On a whim, I bought a tarot card deck for my birthday back in July. Tarot is something I’ve been intrigued by for years but never took that first step to learning more about it. So, for my birthday, I finally decided to give it a try.
Before I go any further, I should clarify that I don’t actually believe in fortune telling through cards of any kind. If that’s the case, then why would I be intrigued by tarot cards, whose purpose is to do just that? It wasn’t so much for the fortune telling or their mysticism, but for their art and what that art is meant to represent.
Tarot card readings are, for me, interpreting art prompted by a question posed by the person requesting the reading. As I’m still learning the meanings and themes of the cards, I only do a simple three-card spread for the past, present, and future of their question. It becomes less about predictions and more about improvising a story based on the symbols presented before me.
Tarot is, for me, a storytelling game where I see how I can creatively weave the symbols into an answer that satisfies the question. Which, for me, is a lot of fun.
I went with the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck, whose art is synonymous with tarot cards. I enjoy peering at Pamela Colman Smith’s classic illustrations and picking out meanings in the symbology in every corner of every card. Despite the illustrations only being over 100 years old, there’s something more ancient about them, like the pictures themselves are all old souls. Maybe there’s mysticism in that, or maybe Smith was just an incredibly talented illustrator, or a little of both. Getting the officially licensed Marvel Comics or Disney Princesses tarot decks would have felt far less magical, I think.
Am I going to turn this into a new profession? No. Would I even consider charging strangers for a reading? No. This is a new hobby for me, not something I’m looking to monetize. I’m just out to have fun with classic cards and tell stories to folks who think I can weave good narratives out of art. That’s adjacent to making comics as it is.