With over 40 years of tarot knowledge in my head, I made a decision to get it out of my head and into a book. Yes, I am writing a book!
For this blog, I thought I'd give you a little sneak peak into my writings about some parts of my personal journey through tarot and some of the stories my family shared with me. I hope you enjoy this little snippet of what you will find inside my upcoming book.
When I was a little girl, my Nana would tell me stories about the Roma People called Romani Gypsies. Nana told me; that many years ago, in order to get your cards, read by a gypsy, you had to cross their palm with silver. She made it sound all very exciting and enticing and it actually made sense to me because I had seen my nana and my mum get their cards read and I had seen them pay for the exchange.
It is my understanding that the gypsies were a nomadic travelling community who had a deep connection with the tarot and their ways of working with the cards were passed down from generation to generation. This means then, to have a true gypsy style tarot reading, one would need to connect with someone who was raised in traditional manner. What I have since come to learn was that the term Gypsy is a derogatory term for many. It is a racial slur, used as an insult by the majority population to define the Roma people. It is my understanding that the politically correct term is Roma People.
I have this memory from when I was about 11 or so (roughly the year of 1977), my mum and nana had taken me with them as they got their cards read. I sat patiently in the waiting area while each took their turn to do this. When my mum came out, she said to me “They want to see you”. I remember fear moving through me, what could a reader possibly want to see me for? When I walked into the room, the reader says “There is nothing to fear dear. I know that you have a sore knee and I’d like to help you with that” Gingerly I sit where they gesture, all the while thinking, “how does this person know about my knee?
Oh mum must have told them” I thought.
Anyway, they place their hand on my knee, I feel a lot of heat and then just like that – no more pain! “Holy moly – what is this magic?” I say – they laughed and said to me “you can do this too and you will likely use cards just like this” A little in shock, especially given that my nana had only last year sat me in her lounge room, surrounded me with her tarot cards and said “read the picture” and I had said “you can’t read a picture nana” and she said “you can and you will” Anyway I make my way back to the waiting room to mum and nana and I say, “they fixed my knee, did you tell them mum?” Mum’s shocked look on her face tells me no. I tell my mum what was said about being able to do the same thing with the cards and she says, “maybe, time will tell”
We get back to the car and my mum and nana were very strict with their directions – Do not tell anyone what we did. I can remember thinking why not?? What I did not understand was that it was still considered a criminal offence to tell fortunes in parts of Australia at that time and I have now come to believe that both my mum and nana thought that they could get fined if it became open knowledge that they had their fortune read. Of course that would not have happened, but that was where their thinking was.
Fast forward for a moment to when I was about 26 years old and I was gifted an old tarot deck that was wrapped in a white cloth, as I unwrapped it, a very old silver coin was exposed. The person who had gifted me this deck also spoke of silver crossing the gypsies palm. WOW, how lucky was I to be holding such an old deck and to be reminded of the story my nana had told me many years earlier. At the time, whilst I appreciated the deck, I certainly did not like how it felt. It felt dark, it felt off. Back then, I had little to no knowledge about cleansing rituals or how energy actually worked and it pains me to say that I gave that deck away because of how I felt when holding it. Oh if only I knew then what I know now right!?!
I could never have imagined that the little girl in this photo would have grown up to be living and working with the tarot the ways she is. Who would have thought?
Love Life Big
Big love
Lu xo