Answer:

Dear Anonymous,

Rituals of welcome are timeless. A cup of water offered. Tea brewing. Boots taken and replaced with comfy slippers. A formal bow, the host’s head lowered to the guest. A handshake. One, two or three kisses. An embrace. No matter the length of the journey, every time one leaves or arrives, a new relationship must be established with a place.

To be strange in the city is not simply to be unknown, it is to be unwelcome - a ritual of welcome has yet to take place, connecting a person to the land, to the people of the city, to its habits and pathways. Strangers move in time signatures that defy or disconnect – out of sync – with the rhythm of the city. They eat at the wrong times, in the wrong places. They travel in the wrong directions. They miss cues of speech and communication. Or no one speaks to them. In their ignorance and aloneness they are in danger, and they are the danger.

I am strange in many cities. I must learn many new movements. The tarot travels with me, providing a way into the times and resonances of place. The rhythm of ritual – quiet, shuffle, cast, cut, spread, pick – drops me deep into the timing of a place. And when I am in a familiar place, the tarot makes me strange again, inducing me to meet and greet the energies of my city, to make my known world unknown, unknowable. In a world in which more and more of us are without (one) country, or (one) city, the ability to welcome strangers and to experience oneself as strange, are invaluable.

Do not hurry to escape your strangeness. To be a stranger is to invite others to learn or remember rituals of welcome. The tarot will welcome you. And when you forget, the tarot will remind you that we are all guests.

All the best,

Adeola