HEROIC TAROT

As Synchronicity Attractor of Heroic Tarot, STORM gives insight, guidance and reflection through his unique X-Men Tarot as well as traditional divinations at the local artist gallery/boutique Swankety Swank.

Heroic Tarot has received 5 Stars on Yelp, is a Winner of SF Weekly Best of the Bay 2010, Best of WonderCon Floor 2011 by io9, and has been featured on Comics Alliance, and Bleeding Cool.  Besides his notorious X-Men cards, STORM uses the Aquarian Tarot, the Voyager Deck, the Faerie Oracle and Runes.

Regarding his work, STORM remarks, “Your system of information, like your path, is up to you.  It is my pleasure and privilege to help you understand both.”

You can receive a reading in person, over the phone or via email.  STORM also teaches classes and gives readings at parties and events. Email HeroicTarot(at)gmail(dot)com to find out more!

For a list of all of the decks that STORM uses for Heroic Tarot please check out “All Hands On Deck!“

Readings are $65 for a full hour.  Email stormantic(at)gmail(dot)com to make your appointment!

 

TESTIMONIALS

This was the best Tarot Reading of all time. STORM is deeply connected to the work, tuning in and honoring the highest self and divine elements. His energy is kind, healing and empathetic.  The reading gave me insight and clarity.  STORM is a stellar Tarot practitioner, giving great gifts to those needing insight from the Tarot.

~Jesse B.

My boyfriend frequents swankety swank because of its great artistic one-of-a-kind pieces and he took me there one weekend to check out the store. Although i fell in love with a pair of fantastic feather earrings, what i really took away from the visit was excitement to come back and see Storm. Storm has such a warm and open demeanor and he is easy to connect to and feel at home with.  

We decided to be adventurous on a Friday night and get a couples reading with him for fun. To be honest, i was nervous and worried but after he sat us down and began to explain things to us, I was instantly calmed and at ease with the whole situation. We had no idea what questions to ask or what information we wanted to know but Storm had fun with us and gave us some really great jumping off points to get the reading started. We left our reading energized, enlightened, completely understood and ready for another visit to the Heroic Tarot!!

I had no idea what to expect or what to get out of it, but I’m fascinated and impressed by Storms talent. He is insightful, deeply passionate, knowledgeable, and a real seer of souls. It was such a memorable experience and I highly recommend Storm to both avid tarot customers and newbies like us. We had a great time!!!

~Sandy Hayashi

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I mean, I’m friends with STORM, so there’s that, but I was surprised by how interesting and helpful and legit my tarot reading with him was. He takes an intentionally demystifying approach to the craft and I found it works less like prayer and more like constructive therapy. For me, the cards and the spread are an architecture more than anything else, like looking for words in a Boggle board. He also hit me with some cool background about the craft and its relation to the modern playing card deck. Recommended to anyone looking for a fresh angle in their thinking.

~Sean Maher

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Let me first say that I’m not into the tarot/future-telling/soothsaying scene. I don’t normally buy into it. I don’t consider myself especially spiritual. I’ve had tarot readings before, but they were always quick experiences, over before I could get into any kind of receptive mindset, and easily dismissed. They’d all left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

But I love comics.

I heard STORM was doing readings with an X-Men deck, and I knew I was in for at least one more reading. I mean, what an idea! It was brilliant.

Boy, was I in for a treat. Where other ‘readers’ had rushed me in and out of their sessions, STORM was genuinely into the process and I could tell I was getting a personal experience. He spoke to me on a very deep level, using his abilities with the deck, and his uncanny (get it?) knowledge of all things X-Men. It was almost more introspective than I had anticipated and challenged me from directions I had ignored before.

STORM was professional and honest. Perfect for a die-hard X-Men fan or your aunt who doesn’t know anything about the Marvel Universe. You’ll walk out the door with a new perspective. Highly recommended!

