throwing cards

I'm reading cards on Twitter if anyone's interested. I started out with one, but three: past present and future, are more fun. I mostly want to learn the card meanings, and this gives me practice.

People ask me if I'm a believer.

No.

Foremost, the cards and the messages painted within provide us an opportunity to reflect and consider. To me, the messages are about hope and perseverance and challenge. I tend to find hope even in the Tower card.

This is not to say I'm a Pollyanna about the whole thing. Every card seems to carry a warning, too. But mostly, they're a great tool which facilitates thought and self-examination. Rare is the querent who doesn't reply with some revelation, however minor. That's the most rewarding bit to me--giving someone the opportunity to focus on a certain issue. Whether the divination isn't real or not, I'm a big believer in self-fulfilling prophecy. I like seeing querents focus on success.

And yes.

But...but. People have been throwing cards for hundreds of years. (Some scholars take it further back than that.) I believe in the power and perseverance of human faith. If Jesus and Buddha are still remembered, then they transcended their eras by being more than the sum of their parts. That, to me, is what the cards are: more than the sum of their parts. And what makes it more is the querent.

I'm a complete novice on the history, and even in doing readings, but I can't deny the inspiration I find in them. Any reader knows the feeling of reading a novel and thinking, Yes. Life is just like that.

That's how throwing cards feels to me. I get a tingly feeling on the back of my skull sometimes, like someone's watching over my shoulder. Just this morning I HAD to write a querent a longer note on the cards I threw. She had a very direct question and I could see how it could relate--warnings and hope--to her question. She hasn't responded yet, so I have no idea how "on" I was. But it felt right.

So is the divination real or not? Dunno. I don't know that it matters. But to touch and help people is a very cool thing. Besides it's tre fun.