Welcome to my blog! Here you'll find my musings on a anything from the Tarot, gay rights, current affairs, classical music and whatever else makes life beautiful, rewarding, challenging or just plain fun. This is my world - I hope you find it informative!
CHRIS BUTLER is an award winning writer, artist and illustrator from Liverpool. He discovered the Tarot at the age of thirteen while watching the James Bond movie '
Live and Let Die'. Gripped by the strange figures on the heraldically coloured cards, his fascination has remained with him and continues to grow.
He met tarot writer Kay Stopforth in early 2006 and within a month they had begun their collaboration on the Quantum Tarot. The deck was published by Kunati Books in Autumn 2008 and is now published in a revised edition by Lo Scarabeo.
Subsequently,
For Schiffer Books, Chris authored and illustrated The Son Tarot, published in 2012 and Lenormand Cartomancy, published in 2013.
The
Healing Light Tarot and the
Healing Light Lenormand were published by Lo Scarabeo in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Arcana 20 was published by the UK Tarot Conference to celebrate their 20th anniversary whilst Chris's latest project, the Oracle of the Hekatean Path (illustrated for Kenn Payne) will be published by Lo Scarabeo in Spring 2024.
Chris has a profound interest in religion and spirituality, and he holds a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Heythrop College, University of London. He also continues to work as a painter and illustrator. Visit his web site at:
christopherbutler.crevado.com
Sacred Tarot is very much about collaboration. Below are some details of friends and colleagues who have worked with Chris previously or will do so in the near future.
PETRONELLA DEVANEY MA is a Jungian psychotherapist, writer and poet. She works with clients in private practice and gives seminars on a range of Jungian themes. For over twenty years she has been a teacher of meditation and healing.
She is a founder member of The Acton Poets whose first collection of poems, Round Table was published in 2012. For many years she had a house in the mountains of Mallorca, where her recent novel, Scent of the Moonflowers is set. She now lives and works in London, where she was born and grew up. She is married to a musician and fellow poet, and has two grown up sons.
Her journey with the Tarot began in 1973 when she was presented with a curious find from a little, out of the way antiques shop in rural Burgundy. In an ornate ceramic box she discovered an eighteenth century Besancon Tarot deck and such was her fascination, she immediately sought out what few books were available at that time and set out to learn all she could about the cards. Like Chris, her interest in the tarot and her sense of wonder and fascination has deepened over the years. Chris and Petronella first met in 1993 when they were both studying at Heythrop College, University of London. They lost touch for many years but a combination of fate, good fortune - and the Tarot! - reunited them in 2013.
Sharing their experience and knowledge of the cards, the idea of a collaboration was soon in both their heads but Petronella was brave enough to suggest it first. The result was the first Sacred Tarot Workshop, held in London in June 2015. Their aim was to emphasise the sacred healing aspects of the Tarot and to show that the secret knowledge contained in the Tarot can be learnt and used by all in the quest for self understanding, healing and wholeness. Visit Petronella at:
www.ppdtherapy.com
KAY STOPFORTH is a London based writer who has worked with Chris on the Quantum Tarot project. Written by Kay and illustrated by Chris, the Quantum Tarot has become something of a Tarot classic. It first came to print in a limited collector's edition, published by Adam McClean then latterly in its first commercial edition put out by Kunati Books in 2008. The second edition, Quantum Tarot 2.0 is currently available from Lo Scarabeo and it remains one of their best selling titles.
Kay bought her first deck, the Mythic Tarot, in 1990 and has been fascinated by the tarot ever since. Graduating in Film Studies, she has worked as a recording studio technician, pop video editor, waitress, documentary maker, IT systems manager and librarian. She has also worked as a professional tarot reader. Inspired by photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, Kay created her first oracle deck, the Universe Cards (published by Thorns
Element) in 1999. She got the idea for the Quantum Tarot while reading a book on superstring theory; Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe." She envisaged the tarot would be the perfect vehicle for exploring the exciting and complex ideas of the new physics. Kay also writes fiction and has also developed a way of combining storytelling and tarot. Her "Tarot Tales" are unique, individually-tailored story-based readings that combine elements of fairy tales, mythology and psychology. Along with fellow Tarot author and poet Liz Dean (Golden Tarot, Art of Tarot, Fairytale Fortune Cards), Kay also ran the London Tarot Salon, a monthly meet up group fostering a playful and creative approach to learning the tarot. She is a member of the Aeclectic Tarot Forum, an online tarot community, and it was through a get together of London based Aeclectic members that she met Chris Butler. Kay lives in South London with her partner Keith.
