Tarot cards are whack.

Or so I used to think. As a teenager, I would often scoff at ideas that were beyond me—particularly the esoteric, that which had a hint of spirituality. I was not, however, allergic to spirituality itself. Instead, I was cautious of the vulnerable surface area that these mechanisms tapped into for people.

Many, perhaps most, people are seeking something beyond themselves, a connection to something larger. If nothing else, religion, spirituality, and their persistence throughout the ages hint at this deep human longing. This longing is a vulnerability, and while it is a beautiful vulnerability, it is exploitable. I've seen loved ones exploited for money by soothsayers promising to reveal their future. Churches of all sorts have famously exploited people's longing for salvation through tithes or indulgences (to be clear, not all tithes are exploitations; I'm thinking more Luther-era Catholicism).

The tarot cards and other modern prognosticative games had a similar scent—they offer to tell us our future, something about ourselves that we do not already know. They are not based on chance alone. They have some sort of power beyond themselves that the universe is guiding.

The concept of a universal force guiding the mundane happenings of our human lives is intriguing, and I'll admit there's a part of me that wants to believe in such a guiding force communicating to us through messages, such as signs from the cards. There's a mysticism to it, there's a romanticism to it.

I have come to a middle ground to reconcile my inner skeptic and my inner seeker. The cards themselves do not hold any power, but they offer us a window into ourselves. If we draw and read the cards with a spirit of openness and earnestness, we have an opportunity to reflect on and integrate what they say about us. We can apply the typically general and universal readings to our specific life circumstances; this application can illuminate new aspects of our circumstances to us. It may call us to look more closely at a difficult choice. It may remind us to come into balance with certain emotions. There is indeed power in the cards.

I went on a reflective hike this weekend with some friends. We set intentions, walked for some time, and connected with each other and nature. My favorite moment of the hike was noticing a number of dragonflies on our walk back. I called my friends' attention to them. It was a beautiful moment.

After the hike, we were in a very open state of mind. Taking the lead as host, I wanted to have time for us to reflect on our experience. I had purchased Animal Spirit cards for that very purpose. We sat at my living room table. I shuffled the cards, and we went around picking three cards for each person and reading their meaning. When it came around for me to choose, after a shuffle and a choosing of my cards, I turned over my first card. It was the dragonfly.

I could hardly believe it. In the deck of 63 cards, the first card I picked was the dragonfly, a callback to a special moment in our hike. It was a bizarre coincidence. And yet, I couldn't help but feel it was more than a coincidence. Call me crazy, but there was a specialness, a continuity to that connection that felt special.

Perhaps there's more power to the cards than I thought. Perhaps the power lies at the confluence of the cards and our spirits.