AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ALMOST COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Spooky Season! Yes, even if it’s still 80 degrees. I mean, I wear my Pumpkin Slut t-shirt all year but I am not above ramping it up once September 1st hits and I can go full basic bitch on coffee, trail mix, candy, cereal, bread, and pretty much everything else, though even I have limits (did you see the SPAM? Or the mayo. I mean, I like mayo but for Lucifer’s sake…). 

As an inherently spooky individual, I don’t mind the shorter days and I enjoy the general increase in ghost, demon, and witchy paraphernalia. As a witchy person, I do wish people did a little more research into what they were playing with before they casually say words and throw bones or runes or messed around with sigils and spells. Even if you don’t believe in any kind of spiritual forces, well, as Mr. Ibis so succinctly put it in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, they may believe in you. 

One safe, fun, and often utterly gorgeous way to dip your toe into this season, wherein the veil is thin and you find the hair on the back of your neck standing up more often than usual, is tarot cards. And you’re in luck because there’s currently an explosion of new decks. I’ve been lucky enough to receive three for review I’m going to share with you after a brief history lesson. 

If you already know the history of tarot, feel free to scroll. Or scroll even if you don’t and you don’t care. 

Tarot comes from the Italian word tarocchi, the name of a card game played starting in the 14th century when playing cards travelled via trade from the Arab world to Spain (though the cards are believed to have originated in China).

The Catholic Church was quick to label cards the Devil’s Picturebook because the Catholic Church hates fun and also, as you know if you’ve ever been to Vegas, cards invite gambling which is 1) fun and 2) also a very serious and potentially ruinous addiction for some people. There’s also a theory that the pictures on the cards were used to help those unable to read to learn Christian beliefs but apparently the Church didn’t like that? Becuase one had to be indoctrinated properly. None of that freedom or talking to god directly stuff. Also, poor people had to stay poor or who would do all the gross jobs? Priests? Certainly not. As per usual, no one cared what the Church said and everyone kept playing cards anyway. 

The first recorded use of cards as divinatory tools doesn’t show up until 1750 and cartomancy wasn’t widely popular until the 1780s when there was a spate of neo-Orientalism and a whole bunch of white people ran around claiming sacred bonds with scholars from China, Egypt, Greece, India, and with Romany tradition.. 

The practice has obviously expanded since then. Some folks have made it their business to learn more and have discarded the racist, xenophobic, quite frankly gross traditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some folks have a ways to go. 

The decks I have for you today are the former because let me tell you, if they were the later, they would be very much in the trash. 

If you want to learn more about tarot, I wrote a more extensive article a few years ago and you can click here. 

I should also mention that people view tarot readings from many different angles. Some people prefer literal interpretations of the cards (though almost no one reads cards like The Devil, The Tower, Death as the devil is coming for you or your life is going to collapse or you’re going to die). Some people are more figurative. I use them as… I guess the best explanation is to say I use them as emotional prompts. I look at the meaning of the card and consider what’s going on in my life, see what lines up, and then attempt to find a new angle from which to approach a problem or to give myself credit for shepherding positive things along because I am terrible at evaluating my own self-worth and -confidence. 

And now for the best part, what you’re all really here for: the decks!

First up: 

The Horror Tarot by Abigail Larson, Aria Gmitter, and Minerva Siegel

Abigail Larson isn’t simply one of my favorite horror artists, she is one of my favorite working artists period. Her characters, both human and monstrous, have such graceful movement and magnificent expression and she has this way of using red that’s just so… I don’t even have words. Which, writer, right? I know. It should tell you something about her skill. Sharp yet ethereal, beautiful yet chilling, darkly humorous and sly yet savage, every time I take the deck out I feel as though I’m holding 78 tiny works of art in my hands. 79 if you count the inside of the box. 

Gmitter and Siegel’s text reads like a round of Gloom, a narrative, card-based sort of RPG which… if you haven’t played it, you really, really need to. My family loves it and my son’s favorite thing when he first learned was to make sure everyone ended up in Weasleton (which he made up) to get eaten by weasels. Which, if you’ve played, makes perfect sense. Short, succinct, to the point, and mostly absolutely crushing, the abject ruin predicted by every card in this deck makes me giggle every time I pull a card. Yes, giggle. 

Told you I was spooky. 

The Horror Tarot is definitely staying in my personal collection. 

