I spoke at a Tarot conference, and this is what I learned

I've always been really interested in staycations, in learning about where I live, and in COVID, as my world obviously got smaller, I looked deeper. Deeper into what I could see around me, what I was allowed to look at when I was allowed to leave the house. A passing idea to write an article about the connection of Tarot, specifically the Rider. Waite Smith deck - you will have seen the imagery even if you have absolutely no interest in the tool - and the connection to Kent.
Ever wondered if there really is something to Tarot and the other esoteric arts? Join our writer, Anna Willatt as she takes a deep dive into the esoteric happenings in her home county of Kent.
I wrote an article on this for a Kent culture magazine. The article didn’t really take off, and I didn’t think too much about it. It has been a fun exploration. I moved on from the topic – life happened, work hotted up again. But then I got an email in March 2024 that changed everything.
I should explain a bit about my relationship with Tarot. I’ve only been reading since 2020 when I took an online course to learn how to read tarot. It’s something I’ve always been interested in and flirted around with. I grew up in the north of England, going to Affleck’s Palace at the weekends, getting my massive, chunky corduroy flares and maybe a sneaky little palm reading in a cupboard under the stairs. But I’d never taken it seriously. I’ve never felt I’d had the time to get into it. But with the time that I was afforded with being stuck at home, like so many of us, I wanted to distract myself, so I took an online course on Tarot.
The course I took delved into the art history of the Rider Waite Smith deck, it talked about the people who created it and why they created it, and what was going on at the time. My nosey journalistic brain kicked into gear and it led to this article.
Which led to the email.
The UK Tarot Conference
The email was from a lady called Kim Arnold from the UK Tarot conference. While it had been running for 21 years, it was not something had come onto my radar because I was relatively new to tarot. I wasn’t working with Tarot professionally, and I felt a big divide between my nascent interest in the tool and the artwork versus a more academic, professional approach.
It turns out Kim, who runs the UK Tarot conference, lived not far from me in Kent so we met up, we had a coffee, and chatted away. Her interest in my article was that I’d looked at the people behind the tarot deck, at the history. From what I understood, she was interested in how I’d approached it, because I had created something that was easy to read. It wasn’t academic. I’d done my research but this wasn’t an academic piece of work with footnotes. She’d fact checked with some very knowledgeable friends, including the owner of The Atlantis Bookshop, the oldest independent occult bookshop in London. Kim explained that she hadn’t clocked all of the connections with our county and the Tarot, and asked me to speak at a conference that she was hoping to run in Kent in spring 2025.
And that is how little old me came to speaking at a tarot conference, the first Kent tarot retreat, Tarot The Sea & Me.
Speaking at a conference like this was a daunting task. In preparation, I signed up to the main UK Tarot Conference in October 2024. I was apprehensive about attending. I was not a professional reader. I was not super au fait with Tarot cards. I’d never created a tarot deck. I wasn’t a speaker on the subject …yet. And walking into the conference with hundreds of people, a very vibrant community of people who mostly knew each other already, was quite nerve wracking.
What I learnt from speaking at a Tarot Conference:
The Community is not elitist
At the main conference, I was helpfully sat on a table with some extremely friendly, wonderful readers and deck creators and artists. All were welcoming, intrigued about me in an open and receptive way. The first speaker, TarotJo had us get up and engage in a networking activity where we pulled a card for a stranger and interpreted it for them as a prompt to introduce ourselves. I was terrified, I was about to be rumbled. Of course, it was a delight and I’ll never forget what a very well-known tarot creator and reader said, ‘Oh, I’m so jealous you get to do this for fun and not your job!’ – and he meant it.
Tarot is for everyone to put their stamp on
My apprehension on learning tarot pre- my first course was not wanting to get it wrong. What I learnt at the tarot conference is there is no such thing. What I’ve learnt is that a good tarot reader will look to help you understand the cards and help you make your own interpretations of what you’re seeing and what that means.
