Stories are told in many ways. Writers use poems and novels; artists put paint on canvases. The history between tarot and literature is prominent and continues to inspire both art forms.
THE OLDEST TAROT DECK
Francesco Petrarca’s series of poems called Trionfi, or Triumphs (1351), mirrors the oldest tarot deck, Visconti di Modrone (15th century). The poem’s title is featured in the deck with 11 Triumph cards. Whether inspiration stemmed from Petrarca’s anthology is up to interpretation. Nevertheless, there are additional notions that lead many to believe his poetry inspired the earliest tarot designs because of his descriptions on Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Divinity.The Visconti Tarot collection, available at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University can be found here.
The Fool & Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s various ‘fools’ characters are suspected to have influenced the tarot card that shares the same name: the Fool. In Shakespeare’s plays, the fool’s role is to entertain while cleverly commenting on the drama. In other words, this sensible character acknowledges nonsensical life events. With tarot, this card emulates the journey through life. The number 0 on the card reveals the unlimited potential to travel either to the beginning or end of the Major Arcana. The Fool’s spontaneous life experiences create a wise and free soul.
TAROT IN LITERATURE
Allegorical tarot figures often appear in literary pieces and vice versa. There are quite a few poets and writers who assemble their story’s theme(s) and characters based on tarot card meanings.William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet and avid tarot reader, was a member of an occult society called Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Yeats deliberately tied tarot imagery into his poems like Blood and the Moon and The Fool by the Roadside.
Blood and the Moon:
The Moon tarot revolves around illusion. The card’s artwork depicts a moon that sits in between two towers. This describes a misunderstanding or the inability to accept the truth.Yeat’s poem references the moon’s innocence and how it cannot be stained by blood:The purity of the unclouded moonHas hung its arrowy shaft upon the floor.Seven centuries have passed and it is pure,The blood of innocence has left no stainThe Tower tarot often symbolizes danger, crisis, unanticipated change and liberation. It is believed that in this poem, the tower symbolizes Yeats himself:I declare this tower is my symbol; I declareThis winding, gyring, siring treadmill of a star is my ancestral stair
The Fool by the Roadside:
Fool by the Riverside is brief and follows the rhyme scheme AABCCB, which is categorized as simple, juvenile, and in a way, foolish.In this poem, the Fool believes that life can spool backward and forward. This strongly relates to the Fool tarot card, which can appear either at the beginning or end of a deck. It is clear that both Yeat’s character and the tarot symbol are similar in the sense that they can exist in any direction or environment.When all works that haveFrom cradle run to graveFrom grave to cradle run instead;When thoughts that a foolHas wound upon a spoolAre but loose thread, are but loose thread;When cradle and spool are pastAnd I mere shade at lastCoagulate of stuff Transparent like the wind,I think that I may findA faithful love, a faithful love.W.B. Yeats is one of the most influential tarot poetry writers. He sought to implement allegorical imagery in a subtle way. This is because his involvement in Golden Dawn was a secret and exposing the organization and its members were strictly not in the cards.
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
While a poet may intentionally create specific themes, concepts and imagery, most of the time the poem’s deeper meaning and overall analysis fall on the reader to interpret. That is the beauty of literature; we speculate and dissect a piece until it makes sense to us.For example, in the poem “The Waste Land,” some believe that the drowned Phoenician Sailor is a reference to the Ten of Swords card and the Lady of the Rocks is the Queen of Cups. But the more obvious tarot indications by Eliot are the mention of The Hanged Man and the Wheel (The Wheel of Fortune).
The Connection
There are various ways to read poetry, but the basics include identifying the narrator and the tone as well as interpreting the deeper picture and overall theme.While reading poetry, you discover themes, understand the basic text and find a deeper meaning. Tarot cards have visuals, symbols and meanings presented to you. Both tarot and literature require you to interpret beyond what you are given. You are urged to find connections amid the metaphors, images, text, archetypes and more.Their similarities allow you to use one art form, like poetry to better understand the other: tarot.
Caos del Triperiuno
Among the first writers to feature tarot in poetry was Teofilo Folengo. In 1527, he wrote a poem called Caos del Triperiuno. The poem itself revolves around a poet who accompanies four people into a room where they each choose a fate-related tarot card. The poet then writes a poem that connects the person to the tarot card drawn.Tarot Cards Featured in Folengo’s Poem:
The 22 Major Arcana, or trump cards: The Fool (0), The Magician (I), The High Priestess (II), The Empress (III), The Emperor (IV), The Hierophant (V), The Lovers (VI), The Chariot (VII), Strength (VIII), The Hermit (IX), Wheel of Fortune (X), Justice (XI), The Hanged Man (XII), Death (XIII), Temperance (XIV), The Devil (XV), The Tower (XVI), The Star (XVII), The Moon (XVIII), The Sun (XIX), Judgement (XX), The World (XXI)
Major Arcana Meaning: A tarot reading with these cards use one’s soul to explore their long-lasting life changes.
