Tarot and Poetry Inspire Each Other

There is a unique connection between tarot and poetry. We tarot readers know that when we are giving a reading, teaching a class, or talking about a card, we often become more eloquent than we might be in normal conversation.

Tarot inspires the way we communicate.

There are many published books of tarot poetry. Sometimes the poems are written by poets who happened to be inspired by tarot. Sometimes they are written by tarotists who happened to be inspired to write a poem about a card.

The relationship between tarot and poetry goes back to early tarot history. In the 1500s tarot was a card came played by wealthy and influential people in Italy and France.

In Italy, the game of tarot led to a fad called “tarocchi appropriati.” In this game players would make up verses that were inspired by the cards and descriptive of one another.

Perhaps this was like the rap of the 1980s, where musicians used rhyme to speak of themselves, and of one another.

As the game of tarocchi appropriati developed, the verses became predictive, rather than simply descriptive. Many scholars believe that this is how fortuning telling with tarot first began.

It is easy to think of a particular tarot card and call to mind a poem or song lyric that matches it. I was recently reminded of a blog project I began and never continued called “Poetry in Tarot” where I related a poem to a tarot card.

I’ve also played with writing tarot poetry. I have two poems published in “Arcana: The Tarot Poetry Anthology”. My 78 Poems Project is far from complete, yet it is something that inspires me from time to time.

The question I have is this. Other than the connection between off-the-cuff verses inspired by early tarot cards in a popular game, why does there seem to be such a connection between tarot and poetry?

I decided to ask my cards this question. The card I pulled at random was the Queen of Cups, whom I often describe as “poetic”. When we look deeper at this card, we see it as a card that instructs us to nurture the heart.

The art of the tarot cards, along with the lessons and stories inherent in individual cards and in suits and groupings of cards, inspires us in so many ways. Poetry is one way we express that inspiration. That creativity begets creativity is a law of all nature.

Poetry, in turn, can help us make sense of the mysterious cards.

If you want to dig deeper into a tarot card, try writing a poem about it. Try to think of a poem or song lyric that reminds you of a card and use that to help you understand and remember that card.

Art and words go together in so many ways, and often enhance one other. The ongoing marriage of tarot and poetry is certainly a match made in heaven.

Tarot Facts in Fifteen Minutes

This past Sunday, I was honored to be a presenter at the “Something for Everyone” Library Open House at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library. I, along with experts on a variety of topics, presented a fifteen minute talk.  My talk was entitled, “The History of the Tarot.”

Just how much can you say about tarot in fifteen minutes? Actually, quite a lot.

Here’s some of what I covered.

• Tarot is the name given to a deck of 78 playing cards. Tarot has a specific structure, which includes two sections; a Major Arcana of twenty-two trumps and a Minor Arcana of four suits. Each suit has pips ace through ten and a court of four characters.
• The word “arcana” means “secrets”.
• Tarot originated in Italy in the 1400s as a trump-taking game created to commemorate important events.
• Tarot become the inspiration for poetry, called “tarocchi appropriati”.
• In the 1500s the trump-taking game of tarot included each player being assigned a trump. The assigner would have to delicately explain why the particular trump fit the player’s personality. This explanation as given in the form of a poem.
• The first written record of tarot as divination comes from the book written in the 1700s by Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as “Etteilla.”
• In the late 18^th century a small group of Freemasons and Rosicrucians formed the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in England. Golden Dawn members included William Butler Yeats, and two men who became the designers of the world’s most popular tarot decks, A.E. Waite and Aleister Crowley.
• In the early 1970s, with the help of tarot authors Eden Gray and Mary K. Greer, tarot became a mainstay in popular western culture.
• Now, tarot is popular world-wide.
• Today, there are literally thousands of different tarot decks available.
• There has been a great effort to create new tarot decks that are inclusive. This effort acknowledges that tarot’s medieval origins inherently create a measure of patriarchy, classism, sexism and racism within the early images.
• Tarot is of interest to historians, artists, collectors, psychologists, writers, diviners and spiritual seekers.
• Tarot inspires popular movies, like “The Red Violin.”
• Tarot archetypes, like “Father Time,” remain prevalent in our culture.
• Tarot, as a unique art form, is inspiring to artists and contemporary fashion designers, including Dolce & Gabanna and Versace.
• Tarot is not the only type of card oracle. There are many other oracle decks, included another structured deck used specifically for fortune-telling, the Lenormand cards.
• Tarot enthusiasts see correlations between tarot and many esoteric systems, including astrology, Kabbalah, numerology and the Four Elements. There is no historical evidence that these correlations were intended by the original designers of tarot.
• In recent years, other interesting correlations have been discovered, including a correlation between the sixteen Court cards and the Myers-Briggs personality types.
• That these correlations exist is a topic of study and discussion for tarot enthusiasts, and influences card interpretations in tarot divination.
• Today, tarot cards are used as creative prompts in improvisational theatre and creative writing.
• Tarot decks are often designed by CCG (collectible card game) and fantasy artists.
• Tarot is often seen as telling the archetypal epic journey of the hero. Each card represents a universal experience, character, theme or lesson; which we experience on our own ‘hero’s journey” though life.

If you had only fifteen minutes to talk about 500 years of tarot, what would you say?