Up: [[Tarot]] Created: 2025-08-14 Before I retired, it was easy to keep track of how many tarot decks I owned because the number was zero. Now, giving some away and buying others, my number of owned decks is somewhere between 50 and 60. With the per deck cost ranging from $30-$70 Canadian, this is not an inconsequential collection. I’ve had to ask myself, and you’d be asking me too if you’d known me before, what’s going on? Who is this person who has embraced Tarot to the extent of spending thousands of dollars on decks, books and online courses? I lay the blame at the feet of a psychic I’d consulted years earlier. Lucy didn’t use Tarot decks, never even mentioned them in the many sessions I had with her. But Lucy was my introduction to the understanding that there’s more to the world than what I can perceive through my five kindergarten senses and love of expert knowledge. In case I’ve already lost you by referring to a psychic, here’s what happened. A teacher friend convinced me to go with her one Saturday when she had an appointment with Lucy. I agreed to pay for a session, but really I only went because we were going to go out for lunch afterwards. I dressed carefully — jeans, an unbranded t-shirt, minimal jewelry. In the session I kept my facial expression neutral (I worried that I wouldn’t be able to suppress the eye rolls), and I gave one syllable answers to questions. I was every charlatan’s nightmare. About twenty minutes into our hour appointment, Lucy asked me if I’d be okay with a message from someone who had passed on. I’m pretty sure I didn’t suppress that particular eye roll but I said, “Sure.” One syllable again. I can be difficult. My Scottish paternal grandmother had a twin sister. Her name was Rita, but in a bit of wordplay to do with her being a twin, she went by Rati. I’d met Rati just once, decades earlier when I was eleven years old and visited Scotland. She was hardly front of mind. My entire worldview changed when Lucy said, “The woman who wants to communicate with you has a really unusual name. Do you know someone called Rati?” I was too busy with work over the next couple of decades to do more than have the occasional session with Lucy, but when I retired almost eleven years ago at age 55, I was free to explore what’s often called the unseen reality. I’ve been learning about Celtic mythology, the concept of the Otherworld, and thin places. I pay attention to natural cycles like the seasons and the phases of the moon. I tried to learn astrology but it’s incredibly complicated with too many moving parts, and my brain won’t take it in. However, I have purchased a forty page psychological horoscope based on my birth chart from an archetypal astrologer and Jungian analyst that has been as mind-blowing as Lucy’s question. Speaking of Jungian analysts, I’ve been working with one for the past seven years and count that as one of the top three best decisions I’ve made in my life. Respecting the unconscious and bringing pieces to consciousness is nothing less than transformative. And now we come to Tarot. Tarot is a pictorial framework of human growth and development represented through 78 cards of archetypes and symbols. I’ve had people tell me that reading the cards is completely subjective, as if that’s a flaw that would stop me from using them, but subjectivity is actually the cards’ strength. I project my own story when I look at the cards and by doing that, I can start to see my story from different perspectives. Tarot is not the Holy Grail and it doesn’t tell me what to do. It is a mirror that helps me, through symbol, image and metaphor, to gain access to unconscious dynamics so that I can reflect on them, know myself better, and grow.