Barbara Walker - A Great Lady has Left Us

[Hobbit]

I'm sad to inform the community that Barbara Walker, of the same-named tarot deck and numerous other works, has died.  I was with her the whole time, which is exactly what she wanted.  Please see the bottom of http://bgw.works/ for more details, including an extensive "diary" of *my* whole experience in this.

She also did an I Ching deck as y'all probably know, and I have an almost complete set of that artwork on bgw.works too *and* the original canvases that came from.  I'm hoping to recover the tarot deck art as well, one way or another.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it was time and I guess I'm the most appropriate person to bring it.

_H*

 

[DanielJUK]

I'm very sorry for your loss @Hobbit. She was an important figure in tarot and thinking of you and all your family at this time ❤️

[JoyousGirl]

May celebrating Barbara's wonderful life ease your grief.   🌼

[Ferrea]

My heartfelt condolences, @Hobbit. 

[Redfaery]

I'm very sorry to hear of this. She was a magnificent author.💜

[Nemia]

Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that. I have some of her books, and they were very influential in my life. My condolences. 

[Tanga]

Ahhhh.  May she dance forever in The Summer Lands. 

Heartfelt sympathies to you @Hobbit 💙.

 

Her Tarot book - accompanying her deck - was the very 1st Tarot text that I ever read.

I still have the original deck (apparently now worth c.£600) and book.

[DanielJUK]

I've added Barbara's name to the thread title, I don't want anyone to miss it in the forum feed who wanted to know this sad news ❤️

[Hobbit]

I have now shot all the large-format slides Mom had of the tarot deck artwork, but it'll take a while to process them into presentable shape.  I don't know about possible copyright issues with just throwing them up on the net, but at some point I'll work with US Games and will *be* the rights holder.

 

I'm doing okay; after the body-pickup logistics were over with, I swung into work mode, and it's been that way ever since.  Condolences are rolling in from all over, of course, and I'm trying to reply thankfully to most of them.

 

_H*
 

[Hobbit]

I've put together a quick study of how Barbara organized some of her internal knowledge and notes, viewable here.  She was meticulous in both material for external publishing and in her own notes and references, to a degree that I never even understood until I started digging into some of this stuff.

Truly an amazing lady who used her time on this earth more wisely than many of us could ever hope to, as y'all have said in numerous ways.  This very morning I finished emptying her house and packing my car with the stuff I would take back home and keep, and it was *very* surreal walking around the completely empty house that had been my "home" over eight years' worth of holiday seasons.  In another day or two I'll be on the road northward, starting a phase of my life that will no longer include her stalwart presence, in person or over the phone or email.  After a week-plus of being in heads-down "work mode", this is a serious moment of reflection on how I may not have fully appreciated who and what she really was over the years.

I will include this text in the next "diary" section, which I'm still working on this evening.

_H*

 

[Sar]

Barbara dead???? So Sad! I adored her tarot deck!!

My Condolences!!