Before she went fundie, my mom used to do tarot readings for her friends. My wife loves reading about mysticism and the details of the other world, but I don’t get it. Is it a perception thing? What are we reading into attempts to “understand it all?”
I guess my first problem is understanding the need. I believe in God–I can accept that there are forces out there that I don’t understand. I have accepted the covenant for myself, but that’s not enough for some people. I can understand it as a desire to get closer to the infinite–“to love God and enjoy him forever.” (Westminister Confession of Faith)
I have had what I called “spiritual highs.” I’ve gone on retreats and camps and experienced that infinite joy. I guess for me, it’s the comedown from those mystic experiences that has burned me out from a desire to seek those things. That’s what made Jack Kornfield’s book, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry such an amazing book for me, because it allowed me to accept my faith and find the spiritual in everyday life. It literally changed my life!
Touching back to tarot cards, I own two sets, neither are treated with any particular veneration. One I use to play tarocci, a Renaissance Italian game for which the 74-card tarot deck was originally designed. (Side note: my wife’s grandmother did readings with modern playing cards. It’s not the deck.) The other I do readings with, although not that often, and more to amuse myself.
The first thing they teach you when doing a reading is never to do a reading for someone you have strong emotional feelings for. Why? Because it’ll mess up the reading. Hmmm… is it possible that what you’re “reading” is more reflective of what you believe, rather than what the cards say?
Which is why I’ve done readings with other kinds of decks. The Archetype Deck is a really fun one to do this with–it’s an 80-card deck with different personality aspects and show light and dark attributes of it. If I ask about my future, and then read the cards, I have to still interpret what those symbols means in that context. And I find that useful, because what I believe I’m getting out of the reading is NOT a peek past the veil, but rather a view into how I actually think about things. Kinda like therapy without talking to someone. 🙂
Do you get something out of the mystic? Do you find it silly? Are you somewhere in the middle like me? Let me know in the comments below!
Albigensia Press 
If you’ve read any of my blog you’ll know that my life has been extremely mystical from the beginning. At age 3 I remembered past lives of being tortured and killed for doing my light work to attempt to shut down the dark powers. At age 8 or 9, Jesus and the gang (as I called them), came into my room to tell me about my work this lifetime. I saw many other spirits as a kid, as physical and real as any human. I walked in and out of other dimensions. I went through all the local churches, looking for answers to explain my spiritual experiences and finally gave up and left churches. I went through all the major religions and other spiritual groups. Finally, I just connect with Source for my daily guidance and to inform and guide the daily work I’m doing. All of this was challenging as my parents and doctors attempted to deny all this and explain it as mental illness or imagination, but all of my early experiences have been validated by the work I’m presently doing. I completely believe and experience that the world and our existence is much more vast than the limiting existence we’ve been taught to believe in.
Folks are in need of something as the spiritual morass seeks to destroy the little faith left in their lives 🙏🐕♒️👍