The Happy Squirrel card

[Alissa]

The time for the study of the Happy Squirrel card has arrived! No longer a Chat category, it is, after all, a TAROT-related issue. So, I thought I'd bring the topic up here.

Umbrae writes:
The Story behind the Happy Squirrel:

The Simpson's

Episode 2F15
"Lisa's Wedding"
Written by Greg Daniels
Directed by Jim Reardon


Woman: I've been waiting for you, Lisa.
Lisa: [gasps] How did you know my name?
Woman: Your nametag. ["Hi, I'm Lady Lisa"] Would you like to know your future?
Lisa: Heh, sorry, I don't believe in fortune telling. I should go.
Woman: What's your hurry? Bart and Maggie and Marge are at the joust, and Homer is heckling the puppet show.
Lisa: [gasps] Wow, you can see into the...present.
Woman: Now we'll see what the future holds. [turns over a card from what looks like a Tarot deck]
Lisa: [gulps] The "Death" card?
Woman: No, that's good: it means transition, change.
Lisa: [relieved] Oh.
[the woman turns over another card]
Lisa: Oh, that's cute.
Woman: [gasps] "The Happy Squirrel"!
Lisa: [timid] That's bad?
Woman: Possibly. The cards are vague and mysterious.

I thought I'd start a discussion on the very real existence of the Happy Squirrel card. More and more, it is being included in decks. Is it necessary? Is it just novelty? Or is it helpful?

What does the Happy Squirrel card really mean?

("The cards are vague and mysterious...")

I remembered this episode differently, with the Tarot reader running screaming from the room, but the transcript shows me corrected. She only gasped. It's been a while since I've seen this one, but it must have been a very dramatic gasp for me to remember the Tarot reader's reaction as "running screaming from the room."

Is this is the card of pure evil? Is this the card that foretells what no other Tarot card is willing to admit...?

And if so... What's That??

What do YOU think the Happy Squirrel card means? Or would you prefer to keep the Squirrels away from your deck?

(And, what number Major Arcana card is the Happy Squirrel anyhow?)

[firemaiden]

It's number 23!!! And that says a lot... (to people have an obsession with the number 23!) (I'm reading Cosmic Trigger...)

[Umbrae]

[I]Originally quoted by the Cast of The Simpson’s, episode 2F15[I] Lisa: [gasps] Wow, you can see into the...present.
Woman: Now we'll see what the future holds. [turns over a card from what looks like a Tarot deck]
Lisa: [gulps] The "Death" card?
Woman: No, that's good: it means transition, change.
Lisa: [relieved] Oh.
[the woman turns over another card]
Lisa: Oh, that's cute.
Woman: [gasps] "The Happy Squirrel"!
Lisa: [timid] That's bad?
Woman: Possibly. The cards are vague and mysterious.

The writers clearly intended the card to be either (A) bad, or (B) vague and mysterious.

Squirrels, even rabid disease carrying ones, always look happy. Elephants on the other hand, by their construction, always look sad. Which animal does your Zoo show when they are trying to raise money?

Assuming a squirrel is happy before feeding the blood hungry rabid rodent a nut, would not be prudent; it would be wise to observe their behavior for any idiosyncrasies.

Nothing is viler on a backpacking trip than a Happy Squirrel who has just gnawed a hole into your pack.

However does that mean a rodent will attack you? Certainly not. The rodent is of course an archetypal image accepted by most to represent small losses adding up to large ones – issues that appear only when it’s a real problem.

Hence – vague and mysterious. Ominous tidings of an unspecified nature.

As of this writing, only one deck contains the unnumbered (as it should be) card (The International Icon Tarot), and one deck has an image for a card in the same design style as the deck available on the internet, and you are invited to download and past onto a spare card in the deck. My deck did not come with a spare card – and further that card would be thinker and not as pliable as the rest of the cards in the deck. Unacceptable option.

