True Tarot Stories: Seeking the Lost

You know you have it somewhere, but you just can't find it.

You look in your car. You move furniture. You peek under the couch cushions. You search the garage. You turn the entire house upside down.

You lie awake in bed, your head whirling. Where is it? Where is it?

I was in this situation just last night. After wasting an entire day searching in vain, I finally sat down, pulled three cards ... and, five minutes later, had the object in question in my hot little hands.

Want to know my secret? Grab your Tarot deck, and keep reading!

In the Beginning
When I was in St. Paul, my publisher gifted me with a prototype of The Bright Idea Deck. Featuring art by Canadian artist Eric Hotz, the Bright Idea Deck is a brainstorming Tarot. The cards preserve the structure and themes associated with traditional Tarot, but the illustrations express them in terms a modern audience can interpret at a glance.

There's no nudity, and the esoteric content some folks find "spooky" has been artfully sublimated. The result? The Bright Idea Deck can be used by any audience, any time, without stirring concerns about the "appropriateness" of the deck.

But I digress.

After all the planning, research, collaboration, and writing that went into creating the Bright Idea Deck, actually holding a copy in my hands meant I'd achieved a major milestone! For the next several days, the cards and I become constant companions. I worked with them when reading for the public; I carried them along to a television interview. People liked the bold lines and bright colors, and quickly caught on to the business of using the cards to spark new ideas and generate fresh insights.

And then, yesterday, the cards were gone.

Raiders of the Lost Deck
We came back from a weekend in New Orleans, and the prototype deck was nowhere to be found. I hadn't taken it with me for fear of losing it. Now, despite being woozy with a stomach virus, I was turning the house upside-down, searching for the cards.

Under couches and in cabinets, I found a half-dozen of Chelsea's long-lost dog toys (and even a hidden bone or two) ... but no cards.

Clyde, who can find anything, joined in the search. We tipped over the sectional and found my missing autographed copy of Hajo Banzahf's The Crowley Tarot, but the location of my Bright Ideas Deck remained a mystery.

Exhausted, I sat down in front of my laptop at 10:30 PM and resigned myself to never holding that first little prototype deck again.

My Very Own Bright Idea
Then, an idea popped into my head out of nowhere: why not use the Bright Idea Deck ... to find the Bright Idea Deck?

After all, I had copies of the artwork on my computer, and a copy of the excellent Orphalese Tarot software, which allows the user to convert any seventy-eight images into a virtual Tarot deck.

Seconds later, I posed my question: "Where is my prototype copy of the Bright Idea deck?" I pointed. I clicked. I shuffled. I pulled three cards:

Reading the Signs
At first, my heart sank. I mean, how are these three images supposed to tell me anything about the location of my lost deck? I toyed with the numbers and colors of the cards ... to no avail.

As I relaxed a bit, I began to focus on the themes and keywords represented by each card. Red 3 - Action. Red 1 - Desire. Blue 4 - Restlessness.

I tried making these themes into a question: when was the last time I had exercised my skills in order to reach an important goal ... only to experience a sense of restlessness or distraction?

My thoughts drifed back to my latest television appearance. I was there taking action (Red 3) in order to reach an important goal (Red 1) -- to help get the word out about Putting the Tarot to Work. But was I restless or distracted at all that day?

In fact, I was: as I left the newsroom, a cameraman approached me and began to chat about his own love for Tarot. I was interested in his story, but had to combine the business of collecting my books and cards with the business of carrying on our conversation. In the process, I broke the rubber band I'd been using to keep the deck all in one place ...

... but I still couldn't remember what I'd done with the cards.

Things that Make You Go Hmmmm....
My eye was ultimately drawn to the cener card: the Red 1. This guy has red hair. He looks a little like me. He dresses like me. He's got on a jacket --

The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.

I got up, ran back to the bedroom, threw open the closet door, found my best blue suit, pulled the jacket from the hanger, reached into the inner pocket, and closed my fingers around the prototype deck.

Everything came back to me in an instant. When the rubber band broke, I had been dismayed: how would I keep the cards together? And, of course, a practical solution presented itself: for now, I'd poke 'em in my jacket pocket.

Try It Yourself!
The next time you lose something important -- and before you tear the house apart! -- why not invest ten minutes in a quiet, reflective session with the cards? In addition to retrieving your lost object ... you may discover a process you'll depend on again and again for quick solutions in years to come!