The Hardest Search In All Of Tarot
Finding my perfect reading table
I hate to admit it, but I’m in my mid 50’s now. And while I don’t remember the exact year, I know that I bought my first Tarot decks, and books explaining them, sometime between my 18th and 20th Birthday or so. I do remember purchasing that first deck (two decks actually) as if it was yesterday.
All this tells me that I’ve been reading Tarot for something like over 35 years. A long darn time.
In that time, I’ve added lots of Tarot decks to my collection, and have never gotten rid of any. I’ve added lots of Tarot books to my collection, and passed them on to others as quickly as I’ve read them. I’ve got bags and boxes, everything one needs for deck storage.
But, I struggled for years, decades actually, to find a table that I really enjoyed reading on. What a crazy thing that I couldn’t find a table.
The thing is, I guess, I’m overly picky. I’m picky about size. I wanted a table big enough to easily accommodate large spreads, but I didn’t want it to be too big. I’m picky about weight, I wanted to be able to carry it around easily if needed. I’m picky about looks, I wanted a table that looked cool.
Most importantly, perhaps, I’m really picky about how easy it is to actually pick a card up from the table. I hate it when the table is so smooth and finely finished that lifting the cards up and off of it following a reading is a pain.
I considered buying a reading cloth, and then no longer having to worry about finding the perfect table. I know that huge numbers of Tarot readers do just that. But they all look goofy to me, striking me as more an effort to communicate woo than anything else. So that was out, because I’m picky.
I don’t know, maybe ten or twelve years ago, Melinda and I were driving from our house over to the ocean when we noticed a fellow by the side of the road, selling birdhouses and the like that he had crafted out of reclaimed wood.
And he had a really cool looking table.
The legs and undercarriage were made out of extremely weathered barn boards. No paint or stain left on them if there ever was any. Just really old, super degraded and weathered boards. Nail holes, gouges, the whole bit.
The table top seemed to be made out of some equally old reclaimed wooden house siding. The boards warped and cracked, all the signs of age and lack of care. In places there was no paint left, in others badly aged and chipped away white paint remained, with a soft pink underneath that.
The table was cool, and making things out of what would otherwise be discarded is cool, so the table came home with us.
For a few years it sat as a side table out in a little garden room in our backyard. Then we moved, so it became a table to hold things next to our BBQ.
One day, I was looking at it, giving it the eye, and I thought to myself something along the lines of: “Hey self! That table looks to be just about the perfect size for a Tarot spread, it’s the right height, and it’s super light.”
All true.
But, of course, the boards that make up the top are all cracked and warped and uneven. It’s very far from an actually flat surface. I thought that there was no way it would be suitable.
I gave it a try though.
And what I discovered is that it is actually the perfect possible reading table. The cards are taller than the old siding boards are wide, so there is always at least part of the card hanging in a few millimeters of air, making picking them up simple as a breeze. And it really is the perfect size for a spread, plus a small accessory or two. It looks cool, and it is light.
I’d finally found the perfect reading table, in my own house, after years of fruitless search!
I tried it out for a few months, and then decided to make a commitment. Darn, that sounds almost like marriage!
I washed it really thoroughly with some quality wood soap. When it was fully dry again I cleansed it in another way with salt. I didn’t paint it or stain it, but I did oil it with some old fashioned oil, none of the modern chemical stuff. Finally, I let it sit outside, catching the rays of the sun and moon for around a week.
Satisfied with all that work and preparation, it came in and has been my reading table since. Finally. After all these years.
Afterwards I did figure out one additional, really cool benefit. Sometimes we’ll pull a card, or cards, and want to keep them visible for a day or even longer. Holding them vertically, if possible, makes them most visible, and little racks can be purchased that do just that.
What I figured out, with this table, is that each of the little siding boards, at what is now underneath the table, but which would have been on the back, lock together with an extended tongue that fits into a notch.
I presume that when they were freshly cut, this connection would have been virtually seamless and barely visible. Not so now. They just don’t fit very tightly together anymore. That means that there is a groove that will hold the cards up, with a tongue under it that will not allow them to fall through. Perfect for holding one or even many cards in a vertical position.
So, that’s more than anyone in their right mind would ever want to know about my odd little reading table! A search, finally successful!
Changing the subject completely, have you checked out The Keystone’s Chat? I try to post something interesting there regularly. You can find it at:
