An Interview with Ellen Cannon Reed, Designer of The Witches' Tarot
Shortly after I put up the TarotWeb site, I received an email from Ellen Cannon Reed, designer of the Witches' Tarot. She had seen my page on Decks of the Tarot and asked if there was anything she could tell me about the Witches' Tarot, since she was the one who had designed it. I was surprised, needless to say. I had seen Ms. Reed's books in a favorite store of mine for years, and for a long time had wanted to purchase them as well as the tarot deck. When she emailed me, I thought it was a good opportunity to talk to someone who has actually designed a deck and has worked intimately with the tarot for many years. I conducted a short email interview with Ellen Cannon Reed early this month.
Where were you born, and where did you grow up?
"I was born in Akron, Ohio, and grew up all over the place! I'm a service brat."
For how long have you been interested in the tarot, and could you elaborate on how you decided to bring the Qabala into the deck?
"Actually, the Qabala came first to me. The lady who became my High Priestess suggested Regardie's Tree of Life as a book I'd enjoy. I did, and I was hooked. I started playing with Tarot after that, but it was years before I started thinking of the two together."
Are you Wiccan yourself? Or do you identify yourself as pagan?
"Yes, I consider myself Wiccan, and therefore also pagan."
When did you design the Witches' Tarot, and how long did it take you to do it?
"It's hard to say when -- the late 1980's. I'm not sure how long it took."
How long have you been studying the Qabala?
"About 21 years."
What was it about the Qabala that made you realise it could be related to the tarot?
"It was the other way around...I started seeing how tarot related to the Qabala. When I was writing the book that became The Witches' Tarot , it was (and still is) as sequel to my first book, The Goddess and the Tree (at the time it was called The Witches' Qabala.) The first book covered the spheres. The second book was to cover the paths between the spheres. The Major Arcana are attributed to the paths on the Tree, and the Tarot cards express the experiences those paths represent. I designed the cards to express, in Pagan terms, those experiences."
You can obtain The Witches' Tarot from Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., a company that is noted for their New Age books and resources.
February's Card: The Hanged Man
Profile of a Deck: The Norse Tarot
Interview with Ellen Cannon Reed: Designer of the Witches' Tarot
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