I dreamed I was the Three of Spades. I was in a forest and had lost the group I was supposed to be with. Deepak Chopra of all people found me there and called me the Three of Spades. Hiding from his followers, he sought me out for some reason.
Upon waking from this dream, I was puzzled. To draw the three of swords in tarot suggests profound loss or separation, like divorce. But I hadn't just drawn the card in the dream. I was the card. What could that be about?
Chopra's appearance was particularly puzzling. I've never followed the man and everything I've read of his struck me as pithy and uninteresting. Plenty of people consider him profound, but I always thought his wild popularity was attributable not to profundity, but to an absence of substance, combined with natural charisma and expensive marketing campaigns. Although I respect that he's worked to make the world better in his way, I've never felt at all connected with his brand. And his misrepresentation of quantum phenomena in alternative health makes everything else he says seem suspect.
As a writer, I'm pretty much Chopra's opposite. My work is more dense than pithy. Oftentimes, it's all substance. I'm neither charismatic nor popular, and I can't afford any kind of marketing campaign. Never mind Oprah appearances, most of my friends haven't even read my books. So what was Chopra doing seeking me out?
In the dream, I could tell that Chopra's celebrity was troubling him. He was looking around, vaguely haunted, afraid that one of his followers would spot him standing there in the forest with me. Which is to say me as the Three of Spades. Does that make me a bad omen?
That's a funny thought. Over the years, when dealing with cluster headaches and all their negative life impacts, there have definitely been times when I've felt like a bad omen. Times when I've watched a friend's mood darken the instant they contemplated my situation. I'd like to think that's improved, but maybe it hasn't.
Chopra's brand of alternative medicine is worse than useless for neurological conditions like cluster headache. Maybe the separation represented by the Three of Spades was related to the psychological distance I've created between real wellness and the snake oil peddled by pop culture icons like him. In subtle ways, this distance has created a more real distance between me and some of my friends since covid started. These would be the friends who misunderstand science and use the word quantum inappropriately to describe biological procedures.
I do feel a little sad about this separation from these friends. They're loving people, just stubbornly misguided. And they don't want to be around someone who might challenge their beliefs. When the pandemic started, they closed ranks and stopped inviting me to their parties. Maybe this is the group that I lost in the forest in the dream.
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
Read my novels:
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
Check out the comic I wrote:
- Finney Vol 1 Immutable Journey is available as a free e-comic.