A Tarot Journey – Pamela Steele 1979 – 2024

Early spring 1979: I purchased my first RWS Tarot Deck in Fort Worth Texas because my cousin, Maya, insisted I needed a “visible means of prophecy.” After reviewing the deck, I believed it was incomplete and missing some key cards. I was told to “shut up and read the damned cards.”

Over the next few months, I found tarot books by A.E. Wait and by Eden Grey and began journaling while looking for similarities between the printed meanings and what my instincts were telling me. I immediately began practicing with my family and friends. 

Later that year I began showing art at science fiction-fantasy conventions and winning awards for best of show and/or best cartoon, at numerous events across the US. 

I “hung out my shingle” and began reading for clients by the end of 1979.

1987: One of my rent-a-kids brought me “Tarot for the Journeyman” by Eileen Connley. I added much more to my journals after reading that book.

1988: I began mentoring and teaching others who were interested in tarot. 

1994: Became the acquisitions manager at a new age shop and began perusing various decks via Dempsey Distribution. None had what I was looking for in a deck.

October 21, 1999: At the prompting of the same cousin who started this, I began drawing the images for what would become the “Steele Wizard Tarot – The Language of The Soul.”

June 21, 2000: The art for the Steele Wizard was complete. While at INATS West that summer, I came across a computer program titled “Tarot Magic.” I was captivated. I bought a copy and began devouring the information on the program knowing that whoever had written the text was officially my first “Tarot Hero”. 

Today, the author, Christine Payne-Towler is still one of my favorite people as well as a dear friend who is brilliant, caring, and I am in awe of her. 

2003: I had signed with my cousin’s publisher (2000) who missed 3 publishing deadlines and began the process to regain control of the Steele Wizard. 

2003: Began reaching out to publishers but they didn’t accept unsolicited materials. In order to have a publisher, I needed an agent. No agent would take on an unpublished author/artist. Catch-22. And no one would give me a hint as to how to find a card printer either.

2004: I began looking outside the box, or any sort of container, and contacted a playing card printing company in Orlando Florida. The nice man on the phone answered with, “Cards-R-Us, Charles speaking, how may I help you?” 

I replied, “My name is Pamela Steele and I would like to know if your company would be interested in printing a Tarot deck.” He immediately said, “We’d love to! What’s a Tarot deck?”

As I had broken the contract with the original publisher, the author of the deck’s book was no longer available. I sat down one evening and began typing. Two weeks later I had the manuscript for the first printing ready to go. 

Unfortunately, my trusty HP desktop picked that moment to set fire to my hard drive. I had downloaded the manuscript, but now I needed a computer. HP replaced my hard drive but I’d borrowed an old IBM to finish the project. 

It wouldn’t hold my settings and kept sending the manuscript through at 8.5 x 11 not 5 x 7. After the 3^rd attempt, I got an email from Charles who had decided to read the manuscript, which he insisted gave him a “working knowledge of Tarot” and insisted we print the book with color instead of black and white. 

Charles also opened a tarot department in his company, hired a graphic artist, and today the company is known as “Shuffled Ink” and has printed thousands of decks around the world.

January 2005: I sold my house to finance the first printing then flew to Orlando to work out the details with Charles, deliver the scanned art, and attend INATS West to begin promoting the “Steele Wizard Tarot”. I met the folks at New Leaf Distribution at the show and the acquisitions manager, after previewing my promotional material asked, “When can I get this deck?”

Spring 2005: I launched a little Geocities website. A month later, Solandia of Aeclectic Tarot reached out to see if she could do a pre-release review of the deck. I was elated. Thanks to her and her amazing site, by the time the deck launched, I had a waiting list for orders. For almost a year, I sent Aeclectic Tarot $5 for everyone who mentioned Aeclectic in their order. I am eternally grateful. 

2008: Tarot Master Canadian Tarot Network

July 31, 2007: The newly printed copies of the Steele Wizard Tarot’s first edition arrived at my door. At 5:30 that evening, I launched my first website. By 5:30 the next morning, the orders were pouring in from the UK. By that afternoon, the US and Canada were ordering too. 

It was a busy few months. That fall, hubby and I loaded his Jeep Cherokee with cartons of decks and drove through the US southwest visiting stores and selling decks. We left with 10 cartons and came home with 0 inventory.

Fall of 2010: I had saved much of what the deck made in sales and reprinted “just the deck” on a different card stock. The first ones were, to me, a bit big. 

2011: I began meeting other Tarot people on FB and joined The Tarot Guild (Certified Tarot Master), TABI, the American Tarot Association, and the Canadian Tarot Network. Finding the Tarot Community was like going to a family reunion where I got to meet other seekers like myself. 

It was enlightening and wonderful. I attended BATS that year and was totally hooked. That was also the year that Roxi Sim and I started the Tarot Deck Creators group on FB. Our goal was to help others who were struggling with the creation and production process. 

There wasn’t much around for POD and we wanted others to avoid the pitfalls and brick walls we had encountered. We later did a 3-disc course with Linda Marson’s “Global Spiritual Studies” to help new deck creators that’s still available through her website.

2012: After attending BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium) and falling in love with everyone there, I was asked to present and was fortunate enough to hold that position through 2014 after which Lady Thalassa downsized her event. I have also held Tarot workshops for Canada Gem Shows, the local library, and our community college. 

2013: I wrote the Foreword for Erik Dunn’s “Tarot Illuminati” which was released that year.

2014: I accepted the position of Art Director for the newly forming Northwest Tarot Symposium (a.k.a. NeWTS) and was their first Guest Artist. I was there through 2019 when the pandemic shut travel down for the unwashed masses (kidding, everyone got shut down.) I was also one of their regular featured speakers for that 5-year adventure. 

Although the “Wizard’s Pets Tarot-the ABCs” was stuck in traffic (dockworker’s strike) we did manage to debut the deck at NWTS in 2014 after much nail-biting and voicing many colorful metaphors.

March 28th, 2021: My “Eternal Seeker Oracle” was published by Red Feather, which I based on the Tarot Major Arcana.

2022: I was a featured speaker at TIDE (The International Divination Event) Dallas. 

2023-Present: I love doing readings at shows, introducing people to Tarot, and teaching workshops. Later this year, Juno Lucia’s newest deck “Frame this Oracle” is being released and I had the honor of writing the forward for this truly unique deck. 

In addition to Tarot, I am a Registered Massage Therapist (since 1994 in Canada), a Reiki Master (1996), Read and carve runes, a 4^th Level Body Talk Practitioner, and studied Qui Gong and numerous other healing modalities. 

Currently, I am Host on “The Psychic Cafe Live” Radio and YouTube Video-Streams, a staff member at The Tarot Guild, and received my CTGM – Certified Tarot Grand Master from The Guild on October 22nd, 2024!

Thanks for reading and your interest!

Bright Blessings,
~ Pamela