The Tarot Game

Yesterday I got together with 3 female friends to play The Tarot Game for the 2nd time together. In case you're not familiar with this, The Tarot Game is a real board game (published by Schiffer Publishing) using Tarot cards and other cards supplied with the board and questions. It's sort of like Snakes & Ladders - the board even looks like it - but it gets down deep and personal. None of the group besides myself were familiar with Tarot, which was probably good as they had no preconceptions which could block spontaneity. Both times my friends and I played this game, we got to know each better  by sharing new and fascinating (or sometimes sad) facts about our lives. Of course, the addition of a light wine and snacks helped to loosen us all up as well!
We had played this game many months before and ran overtime and had to quit before the game officially ended with a "winner." It was the same this time, as we each had so much to say that we could hardly move forward through the turns. But the point I want to make here is how often the appropriate  cards  were chosen by each person as a response to their particular question. At the end of our playing time, we each gave each other "gift" cards - that is, cards with a positive word on each that is our wish for the other. Someone handed me "romance" and I was surprised, as I am in a committed relationship and I got a bit flustered, strangely enough. Later, when I thought about the game and that particular exchange, I realized it was appropriate, as I do lament, at times, a lack of romance - and I suppose I'm a romantic at heart (I absolutely love the recently released Romantic Tarot by Lo Scarabeo, which I will be reviewing on here shortly). In this case, my friend was following her intuition, and it was spot on. Playing this game definitely feeds this ability and opens everyone up to the messages and shadows and shining things within them. It's a brilliant, heart opening, mind-opening game and really fun besides. Highly recommended!