Getting Back Into Tarot Cards (First Post)

It’s been a very long time since I’ve used tarot cards and allowed myself to dabble in the idea that a 78-card system can help me navigate through the world. I’m an academic, so this has been one of the more difficult subjects for me to bring up or talk about. 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. 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. Luckily, I’m not afraid to read widely, and it turns out tarot cards are at least somewhat compatible with both atheism and even 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. So, we’re all 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 this year is still a bit of a mystery that I’ve not tracked that well. A few months ago, 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 warped a bit due to being between items in the bin. I also had 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 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 financially finding work around my adjunct teaching positions, so I pulled them out and started using them a little over the next few months.

There were other decks that I knew 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, which I’m re-reading through now.

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 the Tarot practices themselves, I have found the Tarot to be a great help with slowing down and thinking through things. I’ve also been reading for friends. While I’m open to starting a side-gig or taking it into the professional sphere, I’m forcing myself to do a sepecific number of readings for other people first–to even see it I like doing it and to get practice in front of others. It’s not quite like riding a bicycle, but it’s coming back fast enough to put a number down on a spreadsheet and track my progress.

I will 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, which you can find below.

I’m kind of excited.