Category: Tarot studies

Book review: Holistic Tarot

At well over 800 pages, Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen is a brick of a book, and is truly a soup-to-nuts tarot reference booked chock full of history, facts and helpful information for tarot enthusiasts of every level of experience. However, the pedantic tone of the author wears a little thin through the first several hundred pages. And it feels like maybe the author tried a bit too hard to aim for a scholarly, intellectual study of the tarot, eliminating the magic along the way.

TL;DR? Too much swords, not enough cups and wands. 😉

The first chapter had me hooked. The author and I are in complete agreement about the nature of tarot cards and how they work. Throughout the first chapter, I underscored and made asterisks and boxes and made copious exclamations in the margins. Choosing just one pull quote to share was a task, but I particularly like this one that explains the author’s opinion on how exactly tarot works:

When we study the imagery and symbols on the cards in a tarot spread, we activate our imagination. That imagination then activates our intuition, which is often the only instrument we have that channels a clear path for us to the truth of a matter.

Benebell Wen, Holistic Tarot


I love this, and I love how she likens consulting tarot to consulting a friend or confidant. I nodded along vigourously to the the author’s explanations of how she views and uses tarot for personal growth, and I enjoyed the history of tarot in the second chapter, too. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the book, I just found that it was a lot of information presented in a relentlessly overbearing style. The author has very clear ideas about how the tarot is or is not used, and doesn’t brook much argument or leave any room for dissension.

I think it was the section on spreads that lost me. My own approach to tarot is very flexible and utterly without dogma or ritual. I was reading a thread in a Facebook group recently about rituals and how one prepares for the act of a tarot reading. People talked about meditating, cleansing rituals, channelling spirits, and using crystals or other talismans, and for me, the extent of preparing for a reading involves giving the table a good swipe to make sure I get the crumbs out of the way. Benebell Wen advises a very disciplined and rigorous approach to the tarot, whereas I’m a little more “whatever works for you, it’s your practice” in my philosophy.

There’s a lot of solid tarot information in this book, and just about every facet of tarot seems to be at least touched upon. But for such a magical art, it’s a surprisingly dry tome. If I had to choose between the breezy, esoteric woo of Rachel Pollack’s 78 Degrees of Wisdom and the encyclopedic collection of facts that is Holistic Tarot, I think I’d lean more toward Rachel Pollack’s approach. I’m glad to have both books on my shelf, though, and I know I’ll go back to each of them in different circumstances as I progress on my tarot journey.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

SWOT: A tarot spread for planning and making decisions

A SWOT analysis is a classic business tool to help you visualize the important aspects of a decision or project for strategic planning. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and opportunities are things you consider favorable and within your control, while weaknesses and threats are unfavorable and dictated by external forces.

The SWOT analysis offers insight on what you’re doing well, where challenges or obstacles may lie, and options for how to use that information moving ahead. You could run a SWOT analysis on virtually anything: a company, an idea, a product, or even yourself; it can be a great tool for personal insight. In a traditional SWOT analysis, you brainstorm points under each category, but here we are looking to the tarot cards to provide the insight. Why use tarot cards for a SWOT analysis? Tarot cards can help you see things from a new perspective, and give you options you might not have come up with on your own. Tarot cards help to deepen your connection with your intuitive, inner wisdom, and might help you see through blind spots that would otherwise inhibit you.

The SWOT Tarot Spread comprises four cards: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Shuffle the cards while thinking about the situation you are analysing. Draw the cards as you see fit; you may wish to make four piles and choose the top card from each pile, or fan the cards out and pick four at random, or cut the deck and draw the top four cards. Regardless of how you draw the cards, ensure you decide before turning over each card which category that card will represent.

Strengths set you apart from others and are your building blocks to success. What are you naturally good at or what skills have you developed? What do others see as your strength? What are your unique talents or gifts?

Weaknesses are areas that need your attention to improve, so they don’t become obstacles to your progress. What could you improve? Where do you have access to fewer resources than others? What might others identify as your weakness?

Opportunities are the external factors you can pursue to move ahead in your journey. What opportunities are open to you? How can you turn your strengths into opportunities?

Threats are the factors or obstacles that might prevent you from reaching your goals. What threats could harm you or prevent success? How could your weaknesses threaten your progress?

So now that you’ve done your spread, what should you do with it? Insight without action won’t lead you forward on your journey. Match up your strengths to your opportunities to make an action plan, and consider ways to improve weaknesses in order to mitigate potential threats. Turn your opportunities into goals, and set up a step-by-step approach so you can get from here to there. Make each milestone in your path meaningful and measurable. And don’t forget to celebrate your success!

If you use this spread, I’d love to hear how it worked out for you. And I’d be happy to do a tarot card SWOT analysis for you, for a situation you are facing, or for your business. Readings will be delivered by email, and the fee for this type of reading is $20 Cdn. Contact me for details!