As for numbering it 23…hmmmmm

[Le_Corsair]

My interpretations:

Upright:

1. The querent is nuts - - Reader, RUN!

2. The querent is squirrely - - ditto.

Reversed:

1. The Reader is nuts - - Querent, RUN!

2. The reader is squirrely - - ditto.

Alternative Interpretations:

1. If you're a man and cheating on your partner - - stay away from you partner when she has a knife or you'll lose your _______ (see above).

2. If you're a woman and cheating on your partner - - be happy that the Goddess made you a woman and that you have nothing to lose.

3. Time to squirrel away funds for a rainy day.

4. Good day for Brunswick Stew.

5. Leave all squirrels mooching from your bird feeder alone - - the Happy Squirrel will be unhappy if you don't.

6. If your dog or cat brings home a dead squirrel, take them to the vet for a rabies check. Take the dead squirrel, too. Handle it with rubber gloves.

7. It is a good day for eating walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts or any other nuts you might imagine. Leave the acorns alone unless soaked in three changes of water.

8. Since the Fool is the unnumbered Major trump, how about making the Happy Squirrel the unnumbered Minor Trump?

That's all I can think of for the moment.

Bob

[Hedera]

Originally posted by Umbrae


As for numbering it 23…hmmmmm

I guess they've read the Illuminatus! trilogy......

[Tarot Sparrow]

Originally posted by Le_Corsair
My interpretations:

Upright:

1. The querent is nuts - - Reader, RUN!

2. The querent is squirrely - - ditto.

Reversed:

1. The Reader is nuts - - Querent, RUN!

2. The reader is squirrely - - ditto.

Alternative Interpretations:

1. If you're a man and cheating on your partner - - stay away from you partner when she has a knife or you'll lose your _______ (see above).

2. If you're a woman and cheating on your partner - - be happy that the Goddess made you a woman and that you have nothing to lose.

3. Time to squirrel away funds for a rainy day.

4. Good day for Brunswick Stew.

5. Leave all squirrels mooching from your bird feeder alone - - the Happy Squirrel will be unhappy if you don't.

6. If your dog or cat brings home a dead squirrel, take them to the vet for a rabies check. Take the dead squirrel, too. Handle it with rubber gloves.

7. It is a good day for eating walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts or any other nuts you might imagine. Leave the acorns alone unless soaked in three changes of water.

8. Since the Fool is the unnumbered Major trump, how about making the Happy Squirrel the unnumbered Minor Trump?

That's all I can think of for the moment.

Bob

Well I guess we've settled that!

[Nevada]

Originally posted by Alissa
I remembered this episode differently, with the Tarot reader running screaming from the room, but the transcript shows me corrected. She only gasped. It's been a while since I've seen this one, but it must have been a very dramatic gasp for me to remember the Tarot reader's reaction as "running screaming from the room."

She probably departed from the script. You know how actors are, always hamming it up. Especially the animated ones! Maybe she heard it refered to as a Tarotist's Squirrel, and heard ... the other word.

Originally posted by Le_Corsair
4. Good day for Brunswick Stew.

I'm afraid to ask what that is.


I love squirrels. I've spent many happy hours watching them play. There used to be a whole family of them living right outside my schoolyard when I was in sixth grade, and we would congregate by the fence during recess to watch them, until the school decided they were vermin and eradicated them.

They were always nearby when we would go camping.

Uh-oh.

Maybe it means Plague. If you want to take your dog with you to a campground in my state, it's a good idea to call ahead and ask if any squirrels have died of plague recently. If so, then you're not allowed to bring a pet (nor would you want to!).

Maybe it's only bad press that blamed the rat for the spread of Plague through Europe centuries ago. Maybe it was really this innocent-looking squirrel!

Nevada runs screaming from the room.

Edited to correct typo.

[Alta]

Alissa, I saw that episode and I also recall the tarot reader jumping out and running off. The script doesn't look right to me.

[Macavity]

I guess there had to be a reason behind all this happiness? Another classic of the internet...

Macavity

[HudsonGray]

Them's some nuts Macavity!

I saw the episode twice but can't remember if she did run out of the room. Didn't the Victoria Regina deck include a happy squirrel card too? I think it's fun, and you can always take it out, of course. Though the meanings associated with it on this thread do seem to work nicely.