August 9, 2022
The second of two unexpected decks . . .
Yesterday’s Note took a look at one set of ideas where cultural conservatism converges with myth and symbolism. Resulting in a deck of cards that has some overlap with Tarot.
Today’s Note takes Tarot into a different, but equally surprising frame of reference: The Rust Belt Arcana.
Subtitled “Tarot and Natural History in the Exurban Wilds,” this book and deck set really is unique—and that’s not a word I use lightly!
Creator Matt Stansberry explains how he and artist David Wilson began the project:
So we set out to inject the field of conservation biology with myth and meaning, to help explain the idea that we live in a world made up of experiencing entities, from birds to rivers to trees. A lot of the best nature writing depicts the world in this way, without really acknowledging the magical thinking and co-creation required to describe it.
We took the structure of the tarot to try to re-enchant our landscape with our book Rust Belt Arcana. There are 78 cards in a tarot deck, and each of them has accrued a set of meanings and characteristics over the 500-or-so-years of the divination system’s existence. We use these meanings to connect our myths, archetypes, joys, and challenges to the nonhuman world.
The book is composed of twenty-two essays, and you can read Chapter 0: The Fool here. There are nice reviews of the project at Veil and Vow Tarot, and from a different perspective, at The Well-Read Naturalist. The latter review notes that:
The Fool is paired with the story of a young Black Bear reaching the age of being too old for its natal den and needing to find its own way in a human-modified world. The Tower is a meditation upon the problem of light pollution and buildings to migrating birds. The Hanged Man considers the life history and astonishing resilience of the Virginia Opossum.
If you want to find out more about deep ecology, The Rust Belt Arcana would be a lovely place to start. It also provides yet another example of how the Tarot lends itself to creative thinking about almost any topic.
And in case you have any doubts—here’s an assessment from Rachel Pollack:
Rust Belt Arcana is one of the most amazing Tarot books I've ever read, unlike anything else, and instantly important. It brings together the wide-ranging knowledge and commitment to the living world of a true naturalist, the sense of history and working-class culture of a son of Ohio, and the awareness of myth and magic in our daily lives that comes from a true immersion in Tarot.
See you tomorrow. C