Dreamt I showed up to a client’s house to do a series of tarot readings for him. I had brought all of my decks as requested. (All 7 of them, so many, I know.) He looked them over and admitted he only wanted to see them so he would know how my answers would be framed.
He placed a deck wrapped in black cloth on the table and asked somberly if I would use that deck instead. It was his personal deck, and had not been touched by anyone once he took possession of it.
I washed my hands three times before drying them on a white cloth before even unwrapping the deck. A 78 card deck with a card back with delicate silver filigree greeted me. I counted the cards face down, as I did not want to accidentally order the deck.
I asked him why he wanted a third party to use his deck. He replied he had lost the ability to read the cards and was unable to read for himself lately. While he could read for others, this particular deck now felt disconnected. He wanted to see if someone else could use the deck, and failing that, I would be asked to use my cards instead.
I asked if there was a greeting I should speak to the deck. He was surprised I asked. Personal items can take up personalities, I explained. That, and I’m an animist. I’ve watched too many things “wake up” in my hands, and the story of the Velveteen Rabbit is much more true than many people think.
“[Leviathan]. The deck’s name is [Leviathan].”
I greeted the deck by that name and introduced myself as Weaver. I shuffled until the deck became warm and soft in my hands (seven full shuffles) and placed the deck on the table. I told the man to speak his first question.
I turned over the first card and the world around me lost all color.
The face of the card was visually black, but the lacquer of the surface was textured with hidden designs that my fingers found quickly. I started to speak, but did not have conscious knowing of what I spoke.
Three more cards later, I hear him say, “Enough. Thank you.”. I opened my eyes and realized they had been closed for some time. Color had returned to the world, but the card faces remained black and visually indistinguishable. I could not tell what those four cards were.
Silently I returned those four cards to the deck and shuffled the deck seven more times to increase the deck’s entropy. I wrapped the deck back in the black cloth in the manner I had found it, and formally placed the deck before him at the table. Before I let go of the deck, I spoke my thanks to it, calling it by name before releasing it.
He slid the deck back towards me. “This is yours, now. I can’t read with it anymore, and it has taken well to you.”
I realized I was dreaming. I tried to slide the deck back but it felt as if it had fused with the table and was unshiftable. “My apologies, sir, but I cannot accept. The last time I was given a deck in a dream, I would up with the Red Decks and the Green Stone. I have enough on my hands from that as it is, and I could not take up another deck in this fashion.”
“But you are searching for another deck.”
“… Irrelevant.”
He smiled and nodded, sure of himself and his words. “Leviathan is your deck. It will come to you, because you are its reader and it is your deck.”
“And who, Sir, are you, that you are secure to make this [pronouncement] upon me?”
He lifted his head then. And I realized I had not seen his full face until that moment. His left eye was clouded completely over, and I realized where I had seen his visage before. I swallowed hard to check if my head was still on my neck. Only my manners kept me from flipping the table and racing out the door with rude abandon.
“Just an old man.”, he said softly with a hint of mirth. “That’s all.”
I excused myself from the table, leaving Leviathan behind. I took up my bag of decks and wished him a polite farewell. I waited until the front door was closed completely behind me before breaking out into a sprint to get away from the house and towards the edges of the dream.
Some Folks you should never be rude to no matter how much panic they have managed to stir in your bones.