When I was twelve I would get my little brother to test my psychic ability by holding up playing cards so I could guess if they were black or red. We would both hold our breath as I got a couple right but soon my brother would lose interest—my psychic aptitude proving to be naught, and I’d go back to the ESP books I checked out from the library and he’d go back to his matchbox cars.
It was around this time that I hopped on the bus and went to the Central Park Bookstore for my first deck of tarot cards. I chose the Rider-Waite knock-off by Merrimack Publishing. It has captions at the bottom of each card. At twelve, I could understand “Bad news” for the Nine of Wands and “A good marriage” for the Ten of Cups, but I was befuddled by “A good augury for military,” (Nine of Cups) and wasn’t sure what “Celebrity for a man’s oldest son” (Three of Pentacles) might have to do with my fortune. The cards got shoved in a drawer, but they survived high school, and college and several moves. I still have them.
A number of years ago I worked at a domestic violence agency and an art therapist suggested that I use Deborah Koff-Chapin’s Soul Cards or Chuck Spezzano’s Enlightenment Cards in my sessions with clients. The cards were a wonderful tool. I would lay out about twenty face up and ask the client to choose a card that represented what they were feeling that day, or for a last session I might have them select cards that represented where they were when they first came to the agency, where they were at that moment, and where they hoped to be six months later.
When I started teaching high school English, I brought the decks in for a creative writing exercise. I bought some tarot decks and threw them into the mix as well. It was fortuitous that Carole, the teacher I shared a room with, came in a little early that day. She saw the kids working with the cards and decided it was safe to come out to me as a tarot reader. She gave me my first reading that summer, and it was the start of a special friendship as well as my tarot addiction! We now teach classes and read at parties together.
I’d love to hear how other folks got into tarot, so please post your stories!