Many readers I’ve spoken to share my belief that tarot is not divination. Some readers may read cards and channel messages at the same time, if they are psychically attuned. Even then, I have had very few readings with people who take what the cards say as an absolute or attribute precise meaning to each card. Many readers that I know interpret the cards as nudges, as reflections of the energy at a given time. As the querent (person having the reading) you still must choose, to lean in and decide what you’re going to do with that energy, that nudge.
That said, I have had a few readings with readers who say ‘a man is coming and he has a car and this is going to happen next’, but I as I become more comfortable with the cards and having readings, I have challenged them on that way of reading, and things have quite quickly unravelled. It’s not the way I wish to engage with the cards or have someone engage with the cards on my behalf – you can find your own way to have a reading or interpret the cards yourself.
There’s always more to learn, this is not a dying art
The talk I gave at the retreat conference was all about what I call Esoteric Kent. I believe everywhere can be esoteric, meaning hidden, spiritual, more than it seems. Speaking to this group of tarot professionals who had self-selected for this intimate retreat, including people who had lived in Kent their whole lives, I wondered if I’d be retelling tales they already knew. But, no, this was proof there is always more to learn.
I was helping them to see different places and different energies that they could tap into, and in turn, they were very kind to share some ideas with me. I now know of some energy vortexes that I need to go and look up in Sainsbury’s car parks!
In terms of reading cards, I learnt from amazing speakers at the conference about how to perform Tarot Magic with Suzanne Corbie and how to read a scene created by tarot cards with Steven Bright. My brain was blown, as it was for the professional readers around me. There’s always more to discover.
Like the Fool card, take a risk – it’s all part of the journey
As you may know, the major arcana of the tarot follows a journey – starting as the Fool as card 0 and ending with the World. It represents a human’s life and mirrors the hero’s journey of mythology and a common structure for novels. It reminds us that we are ever moving and there’s always something next.
My talk at the tarot retreat is the first time I had spoken at an event where it wasn’t directly linked to my career. This wasn’t a sales conference for an employee engagement survey platform, for instance! What I learnt, when I got over the imposter syndrome is, if you approach something with a humble and open nature, it’s quite amazing what will come out of it.
On the evening of my talk, night had fallen over the Royal Harbour and we were ensconced in velvet couches in the front room of a hotel where Queen Victoria once summered. It reminded me that there’s a magic in women’s circles and a magic in held space. Spirituality is very on trend, with Tarot and divination, magic and alchemy breaking out of the niche community. It informs fashion, events, brands and much of it, not well!
It can be easy to get lost in the commercialisation. If you’re a naturally skeptical soul as myself, it can be easy to get turned off by the whole thing. But a group of people together, listening, learning and sharing is a is a universal experience, and the overwhelming feeling that I left with from being asked to do something out of my comfort zone was gratitude. Gratitude that I had been trusted with this spot in this retreat, gratitude for the opportunity, and also pride in over delivering on what I had set out to do and what I had been asked to do.
Give it a go
I think with that point, I have gratitude for you reading this article. I’d like to share with you the Tarot Spread that we did towards the end of my talk with the encouraging whisper to give it a go yourself.
My Esoteric Isle project brings together my background in travel writing, my interest in the esoteric, and poses the question, Why couldn’t exploring the esoteric inform our travel choices, whether that’s what route to take to get the train, or where we’d like to go in the entire world? (Also see Astrocartography!)
The spread that follows is from Benebel Wen, all about thinking what could learn from an upcoming travel experience. Stay esoteric!
credit: Benebell Wen
1: What will I get out of this trip?
2: What will I give because of this trip?
3: What can I be mindful of during this trip?
4: What is a significant outcome of this trip?
5: What is the primary purpose served by this trip?
Useful Information
The next UK Tarot Conference is 10-11th October 2025 – Click here to find out about in-person and virtual tickets.
Keep an eye on the site here for announcements of the 2026 Kent Tarot Retreats
For more about Esoteric travel, follow Anna on @EsotericIsle and Substack.com/EsotericIsle
If you like some hidden history, why not check out Albion House Hotel in Ramsgate.
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