Tarot in Fiction (Books, Movies etc!)
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 09 Nov 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| Demonesse |
09 Nov 2002 |
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Have any of you come across references to Tarot in fiction - books, short stories, theatrical plays, movies, poems perhaps? If so, how was tarot seen/represented?
Let me know! I'm toying with the idea of compiling a list to add to my tarot journal IF I ever get started on one....
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| temperlyne |
09 Nov 2002 |
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MY very first encounter with the tarot was while reading a childrens book. I'm not sure about the title in english, but the author is Nina Rauprich and it is about a girl named Lena who is considered different. She reads the tarot and also has visions about past lives.
It is been a long time ago...but I remember loving it and it did point me towards tarot at a very young age.
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| Myrrha |
09 Nov 2002 |
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I really liked _The Hanged Man_ by Francesca Lia Block. It is very sad and disturbing but also beautiful and the kind of writing where even ordinary things like chocolate cakes, flowers, a satin comforter, become kind of charged and symbolic.
Myrrha
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| jlbvt |
14 Nov 2002 |
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Aliester Crowley, creator (not artist) of the Thoth deck was also a writer, among other things. Moonchild was about a magical organization who used Tarot every day in the course of their many strange undertakings. He is very descriptive with some of the readings. It's been so long since I read it I can't remember most of what happened. I love his style of prose, but I admit that his books can be hard to finish if you're not really devoted to reading them, but he has a way of conveying the emotion of the story that is unequalled in my opinion.
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| RingTheory |
15 Nov 2002 |
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that's the first time I ever saw the tarot in a movie..."Live and Let Die". Done back in the early 70's...Bond was chasing some voodoo drug dealers, and got involved with this virgin tarot reader. Her name was Solitaire, or something like that.
I remember the deck confused me-kind of weird and surreal. Later on, I learned that it was a deck made for the movie, and I got it for Christmas, but then gave it away to a friend. It's still around today-The Witches' Tarot....
The movies, best I can remember, depicted the tarot dramatically and darkly. It was a bit heavy on the witch-bashing...
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| little |
15 Nov 2002 |
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There's a moderately popular Japanese animated series called 'The Vision of Escaflowne' in which the main character reads Tarot, and finds that although it was mainly for fun in Japan, when she is mysteriously transported to another planet, her power to read and alter the future is significantly intensified.
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| dangerdork |
15 Nov 2002 |
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Is anyone familiar with Roger Zelanzny's "Amber" series of fantasy novels from the 70s and 80s? It's about a family of people who can travel between alternate universes by sheer power of will. Tarot cards play a major role - characters have their own decks and are themselves represented on the cards - and they can use the cards to communicate with each other. It's too complex to offer an adequate synopsis, but it's classic fantasy. Zelazny is my favourite author and this is possibly his best known work.
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| dangerdork |
15 Nov 2002 |
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Oh, yeah - there's an OOP "Amber Tarot" which looks like a pretty nice deck from what I've seen...
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| truthsayer |
15 Nov 2002 |
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piers antony wrote a trilogy about tarot. in it he created a deck that's described there and to my knowledge is unpublished. i have the series but haven't read it yet.
if you go to the passages website, there is a list of book reviews on fiction in which the tarot appears. 2 are little, big by john crowley and the wishing garden.
the complete ivory by doris egan is about a woman who reads tarot cards.
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| HudsonGray |
15 Nov 2002 |
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Not unpublished, the author didn't follow up making one but his index was used as a base for someone making the deck.
It's called the New Vision Tarot. If you want to see cards, go to www.picturetrail.com and look in the album for falconsmew there's 18 cards of the 100 card deck shown there.
His trilogy used the tarot in it, but he was writing fiction, the deck had to be modified to work as a tarot deck, so it was modified somewhat to be able to actually read with.
I love the Doris Egan books, they're all collected together now in a compilation book that came out last year. I got it off Amazon.
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| ihcoyc |
15 Nov 2002 |
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IIRC, there are a couple of fleeting references to a deck of Tarotlike cards in Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana.
But my favourite mention of Tarot in some other meaning is in the Firesign Theatre's Waiting for the Electrician comedy album. There is a sequence here that is narrated as an occult Western story, with rinky-tink piano music in the background. There was a passel of them Theosophists raising the Devil. Had him about five feet off the ground. I went over and looked him in the eye and said, "Sam Pekoo (sp?), there ain't enough room in this life cycle for the both of us."
The devil up and challenged me to a game of ten-card Tarot, pentacles wild. Now, I saw him deal the High Priestess off the bottom of the deck. . . . (fadeout) You really have to hear it in the context for the full effect, though.
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| truthsayer |
15 Nov 2002 |
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last call by tim powers is another fiction book that incorporates tarot. the figeater by jody shields does, too.
about a year ago there was an edition of the graphic novel of promethea that was based on tarot.
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| dangerdork |
15 Nov 2002 |
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oh yeah, the Tim Powers is excellent!
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| faunabay |
16 Nov 2002 |
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Originally posted by dangerdork
Is anyone familiar with Roger Zelanzny's "Amber" series of fantasy novels from the 70s and 80s? It's about a family of people who can travel between alternate universes by sheer power of will. Tarot cards play a major role - characters have their own decks and are themselves represented on the cards - and they can use the cards to communicate with each other. It's too complex to offer an adequate synopsis, but it's classic fantasy. Zelazny is my favourite author and this is possibly his best known work.