The Breakdown:
Mary K. Greer, writer and professional tarot consultant, labeled each tarot card mentioned in Folengo’s poem:Love, under whose Empire many deeds (VI; IV)go without Time and without Fortune, (IX; X)saw Death, ugly and dark, on a Chariot, (XIII; VII)going among the people it took away from the World. (XXI)She asked: “No Pope nor Papesse was ever won (V; II)by you. Do you call this Justice?” (XI)He answered: “He who made the Sun and the Moon (XIX; XVIII)defended them from my Strength. (VIII)“What a Fool I am,” said love, “my Fire, (O; XVI)That can appear as an Angel or as a Devil (XX; XV)can be Tempered by some others who live under my Star. (XIV; XVII)You are the Empress of bodies. But you cannot kill hearts, (III)you only Suspend them. You have a name of high Fame, (XII)but you are nothing but a Trickster.” (I)
Judgment & Devil
Now, here is my insight into a couple of the tarot card meanings that are included in the poem above:That can appear as an Angel or as a Devil (XX; XV)The Judgement tarot card’s keyword is crossroads has always reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken. Here’s an excerpt from the 1915 piece:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.At the end of Frost’s poem, the speaker has realized that both paths cannot be taken. The Judgement tarot card advises that a decision must be made. The message encourages you to not allow anything to hold you back; you should release the parts of you that are unnecessary and untrue. In Folengo’s poem, the speaker is struggling with good and evil, where he/she transitions between both expressions transparently. Eventually, the speaker must decide if they will follow a light path or the dark one. This is a difficult choice being that the Devil card embodies entrapment and illusion. The only way to break free is to remember who your true self is, which brings us full circle in seeking guidance from the Judgement card.
Temperance & Star
can be Tempered by some others who live under my Star (XIV; XVII)The following sentence uses the Temperance card to reassure that although the choice between acting as an angel or a devil is difficult, you will find peace and balance through the people who love and care about your soul. This reveals that you need assistance from the people who you trust. Your life will transform as well as those who follow close to you. After all, our life decisions impact every single person in our circle or Star.
The Empress, The Hanging Man & The Magician
You are the Empress of bodies. But you cannot kill hearts, (III)you only Suspend them. You have a name of high Fame, (XII)but you are nothing but a Trickster.” (I)The Empress tarot card connects you to the natural world. Our soul consists of the Empress’ teachings and strength, but our self-expression is not always filled with positivity. The connecting theme throughout this poem is Love and Death, where Death has control over suspending the physical body (The Hanging Man card), but Love can never die. The speaker refers to Death as a Trickster or a fraud. This embodies the Magician tarot card, which manifests dreams and magic into one’s reality.
Tarot Poetry
Poetry and tarot have leaned on one another to further develop their respective craft. Without poetry, the modern tarot cards we use today may look completely different, or perhaps not exist at all. And without tarot, literary storylines, themes and characters would lack allegorical symbols and meanings. After all, when we allow art to inspire art, we gain access to groundbreaking work.Here are some of our clients’ custom tarot card designs, equipped with personalized designs, number of cards, instructions and more.
The Spiritful Tarot deck is complete with 78 custom-designed cards, an instructions booklet and a two-part box.
This nature-themed deck follows the conventional Tarot layout. Featured above are the King of Pentacles and the Page of Pentacles.
The Dark Exact Tarot deck — Illustrated and designed by Coleman Stevenson. The cards above are the Fool, the Magician and The High Priestess.
In a previous article we shared some of our favourite playing cards that depict novels. But how about novels that depict playing cards? Already for centuries playing cards have embedded themselves into our lives and culture, and crawled their way into language, paintings, and music. But what about literature?It’s not hard to think of examples of books where playing cards are part of the wider background of a novel. Perhaps we find them in the hands of characters who are having a social game of bridge, or in the hands of gamblers trying their luck at Blackjack at a casino or playing Poker in the back room of a saloon. But are there other examples besides Jostein Gaarder’s The Solitaire Mystery (see our previous article) where playing cards become central characters, and key figures in the story?The example that will spring to mind for most people is Lewis Carroll’s classic work, Alice in Wonderland.
