Praise for The Major Arcana Anthology “As a long-time professional tarot reader and the author of two tarot decks, it feels as though The Major Arcana Anthology was written just for me. But really, it is a gift for anyone with any interest in tarot. Full of wisdom and warmth, this book will help you to connect more deeply to all twenty-two of the major arcana cards, adding clarity to your readings and giving you fabulous new spreads from a spectacular gathering of tarot talents.”
—Deborah Blake, author of the Everyday Witch Tarot and Whimsy Woods Tarot “Reading The Major Arcana Anthology has been a deeply enriching and unexpectedly moving experience. To step into the personal stories of others and witness their relationships with the Major Arcana feels like an active divination in itself—an expansion into the vast, intricate landscape of human experience. This book doesn’t just explore the cards; it opens you to the many ways they live, breathe, and speak through us. A beautiful, fulfilling read that celebrates the intuitive, creative soul at the heart of tarot.”
—Fiona Horne, author of Coven: Where Witches Gather, The Art of Witch, and Lost Book of Spells “I loved reading this anthology! Each chapter pulled me deeper into the journey, and it was difficult to stop. Jane Meredith has gathered 22 unique voices who bring these cards to life as soul guides, creating something truly special. This is a book I will return to when I need to remember to trust myself and trust the cards.”
—Amy Truong, author of Divine Cosmos Tarot “WOW, this is something very, very special. I was so enthralled the entire time by the spectrum of insight being brought to the cards. … Each author relates to their selection through vulnerable personal essays. We learn how they developed a deep relationship with the tarot not only through keeping their minds open, but their hearts as well. Each card is explored with depth, honesty, and compassion, as though writing about a beloved friend. But The Major Arcana Anthology does not content itself with focusing solely on individual development. The authors expand the conversation beyond the personal, moving toward the ways in which tarot can not only change our relationship to ourselves, but the world beyond us. This book is extremely timely in all ways social, political, and even technological!”
—K. Wroten, illustrator and creator of The Fool’s Wisdom Tarot
“A beautifully crafted book. It offers insightful perspectives from the author, personal stories, and card interpretations by renowned tarot authors and artists, making it a delightful read. The information on each card is thorough and thoughtfully presented, with inspiring spreads included to complement each one. It’s a wonderful addition for any tarot collector or anyone beginning their journey with the cards.”
—Kim Arnold, founder of the UK Tarot Conference “A bundle of love stories woven between tarot reader and card. A temple with twenty-two doors, this is not a book that explains the history or symbolism of tarot. It is not fixed knowledge, but a tapestry of living stories—twenty-two tarot readers who, in the path of their own lives, truly encountered these cards, and were struck with wonder, shaken, and transformed by them. … I have never come across a tarot book quite like this; it offers a genuinely new way of seeing tarot.”
—Madoka, artist and witch, author of Gendai Majo (The Modern Witch)
THE
MAJOR ARCANA Anthology
THE
MAJOR ARCANA Anthology
22 Tarot Experts Share Their Stories
CURATED BY JANE MEREDITH
The Major Arcana Anthology: 22 Tarot Experts Share Their Stories Copyright © 2026 by Jane Meredith. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. First Edition First Printing, 2026 Book design by Christine Ha Cover art The High Priestess and the Tower cards from Divine Cosmos Tarot © 2026 with art created by Alexandra Cabal. Used with permission of Llewellyn Publications. The Magician and the Emperor cards from Fool’s Wisdom Tarot © 2026 with art created by K. Wroten. Used with permission of Llewellyn Publications. Cover design by Kevin R. Brown Interior art Tarot card illustrations are based on those contained in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite, published by William Rider & Son Ltd., London 1911. Tarot spread illustrations by Llewellyn Art Department Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending) ISBN: 978-0-7387-8205-8 Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public. All mail addressed to the author is forwarded but the publisher cannot, unless specifically instructed by the author, give out an address or phone number. Any internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific location will continue to be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to authors’ websites and other sources. Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 www.llewellyn.com Printed in the United States of America GPSR Representation: UPI-2M PLUS d.o.o., Medulićeva 20, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia matt.parsons@upi2mbooks.hr
Land Acknowledgment
This book was written on sacred land. All land is sacred land. This book was written in twenty-two locations, with different histories, peoples, landscapes, stories, and ecologies. All of them are part of Earth, this planet we belong to and are inextricably part of. The atoms that make up our bodies are atoms we borrow from Earth. The air we breathe is part of a complex interaction with other living beings of Earth. The food we eat, water we drink, landscapes and communities we live amongst, relationships we weave and lives we lead belong to this Earth. We are indivisible from it. Our lands have been, and continue to be, ravished by economic and political greed, carelessness, and malicious disregard for the sacredness of earth and life. Genocide is real, today and in the past. Habitat destruction, large-scale species extinction, and climate crises are happening and continuing on our watch. Lands and peoples have been and continue to be invaded, colonised, and exploited. We are not separate from this. Indigenous elders, communities, knowledge, and traditions continue to show us other ways to live with each other and within the land. I offer them honour, gratitude, and my deep respect. The frame of this book was written largely on Dharug and Gundungurra lands, and I acknowledge their elders, past, present, and emerging. I invite readers to consider the lands where they are reading this book, practicing tarot and/or magic, and living; the histories of that land and its peoples, and to consider how to show up to these.
