The 78 Tarot cards include the Major Arcana "Death" card and the Minor Arcana "Queen of Swords" card.
In the spring of 1986, my mother Ellen was going through a time of turmoil. She was then Director of the Medical Records Department at St. Luke Hospital, a Catholic hospital that had recently been sold to a for-profit company. Some employees found it evident that the current department heads were being pressured to resign. Ellen had worked there for more than 25 years after moving to Pasadena from another part of Southern California. The world as she knew it was in danger of falling apart and Ellen wanted to find some manner of reassurance that she would be able to pick up the pieces.
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She was fifty-three years old at the time and I was twenty-nine. The Tarot was a subject among many forms of 'unexplained phenomena' that interested me yet while learning about the subject nothing I'd read provided any manner of "Eureka" moment. Having been experimenting with maintaining a journal with microcassette tapes, I realized that conducting a Tarot card 'reading' for my mother and tape recording the event would provide candid details for a character study more exact than any fictional creation. My plan was carried out and resulted with the two-character play "Lunar Son Tarot."
This photo from an identification card shows how my mother looked at the time.
The play "Lunar Son Tarot" is not only a character study but also a microcosm of society under expanding corporate hegemony. Many years later, comparing the cards that appeared and the scope of my mother's life in the years following the Tarot card reading brought the realization that not only did the cards accurately reflect what happened, I recognized how even a spontaneous deviation from customary Tarot card procedures that occurred during the reading was eventually reflected among the events in my mother's life. The profundity of this realization still brings tears to my eyes.
After the publication of my book Testament in 1997, I was living in an oceanfront Santa Monica highrise apartment building upon learning about my mother's deteriorating health. She was too sick to leave her apartment and I began making trips to her Arcadia apartment each Sunday to see how she was doing and get her groceries for her. Eventually I asked her to move in with me and she agreed.
In an uncertain state of health, she eventually developed pneumonia and a trip to the emergency room resulted with learning she would have to undergo dialysis for the rest of her life. Despite this hapless predicament, Ellen went on to enjoy many more years of her life journey while being introduced to new spiritual concepts with me as her caregiver. She made her transition in 2006 at the age of 73.
As in my own life in 1986, the two main sources of information for the character of 'Son' are a 1984 paperback edition of Arthur Edward Waite's The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) and a 1981 reprint paperback of A Complete Guide to the Tarot (1970) by Eden Gray.
The reader finds the following on the first page after opening the latter book —
THE MYSTERY OF THE TAROT
The origins of the Tarot are so veiled in the mists of time that it is only natural for myths and legends to surround it. Superstition, flights of fancy, and speculation have added their own patterns to the rich and colorful tapestry of Tarot lore and have only deepened its aura of magic and mystery. Cults have grown up around one or another historical theory, and sometimes their adherents have become fanatical in proclaiming the one and only "truth." But the better-informed investigators retain a certain amount of flexibility—even skepticism—and make no ironclad assertions.
The truest claim we can make is that the Tarot is a symbolic record of human experience. Through deeply rooted mystic powers, the cards accomplish miracles of psychological insight, wise counsel and accurate divination.
At the beginning of The Encyclopedia of Tarot (1978) by Stuart Kaplan, there is instruction about terminology involving the word 'Tarot.'
The term trionfi was used in Italy in the fifteenth century to describe the twenty-two Major Arcana cards. The term tarocchi subsequently came into usage in Italy in the early sixteenth century, first referring to the twenty-two Major Arcana cards, and thereafter to the complete seventy-eight-card deck, consisting of the twenty-two Major Arcana and fifty-six Minor Arcana or suit cards. The words tarocchi and tarocco are often used interchangeably, although tarocchi is actually the plural of tarocco. Tarot, the French derivative of tarocchi, has come into widespread usage in the English language. In pronouncing the word tarot, the final t is silent.
MacGregor Mathers, writing in 1888, describes several anagrams derived from the word taro:
Tora—law (Hebrew)
Troa—gate (Hebrew)
Rota—wheel (Latin)
Orat—it speaks, argues or entreats (Latin)
Taor or Taur—Egyptian goddess of darkness
Ator or Athor—Egyptian Hathor, goddess of joy
The term trumps is derived from the Latin triumphi. The twenty-two trump cards, also known as the Major Arcana or Greater Arcana cards, each contain a symbolic or allegorical picture. Arcana is a Latin word meaning mysterious or secret; the Italian word arcana, derived from the Latin, has the same meaning. The trumps are also known as atouts in French and atutti in Italian.
Above is shown the cover of Stuart Kaplan's first Encyclopedia of Tarot, a 387-page 8 1/2" by 11" book.
