Tarot Readings & Talks: The Tarot Fayre, Brighton, Saturday 18th July

I’m super excited to be speaking at this year’s Tarot Fayre in Brighton on Saturday 18th July! The Tarot Fayre is a one-day celebration of all things Tarot, bringing together readers, artists, deck creators, authors, speakers and enthusiasts for a day of talks, workshops, readings and (most importantly) lots of enthusiastic conversations about beautiful bits of card. I’ll also be offering Tarot readings during the morning, so if you’ve ever fancied sitting down with me for a reading, this is your chance, lol.

One of the things I’m super hyped about is meeting some of the wonderful people whose work I’ve admired for years. I’m especially excited to finally meet Maddy Elruna in person. If you’ve spent any time reading my Major Arcana deep dives, you’ll probably know that I quote her brilliant book Tarot: A Life Guided By The Cards all the time! I’m also really looking forward to meeting Sara Kathleen, whose beautiful A Grieving Tarot I reviewed last year. Honestly, there are so many awesome people attending that I suspect I’ll spend half the day trying not to act like 00s Lucy backstage at Glastonbury lol. (I used my BBC pass I had from working at the World Service Trust, and managed to blag my way in somehow…!)

If you’re anywhere near Brighton and have even the slightest interest in Tarot, it genuinely looks like it’s going to be a fantastic event. You can find the full programme and ticket information on the Tarot Fayre website.

My Talk: Tarot as Archetype: Why These Images Still Speak to Us

My talk asks a question I’ve found myself returning to again and again whilst writing TarotCake: Why do images like The Fool, The Lovers, The Tower and Death still resonate so powerfully, centuries after they first appeared?

Rather than focusing on memorising card meanings, we’ll explore Tarot as a symbolic language built from archetypes, myth, storytelling, art, and shared human experience. We’ll look at why these images feel so immediately recognisable, how they continue to evolve across modern decks, and why I believe Tarot works best not as a tool for predicting the future, but as a way of helping us understand ourselves a little better.

It’ll be part psychology, part mythology, part art history… with a healthy sprinkling of literature, neuroscience, religion, musicology, philosophy and anything else the little ADHD magpie brain is drawn to on the day, haha. (In all seriousness though, I do lecture for a living via the day job, so have managed to develop some focus-while-speaking over the past 20-odd years 😂).

I’m really looking forward to sharing it with people. Once the event is over I’ll write a much fuller post about the talk (and, if all goes well, share the slides too!)

Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!

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