James Wardle

I acquired my first deck in about 1974 (the memory gets cloudy over the years!) from my mother who had learned to read the card a few years earlier (thanx Mom for sending me down the road to ruin!). The deck was a University Books edition RWS. Mom wound up missing that particular deck and traded me out for the new one she acquired, which was a 1971 US Games version (see ramblings on Card Backs for how to tell the difference (which printing? Only God and Stuart Kaplan know.). I studied and cross-indexed and generally beat to hell my copy of The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1971, Harper & Row, PB). I still recommend that book to people beginning a Tarot study, and not because its the best book out there. It surely is NOT! Arth writes in a ponderous, turgid style that hints at much and reveals little. It is an exercise in perseverance to finish the book, and one ends not particularly better off for the process, EXCEPT FOR . . . . the Bibliography (make sure you pick up one with that part included. Many recent editions eliminate it.). In that part, Arth gives detailed commentary on the occult/Tarot literature of his day, liberally sprinkled with acid. I consider that piece the best part of the book, as it developed and honed my personal BS detector, which is a valuable asset considering the wealth of junk being published as fact about Tarot. Of course, Arth himself was guilty of indulging in specious speculations also, but golly, you don't have to buy his viewpoint to use his deck. It stands on its own.

On to the saga of my obsession with early editions of this deck. I have no idea what the year was, but Mom (again being a bad influence on me) and I went to a trunk sale. Most of the time this is merely an afternoon spent wondering at all the junk people will pay money for. On this particular occasion there was a vendor who had two decks of Tarot cards in boxes. I looked at one, and it was a RWS with a card back I hadn't seen before and a book. The other box had only a deck. The vendors were completely ignorant of Tarot, and said they ordered the cards to match the book. For some unknown reason, I HAD TO HAVE THAT DECK! Of course I was a bit short of cash, and Mom bailed me out for the one deck with the book. For the next several weeks I was walking on air - and I wasn't even collecting at that time! (Of course I had managed to acquire the Aquarian and Thoth by then, but that's hardly a collection.) I checked the date on the book, which was 1910, and was delighted to believe I had a first edition RWS for very little money (okay, it was $40).

Time passes. The curtains flutter in the window. I finally get flush enough to subscribe to Manteia magazine, which I had heard was the finest Tarot periodical around (this is sometime in '94 or '95). I send money off for the subscription and all the back issues (I have a completion complex). Some time later, I get a package from Denmark wrapped in fluorescent green-yellow custom's tape (checking for that dratted Tarot pornography no doubt!). All the issues are there and a note from Frank Jensen announcing that Manteia will be ceasing publication. This of course is "just my luck", as I was to discover as I spent the next few weeks devouring the issues. The world of Tarot got quite a bit larger from reading those issues. so it was a happy/sad time.

I had of course acquired several more decks and books and such by then. Okay, I confess. I was collecting Tarot by then, as having 120+ decks and 100+ books is hardly just routine. I however, did not have a RWS obsession, really, I promise.

Around that time, I joined the computer age beyond Pong. There were several attempts to catalog the decks and books I had, all of which managed to become lost in various different formats and save options (I still have enormous faith in hard-copy!). I found out about the Tarot-L mailgroup and joined. Previous discussion groups on AOL seemed to never get beyond the "what deck should I first use?" stage. This was a new adventure, and the Tarot world got larger again. There was (and is) discussion about a wide variety of topics, many of which I have no clue about, and precious little interest. But it does provide vast amounts of knowledgeable knowledge on many topics I am interested in.

In 1996 I heard about the ITS (International Tarot Society) World Tarot Congress, to be held in Chicago in 1997. I decided that was something I had to go to (it doesn't hurt that I have family in that city, and could accomplish two purposes at once!). That particular event was quite the cosmic life-changer. I got to meet so many of the Tarot "greats" that I had only worshiped from afar, or heard chatting on Tarot-L. They were Real People, and the Tarot-L pizza party was an event to remember and cherish, as was the entire Congress. Of course, riding down the elevator and chatting with Eden Gray was special also. As was seeing everyone from Tarot-L's contribution to the Dollie Tarot (some serious doll redesigning happened with that!). When I got back to SLC, I was again walking on clouds for weeks, for my little mind had been bent and expanded with all sorts of new ideas (and new decks and new books and new friends and. . .). The ITS is now defunct. Thanks for the memories! You'll all be missed.

