TAROT-CARD READERS UP IN ARMS By MARSHA KRANES
Tarot-card readers are up in arms about the death card left near the scene of the last Beltway sniper attack.
"Our organization was set up to get rid of our swindler-fortuneteller image - and now someone has added 'murderer' to the list," groused Rickey Hite, membership coordinator for the American Tarot Association.
"Whoever did this has no idea about tarot cards," he said. "The death card usually doesn't mean death. It means change or transition.
"He most likely picked it because of what it said, as opposed to what it means."
That's a great relief to ATA members; it indicates the coldblooded killer almost certainly isn't one of them.
"I believe he just put the card there to be dramatic - like the rest of what he's doing," said Hite, of Lexington, Ky. "He obviously wants attention."
The organization yesterday posted a detailed message on its Web site <http://www.ata-tarot.com/ dc-incident/index.htm> about tarot cards, which were first used in a 15th-century card game played by the Italian nobility and are now widely used in telling fortunes.
ATA president Sandra Thomson said she found the arrogant message scrawled on the death card by the sniper - "Dear policeman, I am God" - very revealing.
"It's a very immature and delusional response," she said. "It suggests that the guy is extremely emotionally immature. 'Dear policeman' is how children address policemen, not adults," said L.A.-based Thomson.
The Sunday Post's tarot columnist also found some significance in the fact that death card is the 13th of the 22 major cards in the 78-card tarot deck - and generally bears a picture of a skeleton.
"He certainly picked a card to scare people," said Frank Andrews. "He was leaving a message of death. He sees himself as a grim reaper, controlling death."