The Strange History of Tarot Card Readings | Arts + Culture | Halifax, Nova Scotia

Ruth West

The “Daughter of Pentacles”. Placement of this card in a reading denotes ambition and well-being.

For some, tarot card readings are hokey carnival scams or sleepover activities, but for many LGBTQ people undesirable in mainstream religious doctrines, tarot readings were and are an inviting way to express their spirituality. . Montreal author and professional Tarot reader Oliver Pickle wrote She Sits in the Night: Reviewing Thea’s Tarot about the revamping of a decades-old feminist tarot deck. The book will be launched on Sunday at Venus Envy with a book signing and tarot readings. Pickle spoke to The Coast about the book and her feminist roots.

Your biography mentions that your beginnings as a professional tarologist were an accident. How did it happen?


I had never pursued a tarot reading or my own deck – my first deck was a gift from someone who I don’t think expected me to use it. But the game, as many do, came with an instruction booklet, and alongside friends I started reading with housemates and their unsuspecting visitors on the sidelines of baseball games, in bars, etc. a conversation starter but also more fundamentally because it helped bond and resonate with people.

Why do you think queer people have historically had such an important connection to tarot?


I can’t speak for gay people in general, but in my experience, people crave ritual and meaning-making tools, and gay people (as well as many populations who are denied mainstream versions of these things) find the ones they can access. And then we adapt them to our needs. And the tarot is very adaptable.

Why are alternative tarot decks necessary?


Tarot works largely through imagery and the seeker’s response to imagery. It’s amazing when the images are meaningful to you or even reflect you. And it’s alienating and infuriating when they’re not.

Why did Thea’s Tarot stand out among other queer or feminist tarot decks?


My friend Rima Athar introduced me to Thea’s tarot, and she had found it after a long search for a feminist deck. She discusses this research in the foreword to She sits in the night. So it stood out for her, and then I really liked it: it’s black and white; they are real photocopies of cut-out papers; it’s varied and visceral and beautiful. Most importantly, and I think this is often how people choose their favorite decks, it spoke to the meanings of cards I already knew and also added layers to those.

How did you reinvent a distinctly lesbian tarot deck to reflect more modern and fluid gender ideas?


Again, this reinvention was at Rima’s request when she suggested I write the book. She and I share a lot of ideas about politics, relationships, and gender based on our friendship and our communities, and so it felt like a regular approach for both of us.

Thea’s Tarot images are visibly fluid and varied, depending on the genre. Their creator, Ruth West, made them against the backdrop of lesbian feminism in the early 1980s, when female-centered art was at its height. I read them in a context of self-determination and gender fluidity, which is particular to this historical moment and to the communities in which I evolve in Montreal. Context is the main difference; the images themselves don’t require much reimagining. Tarot somehow requires you to imagine yourself and the people in your life in the pictures.

Do you think tarot is as relevant in queer communities today as it was historically?


I do not know. People are still making decks, which suggests they’re relevant: The Collective Tarot has been hugely popular over the past decade, and some exciting new ones are coming out soon, like Cristy Road’s Next World Tarot and Slow Holler. None of them are exclusively queer, but I would place them all in some sort of queer lineage.

I suspect the desire and the magic and the desire to represent yourself doesn’t change much over time, and I think part of the beauty of tarot is its versatility and adaptability, and I think that’s so great that people continue to create games and play in a way that suits them.

Has the actual practice of a reading changed since Thea’s Tarot was originally used?


There are certainly tarot readings that have been around since that time that people continue to use. I imagine that people have always adapted their readings to their contexts, so they evolve naturally over time. There are also many tarot apps and websites now! So it is easier to learn the meaning of cards without books. I have always found books more useful.

She sits in the night
book launch and signing

Sunday, February 28, 6 p.m.
Venus Envy, 1598 Barrington Street