Well, howdy there! Let me tell ya ’bout this here… uh… botanical tarot deck. Yeah, that’s what they call it. Fancy, ain’t it? Don’t rightly know what all them big words mean, but I reckon I can tell ya what I see.
So, this fella, Kevin Jay Stanton, he drawed all these pretty pictures. Flowers and plants and such. He put ’em on cards, like the ones them fortune tellers use. They say each plant got its own story, its own magic, or somethin’.
- Like, there’s this one with a rose, real purdy and red. They say it means love, I guess. Like them young’uns always moonin’ over each other.
- Then there’s this other one with a prickly ol’ thistle. That one, they say, means trouble or maybe bein’ stubborn. Like my ol’ mule, Jedediah, bless his stubborn heart.
- And another one with a sunflower, all big and yellow. That one’s supposed to be ’bout happiness and sunshine. Lord knows we could all use a little more sunshine in our lives.
This deck, they call it a “blooming celebration of plants.” Sounds right purdy, don’t it? It’s like a whole garden you can hold in your hand. They say you can use these cards to figure stuff out. Like, should you plant your corn this week or wait? Or maybe if that fella down the road is gonna finally fix his fence so my chickens stop gettin’ out.
Now, I ain’t no fortune teller, mind you. I just see what I see. But these cards, they got a somethin’ to ’em. They’re pretty to look at, for one thing. And they make you think, too. Like, why did that fella draw this plant with that one? What’s the story they’re tryin’ to tell?
They say this deck is like that old Rider-Waite deck, the one everybody and their grandma knows. Millions of them things floating around, they say. Even got ’em in 20 different countries! Can you believe it? All them folks lookin’ at pictures and tryin’ to figure out their lives. Guess folks is the same everywhere, huh?
This botanical tarot deck, it’s a bit different though. It’s all about plants, see? Not folks in funny clothes or castles or nothin’. Just good ol’ plants, the kind you see growin’ in your garden, or maybe out in the woods.
I heard tell you can find tarot cards in other places too. Like, in a game, somethin’ called “The Quarry”. A young gal, Abigail, findin’ a card in the woods. Sounds spooky to me. I ain’t goin’ lookin’ for no cards in the woods after dark, no sirree.
And some cards, they got this star thingy on ’em, a black upside-down star, they call it a “mullet”. Don’t know what that means, but it sounds fishy to me. Been around since the 1930s, they say. Folks been lookin’ at these cards for a long, long time.
So, if you like plants and pretty pictures, and maybe you wanna try and figure out what the future holds, well, this botanical tarot deck might just be the thing for you. It ain’t gonna tell you the lottery numbers or nothin’, but it might make you think a little bit. And that ain’t never a bad thing, now is it?
They got a place in Portland, Oregon, where you can get this deck, they say. Address is 1117 SE Division St. Portland. Never been there myself. Too far for these ol’ bones to travel. But if you’re ever in the neighborhood, maybe you can stop by and take a look. Tell ’em I sent ya. They probably won’t know who I am, but that’s alright.
This deck ain’t just for lookin’ at, mind you. It’s for thinkin’ and feelin’. It’s about connectin’ with nature, they say. And maybe, just maybe, connectin’ with somethin’ bigger than ourselves. That’s what them fancy folks would call it, I reckon. Me, I just call it purdy and interestin’. And that’s good enough for me.
Tags: Botanical Tarot, Kevin Jay Stanton, Tarot Cards, Plant Lore, Divination, Rider-Waite Tarot, The Quarry, Portland