The One World Tarot by Lena Rodriguez, Seanna Rose, June Rifkin, and Alexandra Filipek (OCT 4th)

The One World Tarot is a 180 degree turn from The Horror Tarot and that is wonderful. One of the coolest things about there being so many decks, such diverse and varied ones, is that you can always find one (or ten or twenty. *ahem*) that fits you perfectly and I don’t necessarily mean in a woo woo way, although if woo woo is your jam, you do that woo. I’ve bought decks simply on the feeling I got looking at the front of the box, on the way the box or deck feels in my hands, and sometimes after seeing a picture online. I actively use some of each, have given some of each away, and still have but don’t use some of each. 

That thing about not buying your own first deck by the way? Total bullshit. If you see one that calls to you in any of the above, or any way whatsoever, go ahead and buy it. There are no tarot police. Though if you buy an exploitative or gross deck, well. You do get back what you give; that’s true of life in general. Also, consider staying in your lane; you’ll know it when you see it. That’s not to say you can’t have decks that borrow from other cultures; you can. But do your homework, but in the effort, learn your shit, and be respectful, yeah? Yeah. 

And, in fact, getting a copy of The One World Tarot would be a really good way to do that.

This deck is a really beautiful integration of traditional suits and mythic/folkloric concepts from many different cultures under an umbrella art style that allows for diversity while also unifying the parts into a whole; not an easy job for artist Alexandra Filipek. 

Rodriguez, Rose, and Rifkin do a fantastic job with the text as well: each entry includes a picture of the card, a three point summary, then long personal and worldview interpretations. That structure allows users to individualize readings, tailoring both the type of reading they prefer and the length, both for themselves and for anyone else for whom they may be doing a spread. I also appreciate that the authors didn’t feel the need to include reverse card meanings. I myself often question whether or not those are necessary and I think practitioners should have the choice to buy decks without them. 

This is a wonderful deck, especially for someone who’s new to tarot or isn’t sure exactly what kind of deck they want yet, beginners, and younger practitioners. I would love to give it to someone I care about as a gift so they can immerse themselves and find their niche. 

Hocus Pocus Tarot Deck by Minerva Siegel, Tori Schaffer, and Dread 

Okay. Before I review this one, I need to say this: Bette Midler has recently outed herself as a TERF. Her behavior has been deplorable. It is never okay to be a TERF. 

I considered not reviewing this deck nor the Halloween-vent calendar below but some friends and I talked and agreed that since the work itself isn’t problematic (unlike It That Must Not Be Named) and Midler isn’t the creator (Unlike She Who Blah Blah Blah) I was in a gray but okay position to do so as long as I acknowledged the fact she, like the Catholic Church as mentioned above, is gross.

The deck is not gross. The deck is great. I have so much wonderful nostalgia around Hocus Pocus. It was my Halloween movie as a teenager, the one I watched every year (even though it was really a kid’s movie) because even though there’s a “hero” it’s really very much centered on women and girls (even if some of them were evil, I’ve always been a sucker for a good villainess). 

The card stock Insight used on this deck is a little heavier which I like for tarot cards; it makes them easier to cut and shuffle and then tend not to go flying as often which makes me look much cooler even when it’s just me and myself and my alter in my room. The color matching on the back is this great mixture of purples and not quite iridescent yellow and gold (Insight’s color team always does a great job) and they also nailed that slimy potion green on the card faces perfectly. Dread’s figures are just the slightest bit elongated in the limbs with deliberately sharp joints which lends them a skeletal angularity perfect for the theme and keeping it on the spoopy side of spooky means it matches the movie’s aesthetic. 

The book is a departure from the standard, which I think is great; why pick such a great and beloved theme without giving it its own voice? Well done all around capturing the… spirit of the original film and craft a great tarot interpretation manual besides.

Hocus Pocus: 13 Frights of Halloween (Insight Editions)

The only thing my Jewish children have ever expressed jealousy about re: Christmas is Advent calendars and, I mean… Advent calendars are pretty cool. This, year, however, I have one to offer them. Sort of. 

Insight sent me Hocus Pocus: 13 Frights of Halloween, an adorable sort of hardcover folder with pockets they can open starting on October 19th, one each night until the 31st. Some have graphics from the movie, some cartoon versions of the ladies, still others quotes and inside each, a surprise for them to fight over! Er, share. I’ll post each nights prize on my Twitter so remember to check in starting on 10/19. 

That’s all for now! Happy spooky season. More to come soon!