pop culture – Maenad Tarot

The Ten of Cups and Found Family in Shoplifters

In our efforts to “queer the tarot,” we might find the Rider Waite Smith imagery for the Ten of Cups overly heteronormative at first glance. A surface reading of the image might suggest that the pinnacle of emotional fulfillment is a life of heterosexual monogamy and 2.5 children. However, appearances can be deceiving. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s beautiful 2018 film Shoplifters (the original title translates to Shoplifting Family) showcases a family with a deep Ten of Cups bond. Despite their surface resemblance to a nuclear family, their bond might not have anything to do with biological family at all.

Tarot Jukebox: folklore by Taylor Swift

These days, new art feels even more like a blessing than usual, and Taylor Swift’s surprise album folklore was a gift when we needed it most. A couple days after it came out, my partner and I went for a Sunday afternoon drive through the local regional park. We drove slowly on the winding roads through the forest, windows down, listening to folklore for the first time, falling in love with it.

Tarot Jukebox: Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan

When I was about 12, my family subscribed to a CD catalog, and I got to choose three CDs for our first shipment. Any three I wanted! My first three CDs were, inexplicably, the following: Aquarium by Aqua, The Globe Sessions by Sheryl Crow, and Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan.

These CDs were my treasures. I played them over and over again on the boombox in my room, sitting on the floor, just listening. For some reason, I never got much into McLachlan’s earlier or later albums, but Surfacing hit me at just the right time. I remember thinking “Angel” was too cheesy, and worrying about whether “Adia” was kind of gay, if Sarah McLachlan was kind of gay, if it was gay to like her, or if people would think it was gay to like her (verdict: maybe!). But I loved that album. I recently thought of Surfacing and gave it a listen, to find that I still love it. I remembered every line, every note. And 20-odd years makes a difference – there are parts of this album that hit me harder at 33 than they did at 12. Below, I’ve matched up each song on Surfacing with tarot cards. Give it a listen. It holds up.

Fandom Tarot: The Dark Crystal

The Fandom Tarot series combines two of my favorite things: tarot and geeking out! I’ll be assigning tarot cards to characters from various books, TV, movies, games, etc. You’ll see a lot of court cards in this series, so if you need an introduction or a refresher, be sure to subscribe to the blog and you’ll receive a free Guide to the Court Cards! At the end of the post, I will share a fandom-themed tarot spread. These posts are written with the assumption that you’ve seen/read the full series at the time of posting unless otherwise noted. Beware that we are talking MAJOR SPOILERS.

To kick off this series, I thought I’d start with a film near and dear to my heart: 1982’s The Dark Crystal. As a kid, this movie terrified and enchanted me. The creature design still leaves me breathless with its intricate beauty and embrace of the grotesque, and certain scenes never fail to inspire a sense of existential dread. With the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance set to drop, I thought I’d revisit the film that freaked me out so much!

Hayley Kiyoko Songs Ranked by Knight of Cups Energy

Hayley Kiyoko, Lesbian Jesus, blesses us all with beautifully crafted pop gems about queer desire. Nobody pines like Hayley Kiyoko pines. The Knight of Cups is all about feeling your feelings SUPER HARD, which is of course very gay. How better to express her feelings than through art? The following songs are ranked by intensity of Knight of Cups energy, by which I mean how hard you think “SAME” when the song comes on and you’re daydreaming about your crush. Range of 1-10 Feels.