Tarot in the Academy with Selah Saterstrom

$200

A two-part class with two accompanying audio talks: July 20 & 27, 2025

  • 1 - 3 pm PT

  • 2 - 4 pm MT

  • 3 - 5 pm CT

  • 4 - 6 pm ET

A class for educators and creative practitioners working in academic and classroom spaces looking to bring divinatory practices into their teaching

With 25 years of experience teaching in graduate programs in Creative Writing and Literary Arts, I appreciate both the potential and the complexity of bringing divinatory practices into the classroom.

The potential: to unfasten knowledge from the tyranny of certainty; to honor the body as archive and citational field; to let pedagogy become an oracular act—patterned, felt, always unfolding. And the complexity: how to speak of divination with clarity, how to teach through its multidimensional logic, and how to safeguard its integrity within institutions that often question its presence or deny its legitimacy altogether.

This two-part class is for those looking to bring divinatory practices into their teaching or deepen their engagement with tarot within academic life. Blending theory and practice, it is designed to support the development of your own divinatory-rooted pedagogy. The offering includes two asynchronous audio talks, takeaway PDFs, and a curated reading list. Tarot practitioners and educators at all levels are welcome.

Format

  • Two 2-hour live Zoom classes
    Join live or watch the replays at your own pace

  • Two 25-minute audio talks
    Delivered via email before our first session to be listened to at your own convenience

Syllabus

Audio Talks

  • How to Be a Visionary in the Institution

    • A field guide for the feral-hearted academic
      (25 mins)

  • Teaching Otherwise

    • Tarot as Radical Pedagogy
      (25 mins)

July 20: Class One

  • Part I: Theoretical Groundings

    • What is Divinatory Poetics?

    • Feminist and Queer Hermeneutics

    • A Deep Bow to New Narrative & the Naropa Jack Kerouac School

    • Feminist & Queer Autotheory

    • Affect Theory

    • Somatic Poetry Rituals: The Work of CAConrad

  • Part II: Pedagogical Takeaways

  • Part III: At the Heart of the Heart of the Heart

    • A Divinatory Poetics Exercise

July 27: Class Two

  • Part I: Making Praxis

    • Designing Divinatory Poetic Strategies for Writing

    • Designing Divinatory Poetic Strategies for Research, Scholarship, and Dissertation Development

  • Part II: Organizing the Flux

    • Designing the Lecture / the Talk / the Presentation

    • The Syllabus as Spell

    • The Classroom as Alchemical Site

  • Part III: Blueprints for Future Works

    • A live Q&A and Collective Divination Reading

Selah Saterstrom with long, wavy hair and a patterned blouse, with a blue and purple color filter effect.
Selah Saterstrom with long, wavy hair and a patterned blouse, with a blue and purple color filter effect.

About Selah

Selah Saterstrom is a writer and diviner who practices a Southern family-style of card reading and for nearly thirty years, she has offered divinatory guidance within her communities. She is the author of five books, including Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics, which has garnered widespread acclaim. A respected consultant and educator, she teaches, lectures, and facilitates workshops and seminars across the United States and internationally. With Kristen E. Nelson, she co-founded Four Queens Divination and co-hosts The Janky Church Podcast. At the heart of Selah’s work is the belief that divination and radical creativity are liberation practices. She lives on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest with her wife and daughter.

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