The classroom was already almost full when they arrived, which made sense when Corrie thought about it, because Professor Lal always seemed to show up to class when everyone had already arrived. They walked around passing out tarot decks randomly. Corrie held onto one she found particularly appealing, a small box with colored pencil drawings in soft shades.
When they sat down, Professor Lal nodded to them and said, "Today's class will be fairly relaxing, I think. I'll give you all a quick overview of the tarot, and then I'd like you to look at your cards—shuffle the deck, study any cards that particularly appeal to you, compare with your neighbors. I expect this class to be full of talking."
Corrie grinned and opened her box, spilling out the small cards over her desk. She liked classes that were full of talking.
"None of your decks are likely to be in order," said Professor Lal, walking around her desk to the chalkboard, "but the first part of the deck in any tarot lesson is the Major Arcana. Those are the cards you'll see with titles and Roman numerals." She wrote "Major Arcana" on the board. "They are numbered from zero to twenty-one, in a standard deck, though some of you have non-standard ones. They are fairly straightforward to understand, because each has a title that corresponds to the deck's archetype. If any of you have a strong interest in the cards, I'm happy to let you take a deck home to study, as long as it is returned by the end of the semester, and next year you can sign up for Divination with Professor Strega."
Corrie was surprised that Professor Lal didn't mind sharing her decks around, after how careful she'd been with her books, but maybe they weren't her kind of thing. She wondered why the professor collected the decks at all.
Professor Lal continued with an explanation of the four suits—wands, pentacles, swords, and cups—and their elemental associations. She also gave a short sentence for the meaning of each number from one to ten and each of the four face cards, as she called them, depicting people within each suit.
Finally, she said, "The tarot can be used not only for divination, but for active magic. This requires a much more in-depth understanding of the cards than this course will give you, and also a strong will. But laying out the cards in a deliberate way, with the end result in mind and power flowing from you to the cards, can change things in the world just like elemental magic can." Then she nodded, and the class began to inspect their cards.
Corrie looked down at the deck on her desk, pushing it around randomly to pick out a few cards. She ended up with the Three of Cups, the Queen of Wands, and the Nine of Swords. The colors were all pretty and delicate, but while the first two made her happy, the last one was depressing. She shook her head at the cards, having no idea what they might mean, and shuffled them back into the deck.
Then she turned to Dawn and Roe. "What kinds of decks do you guys have?"
"This is called a Rider-Waite, according to the box," said Dawn. She showed them cards with strange, old-fashioned-looking drawings, colored with bright, simple colors.
"That is the most popular and one of the oldest decks," said Professor Lal. Corrie jumped slightly—she hadn't realized the professor was so close. "If you say 'tarot deck,' this is what most people will assume you are talking about. Most modern decks are based on this one."
"Cool," said Dawn, holding up the Fool card to the light.
"What about this one?" said Roe. "The Incidental Tarot."
"Ah, that is a new and unusual one," said Professor Lal. "It includes extra cards, a number of the Major Arcana have new names and different meanings, and the face cards are all renamed. What made you choose it?"
"I didn't," said Roe, frowning and staring at the card in her hand. "It was just at the bottom of the pile. What does this card mean?" She turned it so they could all see it. It showed a tree, dark and bare, with a red circle behind it and a white part, like a crescent moon, at the bottom. The title was "XII Eclipse."
Professor Lal raised her eyebrows. "That replaces the Hanged Man in this deck. I'm afraid I can't exactly recall its meaning—Tarot is not an area of my particular study. Does it mean something to you?"
"Yes," said Roe, turning it back so she could see the front again. "It looks just like what happened in my vision last night."
YOU ARE READING
Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered
FantasyIt's the end of the semester at Chatoyant College, but that doesn't mean Corrie, Edie, and Dawn have time to do nothing but focus on their finals. A few mysteries still remain about the book that was given to them, and Corrie is determined not to le...
