THE MODERN QUEER TAROT

Barber and Callaghan combine divination with LGBTQ+ history in this new tarot guide.

Tarot is more popular than ever before, as are themed novelty decks that reimagine the arcana as everything from Jungian archetypes to the cast of Star Trek. The authors make their contribution to the genre with this deck, which winks at the special place tarot has within the LGBTQ+ community while providing the querent with “moments to remember, moments of triumph, moments of reflection, but ultimately a celebration of those to be proud of, those who let the world know their truth, and who will never be forgotten because of it.” Beginning chronologically with pioneering 19th-century gay activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (the Ace of Swords) and sticking to subsequent figures who have since died, Barber and Callaghan assemble a pantheon of movers, shakers, and thinkers who have contributed in some way to modern queer culture. The reader will find many of the expected icons, including Harvey Milk as the Star (“hope shining through the darkness”), James Baldwin as Judgment (“coming to terms with the past in order to move forward”), Freddie Mercury as the Six of Wands (“the bridge between strength and love”), and Audre Lorde as the Queen of Swords (“extreme individualism and radical new ideas”). There are more obscure figures as well, and some cards are represented by groups or movements (the Stonewall rioters for Fortune, activist group ACT UP for Death). The authors express their desire not to “sugar-coat certain cards that, to us, are objectively, dispassionately, negative in their meaning,” and for this reason, the deck features a few “malicious, malignant, and unquestionably vile” figures, like prosecutor Roy Cohn (the Devil) and serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Ten of Swords). Each entry is accompanied by a page explaining both the meaning of card and the why the authors selected that specific figure to represent it.

The real star of the book may be Wischerath, whose full-color illustrations nod cleverly at the famous Rider-Waite Tarot images of Pamela Colman Smith while rendering their subjects in deep, velvety tones. Wischerath’s depictions of Walt Whitman (the Empress, enthroned on a cushioned bench with his arm draped around a pelican) and Alan Turing (the Hanged Man, suspended above a pool with nerve-like neon trees behind him) are especially striking. The initial delight of the book is flipping through the pages and discovering a number of famous personages whom the reader may not have known were queer (like Greta Garbo, Ma Rainey, and John Maynard Keynes). A secondary pleasure is learning about figures the reader has likely never heard of at all, like We’wha, the 19th-century Zuni craftswoman and two-spirit (or lhamana) who served as a cultural ambassador between her people and the white settlers of New Mexico. Whether readers are interested in conducting a proper reading (which the introduction explains how to complete) or are simply seeking a unique art book to adorn a coffee table, this tarot guide will provide hours of educational, queer-inspired illumination.

A brilliantly illustrated tarot guide for the LGBTQ+ history lover.