The Book
This story is one that almost everyone has come across in their life. But if you’re like most people, then you’ve only been exposed to Alice via Disney films, or perhaps through an abridged version for young children. You really owe it to yourself to read the original book by Lewis Carroll, first published in 1865. Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Dodgson, who excelled in playing with words, and delighted in logic and fantasy. In Alice in Wonderland we see all these skills and interests on display, and come together in a wonderful and charming story.If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can easily find it online, because the copyright has long lapsed. I suggest you head here, where you’ll find a downloadable PDF of a virtual edition created by Peter Zelchenko in 1998 for BookVirtual. This project is a true typographically accurate replica of the original Macmillan edition and this free digital edition was produced by VolumeOne.
The Story
For those unfamiliar with the story, what can you expect? Alice in Wonderland is a story of childlike innocence and curiosity, as we journey into a world of the surreal, the fantastic, and the whimsical.Together with the seven-year-old Alice, we follow a talking white rabbit, and fall into a rabbit-hole, by which we enter an imaginary and wacky world where nothing is at it seems.
If you were the kind of child who always asked the “why?” question, and who liked to challenge what everyone else regarded as normal, you’ll love this book. In this story, Lewis Carroll gives us a picture of a world where everything that we accept as normal is turned upside down. We find ourselves in a land which is populated by an arrange of fantastic characters that entertain us with their wit and whimsy. Consider this excerpt from an absurd conversation Alice has with the Cheshire Cat:“By-the-bye, what became of the baby?” said the Cat. “I’d nearly forgotten to ask.”
“It turned into a pig,’ Alice answered very quietly, just as if the Cat had come back in a natural way.
“I thought it would,” said the Cat, and vanished again.In one of the book’s more famous scenes, Alice finds herself at a mad tea-party together with the March Hare, a Hatter, and a Dormouse., where she is bombarded with paradoxical riddles, and astonished with absurd logic.“…they drew all manner of things – everything that begins with an M –”
“Why with an M?” said Alice.
“Why not?” said the March Hare.
The Playing Cards: Croquet with Queen of Hearts
But it is in the next chapter, entitled “The Queen’s Croquet Ground”, that we meet our playing cards for the first time. After leaving the tea party, Alice enters a garden, where she sees a procession of living playing card characters, which all have human heads, arms, and legs. Chief among them are the King and the Queen.The suits of these playing card characters all correspond to different roles in the royal court, with the Spades serving as gardeners, Clubs as soldiers, Diamonds as courtiers, and Hearts as members of the royal family.
Click on the images below to read the first few pages of this chapter:
It’s here that we read about the antics the execution-minded Queen of Hearts with her constant refrain “Off with his head.”.After this Alice commences what has to be one of the most bizarre games of croquet ever witnessed.
The Playing Cards: The Trial of the Knave of Hearts
The final two chapters of the book put the spotlight once again on our playing card friends, as Alice witnesses a trial overseen by the King of Hearts as judge, to settle a case where the Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. At this point Lewis quotes the old and well-known English nursery rhyme “The Queen of Hearts”, which cleverly forms the basis of his plot:”The Queen of Hearts / She made some tarts, / All on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts / He stole those tarts, / And took them clean away.
The King of Hearts / Called for the tarts, / And beat the knave full sore;
The Knave of Hearts / Brought back the tarts, / And vowed he’d steal no more.“
Alice herself is called upon to give testimony against the Knave, and a measure of chaos ensues when Alice first knocks over the jury box filled with animals. She then challenges the King and Queen of Hearts about the absurdity of the proceedings.
