were dashed as soon as she started talking about the origins of Tarot and the gypsies. Once again, another wonderful opportunity to educate just went out the window.
August 23, 2009 at 6:58 am
Alison Cross (TABITarot)
Yes – a great opportunity lost to get a bit of clarity about the history of Tarot to the viewing public. It would have been so much better if she’d just confessed that she didn’t know!
So she doesn’t take e-mails herself?! Who the heck is this woman?! Sounds to me like she’s been caught on the back foot by the criticism and doesn’t want to poke her head above the parapet to answer.
I found the reading itself muddy and wouldn’t have been happy to pay for it – that interviewer showed no respect for what was going on. I think that’s our REAL problem – media people still don’t really take us seriously.
Ah well, fellow Tarot questers – back to the drawing board!
AX
August 23, 2009 at 7:22 am
Marcus Katz
Hello Mary
I checked over Sandy’s siite and within her “Tarot Workbook” sample there is the following: “Of course, the name Tarot is French. But we know the Tarot cards were not developed in France. Many authorities assert that they were developed in the Middle East, but by and for whom, as well as when, seems to vary from authority to authority. The oldest Tarot designs currently in existence can be dated back to about 1390, so many modern day Tarot authors point to their development as being around 1200 A.D. There is also some evidence that the original designs were initially carried throughout Europe by Gypsies, until they became popular with the various crown heads of the land, and each member of royalty had to have a deck designed for them. However, once many variations on the design appeared, the ‘original’ symbols, whatever they were, were lost.
Incidentally, it is during this time that playing cards, as we know them now, were born. The 52 cards of the typical playing card deck are the Minor Arcana (minus the four Pages) of the Tarot deck.”
Sandy goes on to write:
“I feel the Tarot is much older than current authorities assert. Here is my version of where they came from:”
and there the preview for that section ends, mercifully.
I’ve actually taken the opportunity to write to Sandy and invite her into Tarot Professionals, as she seems commited to “educating the public”. Better it be with some accurate information, then!
Marcus
August 23, 2009 at 7:32 am
Beth Owl's Daughter
Oh, acccckkkkk! Thanks, Marcus!
August 23, 2009 at 7:01 pm
mkg
Marcus –
Thanks for the quote from Sandy’s book preview on her website.
There are so many theories of where the tarot came from, however most people prefer to speculate rather than doing any real study or investigation. Idres Shah was convinced it was a Sufi invention (I rather liked that one).
I have a theory that tarot cards originated from a game played by the gods with chess-like pieces in order to manipulate the destinies of the humankind to which they were attached. However, the Fool (like Prometheus who stole fire) brought these “tarots” to earth in order to put destiny into human hands. The Fool was condemned to remain on earth until he could regather all the pieces and return them to Olympus, but he forgot his task and wanders the world looking for something that he can’t remember. Perhaps you’ve met him wandering the streets?
Mary
August 24, 2009 at 12:51 am
Marcus Katz
Mary
Rachel re-arranged the magnetic letters on our fridge-door to read:
“The Cards are the Blood”
Which she noted was a re-working of a quote from Bram Stoker in “Dracula”. I left it there for a week affter she’d left, as it seemed incomplete somehow … then I started wondering, “the blood of what?” and a couple of days later completed the fridge magnet mystery:
“The Cards are the Blood of the Word”.
My wife assumed I hadn’t found the letter “L” for “world”, but what I was revealing of course was that when Thoth created Universe with the Word, not only were the vessels shattered and scattered, the Word itself was scarred by that same shattering. As a result, it dripped 78 drops of blood into creation itself. The cards.
And that’s the real truth, not this nonsense about gypsies, LOL.
Marcus
August 31, 2009 at 8:26 pm
John Roberts
After watching the tarot reading for Whoopie, I am almost speechless. I don’t care about the history of Tarot, but I do care about the meanings of the cards. Sandy Anastasi has the meanings wrong. She was mistaken about the 7 of Cups and also the Ace of Wands. Surprising that a woman who knows so little could get such national attention.
September 1, 2009 at 10:38 am
mkg
Marcus –
Dare I add anything to what you and Rachel Pollack wrote? I just can’t help myself:
“The Cards are the Blood of the Word Scattered into Creation.”
Actually these are your words but I thought they belonged in the phrase.
I like this creation story. Maybe I’ll keep it. Perhaps what we need is a whole book of tarot creation stories!
September 1, 2009 at 10:43 am
mkg
John –
Someone sent me a copy of Sandi’s tarot book. She did utilize her own meanings but read one card as if it were upright and the other as if it were reversed – according to her own text. However, since I can replay the video, it is obvious that both cards were laid out in the same direction, but when the interviewer started turning them around it appears that Sandi wasn’t sure which way the Ace of Wands came up – so she went with her own intuition. Her intuition may turn out more correct than the position of the cards. I wish there would be a follow up with Whoopi commenting on the information.
September 1, 2009 at 11:43 am
Marcus Katz
MKG
If you have a publisher for an anthology of Tarot Creation stories, I’ve got two in process! I’d love to hear a fictionalised but “well-researched” account of precisely how and why secret beings in Atlantis decided to hide the entire wisdom of the universe in some pictures on cardboard, rather than any other method. And then in another story read the exciting adventures of the gypsies “fleeing Egypt” with the Tarot cards hidden in their “romany caravans”. And so on. That’d be a great collection! Really!
I’d recommend Rakoczi’s”The Painted Caravan”, John D. Blakeley’s “The Mystical Tower of the Tarot”, Stephen E. Franklin’s “Origins of the Tarot Deck” and – come to think of it – Christine Payne-Towler’s “The Underground Stream” all for various ‘out-of-the-box’ but detailed constructions of Tarot origins!
Marcus
http://www.tarotprofessionals.com
Marcus
September 1, 2009 at 1:18 pm
mkg
Marcus –
Don’t you ever go to sleep! There’s no publisher but perhaps we could do it as a special issue of the Tarosophist Magazine.
http://stores.lulu.com/farawaycentre
Congratulations on getting the huge new edition of the magazine out with all the great articles on the Thoth deck.
September 5, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Earth Gypsy
I got the feeling that Whoopi wasn’t all that impressed and looked very closed off and skeptical!
September 5, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Earth Gypsy
I just noticed that I wasn’t the only one unimpressed with the readers card associations. She seemed a bit flouncy rather than professional!
June 14, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Jason Frank
I read her book, as well as others on Psychic Development. It seems that all of her information is quite shallow.