~Greg Hinkle

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An exceptional experience.  My girlfriend and I were interested in doing something different for date night, so we decided to get a couple’s tarot reading from Storm’s Heroic Tarot.  Now I’m pretty science-minded, but it was a ton of fun!  His reading was surprisingly accurate in many respects and he gave us some great advice both individually and as a pair.  Storm is a funny, charming guy and makes you feel right at home.  If you’ve never had a reading before, I think this is the perfect place to start.

~Alex Grigera

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I hired Storm for a corporate event I was organizing and he did an amazing job!  He was professional, on time and very entertaining.  I also had a private reading at the store beforehand to get a feel for him and his method and felt very welcomed and at ease.  Also, I loved all the cute hand painted furniture and crafts for sale at Swankety Swank!

I highly recommend him for any event, public or private.

~Eileen U.

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I recently moved to Lower Haight, and while bumping around buying Xmas prezzies slash checking out my new hood I decided to check out Swankety Swank. They had small watercolor paintings of X-Men for sale, and when I heard that what they actually were were gift certificates for an hour-long X-Men tarot card reading, my heart leapt. Perfect jokey present, right? Sure.

I decided to try it out, though, because the concept was SO AWESOME it made me giddy.

I’m not a tarot-y person. When I was younger I had the requisite “books by Robert Anton Wilson/Subgenious/Crowley/REsearch phase,” but I never took it seriously and mainly just liked them because I have paranoid tendencies and a love for cultural footnotes. That’s as close to spirituality as I ever came. So believe me when I say that having Storm read my cards was TOTALLY FUCKING MIND-BLOWING.

And I’ll tell you why: Storm’s a goddamn genius. Beyond the fact that he’s genuinely intuitive in a way that I literally cannot believe I’m discussing in a public forum (Jean-Grey facing outwards as the 9 of spades led him to say, “You’re probably having nightmares about money lately,” when in fact I’d woken up the night before at 4 a.m. with investment-based night terrors), Storm has found a way to make a thing I’ve always filed under witch-y, hippie bullshit accessible to a jaded sociopath like me.

Here’s the thing. I have NO IDEA what the 2 of Swords means in traditional tarot. It’s based on archaic symbolism with various shades of meaning and (usually) poorly drawn images (sorry, Rider-Waite). But I pretty much instinctively know what Jubilee high kicking someone in the face means. Or Iceman doing his thing and looking awesome. Or Magneto looking super-pissed. And not only does Storm draw from the card itself while explaining the tradition meaning thereof, he also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the various X-Men storylines, and he weaves that into the narrative, as well. And then you can pile on Storm’s personal mutant abilities (because I’m SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE with the concept of someone having mutant powers rather than psychic ones), and whoops! I’ve got a standing monthly appointment with the man.

Cuz you know what? Everyone needs a spiritual guide at some point. I got lucky and found a supertall, totally attractive one who wears makeup and can geek out metaphysically on comic books. Which, I feel, kicks the shit out of an emaciated hairy gnome in a mountain who speaks in riddles.

Everyone come drink the Kool-Aid. It’s incredible.

~Jason Darling

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I had my first reading with the lovely and talented STORM at Heroic Tarot as a birthday present this past year.  I like to use my birthday instead of new years eve as a time to reflect, reevaluate, make resolutions, figure out goals, and choose a direction for the coming year.  Which is boring and grown-up and reeks of responsibility, if not for Storm. He makes it fun from the start by using X-MEN TAROT CARDS!!  Where else can you have your tarot read based on Wolverine and Gambit?! It’s such a special & unique experience, you can’t help but relax and open up during your reading.

Storm is charming, insightful, perceptive, delightful, and divine!  He took his time during our session to carefully explain the cards, allow me to take notes, and answer as many follow-up questions as I needed.  I could tell it was important to him that the reading was meaningful for me.  He went above and beyond to help me talk through what the cards might mean and how it might relate to my life, past, present, and future. Storm manages the difficult balance of being incredibly professional and having the highest standards of customer service, without feeling stuffy or detached.  It was an inspiring, fun, powerful experience that left me in tears more than once!  I look forward to going back soon for my follow-up reading.

