Rachel Pollack

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Rachel Pollack

Author and expert on divinatory tarot
Born 1945
Brooklyn, NY
Occupation Author

Rachel Pollack is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot.

Contents

[edit] Tarot Reading

Her work 78 Degrees of Wisdom on tarot reading is commonly referenced by tarot readers.[1].

She wrote 78 Degrees of Wisdom on tarot reading, and has created her own tarot deck called "Shining Woman Tarot," (later "Shining Tribe Tarot."[2]) She also aided in the creation of the "Vertigo Tarot Deck", with Illustrator Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman and wrote a book specifically to accompany it[3].

[edit] Comics

She is best known for her run of issues 64-87 on the comic book Doom Patrol, on DC Comics' Vertigo imprint[3]., which became a cult favorite under Grant Morrison. A comic fandom legend has it that Pollack was assigned to write the series after writing persistent letters to the editor[4]Although the letters are a matter of record[4] it's unknown if they were actually the cause of her employment. During her tenure she dealt with such rarely addressed comic-book topics as menstruation, sexual identity, and transsexuality. Pollack's run ended two years later, with the book's cancellation. Pollack also wrote a Brother Power the Geek one-shot for DC Comics.

[edit] Fiction

Her book The Body Of The Goddess is an exploration of the history of the Goddess. Rachel Pollack uses the image of the Goddess in many of her works.

Her magical realism[5] novels explore worlds imbued with elements pulled from a number of traditions, faiths, and religions.

[edit] Influences

Pollack is Jewish,[6] and has frequently written about the Kabbalah, most notably in The Kabbalah Tree.[7]

Pollack is a transsexual woman and has written frequently on transgender issues.[8][9]. In Doom Patrol she introduced Coagula, a transsexual character. She has also written several essays on transsexualism, attacking the notion that it is a "sickness," [10] instead saying that it is a passion. She has emphasized the revelatory aspects of transsexualism, saying that "the trance-sexual woman sacrifices her social identity as a male, her personal history, and finally the very shape of her body to a knowledge, a desire, which overpowers all rational understanding and proof.

A Secret Woman features a police detective who is transgendered and Jewish. The detective utters the prayer 'Blessed art thou oh G-d who made me not a woman. Double blessed is Doctor Green who has'. [11] Rachel Pollack created the characters known as 'the bandage people' for her Doom Patrol run. The bandage people are 'sexually remaindered spirits' who died in sexual accidents. The initials srs came from the medical term 'sex reassignment surgery.

[edit] Teaching

For nearly 20 years Pollack has been teaching seminars with Tarot author Mary K. Greer at the Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York.[12] She has also done seminars for several years in California in conjunction with Greer, and she co-presented a breakthrough seminar with Tarot author Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman on Tarot and psychic ability, using her own Shining Tribe Tarot and Gargulio-Sherman's Sacred Rose Tarot.[12] Pollack is also a popular lecturer at Tarot seminars and symposiums such as LATS (Los Angeles Tarot Symposium), BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium), and the Readers Studio.[12] Pollack currently teaches creative writing at Goddard College. Her most recent work is included in the anthology called Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Theodora Goss. Pollack has taught English at New York State University.

[edit] Published works

[edit] Books

  • Pollack (1980). Golden Vanity. [13]
  • Anderson, Hilary (1989). New Thoughts on Tarot. North Hollywood: Newcastle Pub. Co. ISBN 0878771395. [7]
  • Livernois, Jay (1996). Archetypal Sex: Spring : a Journal of Archetype and Culture. Irving: Spring Publications. ISBN 1882670051. [7]
  • Mckean, Dave (2001). Bento. Pacific Grove: Allen Spiegel Fine Arts. ISBN 0964206943. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2002). Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot. City: Element Books Ltd. ISBN 0007131151. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1996). Godmother Night. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 031214606X. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1997). The Body of the Goddess. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 1852308710. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1990). The Haindl Tarot. City: Newcastle Publishing Company. ISBN 0878771565. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1990). The Haindl Tarot: the Major Arcana. City: Newcastle Publishing Company. ISBN 0878771557. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2004). The Kabbalah Tree. Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 0738705071. [7]
  • Anderson, Hilary (1989). New Thoughts on Tarot. North Hollywood: Newcastle Pub. Co. ISBN 0878771395. [7]
  • Hillman, James (1997). Marriages: Spring 60, a Journal of Archetype and Culture. City: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 1882670094. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2002). A Secret Woman. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur. ISBN 0312246595. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2005). Seeker. Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 0738705217. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1998). Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. New York: Thorsons Publishers. ISBN 0722535724. 
  • Pollack, Rachel (1991). Tarot Readings and Meditations. London: Thorsons Pub. ISBN 1855380498. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1986). Teach Yourself Fortune Telling. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0805001255. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2001). The Shining Tribe Tarot. Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 1567185142. [7]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2001). The Shining Tribe Tarot, Revised and Expanded. Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 1567185320. [7]