All the incidents mentioned during the course of "Lunar Son Tarot" are authentic experiences from my life and that of my mother. Below are some photos from the period to show my appearance during the 1980s. These two photos are from talent agency parties. I worked at the Ruth Webb agency.
Left photo: Here I am at left with Mamie Van Doren and my twin brother Mike, who was then working as a publicist at Walt Disney Pictures. Right photo: Ruth and I with Paul Lynde are seen inside her Hollywood Hills home.
There are some derivations from reality concerning the life circumstances of the 'Son' character in the play and those of my own life. For the play I decided to avoid the whole Hollywood scene and instead imagined myself as a Pasadena bookstore employee. My affinity with books should be evident at this point as the eighth year anniversary of this blog was four days ago, April 26, 2017.
In 1986 "Lunar Son Tarot" was an intuitive choice for the title of the play and was meant to convey the son's esoteric interests. The following year I decided to change my professional career and began working in the field of public relations/publicity.
In retrospect, the periods of my own life are most significantly divided by the sequence of events during the summer of 1995 that resulted with an unusual spiritual awakening and me becoming a metaphysical author as chronicled in Testament. In 1995 as I investigated a rural Oklahoma 'talking poltergeist' haunting, I was reminded that some paranormal researchers have theorized that each poltergeist case is involved with an unsuspecting 'agent' who is the actual focus of the phenomena.
"Lunar Son Tarot" has never been produced. This play would perhaps be an ideal presentation of the local Pasadena Playhouse; however, like most successful stage venues the Pasadena Playhouse does not accept unsolicited scripts and, perhaps ironically, as a noncommercial author I don't have a literary agent.
During "Lunar Son Tarot," uncovering the cards in the 'Ancient Keltic Method' leads to Mother and Son recalling incidents in their lives. The following is a selection of scrapbook photos of Ellen and myself.
In 1986 "Lunar Son Tarot" was an intuitive choice for the title of the play and was meant to convey the son's esoteric interests. The following year I decided to change my professional career and began working in the field of public relations/publicity.
In retrospect, the periods of my own life are most significantly divided by the sequence of events during the summer of 1995 that resulted with an unusual spiritual awakening and me becoming a metaphysical author as chronicled in Testament. In 1995 as I investigated a rural Oklahoma 'talking poltergeist' haunting, I was reminded that some paranormal researchers have theorized that each poltergeist case is involved with an unsuspecting 'agent' who is the actual focus of the phenomena.
"Lunar Son Tarot" has never been produced. This play would perhaps be an ideal presentation of the local Pasadena Playhouse; however, like most successful stage venues the Pasadena Playhouse does not accept unsolicited scripts and, perhaps ironically, as a noncommercial author I don't have a literary agent.
During "Lunar Son Tarot," uncovering the cards in the 'Ancient Keltic Method' leads to Mother and Son recalling incidents in their lives. The following is a selection of scrapbook photos of Ellen and myself.
Here are some of Mother's (and Father's) baby photos.
Ellen was born and raised in Pennsylvania and was a child of the Great Depression. After her father (William King) was sent to the workhouse, the children found new homes and Ellen went to live with Mildred Smith (right).
Left: Some school photos of Mike (right) and myself. Right: I was photographed with a Rose Parade float at Victory Park in Pasadena during the early 1970s.
My mother's transition to the ascended realm was unlike any other that has been described in the metaphysical books I've read. This is explained in the June 2006 Los Angeles Times obituary for my mother.
RUSSELL, Ellen Geraldine
Beloved mother and sister. Born September 25, 1932 (PA). Ellen made her transition on June 14, 2006 in Northridge after a long illness. She will be remembered for her courage, determination and love of life. Her will power is so strong that while in intensive care she held on for many hours without detectable blood pressure for a final expression of goodbye with son Mark, her caregiver in recent years. Her career included working as director of the Medical Records department at St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena. Happy that she is continuing life's adventure in another realm of existence with brother Jim King and other relations are her sons Mike and Mark, sisters Hannah Bovard, Rosemary Mattern, Marylin Miller, Clara Mitchum (PA), Margaret First (NC), Roslyn Hamilton (UT), brother Joe Shellenberger (PA) and their families. Family requests in lieu of flowers, please make donations to charities.
There is a necessary addendum to this notice. While Ellen had a strong will and this is the customary way people usually remark about such unusual incidents as the one mentioned in the obituary notice, it is more true that my Intensive Care Unit reunion with Ellen was made possible by God — as thereafter other people commented to me when I told them about the occurrence.
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