Taught via Zoom by Morbid Anatomy Programing Director Laetitia Barbier.

$80 (Regular Admission) / $60 (Patreon Members $5/mo and above)
Dates: Sundays January 29th - June 18th
Time: 5pm to 7pm EST

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.

In this twenty three week workshop and discussion group, we’ll spend some time together with Sallie Nichols’ seminal book, Tarot and The Archetypal Journey, The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light, previously published in it’s 1980 edition as Jung and the Tarot: An Archetypal Journey.

Although never a clinician, Sallie Nichols spent a lifetime studying Jungian psychology, often traveling to Zurich to attend seminars taught by Jung himself, his wife Emma and other prominent jungian scholars. Working as an editor for Psycological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thoughts, she also regularly lectured on Tarot symbolism at C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

Describing the tarot as a Mutus Liber, a silent book, Nichols sees The Tarot as a path of self-realization, using images, a non-verbal language, to bring to the surface signs and echos, a psychodrama of icons, which—very much like in dreams—mirror our inner realities. Using the Tarot de Marseille, Nichols takes us on an adventure, in which the major arcanas brings forth the archetypal mapping of one’s soul, inviting us to travel inward and meet the collective, the ancient and the ancestral lying dormant within us. Presented as a portal, each card opens toward a multifaceted symbolic unit, layered with “clusters of feelings, intuitions, thoughts and sensations” capable of affecting, dialoguing with our psyche.

If Nichols produced one of the most important book of her generation, Tarot And The Archetypal Journey speaks as much about Tarot as a practice that exemplifies tarot history in the making, her work being representative of an era in which the use of Tarot branched out from esoterica or divination into initiatic pursuits through introspection and self-exploration.

Nichols' book, by being such a Magna Carta of contemporary tarot culture, shows how Tarot’s history evolves, shinning back at us the era it came from, being redefined through the experience of the reader. Tarot and The Archetypal Journey is a magical time capsule, Nichols work tying together an early 20th century filled with groundbreaking psychoanalytic research as well as the utopias of the Age of Aquarius in its Californian epicenter, which Nichols was a witness of.

In our first class, we’ll welcome Tarot legend Mary K. Greer, who wrote the foreword of the edition, to discuss Jung and the Tarot, and to celebrate the life and work of the evanescent figure of Nichols, who passed shortly after the publication of her sole book. This first class will also be the occasion to measure the immense legacy of her work, whose groundbreaking reframing of tarot practice, through the lens of Jungian theory, inspired so many readers and scholars.

In the twenty-two subsequent classes, we’ll follow the thread of Nichols book, taking a weekly look at a different major arcana, exploring in conversation the myths, folklore, fairy tales and images she discussed and her reflections on each card’s symbolic value. We’ll take an opportunity, each week to invoke some of the Jungian technique she advocated for - free association, active or creative imagination, dialogue - toward practical tarot experiments and a playful approach of the cards and their symbolism.

Each students will be requested to do the weekly reading assignments, about 20 pages a week. The practical portion of the class is open to any card decks.

Finding the book: Tarot and the Archetypal Journey can be purchase via Morbid Anatomy. You can find the book easily otherwise, especially second hand. The first version, Jung and the Tarot can absolutely be used as well.

French-born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, as well as a professional tarot reader and teacher. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Art History from La Sorbonne University Paris in 2009. Laetitia has worked with Morbid Anatomy since 2011 as a programming director, head librarian, and occasional curator. Her book Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive was published in 2021 with a forward of Rachel Pollack. She is the author of the Tiger Tarot Guide Book, a unique Tarot deck by symbolist artist Lori Field. Laetitia has lectured, taught and read cards for various cultural institutions, such has Greenwood Cemetery, the College of Psychic Studies in London or the Montclair Art Museum. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Mary K. Greer is an independent scholar, writer, teacher, and professional tarot consultant known for her innovative teaching techniques. With an M.A. in English Literature, she taught Tarot in colleges for fifteen years. She is the author of twelve books on tarot and on magic, and was first to write about using tarot for oneself. She pioneered what she calls the RITE method: “Readings that are Interactive, Transformational and Empowering.” As an initiate of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Priestess/Hierophant in the Fellowship of I is, and student of the Mysteries, Mary has extensive experience with rituals and practices that are part of the underground stream known as the Ageless Wisdom, Perennial Philosophy or Secret Tradition. Her books include: Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation, 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card, Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and/Priestesses, and she is a co-author of Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story. Featured at most Tarot conferences in the U.S. and abroad, Mary travels the world teaching Tarot. You can find her at http://marykgreer.com and on Facebook.