Deck Review: The Literary Tarot

I’ve been waiting for this deck for eons, and was very excited to finally get it in my hot little hands. Obviously I firmly believe in the importance of supporting indie artists, which is why I love Kickstarter. But this deck is a bit special, as it’s created by a non-profit in support of a great project, the Brink Literacy Project by F(r)iction that aims to increase worldwide literacy rates. They do a lot of work in prisons, which is an area very close to my heart. As a criminologist who has spent time working in prisons, I cannot tell you what a difference learning to read can make to people in prison. Not just for the obvious reasons like employability and improved self-esteem, but because it teaches empathy – the ability to imagine what it is like to be a not-like-you person. For anybody who hasn’t worked in a prison (or even visited someone in one), they’re fucking grim. Even the ‘nice’ ones that are in relatively good repair. There’s something about not being able to see the horizon that is uniquely unsettling. And they’re full of people who have had a really shitty run of it. Yes, yes, they’re also often dangerous criminals, I’m not excusing why they’re there or saying they shouldn’t be there (although…). But they often have never really experienced someone caring about them, or looking out for them, or putting them first, and so they do not know how to do this for others. It turns out if no one teaches you to give a damn about other people, it’s actually not as innate as you might think! Reading does this. It teaches you the skill of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. It shows you that not everyone thinks like you, or feels like you, and that that doesn’t make them a bad person, just different. It teaches you to care, and care deeply, about someone you’ve never met, someone who doesn’t even exist. The changes I’ve seen it make in prisoners who I assumed were probably ASPD at best, or just really unpleasant at worst, is hard to articulate. Anyway, enough about why I think Brink is the shit, and more about the deck!

So, the only thing I don’t really like about this deck is the box. The front design is fab, but the box itself is designed to look like a ‘book’, which seems like a cute idea on paper, but in practice the finish is a bit naff. It looks like the ‘fake wood’ plastic effect you get on playhouse castles at kids’ playgrounds. Mine arrived dented (not the creators’ fault!), and is now starting to peel a bit at the corners. It looks kinda cheap. Not for me.

The inside of the box is great – love the old school library card holder info section, the internal design is attractive, and the guidebook is very helpful and explains (briefly) how each piece of literature chosen links to the card it illustrates. I wish I’d gone and ordered the accompanying hardcopy in-depth guide book (Oracle’s Atlas) that explains more about how the chosen novel/poem ties in with the accompanying card, as hearing the authors’ thought processes about how they picked the design for ‘their’ card is super interesting. Hopefully this will be available to buy separately in the future once the Kickstarter print run is completed.

The cards themselves are a really nice, sturdy thickness, and feel like they could easily withstand heavy use. Edges are gold glit, and each card contains a LOT of embossed gold detailing – beautiful. Finish is a bit shiny for my tastes, but they’re still lovely cards.

Now, my favourites.

Where to begin…?

For a bibliophile Tarot nerd like me this deck really is a dream come true. And it’s a grower, not a shower. On viewing some cards I initially was like ‘eh?’, and then when I realised which book they ‘came’ from I was like ‘ohhhhhh’. For example the guidebook explains that the Moon card is all about illusion and getting lost in unreal worlds, and so Dani Hedlund chose to pair it with Alice In Wonderland, as “this card pushes you – like Alice – to lean into your intuition in order to navigate the confusing or deceptive new situations you venture into”. As such I definitely think this deck works best if you’re reasonably well-versed in the North American / British / European ‘canon’. If not, you might struggle to understand why some cards are illustrated as they are – and for this reason I probably wouldn’t use it to read for others (unless it’s one of my GeekyBookFriends!) If you’re a bookworm, the endless easter eggs and intertextual connections will be a gift that keeps on giving. One thing that deviates substantially from canon, however, is the decision to portray characters in a range of different bodies from those they were written as (thin, white, able etc), which I applaud! I recognise the spirit of Elizabeth Bennet whatever form she comes in!

Here are some of my favourite cards from the deck (strap yourselves in, there’s a lot ;-)). In cases where I had a copy of the book/poem to hand, I’ve taken a photo of the card with the book, as it was great fun having a quick poke around in some forgotten favourites to search for pertinent quotations. The Chariot here is based on RLS’s Treasure Island, and the guide urges us to “propel yourself forward to your dreams”. The Ace of Parchment (Pents) is from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and shows everyone’s favourite contrary brat, Mary Lennox, entering the walled garden for the first time, after months of searching. “Sometimes opportunity is kind enough to knock,” says the guidebook, “but other times you must be the one to seek it out and nurture it. Find the door in the wall, find the right key to unlock it, and you never know what may be waiting on the other side”. The Two of Ink (Wands) is Mowgli, surveying the village from high up in a tree, while the guidebook urges us to “chart a path through an unknown jungle”.