Contents
Spreads & Exercises • xi Introduction • 1 The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure!—Rachel Patterson • 11 The Magician: I Will Be the One—Jane Meredith • 21 The High Priestess: Mysteries Hidden and Revealed—Fio Gede Parma • 31 The Empress: Our Truth and Power—Cat Treadwell • 41 The Emperor: The Inner Throne—Mat Auryn • 53 The Hierophant: Conduit of the Mysteries—Ivo Dominguez Jr • 65 The Lovers: A True Love Story—KamalaDevi McClure • 75 The Chariot: Driving Towards Desire—Cassandra Snow • 87 Strength: Embracing Myself at Pride—Jack Chanek • 97 The Hermit: Handing Down the Light—Mary K. Greer • 107 The Wheel of Fortune: Spinning the Wheel of Fate—T. Susan Chang • 117 Justice: An Invitation to Collaboration—Amanda Yates Garcia • 127 The Hanged One: The Messy Middle—Chelsey Pippin Mizzi • 139 Death: In the Shadow of the Scythe—Kristoffer Hughes • 149 Temperance: Bridging into Wholeness—Jhenah Telyndru • 159
Contents The Devil: The Devil and Me—Siddharth Ramakrishnan • 171 The Tower: Destruction and Liberation—Lane Smith • 181 The Star: A Beacon of Light—Barbara Moore • 191 The Moon: Following Her Silver Path—Lucy Cavendish • 201 The Sun: Shine, Shine, Shine—Lilith Dorsey • 213 Judgement: A Living Judgement—Meg Jones Wall • 223 The World: All Goodbye Ain’t Gon—Courtney Alexander • 233 End of the Fool’s Journey • 245 Tarot Decks Mentioned in This Book • 247 Contributors • 249 About the Author • 255
x
Spreads & Exercises
The Fool: A Spell for New Adventures—Rachel Patterson • 18 The Magician: Tools of the Magician Tarot Spread—Jane Meredith • 28 The High Priestess: The Pillars of the Temple Meditation— Fio Gede Parma • 38 The Empress: Walking with the Empress Tarot Spread—Cat Treadwell • 49 The Emperor: Reclaiming Your Crown Tarot Spread—Mat Auryn • 61 The Hierophant: A Working to Call the Hierophant— Ivo Dominguez Jr • 72 The Lovers: Three Levels of Love Tarot Spread—KamalaDevi McClure • 83 The Chariot: Driving the Chariot Tarot Spread—Cassandra Snow • 94 Strength: Meeting the Beast Within Ritual—Jack Chanek • 104 The Hermit: The Hermit’s Path Tarot Spread—Mary K. Greer • 114 The Wheel of Fortune: The Movement of Fate Tarot Spread— T. Susan Chang • 124 Justice: Lineages of Justice Ritual—Amanda Yates Garcia • 135 The Hanged One: A Tarot Spread for Hanging—Chelsey Pippin Mizzi • 145 Death: The Scythe’s Shadow Tarot Spread—Kristoffer Hughes • 155 Temperance: A Temperance Tarot Spread—Jhenah Telyndru • 167 xi
Spreads & Exercises The Devil: The Balance of Light and Shadow Tarot Spread— Siddharth Ramakrishnan • 178 The Tower: The Tower Tarot Spread—Lane Smith • 188 The Star: North Star Mandala Tarot Spread—Barbara Moore • 198 The Moon: Cycles of the Moon Tarot Spread—Lucy Cavendish • 209 The Sun: Greet the Sun Tarot Altar—Lilith Dorsey • 219 Judgement: Past Self, Present Self, Future Self Tarot Spread— Meg Jones Wall • 230 The World: The World in Motion Tarot Spread—Courtney Alexander • 242
xii
Introduction
The Major Arcana Anthology: 22 Tarot Experts Share Their Stories appeared as a concept fully formed that floated sideways into my brain in a moment when I was not thinking about books, tarot, or writing at all. I had an image of standing inside a many-sided temple with twenty-two doors, each painted with a single major tarot card. I knew that if I opened any door and went through it, on the other side would be a whole garden, landscape, life; the story of one person’s experience with that card brought to life. Not their intellectual understanding of it, historical knowledge, or artistic appreciation—their lived experience as they themselves danced with Strength, were weighed in the balance by Justice, devoured by Death, or initiated into the Moon’s mysteries. This temple was a book, and those doorways, those stories, would reveal the human side of working with tarot whether as a tarot reader for others, a writer on tarot, or a receiver of the card themselves—and often all of those things. It’s not that I wanted to write, create, or curate this book. It was as if I already had. My task was only to build the bridge to allow it to arrive here in your hands. I travelled holding this image of the temple of twenty-two doors for a month or two—really I had been planning to think about other books— but it didn’t go away. Eventually I told my editor, who said something to the effect of “this is a terrifying idea, Jane, but your ideas always terrify me, so go ahead and pitch it.” Clearly I hadn’t succeeded in explaining that it wasn’t exactly my idea but its own that just happened to choose my head to arrive in. A year or so later, here I am writing the introduction. Thanks not only to my editor and publisher but also and mainly to the twenty-one brave 1
