#55 - Rachel Pollack, Tarot Titan and Radical Writer
The Witch Wave
Pam Grossman
4.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2020
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Season Finale! Rachel Pollack is a legend who is perhaps best known as one of the world’s foremost tarot experts, having written such classics as Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom and The New Tarot Handbook. She’s also the creator of The Shining Tribe Tarot and co-creator with Robert Place of The Burning Serpent Oracle and the Raziel Deck.
But tarot is just of tip of the iceberg, as she is the author of 43 books of fiction and non-fiction, many of them in the speculative or sci-fi genres, including Unquenchable Fire which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, which won the World Fantasy Award. She is also an accomplished comic book writer and pioneer, and during her run for DC Comics’ Doom Patrol in the 1990s, she introduced one of the world’s first transgender superheroes - and is now considered by many to be a transgender superhero herself.
Rachel’s work has been translated into 16 languages, and she has taught and lectured on tarot, creative writing, gender, and innumerable other topics in the U.S. Canada, Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and China. And until her retirement, she was a senior faculty member of Goddard College’s MFA in Writing program.
Rachel’s most recent book is The Beatrix Gates, a volume which collects several of her most visionary stories as well as a brand new essay on magic and transgender living. This year it was nominated for a Lambda Award.
One can see why poet Cat Fitzpatrick called Rachel “a living national treasure.”
On this episode, Rachel discusses the relationship between tarot and comic books, the importance of visionary transgender storytelling, and why her religion is Heresy.
Pam also speaks about following magical clues long term, and answers a listener question about practicing fire magic in the home.
Our sponsors for this episode are Clarissa Eck Pottery, Max Razdow’s Mage Cards on Kickstarter, BetterHelp, and Clever Kim’s Curios
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Witch Wave is brought to you by Clarissa Ek. |
| 0:06.0 | Clarissa Ek is a potter creating hand-carved, illustrated mugs, planters, and altar plates which call upon animal messengers, |
| 0:16.9 | ancient plant knowledge, and hermetic symbolism to stir the depths of the spirit. I am lucky enough to own some pieces by |
| 0:26.9 | Clarissa and they are stunning. Every piece of pottery she creates is a spell, a gentle reminder of those in-between moments |
| 0:37.8 | that make life rich with wonder and mystery. |
| 0:41.6 | Find her work at Clarissa Ek on Instagram |
| 0:45.6 | or at W.W. |
| 0:48.1 | Clarissa-Ech. |
| 0:51.2 | and Ek is spelled E. that's at clarissa ech or |
| 0:56.8 | www dot clarissa dash e k dot com so this is exciting, live on Kickstarter as of today, a limited edition first full printing of the Mage cards, which are by my dear friend, the artist Max Raspow. |
| 1:21.4 | The Mage cards are Max Razdow's Theergic oracle produced by Core Magic and its decks feature |
| 1:30.6 | 124 original ink drawings representing esoteric |
| 1:35.6 | archetypes in six major vocations including of course witchcraft, |
| 1:41.6 | poetic spells, deities, and a cosmology of magical concepts that you can use to manifest and interpret your experience. |
| 1:52.0 | The Mage cards come with a 30-page digital guidebook and |
| 1:58.2 | some Kickstarter supporters will be able to register for an introductory class. |
| 2:05.0 | Max is truly one of the smartest, most talented, most magical human beings that I know you are definitely going to want to get these |
| 2:15.0 | Mage cards and you can do so by searching Mage cards on kick-starter to find out |
| 2:21.0 | more that's Mage cards, M-A-G-E cards on Kickstarter. |
| 2:37.0 | The world is filled with bewitching people and you might be one too. Welcome to the podcast where art is magic, magic is real and reality is stranger than dreams. I'm Pam Grossman and this is be a friend. |
| 2:55.0 | Oh, suddenly she's in the night. |
| 3:00.0 | She's in the night, a mountain of me to my knees to my face, |
... |
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