Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the 11th International Tarot Congress. (www.congresotarot.com), organized by the Mariló Casals School of Barcelona.
It is important to note, that since the first congress organized by this school in 2012 in Barcelona, year after year, new countries have joined the initiative to hold tarot congresses, creating what is now the Tarot Congresses International Network (www.redinternacionalcongresosdetarot.com), which brings together 8 countries, and whose achievements include the drafting of a Tarot Code of Ethics. (www.eticaytarot.com) and the establishment of recommendations for tarot readers and consultants.
I must confess that although I had been researching and studying the Minchiate Tarot for a long time, it was after being selected for this congress that I had the drive and motivation to carry out the Kickstarter campaign, reproduce my deck and begin to write a book specialized in Minchiate. I realized the enormous lack of information that exists (never before had an exposition on this deck been presented at a congress of the congress network) and that the dissemination of knowledge had to be seriously addressed.
What can I tell you about my experience?
Well, it is impressive how many topics and points of view there are regarding the tarot. In fact, just as there are thousands of different versions and decks of tarot, there are thousands of different viewpoints.
Human beings are incredibly creative and it is wonderful how this creativity is expressed within the immense diversity of approaches and tarot readers. In this sense, it was a surprise to discover the presentations and their contents.
The first thing that stands out is that we are all crazy. Hahaha! seriously, I had a lot of fun. I am not very esoteric, or rather, I believe that the path of magic and spirit is mainly personal, experiential, and non-transferable.
There is an enormous esoteric universe around the tarot, in gestation for several centuries, which in its multiple expressions is a true feast of visualizations, horoscopes, numerology, signs, energies, vibrations, rituals, golden lights, and auras, etc.
Within this great party that was the congress, one discovers which music is the one I like the most, and with whom I want to dance, or with whom I prefer to leave the room to talk more peacefully.
Personally, my heart was charmed by the work of the Argentine Marcelo Umpierrez (@historicasdel_tarot), whose presentation “The fortress of the damned (the tower)” was a journey through the triumph of the Tower, from its first representations in historical and classical tarots to the present, showing its different names and meanings, according to the writings, the iconography of the time and the region of each card (which of course he was showing throughout his presentation). A very good research work, which mentioned: “The House of the Devil” of the Tarot Minchiate.
I would also like to highlight the two days of the congress, which were Saturday, March 27th, and Sunday, March 28th, with more than two hundred people, gathered in a large hall, sharing their love for tarot and where we improvised a brief introductory class on “How to play Minchiate and what are the basic rules of the game“, during our lunchtime.
The idea came up after my lecture, during the Q&A, and “we said it and we did it!”. I was very excited to see how much interest is there in learning to play the game because I never had anyone to play with! Sadly.
That’s what I get for being a romantic, and wanting to play games lost in time! So as soon as I finish the book, I promise to start doing workshops and Minchiate practice groups in some bars in Barcelona.
Back to the congress, as always, the best thing is the people. My crazy guild. I met unique people and it was beautiful to share with them. And to finish this story I want to note a great moment for Minchiate Tarot: at the beginning of the congress, the organization invited us to do a “Ritual to activate intuition”, for which at the table and at each booth, all attendees had available crayons, a candle, a miniature key, etc…
Then, in one of the ritual steps, we were asked to draw four cards representing the 4 elements and place them in front of us, around the candle, for example, Ace of Cups (water), Ace of Coins (earth), Ace of Wands (fire), Ace of Swords (air).
You can understand the deep pleasure and joy I felt when I realized that among the 200 people in attendance, I was the only one who did not put cards representing the 4 elements but had the 4 elements!! What a great Minchiate moment, I was so happy! It was like having the real guest artists at the table, while at the other tables were the impersonators, or like having the presidents while the others have the ambassadors, well, I felt something like that, a real triumph of triumphs. And the best thing is that my table mates noticed.
There weren’t too many of us at our table, but we are making progress.
And if I can’t brag about this great Minchiate moment here, I have nowhere else to do it.
So, now you know, if you like cartomancy, playing card games, and rituals with four elements, the Minchiate is for you!!
