Mystic South

The Tower. The Universal Mother. The Prodigal Son. The archetypes of human consciousness traveled with tarot from Medici Italy into the rest of Europe and subsequently into the early 20th century, America. These images and ideas have been reflected in the historical tarot well before Carl Jung wrote about them in 1947. Jung found that symbols across cultures reflected the ideas, or archetypes, latent in all of human psychology. These archetypes work together to form our collective unconscious and are depicted in artifacts culture after culture, decade after decade, century after century. The tarot offers one such rich avenue of exploration of our human psyche, its manifest hopes, dreams and fears. Not only does tarot depict the ocean of our minds from eons (some decks do have an actual eon card), but contemporary cards have morphed to incorporate more of Jung's interpretation of our psyches. For example, Ellen Dugan's famous deck, Witches Tarot, replaces card number 15, The Devil, with "The Shadow Side," a clear reflection of one of the four major archetypes. Dugan's "karma" card replaces Judgement. Whether you use tarot as a form of Jungian meditation, therapy as discussed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1994), or as divination, this overview will provide a contextual analysis of the cards, their history and symbolism. Drawing upon two decades as a reader and tarot analysis presented at the American Popular Culture Association, the author will take us on a journey through the major arcana using traditional Rider-Waite iconography, then present a collection of slides comparing how those symbols fare in the contemporary flourishing of modern decks since the 1970's. Suits will be discussed, as well as their corresponding elements and how those elements manifest in newer card publications. Special attention will be given to Beatles Tarot and Starman Tarot (David Bowie), both collector's editions, but many more popular decks will be discussed, including Everyday Witch, The Celtic Tarot, Wild Wood Tarot, Tarot of the 78 Doors, the plethora of Halloween-themed decks, Light Seer's Tarot and its sister deck Muse Tarot among others.

How do these so often fascinating and creative niche decks both expand and alter meaning? What gets left behind?