Ernest The Newbie 
Note: A story for those who dislike the Rider-Waite type decks.
Ernest the newbie saw a deck of tarot cards and wanted one of his own. He went
out and bought the 'IppsyPipsy Tarot Deck' because he loved the images on the
cards so much. The images were totally awesome on the cards, in his opinion. He took the deck home, opened it, and started going through the cards one by one.
He couldn't make heads or tails out of the cards. So he went back to the store
where he had bought the deck and asked the clerk if there was a book that went
with his 'IppsyPipsy Tarot Deck'. The clerk told him no, there wasn't a
book accept for the small white book that came with the deck.
Ernest looked shocked. "There was a book with my deck?"
"There should have been one inside the box," the clerk replied.
Ernest smiled and took off like a shot, jumped in his truck, and sped home. As
soon as he got there he raced inside his house and grabbed up his tarot deck
that was still in the box it had come in. He opened it and ..
His heart sank as he looked at the very small white book that was inside the box
with his tarot deck. It was so small there couldn't possibly be much information
in it. It took Ernest exactly an hour to read the entire booklet and he
was completely dejected afterward. How could anyone possibly learn about the 'IppsyPipsy
Tarot Deck' using this tiny, itty-bitty booklet.
He went through his cards again matching each with the entry in the 'book'. He
tried all three 'spreads' at the back of the booklet. He studied for hours, which
turned into days and was still only slightly closer to knowing how to use his 'IppsyPipsy
Tarot Deck' - or what the cards meant - or how to use them.
He went back the store once again and faced the same clerk he had spoken to
before. "Are you sure there are no other books on my IppsyPipsy Tarot
Deck?"
"Quite sure. But there are a lot of books on the Rider-Waite deck,"
the clerk replied.
"Can I look at one?" Ernest asked with a frown.
"Aisle 2," the bored looking clerk answered pointing toward the left
side of the store.
Ernest turned and made his way over to Aisle 2 and when he looked he almost fell
down. There looked to be about fifty or so books on the tarot. He started
to ... browse the books and their titles. He selected several and paged through
them. He spent well over an hour doing this and in the end he discovered one
thing.
None of them was going to help him learn how to use his 'IppsyPipsy Tarot Deck'!
Almost ready to break down and cry Ernest picked what appeared to be the easiest
book to understand and walked back up to the check out counter.
"Do you have this Rider-Waite deck," he asked in complete disgust as he more or less waved the book he'd selected in the clerks face. From the pictures he'd seen of this 'Rider-Waite' deck he abhorred the damn thing. But he was determined to learn the tarot and it seemed that nearly every book that was written on the tarot had the detestable images in them.
"You want the Rider-Waite or the Universal-Waite deck? We have both,"
the clerk asked in a smirking tone.
Ernest felt his muscles bunch up and wanted to slap the smart-assed kid. Somehow he
managed to contain his anger as well as his sense of feeling ... totally inadequate. But Ernest was now determined to learn the tarot come 'hell or high water'. "What's the difference?" he finally managed to ask after getting his
temper under control.
"They tell me the UW deck is better looking," the clerk responded still looking smug.
"UW deck?" Ernest said with a befuddled frown.
"Yeah, UW, as in Universal-Waite," the clerk said with what Ernest
considered an evil chuckle. He really wanted to strangle the little bastard.
"Give me that one," he growled. His temper rose even more when the bill came to
just over 50 bucks with tax.
'More than fifty dollars - and for a tarot deck he didn't even like - with ugly assed cards he hated!' It was enough to make him actually come close to choking the life out of the
snout-nosed kid behind the counter. But he paid his money and left the
store steaming.
~~ Much Time Passes ~~
"Please have a seat at the table," Ernest said to the young man coming
to get a tarot reading. He got out his trusty UW deck and lovingly carressed the familiar feel of the cards. It was worn and hard to shuffle these days but it was one of his most valued possessions. It never failed him and people came from near and far to have him read for them - and paid gladly for his rather high reading fees.
Looking at the young person across from him he wondered what had ever happened
to his IppsyPipsy Tarot Deck? Hell, he couldn't even remember what it looked
like, nor where it had ended up.
As he handled his cards with loving care he looked at his new client and smiled.
"Are you still working at the book store?"
Don S.