Deck review: Steampunk Mini Tarot Deck

Well this is exciting, my first official tarot card deck review! I was drawn to the Steampunk Tarot Deck by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell because I’ve always loved the steampunk style. I played an Alchemist with a steampunk bent in our Dungeons and Dragons game last summer, and miss her terribly (she got wiped out in a TPK.) But, I digress.

So what is steampunk? It’s a fusion of industrial Victorian style with a futuristic sci-fi vibe, with steam-powered machines and gears and gizmos, and a little bit of alchemy thrown in for good measure. I’ve seen it called retrofuturistic, which is a great evocative description.

Since I love the steampunk aesthetic, I was immediately drawn to this deck when I saw it, and even more delighted to find it available in an inexpensive “mini” version. I was, however, a little surprised by just how “mini” it is! I have a Rider-Waite-Smith deck in a tin that’s the size of standard playing cards, which is what I was expecting from this one, but the mini-steampunk deck is about 3/4 of that size. So they’re quite tiny, but that just makes them super easy to shuffle and very portable to carry around with you.

On the left, Steampunk Mini.
Centre, standard RWS tarot size.
Right, playing card sized RWS-in-a-tin card.

As far as the deck itself is concerned, I absolutely love the images. LOVE them! The whole deck has a bit of a dark, noir vibe, though some of the images are quite playful. The colours are rich and vibrant with a beautiful use of light and shadow, and some of the cards are so evocative that they just cry out to tell a story. And it has a hint, just a hint and not enough to be obnoxious, of a girl power vibe that I definitely appreciate.

I don’t love everything about this deck, though. The court cards didn’t really wow me, and even though each image has the icon of its suit, I didn’t feel much of the energy of each element in the court cards. The pages especially I wanted to have more of the flavour of their suits, and I found it hard to differentiate between the pages and the knights. I do however like that the knights and pages are a mix of genders and even ages.

By contrast, I love the aces of each suit for exactly the thing that I found lacking in the court cards. You can just feel that water energy in the rich, bright Ace of Cups, and the brooding air energy in the Ace of Swords. The aces are some of the most evocative cards in the deck.

I’m a fan of the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, so my personal preference is when a deck sticks reasonably close to the RWS iconography. I’d say the vast majority of these images find creative and on-theme ways to reinterpret the traditional RWS imagery, with a few exceptions. I miss the knights having horses, though I guess I can see why horses don’t exactly translate to the industrial steampunk vision.

In the minor arcana, I particularly loved the interpretations of the Three of Swords, the Four of Pentacles, the Six of Swords, and the Four and Seven of Cups. And the aces. I mentioned the aces, right? 😉

I appreciate pretty much all of the major arcana, but I was particularly drawn to the Devil, the Chariot, the Hermit and the Hierophant, which is especially nice since I find traditional representations of the Hierophant mostly difficult to internalize. On the other hand, I found the interpretations of Death and the Empress didn’t really resonate with me at all.

The only other two quibbles I have with this deck is that the back is not reversible, so if you read reversals (I generally do not) you might not like that. And, the mini version of this deck didn’t come with a little white booklet or any sort of instruction manual, and I’d heard the one that accompanies the full size of this deck is quite excellent, so I was a little disappointed. Having said that, I love the imagery of this deck so much that I imagine it won’t be long before I add the full size one to my collection, if for no other reason than I can more fully enjoy the amazing images and iconography.

The truth of the pudding is in the eating, though, so I pulled a few cards to see how this deck works in action. “What kind of story do you want to tell me?” The Empress. Hmm, I do believe this is the first-ever tarot card I drew when I got my Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Interesting. “Where will you give me your best insight?” The Fool. Uh huh. So I’m to keep an open mind and trust you? Fair enough. “What sort of adventures are in store for us?” Four of Pentacles. Profitable ones? Excellent, let’s go!

Have you had the chance to play with the Steampunk Tarot deck? What did you think? Do you have a favourite deck? I’d love to know which one and why. I’m pretty sure this tiny little deck will be taking up a disproportionate amount of my tarot attention!


Tarot suits and Hogwart houses

One of the best ways to deepen your understanding of the tarot is to find ways to align or integrate it with things you’re passionate about, or things from your everyday life. In that light, here’s a fun little thought exercise we had fun discussing one rainy Sunday afternoon.

We’ve been hard-core Harry Potter fans around here for a long time. (JK Rowling’s recent comments against transgender folks did a lot to tarnish my love for the series, but we’ve decided to keep the art and throw out the artist for now.) It didn’t take me long into my journey with tarot cards to notice that there are four tarot suits and four houses at Hogwarts. Could they be aligned by comparing the essential characteristics of each suit to the character of each of the houses? Of course they can! 🙂

Wands are characterized by action and optimism. Wands represent our love of competition for the sake of burning up energy and the exuberant joy of living. This is very clearly the suit most tied to Gryffindor, the house that values bravery, daring, nerve, and chivalry.

