World Tarot Day: A Celebration of Famous Card Readers and Creators

Artists, Writers, Musicians & Filmmakers Inspired by Tarot

This post originally appeared on my AstroMagick Lounge blog

Today marks the 21^st anniversary of Word Tarot Day. This yearly event was started by Tarot Grandmaster Den Elder in 2003 following some upheaval in the tarot community. In a 2009 interview with Elder she explains why she started the holiday and what she hoped it might accomplish so I thought I'd share her comments below.

“I wanted a day of "celebration" instead. A day to share our love for this tool and get over our differences. A day everybody could just come together and have some nice fun and make an effort to help those unfamiliar with tarot to realize it has a lot of positive attributes.
…
My vision for the future is simple. I want this to grow bigger than myself and be placed on the calendars so that everybody will, at least once a year, stop and consider tarot as a valuable insight for personal and spiritual growth. The greater majority of people I know using this tool, use it for such purpose. I want more people to come to realize this value.”

DEN ELDER

The interest in and availability of tarot has grown tremendously since Tarot Day was started in 2003. Thanks to an abundance of new tarot books and card decks as well as the proliferation on social media, tarot readers have become more plentiful and accessible. You can now purchase readings online at places like Etsy and many card slingers maintain websites of their own. It’s also not uncommon to find card readers working at esoteric or new-age shops, bookstores, outdoor markets, or fun fairs these days.

Adding to the accessibility of tarot is its growing popularity among public figures and celebrities, which has helped destigmatize the practice of reading cards for yourself or others. Some have even published books about tarot themselves or released card decks of their own while others who have been associated with tarot for decades are now gaining more attention due to new generations of card enthusiasts.

Today I thought I’d use the opportunity of World Tarot Day to spotlight some of the most well-known artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers who use tarot, have written about tarot, or created tarot decks of their own.

WRITERS

Carl Jung - The pioneering psychiatrist and psychoanalyst was a prolific writer who encouraged the exploration of divination methods, including tarot, as a means of understanding and healing the human mind.

Shirley Jackson - The author and occult enthusiast incorporated tarot into her work such as Hangsman and was known to read cards for friends and family.

Alan Moore - The writer and occultist is known to include tarot in his writing, most prominently in Promethea.

W.B. Yeats - The Irish poet and playwright was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its members created the popular Rider–Waite Tarot. Yeats was known to regularly read tarot and it it inspired many of his poems.

André Breton - The French author and influencer regularly used tarot and even created his own deck with fellow surrealists Max Ernst, Wilfredo Lam, René Char, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, Jacques Hérold, Benjamin Péret and André Masson.

Samuel R. Delany - Delany's Hugo award-nominated science fiction book Nova centers around tarot and according to a recent piece in the N.Y. Times the author is working on a book about tarot.

Cormac McCarthy - McCarthy was known to use occult symbolism in his work and the tarot features prominently in Blood Meridian.

Rachel Pollack - The author was a respected tarot expert and teacher who wrote several popular tarot books including the highly acclaimed Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness.

William L. Gresham - Gresham was an occult enthusiast and the tarot features prominently in his novel Nightmare Alley, which has been adopted for the screen twice.

ARTISTS

Salvador Dalí - Dali created a tarot deck in the 1970s known as The Dali Universal Tarot.

Dave McKean - McKean, who is probably best known for his Sandman comic book covers, designed a tarot deck based on DC comic book characters known as The Vertigo Tarot.

Leonora Carrington - The artist and occultist created her own tarot deck, which was recently rediscovered and released as The Tarot of Leonora Carrington.

Christian Dior - The fashion designer was also an occult enthusiast who was inspired by tarot. After his death, The House of Dior has continued to use tarot for design inspiration.

Milo Manara - The Italian comic book artist created the Manara: The Erotic Tarot based on his erotic art.

Dame Darcy - The prolific American comic book artist has created three decks including The Mermaid Tarot, The Witchy Cat Tarot, and The Queen Alice Tarot inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Yoshitaka Amano - The Japanese artist designed a tarot deck known simply as the Yoshitaka Amano Tarot.

H.R. Giger - Giger worked with the the occultist Akron to create the Baphomet Tarot also known as the H.R. Giger Tarot.

Guido Crepax - The Italian artist created the Valentina Tarot based on his erotic comic book.

MUSICIANS

Jimmy Page - The Led Zeppelin guitarist is a known tarot enthusiast and portrayed The Hermit in The Song Remains the Same film.

Marilyn Manson - During the making of the album Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) the band released a small series of tarot cards featuring band members as figures in the major arcana.

Cher - Cher is a reported tarot user and released a small series of cards with her Love Hurts album.

Stevie Nicks - Nicks is reportedly a tarot user.

Yoko Ono - Yoko has been known to use tarot cards.

Robbie Williams - Williams designed his Intensive Care album with comic book writer and occultist Grant Morrison, which was released with a small set of tarot cards.

Cyndi Lauper - She is known to give tarot readings to friends, fans, and family.

Neil Peart - The drummer for Rush wrote about his appreciation for tarot in his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.

Alanis Morrisette - Has been known to share tarot spreads on her social media accounts.

FILMMAKERS

Alejandro Jodorowsky - The Chilean-French filmmaker, artist, and author is a lifelong tarot enthusiast and his film Holy Mountain was inspired by the cards. He has also published two tarot decks (Tarot de Marseille Camoin-Jodorowsky and the Tarot of Cats) and wrote an accompanying book The Way of Tarot.

Shūji Terayama - The Japanese filmmaker was a tarot enthusiast and he created a limited tarot deck with the artist Nanami Usuki.

Anya Taylor-Joy - The actress has talked about her appreciation for tarot and likes to carry a deck of cards with her. She also reads for friends.

Roman Polanski - Polanski has claimed that he doesn't have much interest in the occult outside of it being a storytelling device in his films and The Ninth Gate (based on Pérez-Reverte's novel The Club Dumas) features tarot-inspired imagery. It was also released with a small accompanying tarot deck reportedly approved by the director.

Rachel True - The actress has worked as a professional tarot reader and released a deck of cards called True Heart Intuitive Tarot.

Kenneth Anger - The avant-garde filmmaker and avid occultist was a tarot enthusiast.

Humphrey Jennings - The British director was reportedly fascinated by tarot and was inspired by the poet T.S. Eliot (who referenced tarot in The Wasteland) and the cards while making Fires Were Started.

Christina Ricci - The actress has spoken about her interest in tarot and is releasing a deck based on her own films later this year called the Cat Full of Spiders Tarot.

Guillermo Del Toro - The filmmaker has talked about his interest in tarot (his mother was reportedly a card enthusiast) and he released a deck based on his film characters, the Tarot Del Toro.

This is just a small sampling of some of the more well-known creatives who use tarot or have found inspiration in the cards. I'd like to explore some of them more in future posts but in the meantime, I hope this will inspire others to learn more about tarot and encourage fellow enthusiasts to pull out their decks today and celebrate World Tarot Day with me.

Interested in purchasing some of the tarot decks or books mentioned in this post? Visit The AstroMagick Lounge Curiosity Shop.