After that great adventure, I decided to try to make it to BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium), as I had met Thalassa in Chicago and found a separated-at-birth sister. My first BATS in May of 1998 was continuation of the Tarot high. I, for some reason couldn't/didn't book a hotel, and did an "in by 9, out by 6" fly-in, learn, fly-out of SF (during Thalassa's lecture, I drew the Fool as my card, which seemed entirely appropriate!).

June, 1998. The American Tarot Association (ATA) is holding a conference in Denver. Well, that's just over the mountains from me, so I decide to go (I've turned into the little Tarot social butterfly and conference junkie!). I have no words to describe the Denver airport and my plane landing there (though kinda sideways tilted was a new and invigorating experience which I hope never to repeat! Next time I drive!). And there was the eternal trek to find the exit. . . and the silly talking train. . . . That conference was again a chance to meet many of the people from Tarot-L and the Chicago conference again. But somehow the overall experience was not quite so mind bending as Chicago. I don't know whether I had changed or what, but I somehow wound up getting irritated and challenged. I think it was the heavy emphasis on Kabbalah and Tarot that did me in (words that should NEVER be used together in my presence, except under special and limited circumstances!). But the upshot from the whole thing was that I had developed a new use for the two concepts as a result of that irritation. I came up with the Heretic's Dance on the Tree of Life, which I presented at BATS in October of 1998 in a rather chaotic fashion (it has since become rather tighter and more coherent). I am eternally grateful for that Denver experience as it stimulated me to actually DO something! Of course, part of the catalyst was Rachel Pollack from ITS in Chicago, for which she may not be held accountable.

The American Tarot Association is currently in organizational and financial turmoil. At this stage of the game, I cannot recommend any contact with them and most emphatically suggest that no one send them money until they get their books in order. For more information on this, go here. I do hope this situation resolves itself and the ATA can become an organization that both supports and is supported by the Tarot community. This situation seems to have resolved itself. People tell me the ATA is back on track doing good work. As always, know what it is you want from an organization (or a person) and only pay out what you can afford to lose. I don't want to get on my soapbox about certifications and such - I'm just a crabby old poop on that topic! The ATA is the only national organization I know of and they did have some good ideas. Best of luck to them!

July, 1998. I had gone to the big swap meet at the Redwood Drive-In to kill a Saturday morning. Before that was bagels and coffee and a pickup of the current Catalyst magazine. After the swap meet, I sat down on the sofa to read. In that issue was an article titled "The Solon of State Street - James Wardle". I read through the article and flung the magazine out of my hands. Before it hit the ground, I was out the door with my car keys driving down to Ken Sander's Bookstore.

Time for an expository aside on James Wardle. He was a barber in SLC, and I had heard about him several years back and that he had a large Tarot collection. For some unknown reason, possibly related to Tarot-envy, I never met the man. That was my loss. I've gotten over it. Mostly.

