I've been wanting for a long while to send a copy of the deck to a one of the current royal family. For one thing, I want a thank you letter from a lady in waiting for my scrapbook. But beyond that, it would be nice to imagine my deck in the possession of one of Victoria's descendants, even if they never used it. And what if they did use it? That would just be too wonderful.
I had done some idle investigation, trying to figure out if any of the current royals have an interest in new age pursuits. Obviously I'd rather not give the deck to a die-hard rationalist skeptic, if they had a brother or sister or uncle who might actually appreciate it. I guess I didn't know where or how to look, because I never made much headway.
Of course, everyone knows that Princess Diana had an interest in the occult, but I'm trying to find a living person to give the deck to. Kitty Kelley mentioned an early dalliance with Ouija boards by Prince Charles, I think she said he was introduced to them by a Mountbatten uncle. But Kelley's book is so riddled with errors, I didn't want to rely on anything she said.
Well recently I read about Prince Charles' rather ill-advised remarks on agriculture and the environment. Apparently the Prince of Wales said -- in public -- words to the effect that modern agriculture relies too heavily on science, that science was the cause of our environmental problems, and that Britain would be better off taking a mystical, intuitive approach to agriculture. The article described the Prince as having a long-time interest in mysticism and the supernatural.
Off to google.com, I type "prince charles occult" into the search box. Jackpot! I found a description of The Prince and the Paranormal: the Psychic Bloodline of the Royal Family. A 1986 book that details Prince Charles' interest in the supernatural, and defends it as part of a Windsor tradition that extends back to Victoria. If anyone can tell me whether a British royal ever picked up a Tarot card, this book will!
Naturally, the book is neither in print nor available at any local library. (With 3 university libraries close at hand, I wish obscure titles like this were easier to find!) Time for the online out-of-print resources. Powells.com gets the seal of approval from the Tarot collectors I know, but they don't have a copy. I end up scoring a copy from bibliofind.com, which turns out to be a branch of Amazon.com.
The entire endeavor, from thinking "Let's see if I can find out..." to order confirmation, took less than half an hour. The net is a wonderful thing!
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