Animals of the Tarot
This fall, we begin a new learning and exploration series that honors and investigates the animals of the Tarot.
Augury (the reading of animals for divinatory purposes) is part of my multi-faceted magical, spiritual, and intuitive process. I’m also a bleeding-heart animal-lover. As a child, I poured over books about sea mammals and wanted to become a marine biologist. And I’ve been writing recently about augury and animals in the Tarot, while also studying with Christopher Marmolejo (author of Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy) in his course on Auguring the Animal, which has brought inspiration and permission to leap down this rabbit hole!
I’m not sure how many sessions I’ll host on this topic, possibly a handful. But each session will explore the presence of animals in the Tarot from a different perspective, in a slightly different “category.” I’ll bring my thoughts, insights, and research, but we’ll do a lot of exploring and postulating together. Each session will focus on a handful of specific cards, the animals present, the energy they bring, and symbolism and folklore connected to certain animals.
Our first session will focus on Kept Animals, the domesticated animals in the Tarot. We’ll explore why domesticated animals appear in certain cards — what could be the intention or signification for each animal? Why this card, in particular? We’ll also explore our own relationships with domesticated animals, how we orient toward these animals, and the lessons these creatures have brought to us. We’ll also conduct a little divination with this group of cards, with support from the full deck, to see which of these animals wants to guide us in a lesson.
Other sessions in this series could include: Animals in the Wild, The Symbolized Animal, Cryptids, Animals in the Suits, and Animal Decks: A Show & Tell.
If you’d like to join this exploration, become a Typewriter Tarot member starting at $6 / month. You’ll have access to this entire series and all of the recordings, plus seats in upcoming classes, and access to our rich and growing leaning library.
If you love animals and Tarot, this class was created for you! We’ll find new personal connections with animal teachers, uncover new elements in the Tarot, and bring even more consideration to our relationship with our animal kin. For our sake, and theirs.