tarot – Page 2 – Maenad Tarot

Tarot and the Underbelly of Positive Thinking

I don’t use tarot to predict the future. Rather, I often use tarot as a tool for introspection, in order to get clarity on a situation and spark some ideas about what to do about it. This style of tarot reading is meant to feel empowering, and can take on a self-help vibe. It makes me feel like I’m in control of my own destiny. And isn’t that what we want?

But this inspirational style of tarot reading can have its own pitfalls. Once I was giving a reading for someone, and the Five of Pentacles came up. The card usually signifies hardship and scarcity, but often comes bundled with an implication that there is a way out, someone who might help, a resource you could tap into. I’ve seen interpretations of the card where the seeker is framed as possibly too proud to ask for help. And indeed, it feels more empowering to think that overcoming scarcity is a matter of will. But in this particular reading, I paused. I knew this person feared material scarcity because they had experienced material scarcity in their own life. Their worry made sense. It was entirely logical. Suddenly “you can find help if you are willing to ask for it” sounded less like empowerment and more like a dismissal of the seeker’s personal history and reality. Would that message be helpful, or condescending?

Minor Arcana: The Journey of Cups

When studying tarot, we often learn about the Fool’s Journey through the Major Arcana, in which the cards form a story. The cards of the Minor Arcana form stories too, and seeing how each card builds on the last can help us understand the cyclical nature of the suits. In this four part series (find Swords, Pentacles, and Wands here), I’ll share the journey of each suit as I have told it to myself. These narratives are heavily based on the Rider Waite Smith imagery. Other decks may tell different stories! Today we will begin with the suit of Cups, associated with Water, the unconscious mind, love, relationships, intuition, and dreams.

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.

Why “Maenad Tarot”?

When I first thought of creating a tarot blog, the first name I thought of was Maenad Tarot. I honestly can’t remember coming up with any other name, and as soon as I thought of it, I knew that was it. It felt right. I worried about people remembering or spelling or even pronouncing it (in Greek it would be closer to “my-nad,” but in English I usually pronounce it “may-nad”). But there was no arguing with my intuition on this one. So what’s a maenad, and what do they have to do with tarot?