Arturo de Hoyos

Hey Arturo:

After I sent you that old Tarot deck recently, I started to get curious about it myself. I stumbled across a Tarot for Dummies book at the local branch of our library, checked it out, and then ended up buying a Waite-Smith deck off eBay. I've been playing around with the cards in no particularly organized way ever since.

On another note, I spent several weeks in Switzerland once years ago, taking a Sursilvan course during my summer break from teaching in Kuwait. They had a game they played using Tarot cards. I can't remember much about it now, but I'm interested in the idea of creating my own game using the major arcana as a some sort of quirky trumps deck.

In any case, it seems lots of Southern Europeans use Tarot cards for games just as we use face cards. I suppose they're really not all that different, but the extra suit makes things interesting.

Finally, my former neighbor, one Pat Bagley, who has now moved away to Portugal, used to do readings at parties here in the neighborhood. He hasn't ever done me, but one of these days when he's in town visiting maybe.