By guest contributor Dan Pelletier*
Teens and twenties I went through the normal stuff. Car accidents, ingestion of psychoactive substances used for both spiritual and recreational usage.
Mid-Thirties there was the sky-diving incident. Reserve ‘chute hard landing. Ended up spending a week in the hospital hooked up to a morphine drip. “You got to keep your foot!” said the doctor after surgery. The x-ray of said ankle was bits and pieces.
Friends would ask me, “Were you scared?”
I’d answer, “No, I was too busy staying alive.”
Somewhere around this time I began telling folks, “Some people flirt with death. I’ve dated her, French kissed her, she keeps tossing me back.” Yeah it was kind of a joke – but not really. I always viewed Death as a woman. And it really wasn’t a joke.
Two years later there was the white-water rafting incident. My brother-in-law began to call me “Gato.”
Life moved on. I was present as both my parents and my best friend were taken by La Santisma Muerte.
I was living in Seattle in those days, and was sent to a business event in NYC. 61st floor of WTC 2.
Day two of said event [insert from journal] “…Tuesday, September 11, 2001 began at 7:30 with P(&&^% R&^%$, chief technical analyst for M.S. He spoke for a little over an hour. We had a break and were to resume at 9:00.
I got up to leave and have a cigarette. Had a bit of an argument with myself (Those voices in my head…) about taking my eyeglasses. “Take your glasses case, not just the sunglasses, take the case…Take your jacket with your cell-phone and palm…” Finally a disembodied voice said – in my right ear, “Go for a cigarette NOW!”
I looked at my watch as I exited the south side of Tower 2. 8:48…Lots of time
As I walked out onto the Liberty Street Plaza, a sound assaulted my ears. There was no visual frame of reference. It was a screaming roar that turned into a crash that turned into a basso profundo explosion. People screamed. I looked up.
Over the top of, and around the sides of Tower 2 was a fireball, smoke, and stuff. Stuff in the sky falls. No understanding, it was simply fight or flight mentality that took over.”
On September 12th, 2001. I stood in the middle of 5th Avenue and East 76th and smoked an entire cigarette. Never saw a car, a truck, anything.
The city was silent – except for sirens; everyone was still in rescue mode.
I lit another…and stood there in the intersection, surrounded by stillness.
And the aroma of the fires.
I once said in a TV interview (KOMO4) that “9/11 changed everything in my life.”
This continues to be true.
The pain may have diminished, but there’s still a hole. A void. Some folks call it PTSD. I call it the ‘empty spot’
Dealing and healing. Trying to stay positive and not just say “Fuck it” – that’s the daily challenge.
Daily.
Back in the early 70’s I’d taken up palm reading. In ‘72 I got my first Tarot deck. I’d read in bars and coffee shops (but of course “Had to” live the 40-40 lie: Work 40 hours a week for 40 years, retire and try to live on half of what you couldn’t live on before”). But September of 2001 changed that. I quit my Stock Broker job, bought into a small online Tarot store (www.tarotgarden.com) left Seattle, moved to the midwest (later moved to North Carolina).
Once again I was in NYC for a Tarot convention when I once again heard ‘That Voice’, “Now is the time to learn Lenormand”
Well golly jeez – Lenormand is completely different from Tarot. For starters, it’s easier.
Except for Tarot readers because we tend to overthink things and push square pegs into a round hole.
So, I spent a couple years learning the Lenormand system.
Then, one day in September of 2019 – I wake up and am ‘informed’ that I would create La Santa Muerte Lenormand.
Me “Scuze me, I’m a French, Native American, Irish, Scots, Jew raised Methodist, and you want me to what? I’m not of Latin descent! I don’t speak Spanish! I’m not Roman Catholic!”
Her: “Figure it out.”
I flew out to Portland Oregon, met up with an artist friend of mine and pitched her the idea. She was on board before I finished.
When I got home I pitched the idea to one publisher and got turned down in 45 minutes.
The next publisher told me to get to work, he’d have a contract in the mail before the week ended and he’d be telling his staff to ‘make it so’.
Callie French (the artist) began to work throughout the pandemic. On occasion our discussions became heated. There were compromises allowed and some disallowed, to have a product that not only were we happy with, but also had the approval of La Flaca.
And yes – we understand the Santa Muerte sigil is controversial. Yes, there are Naysayers.
What I know is this – TSW (this shit works), and she seems quite pleased.
In the next week or two I’d like to discuss a couple various card images and discuss the whys and wherefores.
*Dan Pelletier has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over five decades; and combining Tarot and Palmistry for over 10 years. He is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet.
Most Holy Death 