The Tarot Cards...

The concept of someone being able to get a glimpse into your future...the concept of prophets , psychics, and fortune tellers has been intriguing human beings since the beginning of time...

The idea that someone has an "in"...a way to know the unknown...

Who wouldn't sign up for that!!

And these prophets, psychics, fortune tellers have been portrayed throughout time in as many ways as the mind can dream up futures...

The prophets had a direct line to God. Hearing his word and spreading that word to the masses.

Psychics relied on their ESP to connect and see the future.

And well fortune tellers...they just relied on psychology to fool the fools...

We've all seen the movies with the fortune teller carefully laying out the tarot cards only to flip over the "dreaded" Death card and the poor recipient of this fortune was doomed to a fate worse than...you get the point...

And that is how I pretty much view the tarot cards, as some kind of charlatan's parlor trick.

I do believe in spiritual forces that can't be explained and I do believe that there are those amongst us who are more perceptive and in tune with their spirituality...

But tarot cards...no...it wasn't until I actually received a pack of tarot cards as a gift did I start to truly understand their gift...

And it was the "giver" of this gift that made me stop and explore the tarot.

My birthday is August 30th. Throughout my whole life many would wish me happy birthday on August 31st...including my own family!

There I would be, sitting around on my birthday, waiting for the phones calls or texts and they wouldn't come...I'd be disappointed wonder why this person or that person didn't call me on my birthday and  inevitably I would get the call the next day...

"Happy Birthday!!!"

"My birthday was yesterday."

"Really? Really? I thought it was today. The 31st right?"

"No my birthday is the 30th."

And so on and year after year...

It had gotten to the point where I even checked my own birth certificate to confirm my August 30th birth date!

Now,  almost 30 years ago, Sissy L was pregnant with her first child and she was due at the end of August.

I kept telling Sissy L that she had to have the baby on my birthday...she just had to...

On August 31st Sissy L gave birth to my 1st niece Jay and for the last time MY BIRTHDAY IS THE 30TH!!

My birthday is the 30th and my niece's birthday is the 31st.

Flash forward and I don't even know exactly how old Jay was (8 maybe ?) but Sissy L was in the book store and made a comment that she had  to pick up a birthday present for me.

Jay in her youthful innocence picked up a pack of tarot cards and insisted that be my birthday gift.

I remember sitting outside on the deck at my mom's house, celebrating both mine and Jay's birthday...Sissy L handing me my gift...opening it and saying:

"Tarot cards? Really Sissy!"

And Sissy L declaring:

"Jay picked those out for you!"

And I sincerely told her:

"It is the best present I've ever received."

It was because it was from her.

I started researching and learning the tarot.

I could write a whole post on how fascinating the tarot cards are...and what an amazing, rich history they have...and I just might do that one day...but for now I will leave it at this...

Did you know our regular deck of playing cards come from the tarot cards?

And the Death card DOES NOT mean death! It means rebirth...like the phoenix rising up from its own ashes...

Take some time...research them...I am sure you will be fascinated...

Is there something mystical, magical about them?

There can be...and I have experienced some of that...I can tell you there have been times where I have shuffled those cards...I mean really shuffled them...all 78 cards and pulled the same card over and over again...

But what I think it really is...it is your subconscious at play. For the most part I believe we already know the answers to our questions because we are in tune with ourselves and we just need to bring that to the forefront of our consciousness.  And since we subconsciously know the answer, it is our subconscious that picks the appropriate card for the question at hand.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned from the tarot cards is that your subconscious always comes through. You can't hide from what you know deep down inside and if the tarots are a reflection of that...then you can't hide from the tarots.

The cards will always give you away...

And just how much they give away I learned one Thanksgiving...

I would bring my tarot cards to family get-togethers or to a girls night and do readings for friends and family.

Because the cards will always reveal what's going on deep down inside of you...one of the rules when reading tarot cards is to ask the seeker (the person getting the read) if they would like the reading to be done privately...things might come out that they don't want others to know...

The other rule is...read the cards as is...good, bad and all that's buried underneath...never "throw" a read...whether you are doing it privately or with others in the room.

Well on this particular Thanksgiving my stepdad asked for a card reading. I asked if he would like me to do a private reading and he said no.

He shuffled the cards, cut the cards, picked the cards from the deck and I laid out the spread...

And in that instant...I knew...

With one look at the cards...I knew...

I knew he was cheating on my mother...

I went on to "throw" the read...

With my mother sitting right there I couldn't say what the cards were telling me...but he knew, I knew...

They divorced not too long after that.

There is no hiding from the cards and now I wanted the cards to tell me what I knew deep down inside but needed their help  bringing it to the surface for me to see. 

But  having this knowledge of the tarot and having experienced the magic and honesty of the tarot firsthand, I am extra cynical (who me!) when it comes to tarot card readers.

Either way I was looking forward to finding out what my reading would unveil.

There were many questions I wanted to ask.

Questions ranging from work, to school, to my adoption and of course questions about Mr. Selleck.

I knew deep down that me and Mr. Selleck had a connection...a connection stronger than I have felt in a long time...and I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to our story...

But what I didn't know was that on the day I sat down in front of the redheaded psychic  looking for answers hidden deep down inside, that Mr. Selleck would be going with me...and that we were experiencing a rebirth of our own...