It seems James Wardle died in October of 1997, and Ken Sanders had acquired his Tarot collection, along with several other collections of his (UFO's, general occult, etc.). I get to the store, and Ken is not there. I talk with his daughter, who says he'll be in on Monday. That's an eternity, but I have to wait. On Monday, I slink out of work early, and get to meet Ken. I express my interest in Wardle's collection. He takes me in the back to see it. We're talking about two seven foot high racks stuffed with decks and two seven foot high racks stuffed with books, plus miscellaneous stuff in boxes. I am seriously drooling. I ask Ken what he wants for the collection. he quotes a number. I don't throw up. I ask him how much for just the decks, as I had more than half the books already. He hems and haws. I get no real answer, but emphasize as rationally as I can that I'm interested in buying the decks. I get home and start emailing and annoying several people I've met through all my conference fluttering about how much some such collection would be worth. They kindly help me out and said they had no idea. Much encouragement came though. I'm still negotiating with Ken about the decks. I offer to announce the book collection on Tarot-L, and he agrees (after of course, I had pulled the titles I wanted!). Well, Ken is then able to put together the "Tarot Top Five Desired Booklist", of which I had grabbed number one, Dummet's Tarot from Ferrara to Salt Lake City (which I remember seeing in Ken's previous store, Cosmic Aeroplane, and saying "I'll pick it up someday". Boy howdy did I!). He of course discovers that no one is going to be the enormous Tarot Fool and take the whole lot off his hands. More bargaining power for me. I massage all my resources and make an offer for the whole lot, minus the books I didn't want. Ken accepts. I am delirious. We exchange coin of the realm. I have the collection. (Happy Dance time!!)

I am now faced with a serious space problem. I have had a very bad book habit over the years, and filled my place with them. Time to readjust priorities. I make hard decisions and dump out several dozen boxes of books, to various used booksellers (including Ken) and to friends. The Tarot collection, as it now stands, has eaten my spare bedroom, and is threatening to consume more living space, and it's not even especially well organized due to space constraints. Auxiliary interests are shed. I am focused now. There is no room in my life (or house) for anything else (and to think it only took 40-some years to figure it out!). And I am now poor. Sigh. It was a price well worth paying. I am now a collector. I admit it. I embrace it. I don't apologize. I am getting rather creative about living on nothing.

Now of course, I'm going to have to spend several years cataloging and archiving all the material I now have. The decks are done and listed on 3x5 index cards. I have yet to get them into the computer (bad previous experiences). The books are arranged on shelves. The correspondence, of which there is quite a bit, is archived and indexed. The auxiliary papers and notes and clippings are indexed and ready to be collated into one master index (Wardle was a fanatic about organization, but that will be an entirely separate account, to be added later). I'm still working on scanning and printing out examples of all the decks so if someone is interested in a particular item, I don't have to necessarily have that deck handled overly much (15 volumes and growing quickly - I actually have to put the stuff in the computer and admit to the technological age, even though I still prefer handling actual hard copy). And I'm still acquiring odd pieces here and there, though I am quite behind on the current US Games catalog (damn you Stuart! Slow down so's us poor folks can catch up!).

And of course, there's the issue of "what happens to this collection when I'm dead?". This is something that has concerned me for some time, even before the big purchase, and is even more compelling now. My tentative plans is to donate the whole mess to the University of Utah if they will have it and not break it up (they have other pieces of Wardle's correspondence, etc.). I never managed to get a degree from that institution, and this would be my legacy/revenge. I of course, have to make it an attractive, useful commodity, which is my plan. Or, it could be turned into a Tarot museum, which would require a benefactor or me winning the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. My overall desire is to have the entire thing left intact for others to use. The collection is genuinely too large for one person (even myself), and a large part of the reason I bought Wardle's collection was because it would have been a tragedy for a man's life work to be broken up. Well, now its both our life's work, and I don't want it dispersed because both of us have done good and valuable things with the subject. And anyways, I am sure people would want to see the Tarot tea towel set. And the plates. And the refrigerator magnets. And the prints. And the personal reference notes from both of us. And our correspondences.

Of course now that I have found my life's work, finding the time to do the referencing has been difficult. I also discovered I love to teach, mostly heretical, radical approaches to using and appreciating the Tarot and Kabbalah - to push the edges is my delight! I give ongoing seminars at Mystic Dragon bookstore, ran Sacred Circle Community Workshops for two years before I burned out, teach Tarot, and give the occasional lecture to whomever will let me prattle. And I'm still acquiring decks and books, though at a slower pace. And of course, there's the book, which I think I'm ready to stop fiddling with and send off to a publisher.

   [main]