Rachel Pollack

Rachel Grace Pollack (born August 17, 1945) is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on tarot. Pollack is involved in the women's spirituality movement.
Tarot reading.
Pollack has written a book about Salvador Dali's Tarot deck. Pollack's work "78 Degrees of Wisdom" on Tarot reading is used by many Tarot readers.
Comics.
Pollack is best known for her run of issues 64–87 on the comic book "Doom Patrol", on DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, with Grant Morrison. In the comic, Pollack wrote about topics such as menstruation, sexual identity, and transsexuality that are unusual in comics.
Fiction.
Three of Pollack's novels have won or been nominated for major awards in the science fiction and fantasy field: "Unquenchable Fire" won the 1989 Arthur C. Clarke Award; "Godmother Night" won the 1997 World Fantasy Award, was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and was nominated for a Lambda Award; "Temporary Agency" was nominated for the 1995 Nebula Award and the Mythopoeic Award, and shortlisted for the Tiptree.
Influences.
Pollack is Jewish, and has frequently written about the Kabbalah.
Pollack is a transsexual woman and has written often about transgender issues. In "Doom Patrol" she introduced Coagula, a transsexual character. She has also written several essays on being transsexual. She attacked the idea that it is a "sickness." She writes that it is a passion and helps with greater understanding of others.
"A Secret Woman" features a police detective who is transgender 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." 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'. Rachel wrote the essay "The Transsexual Book of The Dead" for the anthology "Phallus Palace". This article is concerning trans men.
Teaching.
For nearly 20 years Pollack has been teaching seminars with Tarot author Mary K. Greer at the Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York.