Getting Back Into Tarot Cards (First Post)

Long story short: I’ve started using Tarot cards again this after a very long hiatus from them since my twenties.

I’m an academic, so this has been one of the more difficult subjects for me to bring up with anyone. Truthfully, I’ve been looking for a community that I connect well with around the subject, but I’ve not found one. So being a writer, I thought why not start a blog about the subject? Well, I risk damaging my credibility as an adjunct professor of English for one. For two, I was super certain I was an atheist for many years after a dramatic breakup with someone in a Wiccan coven in the 2000s. Since then, any pull I’d felt back toward Tarot cards always confused me. Luckily, I’m not afraid to read widely, and it turns out Tarot cards are at least somewhat compatible with both atheism and many religious traditions.

But ultimately, as we learn more and more and science and particle physics, we discover that forces behave in ways that don’t align with how we experience them. Electrons change behaviors when measured, and other particles behave very differently than we expect, and a lot of the time, we don’t know why. So, we’re all kind of just making it up as we go along on this planet, and I love that Tarot cards allow us yet another way to admit that.

How I got back into Tarot cards is still a bit of a mystery that I’ve not tracked that well. I’ve been struggling financially. Earlier this year, I found some Tarot cards when I was about to have to move to a cheaper apartment. They were in a bin that I’d miraculously held onto after over ten years of moves around Louisville and Indianapolis. I had 3 decks: The Wildwood Tarot by John Matthews and Mark Ryan, Gay Tarot by Lee Bursten and Antonella Platano, and the Psychic Tarot Oracle deck by John Holland. They were in okay condition, but they were warped a bit due to being between items in the bin. After reintroducing myself to these decks, I also came across a new deck in a box that I’d purchased a few years ago when a friend’s date convinced us to go support their other friend who had opened a crystal shop here in Louisville. It was the New Chapter Tarot by Katheryn Briggs, which I hadn’t used at all and was surprised it was even in the same bin. I had a lot of time on my hands because I was struggling finding work around my adjunct teaching positions. I pulled the cards out eventually and started using them to reflect and work through problems and possibilities like I’d done in my twenties.

There were other decks that I remembered I had in the past, but couldn’t find. My Rider Waite-Smith deck was nowhere to be found. My Gilded Tarot deck was also gone. Eventually, I couldn’t help myself and repurchased them. And I’ve been having a great time. I picked up a new copy of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachael Pollack and re-read it.

This blog is my attempt at documenting and chronicling my journey of getting back into Tarot cards. While I have a ways to go with ironing out my spiritual beliefs and even some of the Tarot practices themselves, I have found the Tarot to be a great help with slowing down and thinking through my decisions and my life. It’s not quite like riding a bicycle, but it came back fast enough for me to confidently start reading Tarot for friends and others as well.

So, I’ll let you know how this goes week-to-week, and well as write about other aspects of the journey as I go. I’ll also put together a monthly newsletter that incorporates this journey along with my other monthly happenings.

I’m kind of excited.