LOOKING FORWARD TO APRIL FOOL’S DAY

Signs of Spring are everywhere here in mid-Michigan, and I am ready to begin another round of “magical chats” at the Triple Goddess bookstore in Okemos.  These are free and casual workshop-like sessions where people are free to drop in and drop out, participate, kibbitz, or just look on as I demonstrate tarot techniques and we engage other magical media.  During these sessions, we discuss each participant’s tarot readings along different themes or topics. (If you are uncomfortable about having a group analyze your readings, it’s OK if you don’t participate in these segments.)  I usually bring out some alternative oracle decks and others that I’m just starting to familiarize myself with, to take advantage of the insights that come up in the group situation.  Also, in the belief that there is a World of Spirit, and spirits of loved ones and others who take an interest in our well-being, and who are likely to converge at a high-vibration place like the Triple Goddess, we have a chance to “crowd-source to Spirit,” benefitting from the stronger connections to a greater pool of knowledge.

For these reasons, I like to emphasize--and would like to do a better job of --encouraging spontaneity on the part of all participants in expressing any thoughts that pop into their minds.  Please don’t be embarrassed to speak up; feel free to interrupt.  Furthermore, when people come together in a group, even if only momentarily, it is often because they may be dealing with some parallel issues.  Therefore, many of the things that come up in individual readings will have messages of significance to the larger group.  Whatever we may be discussing, if a certain thought pops into your head, or you feel a sudden urge to make a comment—even if it seems silly or way off base—it may be spiritually inspired, and something that somebody in the group needs to hear.

Right at the moment, I’m thinking about themes around “The Fool” card, and I’ve also been thinking about the Romany (gypsies), and the central role that the open road (the “boro drom” or “lungo drom”) used to play in their culture.  Numerous tarot writers have commented on “the Fool’s Journey,” and the Fool can be seen as a character who has taken to the road.  In the book, “A Romany Life,” written by Gipsy Petulengro in 1936, the author relates, “The fascination of the road to my way of thinking is due to two things: (1) that your time is all your own, and (2) the people you meet on your way.  The people one meets on the road are nearly always original and unusual” (229).  I believe I recall having read in John Stilgoe’s book on changes in the American Landscape, that back in the olden days, people rarely went out of their village orbit.  So, going out on the road to travel was a somewhat scary and very awe-inspiring experience for many.  That’s why there are a lot of superstitions around this topic, and it’s also an archetypal experience often treated in literature.

That leads one to think about the Fool’s Journey out on the road.  Although many of the characters in the tarot are portrayed in static or settled positions, it seems that one could design a tarot deck based on characters met along the road.

P.S. -- To people who have responded to various posts--thanks for sharing your thoughts and information, and my apologies for being so bad about not regularly checking the blogsite to enable the comments.