Swords are the tarot’s suit of conflict, but also of cunning and intellect. For Slytherin, using knowledge is about power and control rather than Gryffindor’s sense of optimism and achievement. Slytherin fits best with stormy, detached swords.

Cups then, the suit of emotion and love and intuition, aligns with easy-going Hufflepuffs who admire patience, loyalty, and fair play. Rachel Pollack says of cups that their element of water represents “formlessness or passivity.” This accords with Hufflepuff’s general demeanour as agreeable, gentle souls.

Pentacles, suit of earthy materialism, is most clearly linked to wise Ravenclaw, who perceive the esoteric magic hidden in the everyday world. Rachel Pollack calls this the “magic of everyday creation” inherent in the pentacles.

This is, of course, a totally subjective assignment, and I’m sure one could argue otherwise. What do you think?

Another way to look at tarot through the lens of the Harry Potter world is by thinking of the characters and which court card they could represent. Court cards in tarot are personality archetypes, and are a combination of their place in the court hierarchy and the energy of their suit. The two elements together give each card a distinctive personality.

Impetuous and impatient, Harry himself is a Knight of Swords for me, charging recklessly forward without considering the consequences of his actions. Hermione Granger, on the other hand, is definitely a practical and ambitious Page of Pentacles. I see Ron Weasley as an emo sort of Knight of Cups, prone to getting lost in his emotions. Luna Lovegood, the ultimate free spirit, is a great embodiment of the Page of Wands, while diligent and dependable Neville Longbottom plods along like a Knight of Pentacles, determined to stay on the path and finish his task no matter how long it takes him. Note how these core characters balance and offset each other, each bringing a different tarot element to their fellowship.

Incisive, prickly but highly intelligent, Professor McGonagall is definitely a Queen of Swords in my books. Contrast her with the warm, domestic Molly Weasley, my ultimate Queen of Pentacles. Severus Snape also feels like a Knight of Swords (not terribly surprising that Harry gives the same vibe) with his nakedly ambitious and relentless pursuit of what he wants. And Professor Dumbledore? Wise, calm, diplomatic and emotionally balanced, I think he’s a nurturing King of Cups.

What do you think? Are you a Harry Potter fan with a deep love of the tarot? Would you argue some other associations between the Hogwarts houses and the suits of the tarot? How else might we align the court cards to the various characters?

As Above, So Below

I have come across the phrase As Above, So Below quite a few times in my tarot studies, and it was familiar enough that I’ve probably encountered it before that, too. It seems to be one of those axioms that floats around mainstream culture. The Magician is said to evoke the concept in the way he holds one hand thrust above his head pointing skyward and the other pointing down toward the earth, channelling the energy between the earthly and spiritual planes. You’ll see the same concept echoed in how the Hierophant holds his hand in his benediction, with two fingers pointed up and the other two folded down: As Above, So Below.

When I was out for a walk along my beloved Rideau River one perfect spring morning, the mirroring of the trees, clouds and sky in the water immediately brought this phrase to my mind. But it made me wonder: what exactly does this phrase mean? Is it just about how the Magician manifests his energy?

It turns out that As Above, So Below is one of the seven Hermetic Principles, and is known as the Principle of Correspondence. Hermeticism is a school of ideas and systems originating as far back as the first century A.D. that focuses on the pursuit of Gnosis; that is, the pursuit of empirical knowledge pertaining to spiritual mysteries. Hermeticism greatly influenced thinking in the Reformation and Renaissance.

I found this definition of the Principle of Correspondence in The Kybalion: A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece: “Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown.”

So what does that mean in modern English? It means that the macrocosm of the cosmos is reflected in the microcosm of individual experience. And this doesn’t just apply to the manifesting energy of the Magician or even the major arcana; instead, it implies that the entire universe exists within a tarot deck, with each card representing a person, place, or event. As Rachel Pollack explains in 78 Degrees of Wisdom, “The tarot contains a philosophy, an outline of how human consciousness evolves, and a vast compendium of human experience.”

And there’s another connection with the Magician, too. The Magician is associated with Hermes, the Greek god of communication, and the Hermetic Philosophy is based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. (This means the Thrice-Greatest-Hermes and is clearly a thread I need to pull another day, because my curiousity is firmly piqued by the idea of being known as the Thrice-Greatest anything! Who then in the greatest Hermes, and the second-greatest? Was there a contest? A vote? Can I become known as the greatest DaniGirl and can I put that on my business cards?)

That’s a little bit more of a deep dive than I was anticipating when I started pulling this thread, wondering about the meaning of As Above, So Below. This is a great example of one of my favourite parts of tarot, though: how it combines history, philosophy, art and spirituality in fascinating ways.