Introduction individuals who accepted this challenge—generally, I would say, not understanding at all what they were signing up for. The most extreme example of this was Mat, who agreed to write an essay but then never replied to my email requesting his top three choices of a major card to write on. Over four weeks, everyone else replied. As I sorted through these responses, it appeared no one was interested in the Emperor, but in my mind he was perfect for it, so I didn’t overly worry. When I finished juggling and negotiating everything a few more weeks later, I sent him an email saying that as he’d never replied, I was assigning him the Emperor. Back came an immediate, appalled response including the phrases, “I can’t believe I never replied!” and “the Emperor is my least favourite card out of the entire deck.” That he’s written a fabulous essay on the Emperor is emblematic of the lengths and depths many of the writers on the following pages have gone to, to produce an essay to this sometimes excruciating brief. I need to also mention here the lovely Rachel whose reply to that initial email was “I can write on any of them—give me the card no one else wants.” What could I do but hand her the Fool? As we continued into the actual writing process, many bemoaned their choices, “I didn’t understand it would be like this!” and “I would never have chosen this card if I’d known,” and various other protests and tangles, all of which we waded through. It seemed for many writers engaging deeply with the card on a personal level did what we expect tarot to do. Brought up unanswered questions. Provoked unresolved issues. Plunged us into the depths of self-examination and to the brink of change. They’ve written about it in their essays; thank you to each of you for going there. Perhaps you’ve picked up this book because you’re a long-time tarot enthusiast, practitioner, or beloved. Or perhaps you’ve just begun to dip your fingers and toes into this magic. Maybe you love reading about all things occult, or it’s the personal stories that draw you to this book—or possibly both of those things! Tarot, and tarot decks and tarot cards are sets of colored (usually), card (usually), rectangular shaped (usually) picture cards. There’s seventy-eight in a deck, all have usually-agreed upon names, and come in a usually-agreed upon order. You can tell already there’s a lot of variance; it is possible to get round cards, square cards, and certainly virtual cards as well as black-and-white cards, photographic cards, cards that show mainly or exclusively symbols, and cards featuring lush paintings on them. They also come in a cascading plethora 2
Introduction of styles, magics, and dedications: There are feminist decks, queer decks, Black decks, fairytale decks, mythological, cat, dragon, druidic, goddess, herbal, and hundreds of other varieties. They do all have seventy-eight cards, and those seventy-eight cards are always divided into two sets: the major and minor arcana. The word arcana means secrets or knowledge. So there’s a set of major knowledges and a set of minor ones. The major arcana has twenty-two cards in it, numbered zero to twenty-one, all named names we mostly/usually/generally agree on with some variance but not as much as one might expect given all the other variations. The major arcana covers what might be called the great themes and archetypes of life and is sometimes referred to as the Fool’s Journey, the Fool being the first card, numbered zero. The major cards include: Strength, Justice, the Empress, the Hermit, the Star, and the World. This book contains twenty-two essays and twenty-two practices dedicated to the twenty-two major cards in their most common sequence. The minor arcana is divided into four suits, just like our standard deck of playing cards, although in tarot the suits have fourteen cards each, ten number cards and four character or court cards. The suits are often (but not always) wands, pentacles, swords, and cups. Usually the one of each suit is referred to as the ace, and the court cards are often—but definitely not always—a king, queen, knight or prince, and page or princess. They are sometimes mother, father, daughter, son. Or sage and witch, or gods and goddesses of a particular or differing traditions. Of course sometimes they’re dragons or cats or herbs. The minor cards are sometimes referenced in these essays and certainly will form part of any reading you do in the exercises or spreads appearing here, but they are not the focus of this book. One of the many things this book is not is a history of tarot—what it is, where it came from, or how it came to be in its current format. There are numerous books that exist on these topics; recently I read Jessica Friedmann’s Twenty-Two Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana, which is a good, contemporary, and unromantic starting place for the history of our current tarot deck.1
