Joseph Campbell, Jung, Anne Tyler, and 'The Cards': The Spiritual Journey in 'Searching for Caleb.'

Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Anne Tyler have all dealt with spiritual journeys and card reading in their writings. In his book "Tarot Revelations," Joseph Campbell discusses his first association with tarot cards, dating from 1943, when he was introduced to the symoblism of playing cards by his friend and mentor, Heinrich Zimmer. Carl Jung was interested in working toward an expanded consciousness. Although professors, both Campbell and Jung were interested in going beyond academic knowledge and were not limited to academic ways of pursuing knowledge. In "Searching for Caleb," a contemporary novel about family relations, Anne Tyler shows the ancient and metaphysical routine of reading cards for guidance, counseling, and predictions. The novel provides a history of three generations of the Peck family, from before 1900 to the early 1970s. Grandfather Peck is searching for his brother Caleb who had left home 61 years earlier. The female protagonist of the novel uses card reading to help Grandfather Peck in his search. Tyler presents card reading in a positive light, as does Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman in her novel, "The Fortune Teller." Mainstream literature reflects a new and positive approach to card reading. In "Searching for Caleb," the cards were a useful, positive, unconventional, and liberating part of the character's spiritual journey and the adventure of life. (RS)