[edit] Collections

[edit] Anthologies

[edit] Short Fiction

  • Pollack, Rachel (1971). Pandora's Bust. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1973). Tubs of Slaw. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1975). Black Rose and White Rose. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1976). Is Your Child Using Drugs? Seven Ways to Recognize a Drug Addict. 
  • Pollack, Rachel (1982). Angel Baby. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1984). The Malignant One. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1984). The Girl Who Went to the Rich Neighbourhood. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1984). Tree House. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1984). Lands of Stone. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1986). The Protector. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1989). The Bead Woman. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1989). Knower of Birds. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel. Burning Sky (1989. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1990). The Woman Who Didn't Come Back. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1990). General All-Purpose Fairy Tale. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel; James Patrick Kelly, Pat Cadigan, Nancy Kress (1997). Making Good Time. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (1998). The Fool, the Stick, and the Princess. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2001). The Younger Brother. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2003). Delusions of Universal Grandeur. [14]
  • Pollack, Rachel (2003). Reminiscences.  with Michael Cisco and Jeffrey Thomas and Eric G. Schaller and K. J. Bishop and Stepan Chapman and Richard Calder and R. F. Wexler[14]

[edit] Poetry

The Wild Cows (1993)[14]

[edit] Essays

  • Introduction: A Machine For Constructing Stories (1989)[14]
  • Read This (The New York Review of Science Fiction, October 1991) (1991)[14]
  • Read This (The New York Review of Science Fiction, July 1995) (1995)[14]
  • Read This (The New York Review of Science Fiction, August 1996) (1996)[14]

[edit] Forthcoming Books

  • Pollack, Rachel (2007). Simon Wisdom. [7]

[edit] Reviews

  • The Book of Embraces (1991) by Eduardo Galeano
  • Outside the Dog Museum (1992) by Jonathan Carroll
  • Coelestis [vt Celestis](1996) by Paul Park

[edit] Comics

[edit] Degrees, Awards, Memberships

  • 1997 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel winner for Godmother Night
  • 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novel nominee for Temporary Agency
  • 1989 Arthur C. Clarke Award winner for Unquenchable Fire
  • Certified Tarot Grand Master (CTGM) with the Tarot Certification Board of America[12]
  • Tarot Sage (TS) with the American Board For Tarot Certification[12]
  • member of the American Tarot Association (ATA)[12]
  • member of the International Tarot Society (ITS)[12]
  • member of the Tarot Guild of Australia[12]
  • member of the Tarot Association of the British Isles.[12]
  • Honours degree in English from New York University[13]
  • Masters in English from Claremont Graduate School[13]
  • Faculty, MFA in Creative Writing Program, Goddard College

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Llewellyn". Retrieved on 04-08-2008.
  2. ^ "Shining Tribe Tarot". Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  3. ^ a b "Vertigo Tarot". Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  4. ^ a b Jim Morrison, Doom Patrol 
  5. ^ "GLBT Fantasy review of Godmother Night". Retrieved on 09-19-2008.
  6. ^ "New Worlds Article". Retrieved on 2008-09-06.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab "biblio.com". Retrieved on 04-15-2008.
  8. ^ Valerio, Max Wolf (2006). The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Berkeley: Seal Press, 147. ISBN 1-58005-173-1. 
  9. ^ Israel, Gianna E.; Tarver II, Donald E. (2001). Transgender Care: Recommended Guidelines, Practical Information & Personal Accounts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 269. ISBN 1-56639-852-5. 
  10. ^ http://www.annelawrence.com/twr/archetypal.html
  11. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named A_Secret_Woman
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Women In Tarot".
  13. ^ a b c "The Shining Tribe". Retrieved on 04-15-2008.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ""Internet Science Fiction Data Base"". Retrieved on 04-15-2008.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Rachel Pollack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION author
DATE OF BIRTH 1947 AD
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn, NY
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Pollack"
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