Frida Harris, tarot card from The Thoth deck. Photo by @cugeltje, via Instagram.
Nicolas Conver,Queen of Clubs. Tarot card from Tarot de Marseille, ca. 1760. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Designed by Kati Forner for The Dreslyn, courtesy of the artist.
The Black Power Tarot was conceived by musician King Khan in consultation with Alejandro Jodorowsky, and designed by illustrator Michael Eaton in 2015. The deck celebrates the strength and achievements of Black musicians, artists, and activists while staying faithful to the imagery and composition of the classic Tarot de Marseilles. The familiar faces of Malcolm X, James Brown, Tina Turner, Howlin Wolf, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and others emerge from the Major Arcana. Sun Ra is there too, appropriately imagined as the Sun card. At a time when Black Americans are at a high risk of being the victims of state-sponsored violence, the Black Power Tarot feels especially urgent. By situating these figures within a centuries-old framework of esoteric wisdom, Khan affirms their value and influence, the importance of their legacy. By placing them on cards used for fortune-telling, he extends their power into the future.
Pamela Colman Smith,The Star, c. 1937. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
The deck is an aesthetic departure from the Rider-Waites homey
, from the reimagined female Tarot cards. Courtesy of the artist.
Produced in 1760, French engraver Nicolas Convers deck of delicate woodcuts, the Tarot de Marseille, is the template on which many contemporary decks are based. Like the Visconti-Sforza Tarot, the decks design likely originated in 15th-century Italy before traveling north to France. Its a favorite of many tarot enthusiasts, most notably the cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky, whodesigned his own deckbased on the style. While the Conver deck wasnt the first to be called the Tarot de Marseille, its highly prized by collectors for its delicate color palette of sky blues and minty greens. The graphic black outlines and blunt shading of the prints give the cards a simple and rough-hewn appearance, which adds to the ambience of ancient wisdom. The popularity of the tarot grew due to advances in printing technology and via the writings of 19th-century French occultists such as liphas Lvi and Etteilla, which popularized the use of tarot as a method of fortune-telling and assigned additional divinatory meaning to the cards.
Bill Greer and Lloyd Morgan, card from Morgan-Greer Tarot, 1979.
Despite their aura of mystery, medieval tarot cards were not used for divination, and were probably
The Thoth deck, named for the Ibis-faced Egyptian god more commonly known as Horus, was painted by the artist Frieda Harris based on direction from the infamous occultist-about-town Aleister Crowley. Completed in the early 1940s, but not widely available until 1969, it features
Which brings us back to the Happy Squirrel, a relatively recent addition to the tarots Major Arcana, and one whose provenance is less hazy: it originated on season six of
Created by graphic designer Kati Forner for a Los Angeles-based fashion retailer, the Dreslyn tarot is the epitome of techno-minimalism. Although the deck is lovingly printed with high-gloss embossing, its illustrations are simple enough to be mistaken for the icon of an elegant iPhone app. Its a radical departure from the historical approach, where each card is full to bursting with details, signs, and symbolsinstead, each card has been paired down the bare minimum. The Dreslyns Lovers image is just two slender circles bisecting a line; its Eight of Wands is simply eight diagonal rules. The decks aesthetic mirrors the contemporary fear of clutter, as well as the increasing simplicity of the interfaces we use every day.
The 70s enthusiasm for all things New Age created a renewed interest in tarot as a tool for self-discovery, and the Morgan Greer deck was there to greet it. The cards colors are lush and the lines are fluid. Greer chose to crop his figures tightly and removed the borders, allowing the illustrations to extend to the edges. The effect is fresh and personal. Formally, the Morgan-Greer illustrations have more in common with Jefferson Starships
Tarot decks have also increasingly become more personal, and occasionally political, while reflecting a greater diversity. Illustrator John Elisle, in a commission for Missy Magazine, created seven all-women tarot cards, a chic sci-fi universe that includes a dominatrix Devil and a psychedelic High Priestess.
The cards each have intricately tooled gold backgrounds that glow like the luxury items that they were. Bembo is believed to have included portraits of the families in many of the cards, as well as adding the Visconti family motto here and there for good measure. Akin to the work of
So what would de Gbelins reaction be? The answer depends on whether tarot is a collection of timeless, mystical wisdomor a flexible framework that has endured by changing with the times. Although tarot imagery employs supposedly universal archetypes, new decks are constantly being invented, and old decks altered. The art of tarot cards can never fully transcend its milieu. Which begs a second question: How do the cards art and design relate to the social changes, technological advances, and aesthetic sensibilities of their particular eras?
King Khan, card from the Black Power Tarot.
Minimalism & Identity in the Present Day
borders resembling the pattern of a butterfly wing.
Nicolas Conver, Tarot card from Tarot de Marseille, ca. 1760. Via Wikimedia Commons.
. Lisa visits a fortune teller who is unconcerned when Lisa picks Death, but gasps in horror when the next card she draws is the Happy Squirrel. (When Lisa asks if the fuzzy rodent is a bad sign, the fortune teller demurs, saying that the cards are vague and mysterious.) Although it began as a cartoon joke, the Happy Squirrel card has made its way into over a dozen commercially available tarot decks.
created by ancient Egyptian magicians. The earliest surviving tarot decksnow preserved in various museum collectionsare Italian, and were commissioned by wealthy patrons, the same way one might have hired an artist to paint a portrait or illuminated prayerbook.