1. Published by Scribe, 2024.
3
Introduction I’m interested in the tarot for what might broadly be called divination. Not so much reading the future as reading the past and present, exploring the psyche and the world around us through this complex lens of tarot. The tarot appears to be capable of reflecting back to us—like a mirror or a clear pool of water—what’s on our minds as well as what’s below the surface in our subconscious: our desires and challenges, conflicts and inner guidance. Originally I was drawn to tarot because it tells stories. About forty years ago, I read somewhere that every story that has ever been told or ever will be told or is being told now can be conveyed by some combination of these cards. As a writer and storyteller, that grabbed me and really has never let me go. When I read tarot for myself or others, I’m finding a story, telling a story. If I place tarot cards onto an altar or into a spell, I’m suggesting a story, offering one, or calling to one. When I teach tarot, I’m teaching people how to find and read their own stories in the cards. And now that I’ve decided to write about tarot—and in all my previous nine books, I never have—what I’m interested in is the stories. I want to know the story that these major cards have woven through someone’s life. I want to be spun on the Wheel of Fortune with them, step over the Fool’s cliff hand in hand, face Death through their eyes, feel the embodiment of the Empress, or the warm rays of the Sun beside them. I want to hear the tales of their Fool’s Journey, not just how they were shaped by it but also how that journey shaped their understanding of the card. Perhaps that telling will help shape my understanding of the card as well. Perhaps it will shape yours, or you’ll read just for the joy of reading and discovering someone’s inner life, their challenges and revelations. You’ll read about the writer’s life through the lens of a tarot card: framed by one of the secrets of this journey of secrets. And it may reveal more of the mystical, magical, personal, soul-shaping story of our lives that we’re all telling. This book invites you into the depth of tarot. It recognizes how the tarot themes, archetypes, and magic play through our lives once we pick up a deck of cards, and turn over a card or sit down before a reader and ask for our story to be revealed. As Ivo says, in his masterful essay on the Hierophant, “Each of the major arcana is a temple, another dimension, a country to be explored, a crucible for change, and more.” And as Chelsey recognizes, in her agonizing suspension with the Hanged One, “as if each time a tarot card is 4
Introduction turned over, it’s not a brand new country to itself, mapped, for the very first time, in every single instance.” So here we are. The tarot seekers and readers, the tarot-curious, the tarotaccomplished, the tarot-practitioners, and the tarot-shy. When the Fool takes that fated and inevitable step off the cliff, they eventually fall into the Magician, and the journey is on. The High Priestess, the Empress, the Emperor— and on and on, all the way through to the World, sometimes reworked as the Universe, where it both ends and begins again. Why do we undertake this journey? Why do we accept challenge after challenge, why do we seek to understand, why are we fascinated by the tarot, why do we consider these major cards hold both life lessons and profound spiritual and magical understandings? That these cards can, even, be the key to change, growth, healing, and our heart’s desires? Some words and themes are repeated through these essays. Sovereignty. Wayfinding. The impact each of us can have on the world—or the impact we are called to make. The major cards take us into these places. Who am I? How can I take charge of my own life? Live up to my values? When I am a tarot reader, a teacher, a mentor, a writer, how