Reflections on the Tarot and Divination

I first became acquainted with the Tarot one gray afternoon in London when as the Gershwin song goes, "the British Museum had lost its charm." I wandered into a little magic and curiosities shop across from the museum and noted several decks of "fortune-telling" cards.

One thing led to another, and utterly fascinated with the esoteric pictures on the faces on the cards, I bought one of the classic decks, the familiar Tarot de Marseille version. I hurried back to my bed-sitter in Hampstead with my treasure, eager to sit back with a "cuppa" and figure out what the future held for me.

Though I tried the various "spreads" over the next few days (such as the five-card, the Celtic Cross, etc.) mentioned in the small pamphlet accompanying the cards, discouragement set in as I realized that I did not know how to interpret the cards. For example, the card called "Death," a gruesome rendition of the Grim Reaper had appeared several times, and I was still very much alive and kicking.

Not too long afterward, I showed the cards to an older English friend of mine. He remarked--with more wisdom than I understood at the time-that at my young age, with all the attendant uncertainties that so often go with youth that I was grabbing at anything that offered direction. I suppose he was right. During that period in my life I was living in a foreign land, had not completed college, was working as a bar porter for a few shillings an hour at the Earl's Court Exhibition halls.

Therefore, I put the cards away with the other memorabilia of my British experience and did not give them much thought for a couple of years. Then while studying T.S. Eliot's poem, The Wasteland, in college, I came across his references to the Tarot (i.e., "I do not see the Hanged Man"). I found my almost pristine deck, did some research and discovered that the university library contained many books on the history, philosophy and interpretation of the cards.

I started a study of the cards in earnest, and my interest in the Tarot as well as other divinatory arts continued for many years. I gained some skill with the cards and occasionally read for friends and others. Moreover, the symbolism of the cards complemented my studies in literature, astrology, consciousness and spirituality.

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