Happy pride, everyone!!

The following is an excerpt from The Gay Marseille Tarot Guidebook, by Charlie Claire Burgess.

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Take the cards—do you feel them?
The futures yet conceived?
In your hands, the card backs arch and
shiver, and questions whispers weave.
The shuffle purrs like a lover, spread
in positions for you to read.
The cards slip on meanings like a gown,
a strap-on, lucite heels, a lead.
If you read them, it must be queerly, sideways,
upside-down, and deep indeed.
You must court them from the margins, cruise
the back door, open to receive.
They will guide you to pierce truth with inner vision,
rather than outer eyes that so deceive.
They will teach you to flag the signs and signals,
to sing the wordless language only some can read.

Look, the cards bare their faces for you,
so that you may truly see:
Your heart is a Cup overflowing, your mind
a Sword that seeks a sheath.
Your body is not a Coin but is round and worthy,
full with pleasures whole-conceived.
Your desire is a dowsing rod of throbbing heartbeats,
a Magic Wand, a living branch, a seed.
See: here you are reflected in all of your gay beauty,
loved for your true self, ne’er denied your secret needs.

Tarot was once a game and became divine,
a transition of centuries.
It is wise in ways of trans-formation,
change, and metamorphoses.
The cards will ease you through your own becoming
and mostly all you’ll need
is this queer pack of tarot cards
and a little self-belief.

— Charlie Claire Burgess
Jan. 2024