The Amber series is Wonderful!!! I haven't read it in years though. I gave my books away long ago. :(
I definitely need to get the set they have listed on amazon.com!!! LOL
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| SlyR |
18 Nov 2002 |
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I must come from a different world than you all, but how could we forget the frequent Tarot references in the James Bond picture, "Live and Let Die?" I believe the deck used by Jane Seymour's character in that film was specially created for LALD and became an actual commercially available deck later.
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| truthsayer |
18 Nov 2002 |
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oh, we all know that movoe and deck quite well. we just try not to think about that deck too much. not an attractive deck that everyone is clammoring to obtain.
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| Eyes of Night |
18 Nov 2002 |
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The first time I ever heard of tarot was from the movie "Now and Then", but I still didn't know what it was until later on with commercials. I think the deck looks like the RWS deck. I only remembre the 10 of swords (and yes, the death card was there too). I haven't seen the movie in a long time though.
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| Demonesse |
19 Nov 2002 |
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Well there's this book I just found by John Camp about a hacker who's also a tarot reader - The Empress File. Seems kinda corny, though.. :)
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| Alissa |
27 Nov 2002 |
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They bust out Tarot so often on this old soap opera, I just have to grin. It's so cheesy ya gotta love it. Reruns of the late 60's soap are on mornings on the Sci Fi channel.
Every time I see Magda, the Gyspy (aka Dr. Julia Hoffman) I want to go out and buy a Buckland Romani deck :D She's always slapping down cards, reading palms, crystal gazing. You name it.
Alissa (<-- way way out of the Dark Shadows closet now)
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| Demonesse |
28 Nov 2002 |
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There's also another book (although it definitely belongs in the "Young Adult" section) - Bruce Coville's Chamber of Horrors series, "Eyes of the Tarot". It's about a tarot deck in which the figures actually seem to be looking at you, and he brings up the CC as well as sleeping with a card underneath your pillow :)Despite the ultra-cheesy name, it's not half bad, building up to an interesting climax with the Magician as the baddie and the Knight of Swords as one of the dark forces under his command. Like I said, cheesy, but fun.
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| Kiama |
29 Nov 2002 |
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In the film, Dangerous Liasons, we see the old woman using the Visconti-Sforza deck, as though she is playing some kind of parlour game like patience... :D
Kiama
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| Trish |
29 Nov 2002 |
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Actually ... my first encounter with Tarot was on TV.
I remember seeing this commercial for some Tarot hotline when I was a very little girl. I think that was actually what first fascinated me. Yeah yeah, I know a good deal of those hotlines are charlatans -- but I was just mesmirized by the cards and the pictures on them.
There is also an episode of "The Simpsons" -- one of my favorite TV shows -- that involves Tarot in a way. Have any of you ever seen that episode where Lisa gets her cards read, and they tell the story about how she almost got married? There was some fairly accurate representation; such as when the reader tells Lisa that the Death card means transition or change, not really actual death. However, the reader on that show was sorta depicted as a bit of a charlatan as well.
I've also noticed those 'card' related Japanese animated shows that have been on TV lately, like "Card Captors" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" I'm very curious as to how much of what they use is derived from Tarot, I-Ching, and other forms of card divination. Has anyone looked into it?
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| Melvis |
29 Nov 2002 |
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I can't believe no one's mentioned "The Red Violin" yet! Tarot is the thread that ties the whole movie together, and it is a wonderful film. It stars Samuel Jackson.
Peace,
Melvis
:TSTRE
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| Royal Cat |
10 Dec 2002 |
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I just finished a book titled Veronica by Nicholas Christopher. It was recommended to me by a friend. Tarot plays a small part in amongst the many other "mystical" things that come up in the book (Tibetan Buddhism, black and white magic, time travel, etc.). One of the characters draws two cards from what is only described as "an expensively appointed tarot deck" :) The two cards are the Tower and the Star. Pretty good descriptions for the meanings of the cards and it ties in well with the plot. Not cheesy at all.
Quite a book! Check it out if you're into mystical, sci-fi/fantasy or detective novels.
Cat
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| Royal Cat |
22 Dec 2002 |
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Stephen King's Dark Tower series! Although the books are in no way *about* tarot cards, the cards are integral at tying the books together and are an underlying theme throughout the series. Near the middle/end of the first book a tarot card reading is done for Roland (main character, aka the Gunslinger) and those cards which are chosen become very important in the next book. There are constant small references to tarot throughout the series...The Drawing of the Three, The Lady of the Shadows... and of course the Dark Tower itself. The pilgrimage that the main character takes could probably also be viewed as the "Fool's (or Magician's) Journey." The cards are especially important in Book 2
The deck that's used in the books is a modified/fictional deck. I can't recall the exact names of the cards that were drawn, but I'd be happy to look them up if anyone is interested. The spread used is not one I'm familiar with and I assume it was 'made up' for the book.
From the way the cards are presented and used I'm guessing that Stephen King either uses/used tarot himself, or he's done his homework! :)
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The Tarot in Fiction (Books, Movies etc!) thread was originally posted on 09 Nov 2002 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.
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