Courtney Davis 'Celtic Tarot'
Do you know, I can't remember where or when I bought this? In my mind, I bought this in some spooky bookshop in December 1992, Christmas shopping with my boyfriend. But I didn't, I couldn't have. How strange!
It must have been later, early 1994 sometime, in a New Age shop in Nanaimo. I'd read Mists of Avalon, was pretty into all of that. So when I saw the Celtic Tarot, it seemed a pleasingly Avalon-esque thing to buy. I remember taking it back to the place I was living at the time, and showing it around, and Dianne - one of the women who worked there - being interested but saying it would be hard to use 'because there were no pictures on the suits.' She showed me her Medieval Scapini. I liked it, a lot.
This fascinated me. I had no idea of tarot, had never heard of it. Should there be pictures on the suit cards? Even so, I didn't buy another deck for a while, spending my time with the Celtic Tarot, looking at the pictures and reading the book. I can't remember if I did a reading or not; I didn't have a clue what to do with these cards, but I did know the pictures and the idea of it captivated.
Next came the Hanson-Roberts, along with a copy of Mary K. Greer's Tarot for Yourself, both bought from the same Nanaimo New Age store. I seem to remember the Art Nouveau Tarot from the same place. It wasn't until my fourth deck, Ferguson's Legend Tarot, that I started to figure out that tarot thingie.
Out of those four decks, the only one I still have is the Legend. The other three are lost, possible still in a prairie barn, or long since sold or given away or goodness knows what. I've no way of finding out. The Legend, though: I don't read with it anymore, but I take it out every now and again. It reminds me of that whole strange period of being in Canada... no, I can't use it for reading. But as a keepsake? It's unique and it's beautiful.