Why tarot?
Because MORE people keep asking the good questions!
Summary for the other go-getters looking for magic/mystery in the everyday: I give a brief history of tarot with some really cool references, including museums and Carl Jung. I also describe pivotal points in my journey with it, including how the incredible Alyx Hanson has been such an integral figure in it.
Tarot.
That creepy thing in movies that witches did to scare young women in horror or supernatural movies.
Communicating with the arcane!
Selling souls!!!!
OMINOUS VISIONS OF DEATH!!!
A 1400s ITALIAN CARD GAME!!!!!
wait… what?
That’s right, this super scary superstitious strange thing began as an Italian card game in the 1400s and didn’t have any connection to divination until the 1700s (Victoria and Albert Museum) or 1800s (from the Metropolitan Museum of Art) depending on the source.
Eventually production of one of the most prolific decks moved to France, and as tarot kept moving across Europe, it kept taking on new meanings (from the Smithsonian). Jean-Baptiste Alliette produced the first deck for purposes of divination (from the Victoria and Albert Museum).
Carl Jung gave his assessment that the cards represented a plethora of universal human archetypes, and not long after his 1933 assessment tarot became an important part of a New Age revival in the United States, and has been picked up and interpreted by people across cultures and across the globe.
People tend to do read tarot more in times of strife and angst, such as the 2008 financial crisis (also from the Smithsonian).
Fast-forward to 2023, I (pre transition) purchased my first tarot deck.
The deck was cheap and lacked meaning, and didn’t quite feel right.
That same week of the purchase I ended up with the worst haircut I’ve ever had and two broken ovens in my house.
I could take a hint, and recycled the tarot deck.
A few months later, life blew up, and I traveled from North Carolina to Minnesota to start a new life. I hoped that a lot of things would take on new life, including tarot.
I made a few witchy friends, and one of them (though we have gone our separate ways) gave me my first tarot deck.
This time felt different. It felt more integrated, connected, and I felt excited!
The intuition flowed and the deck read me like a book.
A few months later, I had a series of friend breakups that felt seismic.
Now I just recognize it as the cycle of growth, death, and rebirth, but at the time I was gutted. And, as many people throughout time have, I looked to the cards for guidance.
After a particularly painful friend/semi-romantic breakup, Alyx came over. I asked them to bring a couple of tarot decks. And lots of friend snuggles.
They pulled from the Numinous Tarot.
Picture of that fateful card pull, of Justice, a person holding scales with beautiful braids with orange and yellow circles containing colorful geometry on each side of the scale, The Shadow, traditionally known as the Devil, a humanoid figure with a white crown (adjacent to a crown of thorns), and red ties around their neck, through a hole in their chest, and around their hands, The World, a lotus blooming underneath concentric circles containing different imagery of nature including plants and moon cycles. The shadow card (far left), is The Mystic of Vials, traditionally the King of Cups, a person with grey hair on the sides of their head and in a braid, a beard, with a scarred eye, a tunic reminiscent of traditional African clothes, holding a bottle with a storm inside, with an ocean behind them.
This was one of the most emotionally significant card pulls to date.
Alyx shared that Justice indicated there was room for all of the complex emotions: my grief, my excitement to be out of a co-dependent and caustic situation, and relief.
The Shadow meant bring all of the parts of me, including the desires I thought I had to hide.
And The World meant I had everything I needed. I didn’t have to fear scarcity.
The shadow card (different than The Shadow in the deck), the Mystic of Vials, encouraged me to separate my emotions and false obligations from those who I felt beholden to. For from them, I was now free, and would continue to be free, the more I held my own instead of kowtowing to someone else’s fears and smallness.
Shortly after this reading, my life immediately began opening up.
Time that had been spent waiting for people to show up was now invested in people who were already showing up.
Energy spent on relationships that were one-sided and draining was now being invested in life-giving, soul-feeding, platonic and romantic connections, and eventually, partnerships.
And frankly, that breakup was what gave me the push to really go for my business, because I was tired of letting someone else dictate what I thought I was worth.
When I explain tarot to people, I tell them that there is a whole range of mysticism and/or reflection. I fall somewhere in the middle, honoring and celebrating all parts of that spectrum.
Tarot feels fun and mystical, curious and mysterious, and, most importantly, accompanies me on facing, healing, and resourcing parts of myself that had long, if not always, been dormant.
And that’s why I love it- universal, creative, aesthetically pleasing, and deeply meaningful.
PROMOTION TIME!!!
And, I’ve started doing paid virtual readings! Read more about that here.
And!!! I am doing my first in-person group for The Resourcery! Of course, it is tarot themed!
I am elated, and so excited to be doing witchcraft on behalf of my beloved fellow human beings! The Clapping Monkey is AWESOME!!! And it’s attached to Wild Things Antiques, which is so much fun to get lost in!!!!
Flyer for Aster’s in person event, with the rainbow tree logo for The Resourcery in the upper left hand corner, event details, the Ace of Cups tarot card with a golden cup on a purple and white cloud background, and a hand in the lower left corner with a ring on the index finger and eye in the palm.