Tarot card truth

With October in full swing, we are introduced to the fall’s chilly air and Halloween, the Celtic celebration of the dead, which dates back about 2,000 years. Depending on what you believe it might be a good idea to stay away from black cats, broken mirrors and room 266 in Grace hall.

Personally, I like the suspense of October’s superstitious inclinations and the season’s mythological idea that the fall exists to hide the sun from the entire world until Persephone, an abducted Greek goddess, is returned to her mother, Demeter, from the underworld that knows no spring.

In thinking about the spooky traditions we college students typically use to entertain ourselves this particular month, I think a great alternative to horror movies and haunted-hay rides would be to get a tarot card reading. After receiving one myself back in February, I became curious about where tarot cards come from and how they’re read. The word “tar” is an Australian gypsy’s word for card; hence, we have the term, tarot cards. In a book by Eden Gray about the tarot, I learned that the revelations of the cards are very closely related to the secret and very old beliefs of Hebrews, Kabbalists and Masons.

Some of these revelations are said to date all the way back to an ancient twelfth century in places like Egypt. The cards are to be dealt by mystic chance not much differently from black-jack and are symbolic depictions open for interpretation meant to include wisdom, council and psychological insight regarding your application of self to your surroundings.

One very interesting question is: are tarot readings for real? Well, my opinion is that since the tarot cards are openly interpreted, than, that means they are not necessarily true.

In fact, I don’t think there is too much that is absolutely true because every person has a different belief, even if it based on the belief of another. And where is it is that a person can find truth?

Could it be inside a number; a religion; a feeling? Regardless, every person’s “truth” is different even if it is described as the same. Accordingly, what comes from a tarot reading is someone else’s explanation of the cards you’re dealt right then and there in association with the cards you will be dealt, so to speak, throughout your life.

However, it’s all in good fun whether you believe your fate is destined, determined by free will or it’s a combination of both.

So if you plan to sport your vampire costume around outside of Cabrini’s campus this Halloween, you could always drop in on an astrology shop and see what the stars have in store for you.

If you do, remember that whether you’re told you’ll be a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian chief, my personal belief is that nothing is engrained in stone and the only right way to go is your own way. Just try not to walk underneath a ladder on your way there.