Since roughly middle school, I have always wanted to learn how to read tarot cards. (This Baba Yaga thing is not my first experience with witchyness, by a long shot.) However, when I was ready to start learning tarot, I ran into a snag: someone told me that it’s bad luck to buy your own deck of tarot cards. I had even purchased a deck once, one with Shakespeare-inspired imagery, but after that warning I got rid of the cards.

Decades passed and a deck of cards failed to magically appear in my life. Lately that tarot urge has been resurfacing, thanks to tarot clubs and workshops at Wolverine Farm, Gryphon Games and beyond. But how was I going to get my hands on a deck of cards to for these events?

Finally, Baba Yaga’s voice from the ether: “Have you ever asked, idiot?”

And so, after waiting half my life for the universe to read my mind, I asked and immediately received several offers of support. Because of course.

The most attractive to me came from my friend Erica C., who already owned a deck that she no longer used. A few days later I received a lovingly-wrapped package with a box and one of the sweetest postcards ever.

“Erica!
I’m excited to give you these tarot cards. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. In fact, I based my decision to major in physics on a tarot reading by a friend with these cards. Well, at least it satisfied my decision.
I made the silk cloth they are wrapped in — from two old shirts, I think — and have always kept them in this wood box. I think the internet told me to do this. Anyway — enjoy! Miss you & hope you are loving life.
Erica
P.S. Hope you love this fabulous postcard!” [Ahem.]

Can’t you just feel the good vibes coming off this deck already? These have already been loved. Already been treasured. They already have an awesome story.

And now they’re waiting for a new purpose. (Same here, man.)

Without getting too mystical on you, it feels very obvious to me that these cards reached me the way they were meant to: through a friend, accompanied by a story, and with a crystal-clear lesson about asking for the damn things you want.

By the way, these ^^ are the first cards I pulled. Maybe at some point I’ll be able to tell you what they suggest.

P.S. Once upon a time, Dan and I popped by a flea market to kill time. We didn’t find much that interested us, but there was a booth offering tarot readings and Dan was game. The only thing that I remember about that reading is that when she got to the part about Dan and my relationship, she turned over a card meaning “infinity.” When she drew a second card to cross it, that too said “infinity.” She stared at the cards for a minute and basically said, “There you have it.”