Tarot--a security risk???

I was coming back from Seattle yesterday (by air) and when I went through the security check, the inspector pulled my bag after it was x-rayed and went through it by hand because he saw something suspicious. I was hoping it wasn't my dirty undies that alarmed him, and thought maybe it was my hairdryer, but no! He opened my bag and pulled out my tarot deck! He held it like it was going to go off in his hand and demanded to know what it was. I said, "It's my tarot deck." (Before anyone asks: it was Kat Black's Golden Tarot, in its original box, held together rather inelegantly by a rubber band so the box wouldn't open in travel.) He looked me over closely (deciding, I think that terrorists don't usually wear pink), xrayed the box a second time, opened the box, looked through the deck and let me have it back.

I passed through security when I flew TO Seattle without any problem and the tarot deck was in the same location in my suitcase. I have no idea why they suddenly became suspect.

I have two questions: 1) Has anyone else been shaken down at security because of their tarot deck? 2) Will my deck still work now that it has been exposed to so much x-ray--or will my readings be clouded like 800 speed film? ;-)

Lol

"I'm arresting you on suspicion of divination. Anything you do say will be taken down and used in evidence against you - or will it??? You tell me with your fancy cards there! You shoulda seen this coming!"

To answer your question "Will they work" I believe they will.

All tarot decks travel. After all, how do they get from where they're printed to our hands?

I'm sure with the heightened security, that they go through XRay scans all the time.

So I think they're fine. :3

That is a funny story
I haven't had any problems so far.
You are joking right? about them working

Maybe he thought you were going to chop someone's head off with one via tossing it, like Gambit in X-Men.

I am joking about them working.

It was just the strangest thing I've ever been stopped for so far. (Last year, I got stopped for a crystal vase I was bringing as a hostess gift...it didn't occur to me that x-ray couldn't see through LEAD CRYSTAL.) And the year before that, I hadn't declare my toothpaste as a LIQUID.

Don't travel with me if you don't want to be stopped at security.

How did you keep yourself from laughing in their faces? I would have been on the floor rolling!

When I was at Readers' Studio last year, at the table one person starting talking about this and a couple of others chimed in with similar experiences. Apparently some security people actually damaged their decks they were so rough. They were warning each other to always put their good decks into checked luggage. The way they described it, it sounded like deliberate harassment to me. These occurred within the United States, not going over international boundaries.

But it is no different from the suspicion they have that there is something hidden in my shoes. Suspicion is everywhere, sadly. What drives me mad is how I have seen the most innocent looking (often retired) travellers having to empty out every bit of their private belongings under the gaze of unforgiving sucurity guards and yet still we hear about these near misses of terrorists getting on planes with potential explosives or whatever.

It's all a front. So often it's guards showing off, going through the motions with unlikely candidates while the real terrorist often walk straight through.

It's a boring job, security screener. A gilded brick-shape thing in a box is irresistible, and for someone who's never seen a tarot deck, probably doubly so.