Enrique Enriquez once said that “Tarot teaches the importance of art.” Enrique is one of the most profound individuals in the tarot community in the world, but he would not categorize himself as a “tarot reader”. I think that, if he granted himself a category at all, it would be a poet.
I met with Enrique in New York City in April 2015. Being from balmy Santa Barbara I was not used to the cold. I wore a jacket I had bought especially for the trip to NYC and Washington DC. I was sure to bring my Jean Noblet Tarot to our coffee meeting. I was excited to think that I would read for or receive a reading from Enrique Enriquez! We met at La Bergamote Café in Midtown at 10 AM on Sunday. I was excited to meet such a famous person – a tarot reader, poet, filmmaker and author. I wrote about our meeting here.
We talked for around an hour. My Noblet Tarot stayed in my pocket. We talked about art, poetry, pataphysics, Medieval Europe, the Renaissance, Christian symbols and the intersection of art and business. We talked about tarot too, but not very much.
Enrique said that tarot provided him the perfect lens to engage with the city. Note that the focus was not on tarot, but his interaction with his environs. I remembered this when I saw his quote “Tarot teaches the importance of art.”
The goal is what is important, not the discipline that enables you to reach it. It seems that, when you reach a more sublime level of awareness, the tools or path that brought you there may cease to be as important. It’s not that you have lost a passion, but rather that your passion has become less important than where it brought you. You will know that you are in this space when it feels like a good thing and not a loss.
People are often very passionate about their paths and disciplines. The danger is that sometimes these become ends in themselves. It’s so easy to become fascinated by the details and implementation. You can spend a lifetime mastering these details and teaching them to others. But in the end, if you don’t truly engage with life and what surrounds you, it may feel like an empty exercise.
So, how will you know you’re truly engaged in this space? You’ll know; don’t worry!