Call for PresentationsDivination, Witchcraft & the Occult *SPECIAL TOPIC*Popular Culture Association Conference8-11 April 2026Atlanta, GA, US The broad interest in divination, witchcraft, and the occult has been part of popular culture for centuries. Scholars’ discomfort with the topic is often palpable: they tend to focus on intersections that feel more legitimate, e.g. legal ramifications (laws…
Tag: tarot
Irreverent Tarot 13: Flip Through
Irreverent Tarot, the podcast, returns with a flip-through video of The Art of Drawing Cards and The Tarot. By popular demand of the Tarot History group, who want a proper nosy before they commit to buying anything even if they do get a thanks in the postscript! Take a look through yourself. Find out the…
Out Now: The Art of Drawing Cards and The Tarot
The Art of Drawing Cards and The Tarot Aldegonde Perenna, The Polish Sibyl There’s nothing quite like this tarot book. The editors of this curious 1826 volume threw in every method they could find for reading and playing cards. Cartomancy in nineteenth century France was not a world without rules, but one with too many!…
Recent Reads
I have been diving into eighteenth century France for some reason (…circumspice) and my reading has veering into the historical, albeit through fiction. No surprise: I learned most of my history from fiction — books, television, films — because Americans are not generally taught history so much as a narrative of Manifest Destiny. Which is…
Out Now: Hope Magic
MEANS MAGAZINE 3 Hope Magic Join a global array of grassroots and experimental writers, musicians and artists as they explore tactics for finding hope in a hopeless world. This issue includes: Amy Jackson: Twitter / Pocket ConjurationsLala Lotos: The Soul of Stones (art-making in war-torn Ukraine)Klaus Von Mork: Sigils, Manifestation, and Chaos Magic in Art…
Ithell @ Tate
I usually manage to get a snap of the poster for an exhibition and somehow I managed to miss doing that. It was probably the decision to stop at the White Swan and have a nice burger and a pint of Guinness. I even watched the cricket (my sweetie would approve). Another hot day in…
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…
Review: The Lady and the Beast – Deja Whitehouse
When I visited the Tarot exhibit at the Warburg Institute, one of the joys was to see Frieda Harris’ original art for the Thoth deck. Probably second only to the Smith-Waite deck in popularity amongst English decks, the Thoth deck art doesn’t really get much of an outing. There are different reasons given for this–preservation…