Life Lessons
The Self-Fulfilling Prophet
How John and Yoko’s guru became my after-school teacher
He laid out the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and explained the cards as a story. From the Magician to the World, the deck told of the evolution of mankind as we stepped outside the Garden of Eden, and it told the Hero’s Journey, too.
The Fool was a different creature, he explained, “The Fool is like the number Zero. It can show up anywhere. It is powerful and ironic.”
I was hip-deep into astrology and Aleister Crowley magik, trying to find adulthood in the tarot deck. Sleepwalking through my last year of high school, I was desperate to get out but a couple of classes short of early graduation.
Between a light schedule and my afternoon job at the local dry cleaners, I had a lot of time on my hands.
I walked up the hill on Rebecca Drive to John Green’s house after reading a book review of Dakota Days. His driveway began on the other side of a dark knot of trees.
I didn’t hesitate because back then I was bold. I knocked.
The front door swung open to reveal a huge bearded man, well over six feet and burly, with sandy-colored hair. He did not smile.
