Because having eleventy million things to do is not much different than doing eleventy million and one, I decided to start a micro-podcast to share weird tarot things that have been obsessing me as I dive deeper into the history.

The first one has to do with this nineteenth century deck — so-called Egyptian, as so many were in the wake of the eighteenth ‘discovery’ that the tarot was really the ancient Book of Thoth (or not) — also known as the Jeu de Princesse and published by Watilliaux in Paris in 1875.

The card that gave me much to ponder is ‘La Femme qui consulte’; the thumbnail above in the video is an earlier version of the card, shown for contrast. So many weird cards; so little time. Fortunately, YT requires shorts to be less than 3 minutes long, so that is my plan in this new series.

If you have an answer, I’d be glad to hear it: I consulted with Tarot History group on FB and had many good suggestions, but none I was quite convinced by — which could be my failing rather than theirs. Lots of knowledgeable people in the group. But it’s a weird little thing.

EDITED TO ADD:

Then there was the suggestion that it was a LIVER to put on a haruspex (as used in my novella Madonna of the Wasp) which seemed really out there, but made me laugh and then I started obsessing about haruspicy in that neurospicy way and of course the fabulous Queen of Everything, Stephanie, came up with images to commemorate this little obsession which I COMPLETELY forgot to mention in the episode because of course they are too brief. So if you see me, ask for a ‘Neurospicy & Haruspicy‘ #gotentrails sticker while they last. I might be making a clay one with a modern twist.

And you tell me if that weird thing is a liver…