A Little Personal History, Part I
December 13th, 2007I’ve been writing down ideas for things to post here on my new blog (I’m a total list person… just don’t ask me to finish anything!), and I have quite a few ideas. But where to start? Best to start at the beginning, I suppose. My original intent was to make this blog more of my own personal journey into the Tarot. There are so many wonderful blogs out there with tons of terrific information, but if I did something like that, it would end up being updated as much as my website… which is hardly ever. I am more interested in posting my own personal journey because it is unique, as each person’s is unique to themselves. So, I guess a short personal history is in order! (Although I’m sure you’re going to find out, if you haven’t already, that nothing is “short” with me. That is, except my height at only 5′2″! 
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in anything paranormal, especially ghost stories and stories of ESP and clairvoyance. And I LOVE cemeteries… I’m not sure why… I just do. But my first exposure to tarot was when I was in college back in the late 80’s. I was majoring in Accounting at FSU in Florida and academic fun was hard to come by, you know. (Accounting can be a real snooze fest.) A friend knew of a local tarot reader, so we went together and each had our cards read. Of course, back then, I had a common misconception that all tarot readers are psychic and should be able to tell you things that only you know. They should also know the winning lotto numbers and exactly what’s going to happen to you ten years into the future, right? 
So, I sat there with my arms crossed, not saying a word. I was every tarot reader’s worst nightmare! No wonder I wasn’t impressed with my reading.
But I was fascinated with the cards themselves. So I decided to buy my own deck. I mean, I could do that reading thing-y just as good as anyone else, I was sure…. (I can hear you laughing now.) I went to the nearest bookseller that I could get to without a car (and I don’t remember any Barnes & Nobles back in them olden days!). They had a big catalogue I looked through; I had no idea there were so many choices! I ended up with US Games Medieval Scapini because the artist was Italian and so was I. Not a very good reason, I know. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a marvelous deck, but not a good choice for a beginner like me who didn’t know how to do anything without a complete list of instructions. (Accounting, remember?) I did try reading with them. I laid out the Celtic Cross like the little white book (LWB) showed me, and I looked up each card’s meaning in Nancy Garen’s Tarot Made Easy, but when I was going to be able to read without a book? How did I know which meaning fit my card? And what did that meaning have to do with the picture I was looking at? So continued frustration and upcoming finals sent my deck to the back of my closet, not to be seen again until 2001!
To Be Continued…