can I support and guide others to do these things? What do I have to offer the world? How can I bring my truth into my most intimate relationships, into my art, activism, work? How can I support my beloveds, family, community, and friends? How can I bring this vision through—of political change, a relationship, a personal path of integrity, a body of work? Twenty-two times the major cards of the tarot show us how. They are sovereign: each unto themselves and also in relation to the other twenty-one. They find and show the way—the way of the Sun, the Hermit, the Devil, Justice, Temperance. They each reveal not just a dilemma, challenge, or problem but also the solution. Glory in the day. Tread the dark paths. Face your truth. Stand up for what is right. Seek balance. And once we have fully received—marinated in—been transformed by—that particular card, we get to move on to the next. Perhaps the next card in our tarot reading, randomly or divinely placed next to that first one, the next in the sequence of twenty-two, or simply the next one we happen to draw when we return to the deck for further guidance, insight, support, continuing until we go round the whole circle or the next random card we meet is the same one we had in the first place. Then we deepen. 5
Introduction These essays show that deepening. There are also twenty-two tarot spreads, exercises, rituals, and even a spell included, one for each major card. Each is created by the writer of the essay for that card, and they are an invitation for you, the reader, to deepen your own practice, understanding, and journey with that card and its themes. Thus among a dozen or more tarot spreads we have the North Star Mandala Tarot Spread paired with the Star, and the Past Self, Present Self, Future Self Tarot Spread offered with Judgement. Beyond spreads there is the Pillars of the Temple Meditation with the High Priestess, a Meeting the Beast Within Ritual under the auspices of Strength, and the Fool’s Spell for New Adventures. My own essay and tarot spread are among this mix. It wasn’t my first choice, though perhaps it should have been: the Magician. “The morally ambivalent Magician,” as someone says in their essay, also variously mentioned as “the travelling vagrant,” and “powerful but isolated.” I hadn’t realized until creating this book what a low opinion is held of the Magician! To me, they’re the one making it all happen, the ultimate connection. There’s the Fool, sure, but they’re almost before the beginning, and all they’re really doing is tumbling off a cliff, perhaps optimistically. The Magician is the one with the cards on the table, the tools of the tarot with their cup, sword, wand, pentacle. They’re the one with their arms raised to the stars and plunged towards earth, the magic-maker and the actual tarot reader! Well in my mind, that’s what they are. I’ve made a habit of remaking my life—perhaps it’s a practice, an art, or a spell—and one of the lives I remade myself into along the way was that of tarot reader. In my early twenties I wanted a job where I could go anywhere, wear rings on every finger, and say anything I wanted. This was possibly partly in reaction to my previous jobs as a house cleaner, proofreader, and typesetter, statistics data entry person, high school teacher, and market researcher, all of which were highly limited in those categories. It was also definitely to support my calling as a writer, my curiosity about the world, my apparent need to travel, and later my need to fit paid work around caring for, and often travelling with, a small child I mainly home-schooled. The Magician has that contradiction of being card number one but not being the first card. We can’t even begin the work—the journey, the life, the path—without first tumbling into it or off it. But once we’ve done that—been
6
Introduction born, leapt, fallen, or sometimes been pushed—then we’re into it. We’re the one. The one reading our own cards, our own life, making our choices, dealing the deck, working the magic of the cups, swords, wands, pentacles. All other numbers are said to be built upon the concepts of the zero and the one. In tarot, this is the Fool and the Magician. We double the Magician and arrive at the High Priestess. We add the Magician’s one to her two and are at the Empress. And so on and so on, until at twenty-one we fold them up and tumble, two-one-zero, back to the Fool. What you are about to read is something very special, a series of twentytwo essays that invite you into