I got so carried away with the Jodorowsky story that I neglected to fulfill a couple of recent content promises.
First: Tarot Terror
Here’s the publisher’s description:
We asked twenty-six authors to agree to write stories based on the Tarot, with the cards determining which stories the authors would write. Over the course of several months we reached out to some of the best genre authors and proposed our idea. Once we had our authors, we took a tarot deck and a list of all twenty-six names. We would read the author’s name, shuffle the deck, and draw a card.
That tarot card and its traits were all the authors had to go on. The card was removed, the deck was reshuffled, and the next name was read off. This anthology contains twenty-six stories based on the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana and the four Aces of the Minor Arcana. Award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors combine their talents to deal out twenty-six dark tales influenced by the Tarot.
And here’s the table of contents:
And here’s a link to C. L. Wilson’s website, where you can download an excerpt from their “Ace of Swords” chapter.
Second: Tarot on TV
One of my favorite posts from last year “revealed” a Tarot-reading scene in the classic TV series Have Gun, Will Travel. Recently I was again passing through a room and thought I saw Tarot cards on an episode of Maverick, another Western from the late 19050s. I did a quick search and thought I found an online mention of same.
But apparently not! At least, nothing comes up in my search history, and new attempts to find something about Tarot in that series have struck out. So I’m left to wonder why this particular notion has stayed in my mind.
Whatever the reason, the result was a tour of several lists that highlight Tarot appearances on television and in the movies. Mary K. Greer’s excellent list will take you up to 2008. If you decide to take your own tour, go there first.
Next, check out the group-authored Tarot on TV list at the TarotTotes blog. It stops around the same time, but includes entries not found on MKG’s roster. It’s also nicely arranged so you can quickly see which deck was used, and if relevant, what cards appear in the episode.
There’s also a Tarot in the Movies list at TarotTotes. It includes a number of films I didn’t know about—as well as two of my favorites: Hideaway and Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her. The latter is a series of vignettes that connect the lives of three women, played by Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, and Calista Flockhart.
This is the only movie I know about that presents a professional Tarot reader (in the modern sense) as a main character. And I found Callista Flockhart’s portrayal very believable. In this scene, she is reading the cards for a lonely medical doctor played by Glenn Close.
One more list worth visiting is Tarot Readings in Movies & TV, Ranked by Accuracy. It includes some more recent series (like Penny Dreadful, Wine Country, and Pretty Little Liars), and offers commentary/speculation on each reading depicted.
While roaming around on this topic, I came across two Tarot decks based on movies and TV generally. Neither appeals to me personally, but here are descriptions of each:
I did stumble over one movie-related deck that entertained me, though: The Disney Villains Tarot. Basing an entire deck on “villains” seems very odd! But I really do love this card:
It reminds me of the “old” Disney days, which I remember fondly.
Although newer characters like Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) and Scar (The Lion King) don’t have much resonance for me, the deck could be fun for folk with more recent Disney associations.
There’s a reasonably thoughtful, reasonably neutral story about the Disney/Tarot connection on Religion News Service. Worth a read.
So I think that covers my latest content promises—but I know of one promise that has been repeated several times, and still languishes. Coming soon . . . .
Meantime, thanks (as always) for reading. C
This is fascinating. Wonderful sleuthing Cynthia! Gotta share this with my subscribers.