It’s been quite a few months since I made it out to the First Friday extravaganza in the crossroads. I think it was in April or May when Aradia and I discovered the Next Space. I happened to comment to Aradia that it would be fun to do Tarot readings as performance art – to be producers of the First Friday experience, rather than consumers; the venue owner, Tyler, said “Do it here!”
Aradia actually started doing it before I did. The Friday night event turned out to be harder for me to schedule around than I originally thought. There was more than enough interest for two readers, so when we finally made it back to the First Friday scene, I came along to try my hand.
I’ve been reading tarot for almost fifteen years and I’ve done a few rounds of the coffee-house scene, but I’ve never done public readings of that nature before. It was among the most liberating and enlightening experiences of my magical career. There was a lot of psychic “static”, yes, and shouting over the band in the other room was a chore, but the readings and meanings have never come more clearly.
I used my old friend, the Robin Wood deck, and for the first time in my practice I actually had parts of the cards “popping up at me” – the visionary moments that some people describe having when they lay cards. Every time I thought I was going too far, reading too much into something … that was when I was closest on target, though I think people appreciated me backing off to let them process some of the more negative things that came up. And I was pretty blessed as far as negativity goes: I got to tell almost everyone that it’s going to be “happily ever after”, at least once they get the bullshit out of the way.
There were a lot of court cards; Pages (Pentacles and Swords, in particular) were very common, especially with the younger college girls, and I saw quite a few Knights of Rods (two I’m pretty sure were illicit lovers, one was someone’s soldier son). I used the Twin Pillars spread, which I found to be very useful for people’s general interests. I wish I were more adept at the Twelve Houses spread that Aradia favors – there were a couple people in particular that I think would have benefited from that – but I think it was advantageous for us to use different spreads as well as different decks. In particular, I would like to combine the two: replacing the Pillars with the Twelve Houses, but continuing to use the central cross.
As arranged on my last major vision quest, all my prophesies were offered in the name of Apollo, and the Sun came up in more than three-quarters of the readings.
The experience was draining, but it was also exhilarating. I was high on the power all night, and when I woke up this morning I was still drained, but none of my circuits were blown. I can’t wait to do it again next month.