About

Born 1933 in Copenhagen, I grew up in wartime Denmark during the German occupation 1940-45. I obtained an education in public administration and spent most of my working life for the municipality of Copenhagen. Worked with computers (even before computers became computers) and later mainly with writing, editing, designing and publishing educational and promotional materials and magazines.

My tarot interest began in the early 1970's. Before that, in my spare time I was involved in photography, semi-professional filmmaking and art. Maybe there were signs of things to come judged by the fact that some of my photo essays were "King Arthur's England", "The Stones of England" and "The Menhirs of France" and that most of my paintings were based on mythological, esoteric and astrological themes.

In 1975, my first book on tarot was published, mainly based upon the Golden Dawn tarot tradition. It was simply called "Tarot"; there were no other books in Danish on the subject in those days. Other books followed: "Den Personlige Tarot" (A Personal Tarot), advocating a personal approach to tarot based on a Jungian concept, a third being "Tarotoplægget" (The Tarot Spread) giving the history of the card spread and describing 80 different such examples. A book on runes "Magiske Runer" and one introducing a retrospective diary-writing concept, which I called "Livsprofil" (A Life's Profile) were also published.

After 30 years with tarot, I'm still not a tarot reader, I would definitely not qualify for any of the so-called certifications, which are en vogue in the tarot world to prove one’s tarot qualifications. Unlike so many, I have been in the fortunate situation that I needed not create myself a career using tarot as a vehicle and I am not a friend of the commercial aspects of tarot. I would rather define myself as sort of a folklorist, with tarot - or 20th century divination tools - as a specialty.

A couple of years training, writing in English as a contributor to the US-based "APA-tarot" (APA= "Amateur Press Association"), preceded the publication of Manteia. My involvement with APA-Tarot ended in 1999 after a total contribution of more than 1000 pages.

You can find a list of the various activities I have worked on during the years here:

My Archive

I'm aging and I’m left with a dilemma. What to do with all this material collected? At some point, in the not too distant future, I need to make a decision. I could of course do, like Stuart R. Kaplan is doing for the time being, sell the stuff, which would bring me a lucrative income, the recent auction prices of rarer tarot decks being considered. That is, however, not what I want to do. My interest is, that the Spilkammeret’s collection, the related library and the endless files of correspondence are kept together to be of use to future tarot researchers, who will find them a valuable source. At best, I would like to see it preserved in a university library or like body, but in Denmark (and probably not in Europe at all) there will hardly be an interest for this. I’m afraid, that it is not much better these days in the US, where donations to libraries in many cases only are accepted if they are followed by a cash donation.

Books:
-Tarot, 1975
- Den Personlige Tarot, 1983
- Tarotbogen (Asta Erte), 1983
- Individual Tarot (workbook), 1985
- Biorytme/Livsrytme, 1985
- Ace of Diamonds (on tax stamps), 1986
- Tarotoplægget, 1986
- Livsprofil, 1988
- Magiske Runer, 1991

Catalogs:
- Play and Prophecy , 1979
- Eroticism on Playing Cards I-ll, 1990, 1992,
- A Collectors Guide to Playing Cards in Denmark (1984, revised and extended: 1993)
- The Prophetic Cards I-III, 1985-93
- A Bibliography of Books in Spilkammeret, (1993+supplements).
- Catalog of Mantic Tools Arts, 1998-

Exhibitions:
- Play and Prophecy, 1979
- Playing Cards in Denmark, 1984
- The Prophetic Cards, 1985
- Children's Playing Cards, 1986
- Tarot: Game, Magic, Symbolism-1, 1987
- Tarot: Game, Magic, Symbolism-2, 1988
- The Artist's Playing Cards, 1989
- Eroticism on Playing Cards, 1990

Card Decks:
- Mayer Animal Tarot, 1978 (concept & text)
- The Alchemical Tarot, 1989-90 (prod.)
- Tarot Sarmaticus sive Polonius, 1992 (prod.)
- Pamela's Portraits 1993, 1999, (art+prod.)
- Tarot Pers. 1993, (prod.)
- Mail Artist's Lenormand Deck, (concept+prod.) 1995
- Mail Artists' Tarot 1998 (concept, prod., text)

Mail Art Projects Initiated:
- Bureaucracy (fax art), 1993
- Mail Artists Tarot, 1993, 94, 95, 96
- Mail Artists' Lenormand Deck, 1995
- Female Archetypes in the Fairy Tales, 1996
- Missing Documentation, 1996
- What is an Ansel?, 1997
- GoCard Transformations, 1997
- Museum Peculiarii Dania, 1997-98
- Mail Artist’s Trunk, 1997
- Playing Card Transformations, 1998
- Mail Artists' Tarot Deck, 1998
- Mail Artists' Personality Box, 1999

Participation in art projects all over the world. Represented in several museums and collections, contributions 1990-99 to compilation magazines like PIPS, Leopold Bloom, Mail Tao, Tensetendoned, ManiArt, Bric-a-Brack

Varia:
- Limited edition yearbooks, 1960-78
- Paintings based upon esotericism, mythology, astrology etc., 1979-85
- Limited editions of 23 different artistamp sheets in honor of, among others, Nico, Allen Ginsburg,
- Wanda, Crowley, Pamela Colman Smith, Arthur E. Waite, S.R. Kaplan and Court de Gebelin. 1993-99
- "Realms of Innocence" & "States of Desire", 1999 (two limited edition books of erotic collages. Co-working with respectively M. Fox, Germany and Mike Jennings, England.

Lectures, Workshops & Presentations:
- Tarot and Jung
- History of Tarot
-. Asking the Gods
- A Life's Profile (workshop) .
- The Early Waite/Smith editions
- Communication by writing
- Mind Mapping
- Form Design

Photography:

- Group exhibitions, 1957-69

- several photo contest awards 1957-70

- Photo series (selection): Poland, Menhirs of France, King Arthur's England,

- Stones of England, Corsica, South of France,

See a few photos here

- Poland of 1963 in the Eyes of a Dane. Solo exhibition,
Crakow, Poland 2009
read introduction by Polish art critic Anna Baranowa
here.

Film Productions: (16 mm)
- The Miller's Daughter, 1959 (photography)
- Harbour of Hanstholm, 1962-64 (photography)
- Matine, 1962 (photography)
- No Wonder (Rudolf Steiner), 1962 (photography + edit.)
- The Cow and the Camel (childrens' movie), 1962 (photography)
- The Wall (unfinished) 1963, (manus, direction, photography)
- Considering the Green Grass (manus), 1963-64

See a few photos here

Magazines, Etc.
- Samvittigheden (ed), 1956-57
- Smalfilm (regular column in photomagazine), 1963
- Mulleposten #1-62 for APA-Tarot, 1987-99
- Manteia # 1-16 + Manteia Courier, 1989-99
- Mail Art Obscurities #1-4, 1996-2000
- Network Copenhagen (ed. & design), 1993-98

- Scope of collection primo 2000:
- Tarot decks: ca. 1200
- Tarock: ca. 180
- Cartomancy packs: ca. 600
- Playing Cards: ca. 2000
- Related books: ca. 3000
- Games, implements for fortune-telling etc.: ca. 500

Biographies and Articles About KFJ
. Mulleposten #24
- In Schachtel Museum (W.Nold), Germany 1996
- Asta Erte: (Fake) Mail Artists Interview, 1997
- Asta Erte: 25 years with Tarot (in Manteia Courier 1998-99)
- In Rubberstampmadness, March-April 2000
- Several articles in magazines and newspapers

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All contents contributed by K. Frank Jensen