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Grace Musica
Author of 37 Stories |
The conventional 78-card tarot deck is structured into two distinct parts. The first, called the Major Arcana, consists of 21 cards without suits typically referred to as "trumps", plus a 22nd card, The Fool. The second, called the Minor Arcana, consists of 56 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards each. The traditional Italian suits are Swords, Batons, Coins and Cups. In modern tarot decks, the Batons suit is commonly called Wands, Rods or Staves, while the Coins suit is often called Pentacles or Disks. (Arcana is the plural form of the Latin word arcanum, meaning "hidden truth" or "secret knowledge".)
The 14 cards in each suit consist of an Ace, nine cards numbered 2 through 10, and four court cards (not dissimilar from the structure of 52-card bridge/poker playing card decks, except that bridge/poker playing card decks have three court cards rather than four).
The four court cards (or face cards) of the tarot deck traditionally consist of the King, the Queen, the Knight and the Page (or Knave). In bridge/poker decks, the court cards typically consist of the King, the Queen and the Jack. The Jack corresponds to the tarot deck's Page.
In the Western world today, the Tarot is usually seen either as a means of divination, the practice of ascertaining information from supernatural sources, or, in a more modern view, as a psychological tool for accessing the unconscious. However, early references such as the sermon refer only to the use of the cards for game-playing and gambling; and in some European countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Tarot is still a widely played game.
-from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
He stumbled down Decatur, one hand deep in his pocket, the other outstretched to touch anything he could hold for support. Only one thought was going through Richardson's alcohol-fogged mind: Where could he get more cash for tomorrow?
Desmond Richardson was a gambling addict. He was already deep in debt, too; his family had long stopped giving him money; his wife had left him a good ten years ago, taking their two children with her; and at work, he had been fired just the day before, which had spawned the latest gambling binge.
It was when he turned down into a darkened alley towards his thrice-mortgaged home on the verge of repossession that he ran smack into another person.
"Damn it, watch where you're going!" the drunken man lashed out, waving his arms around. The motion threw him off-balance, and he landed heavily on his rear. He got an idea from that. "Ow, hey man, I think you might have broken something! You should give me some money for my hospital bills, yeah?"
"I don't think so," came the cool reply, and something in the voice made Richardson sober up considerably. He looked up, peering into the darkness at the figure that loomed above him. The person was dressed in a black pinstripe suit, their hair hidden underneath a wide-brimmed fedora. There was a faint light coming from the other end of the alleyway behind the newcomer, and he could barely make out two shining pinpoints of light that were their eyes.
They were deep, dark eyes, almost black, and quite mesmerizing. Looking into them took Richardson a moment or two to find his voice. "Well, I think I deserve some form of compensation," the gambler said, put out.
"Compensation I can do."
The last thing Richardson remembered seeing was the cold glint of light off steel.
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