(a visionary artist who shared Harriss interest in spiritualism and the writings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, both popular subjects of study among the middle and upper classes in the early 20th century). Harriss shaded orbs and compass-inscribed curves that fill the background of each card bear more than a passing resemblance to Klints highly-saturated geometries. Klint, considered by some to be Europes first abstract painter, believed that her luminous compositions were the created under the influence of spirits. (The same could easily be said of Harris because she was taking direction from Crowley, who was believed to be a medium, able to channel ancient and magical forces.)
Bill Greer and Lloyd Morgan, card from Morgan-Greer Tarot, 1979.
Pamela Colman Smith,Queen of Cups, c. 1937. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Frida Harris, tarot card from The Thoth deck. Photo by @cugeltje, via Instagram.
, who collected her work and showed it at his gallery. Smith created fully-realized illustrations of all 78 cards that made the deck a treasure-trove for cartomancers, who now had a much richer store of images to work with. (Previously, only the 22 Major Arcana cards such as the Fool, the Magician, and the Lovers had been elaborately illustratedtraditionally, the Minor Arcana cards, which are roughly analogous to the suits in a deck of modern playing cards, were not.) The Major Arcana were based on the Tarot de Marseille drawings, but rendered in an illustrative
John Lisle,The Magician, from the reimagined female Tarot cards. Courtesy of the artist.
(1979), with its powerful goddess and blooming flowers. Greers strong women and frank sexuality make the deck very much of its time.
aesthetic. Shaped by Harriss interest in pure geometry, the cards are reminiscent of the work of Swedish painter
What would Antoine Court de Gbelin think of the Happy Squirrel?
Bembo Bonifacio,The King of Swords, 1428-1447. Visconti Tarot from the Cary Collection of Playing Cards. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
In addition to Smiths occult bonafides, she was also an accomplished artist, championed by
King Khan, card from the Black Power Tarot.
(1976) album cover than with contemporary painting of the same periodthe pendulum had swung away from figuration and would take a few years longer to swing backbut its possible to find a resonance between this decks art and a work like
The Visconti-Sforza Tarot is a collection of decks, none complete, commissioned by the Visconti and Sforza families from the workshop of Milanese court painter Bonifacio Bembo. Cards such as Death, who rides a horse and swings a giant scythe like a player in the worlds most high-stakes polo match, will seem familiar to contemporary enthusiasts. So will the Pope, who sits on a golden throne; and the Lovers, who hold hands beneath a string of heraldic flags. Rather than looking to these cards for mystic guidance, the Visconti and Sforza families would have used them to play a trick-taking card game similar to modern-day Bridge. (Although its unlikelygiven the good condition of the decksthat they were ever handled with much frequency).
Its no coincidence that Klints paintings and Harriss Thoth illustrations were shown in the same pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale, which was intended to amplify voices that had previously been excluded and cover 100 years of dreams and visions,accordingto curator Massimiliano Gioni.
A Wealthy Familys Trick-Taking Game
John Lisle,The Fool, from the reimagined female Tarot cards. Courtesy of the artist.
King Khan, card from the Black Power Tarot.
and other early-Renaissance artists, the cards are opulent but pictorially flat, although the bodies appear in naturalistic perspective and their clothing billows around them, suggesting volume and form.
Pamela Colman Smith,The Empress, c. 1937. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
, which insisted that the tarot deck contained secrets of the ancient Egyptians, whose priests had distilled their occult wisdom into the cards illustrations, imbuing them with great mystical power. Before that point, tarot was primarily a card gamemeant for fun, not prophecy.
style rich with patterns. Even the Fool looks debonaire; he carelessly approaches the cliff, a feather in his cap and a blooming rose in his elegant fingers, wearing a floral tunic that looks straight out of
The Rider-Waite Smith deck, which debuted in 1909, remains the most recognizable and popular today. Designed by artist Pamela Colman Smith under the direction of the mystic A.E. Waite, it was the first to be mass-produced in English, and was intended for divination rather than gameplay. Smith and Waite were both active members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, a secretive organization devoted to the exploration of the paranormal and occult (allegedly Bram Stoker, Aleister Crowley, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were also members).
De Gbelin was a Protestant minister born in the 18th century. He authored the multi-volume tome
Bembo Bonifacio,Female Knight (Swords), 1428-1447. Visconti Tarot from the Cary Collection of Playing Cards. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
It was a bold and somewhat absurd assertion, given that de Gbelin could not read Egyptian hieroglyphics (no one could at the time, since they werent deciphered until the 19th century). Despite a total lack of historical evidence to back his claim, the theory stuck: Tarot decks, once a novelty, became popular tools for divination after the publication of de Gbelins book.
Stefan Sagmeister: What is Happiness
Frida Harris, tarot card from The Thoth deck. Photo by @cugeltje, via Instagram.
Bembo Bonifacio,Empress of Swords, 1428-1447. Visconti Tarot from the Cary Collection of Playing Cards. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Nicolas Conver, Tarot card from Tarot de Marseille, ca. 1760. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Bill Greer and Lloyd Morgan, card from Morgan-Greer Tarot, 1979.
Created by the artist Bill Greer under the direction of Lloyd Morgan, the Morgan-Greer deck is, like the 1970s themselves, both opulent and optimistic. The Magician sports a mustache that would make Tom Selleck blush, and the naked and embracing Lovers would fit right in with the hirsute and curvaceous illustrations in the original 1972 edition of