I get kind of creeped out when people talk about their tarot decks as if the cards were alive. It seems to reduce this book of spiritual wisdom in picture form to something superstitious and silly.

But often you'll hear tarotists say that their cards are mad at them, or their cards won't speak to them. I know what they mean when they say things like this, but it always makes me wonder if they really believe that seventy-eight pieces of cardboard have "special powers."

Many cultures make inanimate objects sacred. Islam has strict protocols regarding the treatment of each copy of the Koran.

And here's the thing that confuses people. Tarot IS sacred. That is, the images, the symbols, the archetypes, the lessons and the process of tarot are sacred.

To me, tarot is like a telephone. When I use my phone to talk with someone I love I am grateful for that ability. But I don't love my phone, and I don't tell my friends what my phone said. I appreciate my phone, and I tell my friends the sweet things my honey said. To me, this is an important distinction.

Like the phone, tarot is a tool. Tarot is a tool that allows us to communicate with Spirit, with our Higher Selves and with the unconscious and subconscious mind. Tarot allows us to communicate with angels and with animals. Tarot teaches us how to communicate with one another. That's pretty powerful stuff.

And tarot is also seventy-eight pieces of cardboard.