I received my tarot cards today; the Crow's Magick deck. I had been kind of reserved about the whole idea. I always assumed that one day I'd wander into a store somewhere and I'd pick up a deck that would just say "Oh, hi. Where've you been?" Some of you know what I mean. But that never happened. And I was justifiably reluctant to order a deck online or from a catalog without ever having had a chance to feel it. But I stumble across this deck on ebay. I struggled about whether my connection to this deck was real, or whether my affinity for crows was what I was feeling, but I wound up ordering it.

Well, the jury is still out, but the deck has already affected me.

I took the cards out and started sifting through them, looking over each card and concentrating on it. Then I came to the 8 of cups. Its image is a hermit crab, and the card represents shyness or timidness. When I looked at this card, tears literally came to my eyes. Somehow that image is tied to memories, recollections and impressions that come from my experiences with the hermit crab I used to own. That sounds silly. I can't come up with the words to express my emotions when I saw that card. Suffice it to say that it felt like a gift from an old friend. I think that was the moment when I made first connection with the deck. It certainly says a lot that I remembered that the card was the 8 of Cups.

I don't know where this will lead. I've always felt drawn to the Tarot. Mara has certainly encouraged me to find a deck. If my path had not diverged so wildly in 1994 from anything approximating a plan, I might have been well acquainted with the Tarot by now. Somehow I've felt like I turned my back on something long ago. It's been about 10 years since I wandered around in the woods, feeling God's energy and love, since I felt like I had finally connected with the world and the Spiritual in some fashion. I don't expect a deck of Tarot cards to give me all of that. I do feel like it'll help me to start re-establishing connections that have never been broken, but which have certainly been stretched almost to their breaking points.

I'll close by saying that this deck came with a polished amethyst gemstone and a small pouch of sandelwood incense. I immediately connected with the gemstone. My simple response was an child's (crow's?) smile and a simple thought; "Pretty." And, of course, I will always associate the smell of sandelwood with my 10 years old experiences .

All in all, I think this was a good purchase.