Magic Words & Symbols Spotted in the Wild

A Page of Phrenology

All so-called pseudo-sciences have Tarot-like hierarchical figures.  Here, for example, is the Page of Phrenology.  From The Illuminated Magazine, 1843.

Postage Stamp Tarot

Can a stamp album serve as an occult guidebook to the universe?  The Polish writer and fine artist Bruno Schulz certainly believed it could, as he explains in Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.  His ruminations on postage stamps as "handy amulets" forming "a book of truth and splendor" inspired us to piece together a Tarot deck of stamps from around the world.  We reveal and explain the work in progress here:

The Stamp Album Tarot

 

(Below is the stamp we found for The Tower.)

One Small Shift

"We are like the traveler who, with one small shift, becomes curious.  When we are curious we find messages in the world, and answers to questions before we even ask.  Life is like the cloud that passes overhead, its shape reminding us of a bunny rabbit and making us smile.  Become curious about why you are seeing a rabbit and you'll find the cloud works like a tarot card.  Intuitive information is in everything that the right hemisphere of your brain can access, showing you a message from your higher consciousness.  When you use intuitive eyes and ears, you overhear a conversation on the train differently, and see that a ripped-up bag has a meaningful shape.  Life becomes exciting, full of wonder, and above all magical." —Becky Walsh, You Do Know: Learning to Act on Intuition Instantly

Death Disguised as the Angel of Peace

We found this Tarot Death card in the wilds of The Canadian Magazine, 1905, as a political cartoon.

Tarot in Everybody ' s Magazine

Back in the first decade of the 1900s, Everybody's Magazine featured some article titles reminiscent of Tarot.

For instance, here's The Empress:


The Wheel of Fortune:


The Sun:


Strength:


The Lovers:


Death:


And our favorite, The Hermit:

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Back in the first decade of the 1900s, Everybody's Magazine featured some article titles reminiscent of Tarot.

For instance, here's The Empress:


The Wheel of Fortune:


The Sun:


Strength:


The Lovers:


Death:


And our favorite, The Hermit:

Gardens in the Dunes

Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Gardens in the Dunes "repeats Tarot-like symbols—the monkey, the parrot, the stone, the snake, and the garden, for example. The Tarot scenes also recall the syncretic logic of the Ghost Dances that bookend the novel" (Caren Irr, Pink Pirates, 2010).

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Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Gardens in the Dunes "repeats Tarot-like symbols—the monkey, the parrot, the stone, the snake, and the garden, for example. The Tarot scenes also recall the syncretic logic of the Ghost Dances that bookend the novel" (Caren Irr, Pink Pirates, 2010).

Fun in the Sun

"I received these in the mail recently and I was wondering if you could explain something to me." I hand him the one from Spain that read "Fun in the Sun."

Gerald looks the mail over with a careful eye, intrigued by the mystery I've laid out before him. "You say you received these recently?"

"Right," I say, and spread the cards out like a Tarot deck. Tulips from Amsterdam. Bier Gartens from Germany. The Eiffel Tower. Big Ben. The Roman Coliseum.

—Kirk Farber, Postcards from a Dead Girl (2010)

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"I received these in the mail recently and I was wondering if you could explain something to me." I hand him the one from Spain that read "Fun in the Sun."

Gerald looks the mail over with a careful eye, intrigued by the mystery I've laid out before him. "You say you received these recently?"

"Right," I say, and spread the cards out like a Tarot deck. Tulips from Amsterdam. Bier Gartens from Germany. The Eiffel Tower. Big Ben. The Roman Coliseum.

—Kirk Farber, Postcards from a Dead Girl (2010)