the inner life of the writer. We learn so much about these writers; it’s tender, fierce, brave, and sometimes heartbreaking. But what is revealed through these stories is not just the human life through the themes of the tarot card they’re writing on but something deep and alive and magical about the card itself. Seeing the human dimension within these cards—of the Lovers, the Chariot, the Empress, or the Tower—we travel to the depths and heights of that card, its essence. Not pure in the isolation of philosophy, intellectual thought, or historical background but glittering and weeping and exalting through the human story. There’s a love story threaded through many of these essays—a love story between the writer and the card. Sometimes the card is literally discussed as if it were a beloved, in active relationship with the writer—Barbara’s developing relationship with the Star, Siddharth’s passionate entanglement with the Devil, Lucy’s life-long journey with the Moon. In other contributions the card is there like a wise and beloved elder offering guidance, such as in Jack’s relationship with Strength, or Jhenah’s with Temperance. And sometimes the card seems to be operating as a template for intense life experiences, as in KamalaDevi’s deepening story with the Lovers, and Chelsey’s wrestling with the Hanged One. The card can be a wake-up call, as in Lane’s Tower, Kristoffer’s Death, or even a wrestling match in Cassandra’s Chariot and Meg’s Judgement; sometimes it’s a lovely meditative thread, such as with Courtney’s World and Mary’s Hermit. This book is a temple. There are twenty-two doors, one for each major tarot card. Once you enter, you’ll find yourself in a story, the landscape of someone’s most personal experience of that card. Within each of these realms
7
Introduction you’ll also be invited into an activity to explore your own connection to the card and its themes. And by the time you leave, I believe you’ll be touched, informed, and inspired to continue your own Fool’s journey in life and with the tarot. JANE MEREDITH London, England July 2025
8
0 ~ THE FOOL
Here we are at the adventure of a lifetime—or just the adventure of this moment. It’s the journey of the tumbled and tumbling fool, where we make it up as we go along or not even that—the next step appears as we place our foot down. Perhaps onto solid ground, perhaps into a gap between the worlds as we jangle and sing and dance— and what other way is there to be on this journey that is life, that is living? There’s not much we can carry with us; just a knapsack of dreams and symbols, colored threads, a coin or two, and perhaps a snack. We’re optimists, we hope for the best, we revel in that freedom of having nothing, knowing nothing, at the beginning—the beginning, beginning, it’s always beginning—and it’s always now, and here, and always we’re the Fool. Here we go!
The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! Rachel Patterson “I’m going on an adventure!” declares Bilbo Baggins in the film adaptation of the wonderful book The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien—and these words encapsulate the energy of the Fool card perfectly.1 No planning, no idea of what lies ahead and no time to think about it; just pack the bare essentials and head on out into the unknown. The Fool has the honor of being the first card in the major arcana, and perhaps can be placed at the end as well. The Fool is numbered zero in the deck, so it represents beginnings and potential, but also endings. I see the major arcana as a record of the Fool’s journey through life from all different aspects. It isn’t just about what is experienced on the pathway physically but also mentally and spiritually. The Fool is all about new beginnings and there is a huge amount of potential, as well as exciting opportunities ahead. Many images of the Fool show a figure taking a step, often at the edge of a cliff. The Fool has no idea where they are going or indeed where they will end up, but there is excitement about taking that first step into the unknown. Perhaps this Fool has an air of naivety, definitely a carefree attitude, but that is all part of the adventure; you need to take risks. The phrase “look before you leap” comes to mind with the Fool because that is exactly what is not happening! The sun, the sky and a bright background (often yellow) bring a
1. The Hobbit is a film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. The quote is from the first film, An Unexpected Journey (2012).
