This episode offers a flip through the rare mid-20th century tarot guide, The Painted Caravan by Basil Ivan Rákóczi (1908-1979). Although born in England, he was inspired by his mother Charlotte May Dobby’s Irish heritage and his father Ivan’s Hungarian history, including claiming his parents were married according to ‘Gypsy’ traditions. However, he grew up…
Tag: irreverent tarot
Irreverent Tarot 12: Leonora’s Priestess
OCCULTURE, LEONORA & MORE Episode 12 – Contemplating Leonora Carrington’s High Priestess card as I work on my presentation for Occulture this October in Berlin. I am very excited about that, of course, especially as it gives me even more excuses to delve into my fascination with Carrington, her art, and her magic. So much…
Irreverent Tarot 11: Etteilla’s Creation
ETTEILLA & CREATION The Grand #Etteilla, featuring his thematic desire to encode the creation story into the opening sequence of cards — and why his Fool and Magician are in such unexpected locations. Also a bit about the astrological associations he gives the cards. If you’re unfamiliar with the first professional cartomancer from the 18th…
Irreverent Tarot 10
IRREVERENT TAROT 10 – Etteilla and Gender Essentialism Pride Month has me thinking about the ways that gender is encoded in the tarot cards in so many different ways. Looking at the Grimaud Etteilla here in Dundee, rather than Lo Scarabeo’s in Hudson. Fascinating that the booklet retains some artefacts from the past and dispenses…
Irreverent #Tarot 8: The Fool
Episode 8: Mostly the Fool card. Some quick thoughts with a few different examples and why it seems to permeate life at present. The Fool steps into the abyss: foolish or hopeful? Is the Fool deranged or just using that as a disguise? The Jester v The Vagabond–or are they all just disguises? Almost everybody…
Irreverent #Tarot 7: The Lady & The Beast
A super quick recommendation for Deja Whitehouse’s THE LADY & THE BEAST on Lady Freida Harris, Aleister Crowley, and the making of the Thoth tarot (which can be seen at the Warburg Tarot exhibit or link below to my walkthrough.). Yes, it’s an expensive book but discounts are out there (follow Deja on IG) but…
Irreverent Tarot 6
‘Sir, you quibble!’ Today’s quick take is on THE SQUARE OF SEVENS, a cartomancy guide from 1896 by Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson (1868-1942). He declares it to be the work of Robert Antrobus, who met a ‘Mr George’ in Cornwall who was supposedly a ‘gypsy’ but alienated from his people and willing to spill all their…
Irreverent #Tarot Ep3
The Three Ages of Tarot: from game to occult repository to more reflective modern uses for personal development and expression. Much of this informed by scholars of tarot history including: A Cultural History of Tarot by Helen Farley (2019) A Wicked Pack of Cards by Decker, DePaulis & Dummett (1996) which makes a quick cameo!…
Irreverent Tarot Ep2
Another #TarotTuesday flick up: this one takes a quick look at a strange 1911 tarot, Le Tarot de la Reyne which I came across at the Beinecke while looking for something else (what? who knows?! knee deep in figuring out a thing that remains a bit amorphous but deals with tarot history). The queen in…
Irreverent Tarot Ep 1
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…