Written by: Chloe McCracken / Inner Whispers

Time for another shout out.  This month, our highlighted TABI star is Mick Frankel, who also writes the Mickey Querent posts.  When I asked Mick to choose a card to represent himself, he chose this Cavalier de Baton (Knight of Wands), explaining: he’s got a look that sort of says, “I’m not really sure what I’m doing but I’ll give it a go anyway”.  Words to live by!  🙂

Now living in Cheshire just outside of Manchester, I’m actually an example of Essex man.

I’ve always been interested in dreams. I can remember dreams from my childhood and, not so long ago, I found an essay I’d written at Secondary School about dream interpretation. It was pretty good really!

I’m Jewish and the world of dream interpretation seemed to feature in a lot of stories I learnt as a child especially Joseph when he was with his brothers and when he was in Egypt and in the Book of Daniel. By the way, whatever you think of the Bible, the Book of Daniel is well worth a look because it’s full of magical exploits not least an amazing piece of dream interpretation.

If I have any gift at all, it’s the ability to understand something of the language of dreams. Not that I’m in the same league as Joseph or Daniel but I think that I’ve always had an intuitive link with the dream-world.

I’ve been interested in astrology since I was a teenager when I learnt about the basics of the 12 Sun signs. It seemed to fit with my experience of my friends and my family. I’d like to think that most of my understanding of the Sun signs comes from personal observation and not just from books.

During my University course studying French and Computer Science (the only place I could get after not doing very well at A-level) I spent my third year working in France where a friend took me along to a Yoga class. I think that this was the beginning of an awakening for me.

Back in England, I continued doing Yoga for many years and even now, although I don’t go to classes any more, I do some exercises every morning.

But I was never interested in Tarot. In fact, I was a bit apprehensive of it. All those mediaeval images and such, it had a sort of Hammer Horror, “Tales From The Crypt” feeling for me. I steered well clear of it.

However, I was attracted to the I Ching which is a beautiful ancient Chinese oracle. I did a few readings for myself and I was astonished at how accurate and useful the response from the I Ching was. I had a connection straight away.

In the 1990s with the arrival of the Internet and e-mail, I joined a community of people who were interested in the I Ching and met some extraordinary men and women. But at times, someone would write something like, “This was a real five of Pentacles moment” or “It’s like the five of Wands”.
My heart sank a bit but I realised that it was time to get to know those scary Tarot cards so that I knew what everyone was talking about.

And so, my wife at the time got me a present of the 1JJ Swiss Tarot which is still my favourite deck and the one that I prefer to use for my professional readings.

I liked the French names for the cards “Reine des Coupes”, “L’étoile” and so on. The old-fashioned wood-cuts appealed to me as well with their uncomplicated images and simple colours. In a second-hand shop, I bought myself a book by Alfred Douglas called “The Tarot”. I wanted to learn more. Check out what happened next…

… I was living in North London at the time and one day whilst out shopping on my own, I passed an alternative shop very near where I lived that offered Tarot readings. I called in and asked if they ran Tarot courses for beginners. The woman replied that her husband had indeed been thinking of running a Tarot course and that he’d be along soon if I wanted to wait to speak to him.

I said, “Thanks very much” and at that moment, a tall, grey-haired, distinguished-looking fellow walked in and introduced himself. It was Alfred Douglas!

Now, I never got to have any lessons with him but the experience made me think that studying the Tarot and doing readings was something that I should carry on with.

Next in the series of mad coincidences in my Tarot journey was when I somehow got hold of a copy of an alternative “What’s On” magazine that was based in Brighton. I’ve no idea what I was doing with this magazine that I’m sure was called “Wave”.

In the issue was an advert that said something like, “Would you like to be a part of the future of Tarot in the UK? Join TABI, the Tarot Association of the British Isles.” I got in touch and everyone I met seemed so friendly and supportive and full of encouragement that I felt sure that TABI was the place for me.

I was accepted on to the TABI endorsement programme and my mentor was Ribbitcat and I’ll always be grateful for her help at this crucial stage. The free readings with real-life actual people who were strangers to me were a wonderful chance to do readings but without the hyper-ventilating pressure of being face-to-face.

Joining TABI was definitely very important in starting me off on the right road with an ethical, professional approach. I hope that as a mentor and speaker at various TABI conferences I’m able to give something back to the Association that has given so much to me.

Some of you might know me as the creator of Mickey Querent, others have completed or are working through my self-study course “Astrology For Tarot Readers”.

Here’s my website featuring Tarot, astrology, the I Ching and dream interpretation:
Frankelmick.co.uk

Please take a look and just drop me a line if you have any questions:
Frankelmick@hotmail.com