For the Ace of Ink (Wands) we have Peter Pan off on his adventures, “your sheer force of will can enable you to do anything – maybe even fly…! From your lofty position in the cloud you can clearly see – and even reshape – your Neverland”. Ten of Quills (Swords) shows (the horror! the horror!) Marlow on the deck of his steamship, “your great endeavour… has fallen apart, leaving you ruined, lost, and on the brink of collapse”. This feels suitably bleak for this card (though I do also enjoy a more hopeful Ten of Swords!). Ah, Conrad. “We live in the flicker – may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday“. Moving on to happier things, the Four of Quills (Swords) shows Thoreau’s peaceful cabin on Walden Pond. Definitely a good representative of the break from the fray this card represents, but I am also mindful of Thoreau’s essay on why he went to live out in a cabin in the arse-end of nowhere: “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived“. Amen to that.

For the King of Light (Cups) we have Odysseus, which amuses me because I remember writing an essay for my Latin GCSE about the use of emotion in Odysseus and how our eponymous hero cries all the bloody time, lol. So it seems very fitting to me to see him here as the King of Cups, “choose compassion towards others. Though you will find glory through wisdom and emotional control, you devotion to kin and crew – helping them prosper – is what makes your odyssey epic, rather than tragic”. I think of all the Kings as wise old (metaphorical) generals, who have been through the wars and now wear their hard won wisdom with pride, so this choice also reminds me of my favourite quote (possible tattoo quote!), “Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this“. AFAIK this isn’t actually from the Odyssey or the Illiad, but is instead a kind of bastardisation of the general themes in both put together by Donna Tartt for her novel The Secret History (10/10, would recommend), but, whatever, I love it. Another King, this time of Quills (Swords) is depicted as Marcus Aurelius, who “asks [us] to lead with reason, honesty, courage, and temperance”. Perfect. Ah, and Gatsby, alone on his balcony with his melancholy champagne glass, as the Five of Light (Cups), my heart. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past“. Beautiful.

Most of the literary choices are novels, but I was delighted to see some poetry had also made it into the selection. Two of my favourites as well! The Eight of Ink (Wands) is Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land“), and the Hanged Man is Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock (“There will be time, there will be time… Time for you and time for me, and time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions, before the taking of a toast and tea… And indeed there will be time to wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Do I dare disturb the universe?”). I also love the Knight of Quills (Swords) as Oedipus. The guidebook warns us, “do not become the villian you seek to destroy”.

Two gorgeous Shakespeare cards here, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Seven of Light (Cups) (“The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them“) and Macbeth for the Nine of Quills (Swords) (“Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care“). I’ve already touched on this wonderful Alice In Wonderland image for the Moon, as she heads into curiouser and curiouser worlds, and finally we have Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice as the Queen of Ink (Wands), complete with the gorgeous nod to the RWS sunflowers, which look particularly striking with all the gold embossments.

The spirit of the Fool is perfectly captured by Don Quixote. The guidebook explains, “you love not wisely, and often not well, but you give the whole of your heart. You dare. You dream. You make falling look like flying”. The Ace of Quills (Swords) is Sherlock Holmes, natch. “Your intellect makes you powerful, enabling you to see through the fog on the Moors, to unravel the facts of any situation”. And the Page of Light (Cups) is Pip from Great Expectations, imagining his perfect, romantic future as he stares into an overgrown lake.

1. Tell me about yourself? What is your most important characteristic as a deck?

Seven of Parchment (Pents): This deck will help me put in the hard work and have the patience necessary to reach my goals (The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle)

2. What are your strengths as a deck?

King of Quills (Swords): Lol, so many of my decks ‘pick’ this card here – the message I’m getting is that all my decks are like ‘dude, we’re offering you the benefit of our hard won wisdom without any bullshit. Accept it’ (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius)

3. What are your limits as a deck?

Four of Parchment (Pents): This is a generous deck. Despite saying I wouldn’t use it to read for others, I feel this interview is telling me this deck wants me to use it to read for other people (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

4. What do you require from me in return? How can I best collaborate with you?

Queen of Quills (Swords): By being the Queen to its King! I too have to be ready to accept straight talking, and accept that sometimes the truth can be harsh, even when it is very necessary (Beowulf)

5. What is the potential quality of our relationship?

Knight of Light (Cups): Despite its straight talking this is an empathetic deck that wants to help me, and wants me to help others (Tom Jones by Henry Fielding)

6. In what space / with what type of query will you best communicate?

Eight of Quills (Swords): When I’m feeling trapped and like I’m losing control, this deck can help me get back on track (The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

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