Divining with Oracle Cards: History and Practice, with Robert M. Place, creator of the Alchemical Tarot

4 week online course
2pm - 4pm Eastern Time
Saturdays October 16, 30, November 13 & Sunday November 21 (Three Saturdays and One Sunday)
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Taught via Zoom by Robert M Place.

$200 for the four classes ($175 for $5/a month and above Patreon members) - $55 for each Session ($50 for $5/a month and above Patreon members).

Please note: Zoom invites are sent five days before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

In modern Western culture, the Tarot is the deck of cards most often associated with divination, while playing cards are relegated to merely playing games. This was, however, not always so.

From the early 14th century, when cards were first introduced in Europe, up until the beginning of the 20th century, playing cards were the preferred tool for divination. In the late 18th century, decks were created in which iconic divinatory symbols were associated with each playing card. These oracle cards, as they were called, were designed specifically for divination, and they became the most popular form until the mid 20th century.

Because they contain simple iconic images—such as a key, a house, a ship, a man, or a woman, each with a focused meaning—oracle cards communicate clearly, and their use in divination is regaining popularity. One of the most widely used forms today is the deck of 36 cards known as the Lenormand, named after the most famous diviner of the Napoleonic era, Mlle. Marie Le Normand. But this is not the only variation.

Often these decks were used to predict the future. In this class. Robert Place offers what he believes is a more useful approach. We can use the cards to forecast where we are heading in the future, but the goal is to help us make wise decisions in the present and avoid problems before they happen. We will learn the symbolism of each card, and various ways of laying out the cards to gain the wisdom needed to solve life’s problems. Although the Tarot is used for a similar purpose, oracle cards are more focused on practical everyday problems such as love and business. Unlike the Tarot, there are specific cards in the deck, which represent separate people in the client’s life. And because the images on the cards are focused on simple iconic images with limited meanings, they are easier for students to learn. Having an oracle deck in one’s arsenal is like having a secret weapon that can quickly focus on a client’s specific problems and challenges.

Place will also introduce the various oracle decks that he has created: The 36 card New York Lenormand (a recreation of a standard Lenormand Hirst published in New York in 1882), the 40 card Burning Serpent Oracle (a creative Lenormand that he created with Rachel Pollack, which has four extra cards), and the 54 card Hermes Playing Card Oracle (which is based on a standard set of playing cards with two jokers, but contains all of the 36 Lenormand images plus 18 additional traditional oracle symbols). Because all of these decks are based on the Lenormand, the students will become skilled at using all three decks.

The workshop will begin with a brief discussion of the history of oracle cards, which will provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of the meanings of each card.

Next we will cover the symbolism and meaning of each of the 36 Lenormand cards and the additional cards in Place’s decks. An understanding of the meaning of each card is essential for interpreting them in readings. But the power of oracle decks comes from how the meaning of each card is modified as they are placed next to another card, so we will also learn the meaning of various combinations of cards.

By the end of the first day and through day two, the students will practice laying out cards in combinations of three, five, seven, or nine cards and interpreting them as answers to they questions. The workshop will culminate with the Grand Tableau: a layout that uses every card in the deck and that provides a more extensive forecast of life’s events. By the end of this workshop students will become competent readers with any of my decks and with any standard Lenormand deck.

Robert M. Place is an internationally known visionary artist, whose award-winning works, in painting, sculpture, and jewelry, have been displayed in galleries and museums in America, Europe, and Japan. He is the designer, illustrator, and co-author of The Alchemical Tarot, The Angels Tarot, and The Raziel Tarot, which have received international acclaim. He is designer, illustrator, and author of The Alchemical Tarot Renewed, the award-winning The Tarot of the Saints, The Buddha Tarot, The Vampire Tarot, The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, The Tarot of the Alchemical Magnum Opus, The Alchemical Tarot of Marseille, The Hermes Playing Card Oracle, and The New York Lenormand. He is the author of The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, which Booklist has said, “may be the best book ever written on that deck of cards decorated with mysterious images called the tarot.” He is the author of Astrology and Divination, Magic and Alchemy, and Shamanism, Alchemy and the Tarot, and The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism. He is the curator of The Fools' Journey and the author of the catalog for this exhibition of Tarot art that originated at the LA Craft and Folk-Art Museum. He was the guest of honor at the opening of the Tarot Museum in Riola, Italy. He has created numerous illustrations for books and magazines, his Facsimile Historic Italian Tarot is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he and his work have appeared on the BBC, A&E, the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel. He has taught and lectured on five continents. Among his newest works are Lenormand and Tarot collaborations with Tarot diva Rachel Pollack, and a Lenormand deck inspired by Japanese culture.

Image: Lenormand Oracle deck published by Hoffmann and Kroppenstedt,
first published in Berlin in 1854, from the British Museum.