While that (fucking) piece of malachite is as green as green can be, it is not the Green Stone that is to accompany the Red Deck. If for nothing else, the order of acquisition is wrong.
The dream that set off the hunt for the Red Deck opens earlier this year with me looking for a green jasper at the store manned by a dwarf of few words. The dwarf eventually asks if I had acquired the “gift” (red wrapped tarot) deck yet. At that time, I had not, and had not received indication that the gift deck would be a physical thing. He informs me that my search for the Green Stone would be fruitless without the Red Deck in hand. He is the first to tell me the Red Deck was to be a physical item. (I challenged him about such, telling him that I refused to spend even one penny towards the acquisition of the deck. He confirmed that the Red Deck would be a gift.) When I ask him what type of tarot deck is the Red Deck, the dwarf gives me a riddle. “The stone unlocks the deck and the deck reflects the stone.”
In a later dream, I encounter No Man and we discuss the Red Deck and the Green Stone. I reiterate my resolution not to spend any money towards obtaining the Red Deck, to which No Man surprisingly agrees. He then cautions me against trying to find the “perfect” Green Stone without having the Red Deck in physical hands. He repeats the dwarf’s riddle, but cautions that any green stone I obtain will always be a poor facsimile of the Green Stone. “The Red Deck will be a weight in your hands, but the Green Stone can never be touched.”
Through a series of epiphanies, I realize what the Green Stone is. (The biggest clue is that I went to a store selling jaspers looking for a green one.) The Green Stone is the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trimestigus, which would make the Red Deck to be a hermetic tarot deck.
After a few adventures, arguments, and table thumping, it was determined that the Red Deck is the Hermetic Kabbalah Tarot, which is visually neutral, steeped in various western occult traditions, and happens to be accompanied by the reddest bag I ever did see.
After some humbling conversation, the Red Deck was gifted to me, without a single penny of mine spent in acquiring it, just as that damn dwarf said it would. To be honest, I haven’t considered obtaining a physical green stone to accompany the Red Deck once the riddle was solved. But after some of y’all public and private inquiries into the (fucking) piece of malachite being the Green Stone’s facsimile, I had to go back through my notes to see if maybe I had the Green Stone all this time. But as the above summary indicates, that the (fucking) piece of malachite was purchased five(ish) years ago invalidates any claim of being that Green Stone. The Red Deck is acquired first, then the Green Stone is used to unlock it.
While I understand the second part of the dwarf’s riddle, I will admit to being at a loss of understanding the first part. Especially since I have already put the Red Deck to work in unpublicized adventures, and the looming challenge of the Path of Teth. I also fear I am too far removed from any good resources concerning Hermeticism, and that my magical, spiritual, and religious experiences so far in this life have permanently soured me towards making any true headway down a true Hermetic path. (If there is such a thing.)
I understand that any physical green stone that I spend money on to obtain will be just a symbolic bauble representing the Green Stone (The Emerald Tablet). But if I don’t understand the Green Stone, how will I be able to choose/recognize its facsimile?
Riddles, and riddles.