I won’t spoil what happens in the final scenes as the pack of cards starts to gang up against Alice. You can read the final pages of the book for yourself here:
The Message
Is Alice in Wonderland all nonsense? I don’t think so, because there’s much more to this story than first meets the eye. Behind the outer layer of apparent `nonsense’ Carroll conveys a great deal of sense. There’s a wonderful version of the book entitled The Annotated Alice, that was produced by famous mathematician and logician Martin Gardner. In this annotated version, Gardner explores a lot of the imagery and ideas of the Alice in Wonderland story, and explains some of the references and influences behind the characters and more. As a mathematician, he especially points out many of the clever logical and mathematical concepts found in the story. There’s also a lot of political commentary and parody of the popular culture of the day which he identifies and explains. For example the farcical trial at the end is generally understood to be a lampooning of the British legal system.What Lewis Carroll really wants us to do is return to reality along with Alice with a renewed appreciation for everything that is normal and accepted. But because this whimsical tale and its fantasy world is so nonsensical and enjoyable, you’ll want to return there many a time, and enjoy its sheer madcap humour. Alice in Wonderland is full to the brim with wild humour, farcical fantasy, witty wisecracks, and even slapstick comedy. You’ll be amazed by the cat-less grin of the Cheshire-Cat, amused by the absurd logic of the mad Hatter, and in hysterics over the antics of Queen of Hearts. I especially enjoyed the abundance of delightful puns, paradoxes, and parodies. While much of the deeper significance will escape young children, they will certainly enjoy it as a fantastic story, and rediscover it with even greater pleasure as adults. A classic is a book that appeals to people of all times and ages, and that’s certainly the case with Alice in Wonderland; this is truly a classic for the child in all of us!Special mention should also be made of the illustrations accompanying the first published versions of the book. The original pictures were wood engraved by John Tenniel, and his artwork has become forever connected with the story of Alice, and has influenced a great deal of subsequent imaginings of it.
The Tribute Deck
So the book is about playing cards, but are there playing cards about the book? Of course! With the glut of custom decks on today’s market, surely it is inevitable that the circle would become complete, and someone would make a deck of playing cards based on this novels about playing cards.And sure enough, there are several such decks that are marvellous tributes to Alice in Wonderland. The White Rabbit deck features a simple black and colour scheme with line art that was inspired by the classic John Tenniel woodcut illustrations from the original Alice in Wonderland books. The Wonderland Tarot deck has more playful and colourful artwork by Morgana Abbey, but is also a homage to the style of John Tenniel.But perhaps my favourite Alice in Wonderland themed deck is the Alice in Wonderland deck created by graphic designer and illustrator Sasha Dounaevski, who has been a fan of the Lewis Carroll stories since her childhood.
The simple blue and white colour scheme is a recurring feature of the deck, and Sasha has used linear drawings with a minimalist style and with a childish and playful feel, believing that this best suits the absurdity and logic of the story. Just like the book itself, there are many imaginative details that the artist has provided, but there’s also plenty of scope for you as reader to imagine details of your own.The card backs represent the garden that Alice gets into, with a distinctive symmetrical pattern. The Aces each recount part of Alice’s adventures and companions, e.g. Pigeon (Spades), the child that turned into a pig (Clubs), the mad tea-party (Diamonds), and a mallet-flamingo (Hearts).
But as with most custom decks, it’s the court cards that are the real highlight, depicting characters like The Cheshire Cat, Mad Hare, Hatter, White Rabbit, and more – including of course The Queen of Hearts and The King of Hearts.To distinguish the suits clearly, the black suited court cards have a blue background, while the red suited court cards have a beige background.
The number cards are also customized with uniquely shaped pips in a non-standard arrangement. An extra feature of these is a unique symbol for each different suit, each of which has been derived from the story, e.g. the pocket watch, the pepper pot.The Jokers feature the magical food/drink from the story which made Alice small and big respectively: the “Drink Me” mixture and the “Eat Me” cake. Also of note are two bonus cards, one of which pictures the book’s final court scene – which appropriately features lots of playing cards!
This deck is a wonderful tribute to the famous book, given the extensive customization and how the Alice in Wonderland theme has been incorporated in every aspect of the playing cards, making it a charming deck for the child in all of us!
Final Thoughts
In many ways playing cards have become a microcosm of life. Art mirrors life, and when playing cards find a place in our art, then they are giving us reason to reflect on ourselves and on our lives. But art can also be enjoyed for its own sake, and those of us who are playing card enthusiasts will appreciate the clever way that playing cards have found a place in novels like the ones discussed above, and will enjoy reading these stories and appreciate the clever ways they incorporate playing cards.Not only have playing cards become an integral part of our lives, but as a form of art themselves, they also reflect something about life. With today’s myriad of custom decks, we are now in a position where playing cards have become works of art, and reveal something about what we like, and they are indications of what is important to us. And in cases of decks about Alice in Wonderland, they have even become tributes to works of art that themselves honour playing cards. So why not head down a rabbit hole, and join me in enjoying some of these great books which honour our 52 paper friends!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards.
● Official Shuffled Ink website: ShuffledInk
● Make Your Own Custom Playing Cards at: ShuffledInk
● Make Your Own Custom Card Games at: ShuffledInk
Stories are told in many ways. Writers use poems and novels; artists put paint on canvases. The history between tarot and literature is prominent and continues to inspire both art forms.