If you want a personalized, thoughtful, creative tarot reading this is the reading for you.

~GAinSF

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STORM gave my husband and I a couple’s reading a few weeks ago and I can NOT rave about it enough.  The cards STORM uses are unique, making your experience that much more meaningful.  The reading included symbolism from the elements of the earth, the hierarchy of the court, the characters of X-Men (!), and the more traditional arcana.   STORM takes you on a journey, guiding you through your questions and challenges.

The reading was an all encompassing, completely professional, and extremely special reading. I highly recommend it.

~Emily Stackhouse

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A REVELATION!  I’ve had a few Tarot readings over the years, but the reading STORM gave my partner and I was the clearest, the most spot-on, and the most insightful.  And definitely the most fun, because STORM uses X-Men playing cards as his deck — a unique method that combines his knowledge of the traditional Tarot and deeper-than-anyone-I-know understanding (and I know a lot of comics geeks, being one myself) of the X-Men.  After the reading I felt like I wanted to go back and read old X-Men comics — who knew those characters could provide genuine spiritual guidance?  Most important when it comes to psychic reading experiences, his guidance really helped resolve the problem we brought to the reading.  Very highly recommended.

~Darieck Scott

I perform Tarot Readings with an X-Men playing card deck.  This deck was bought in the early 90s and contains artwork from the comics of that era, much of it by superstar artist Jim Lee.  Wanting to do something more with the deck than play solitaire, and recognizing that playing cards are descendants of Tarot without the Major Arcana, I began to investigate how I might use the deck for Divination.  I have been reading the Tarot since I was 16 and am well versed in the traditional symbolism.  As an X-Men fan, I am familiar with their pop culture mythology.  I found that the combination of Super-Hero iconography with the traditional Minor Arcana resulted in multiple levels of meaning to explore.  As I compared the meaning of the cards to the characters placed upon them, I discovered serendipitous connections.

For example, Cyclops makes sense as all four Kings (each character embodies the same four cards of each suit) because he is the primary leader of the X-Men.  However, depending on where he lands in the spread, he also invokes the energy of the Emperor.  For her compassionate nature and story of sacrifice, Jean Grey represents the unconditional love of the Empress.  Also, as the representative for all of the nines in the deck, she is also a symbol of attainment and renewal, which relates to her connection to the Phoenix Force.  The villains of the cards include Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and Magneto.  They represent constricted energy and serve as shadow guides.  Toad and Arcade are the Jokers of the deck and represent the Fool, but in a misguided fashion.

After experimenting with meanings for each card and character, I went to work on what kind of spread I would use for the deck.  I used traditional layouts like the Celtic Cross for some time before creating a spread consisting of 9 cards in an “X” formation.  The first four cards are placed in a square and represent You, Your Environment, Your Challenge, How to Overcome the Challenge, respectively.  After the dual meanings of traditional Minor Arcana and Super-Hero are discussed, the Client is asked to pull four more cards that go out from the original four.  These four bring more characters to the Client’s story and expand upon the themes and questions already present.  Finally, after much investigation of the four corners, a card is placed in the middle of the spread, completing the “X” and therefore, the reading.  More discussion is had and a final conclusion is determined.

One does not have to have a background in Tarot nor the X-Men comics to have an X-Men Tarot reading.  If you possess knowledge in one or the other, that certainly adds to the experience, however it is not required and in some cases it is better if you come to the reading with a beginner’s mind.  Regardless of your comics or Divination expertise, an X-Men Tarot reading can bring the gift of reflection into your or a loved one’s life.

The photo above shows an example of the “X” spread.  You can see a powerful Professor X tying this reading together.  As the Ace of Spades/Swords, he represents a powerful new idea taking effect!  This is doubly powerful as Professor X is a telepath and the realm of the mind is his particular playground.

Call Swankety Swank or email HeroicTarot@gmail.com to make an appointment for your X-Men Tarot reading !  Check out Heroic Tarot on Yelp!  People do really love us on there!