Hey Scholar! Welcome to RoccoTarot! A place where you can get some info on the craft of tarot, book a reading, and look at some pretty things!

But first, my  name is Rocco. I am a tarot enthusiast. I have been reading and teaching the tarot since 1999. As a Queer boy who went to Catholic school in the 1990s (for twelve years!) I was tired of having other people tell me who I was by way of truths that didn’t seem to add up. Like why some people were going to heaven and others weren’t. This equates to a win/lose, zero sum mentality when life doesn’t always work that way. I had a friend that was just as hands on with other boys as I was who wasn’t out and they were going to heaven and I was not?…this made zero sense to me. And the dogma! The Commandments! Who is commanding me exactly? Family, school, work, partners, and now god too?! I was sensitive and earnest and the dogma felt oppressive and dark. Despite this I sensed potentiality for really wonderful things in the world. This frequency inside me told me that things could be so much better and that if a person, place, or thing couldn’t see the value that I see in myself that I should keep looking. I listened to that frequency and I am glad that I did. Now all of this isn’t to say that all Catholics are oppressive to Queer people because that is not true. My experience was a personal one of a particular time and place and is not indicative of all religious experiences. I can only speak for myself here.

I was working at a book store in my first year of college and I found myself gravitating towards the then called “metaphysical” section where I found all sorts of treasures! Books on Eastern philosophy, mindfulness, witchcraft, and the tarot. I was fascinated by the Legend of King Arthur. There was this mini series on television back then called “The Mists of Avalon” with Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)  as the famed Morgan Le Fey. I was Obsessed! There are traditions that cast Morgan as a figure who straddles the line between worlds, with an unpredictable nature with the potential for both good or evil. Being an out gay boy at the tail end of the AIDS crisis this was something I identified deeply. Being gay in the 90s felt like living in-between worlds. I accepted that I would never be “normal” yet I could feel incredible power within and around me, although I did not yet know how to command it consciously at that time. The confidence Morgan commanded fascinated me. She moved as though she understood every cell of her body, every strength, every weakness, every joy every pain, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wanted that, and I found some of it in my very first pack of cards “The Arthurian Legend” by Anna Marie Ferguson.

Instead of dogma, the cards in the Legend deck had stories, just like the Old and New Testament in the Bible.  but rather than being linked to a religious structure that felt unyielding, they told stories of possibility, adventure, freedom and choice. However, it wasn’t just the cards that led me to step into my power in this lifetime, it was the act of living it alongside my study of the cards. This is why journaling is essential. I began pulling a card a day and recording my thoughts on the cards without definition. This helped me to learn the cards in my own language and not just what was shared to me through books. I have to give credit to my friend, author and psychologist Tony Louis “Tarot Plain and Simple” for this idea. The more I read for myself and others, the more I lived my life fully and without apology, the more I stepped into the power I could feel as a young gay boy struggling to make sense of a world filled with dichotomy and chaos.

Over the years I have discovered that the cards don’t lead so much to predictions, but really great stories, probabilities, and possibilities. These snapshots of life remind us what is possible because we are alive. Good stories give our lives meaning which empowers us to expand which helps others do the same. It’s like an inspirational domino effect.  So anything you hear from me comes from a place of inspiration, not fact. The real magic and real power of the tarot comes from you and what you put into your life everyday. It really is the choices you make everyday that make life magic and I encourage you to take what inspires you from my work and use it to make some really great choices for yourself, choices that allow you to step into your own power so that you can in turn help someone else step into theirs. This website is only for those souls brave enough to navigate life with integrity, wisdom and reciprocity. Welcome to RoccoTarot!

Warm regards,

Rocco