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The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! positive, confident energy to the card. The Fool also carries the potential for personal growth; the possibility to expand and develop yourself and how you see and work with the world. All of these characteristics appear when we are young but continue to feature throughout our lives. The Fool energy really does move from beginning to end. An image that also appears in the Fool in a lot of decks is a small dog jumping up. I see this as a warning, caution about watching out for the cliff ahead. But do we really take notice of that little barking dog? Generally not. The Fool is a reflection of your inner self, that carefree youngster with no worries, doubts or fears. I like to think of him as my 1980s self, a teenager wearing loud colors, bright makeup, and of course fluorescent leg warmers. I had that self-assuredness that a teenager has, right in every way and knowing everything about the world there is to know. What this time gave me was a huge amount of wonderful adventures and the ability to just go for it, an energy that continues in my life. To be honest, I hadn’t realized just how much the Fool card has mirrored my life until now. I have embraced the Fool energy for years, probably since the very beginning. I like to take an idea and make it happen. This has been a reoccurring theme within my own life but also with other folk, sometimes even when they didn’t realize they needed or wanted it. But I can be a force of nature and have in the past been quite pressing with my ideas. Now I like to take a step back and think about things before I jump in. I haven’t always gotten things right, but I have learnt a lot from experience—and even more from mistakes. Where am I currently? These days I am very blessed to be a published author, but did I set out to do that, was it always my dream? No. I had no intention or inclination to write a book. My becoming an author was a total accident … or was it? Just a simple comment on social media set it all in motion, I stepped off the cliff and, thirteen years later, I have more than thirty books published. The challenge was offered and I accepted, without hesitation. A total Fool-energy decision even though I was terrified. It was new territory to me, an area I had never ventured into before but I did it and have never looked back. That leap of faith set me onto a completely new journey—one that I could not have begun to imagine how wonderful it could be. The Fool is with me every time I get an idea for a book proposal and when I submit that proposal. And 12
The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! then once again when I write the book because it is a new journey each time. The Fool reappears when the book is then published. No matter how many books I have out there, each one is a new adventure, and each time the Fool is with me, complete with a knapsack stuffed full with ideas and potential. This has been a reoccurring theme in my life. I have managed to fit in a lot of Fool-inspired adventures so far. Sometimes I think of it as chapters that I have been through. Each new Fool prompt enters me into a new chapter. I am a very organized person, I like structure to my life and like to plan things in advance. With all the crazy stuff I have going on, I need to be organized or I’d lose track of which plate I am spinning at which time. I have learnt the Universe often has other plans, the Fool options that get thrown into my pathway every so often. I think a big part of the Fool energy is trusting in the Universe. The Fool has aspects of all the major arcana cards, but some seem stronger than others. It includes a feel of the Tower bringing forced changes and Death presenting the ends of a cycle and the beginning of another. The Magician also features with the knowledge that you have all the tools to get the job done. The key is to trust your intuition and know that when it feels right, take that step and follow where the Fool is leading you, even if that is not clear at the time. When my first book came out, I was contacted by a large Pagan event organizer and asked if I would like to give a talk at their upcoming conference. I thought the phone call was a wind up at first; I didn’t believe anyone would want to hear me waffle on about anything. The Fool was at work again and I accepted. I rocked up to the event with a small box of chocolates, imagining I would be in a tiny room talking to maybe thirty people. As I entered the allocated space, I was confronted with row upon row of folk, at least 250 people waiting. My initial reaction was that I had come to the wrong room! Needless to say my box of chocolates didn’t even stretch past the first row. It was a truly scary experience, but—and here is the important part—the Fool energy pushed me into doing it. The Fool energy got me through the door (despite the brief moment when I considered turning around and running as far away as I could), and the Fool energy prompted me to talk. And I have been giving talks ever since and love it. What about my spiritual journey? Oh, the Fool is very much involved in that. Fate did play a part, but perhaps there are even aspects of fate in the 13
The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! Fool as well. I was born on Halloween, which nudged me in a mystical direction and I was fascinated with all things magical as a child. With a voracious appetite for reading I jumped into fantasy stories from a young age with Alice and The Hobbit being particular favorites. Which has led me to believe the Fool can be found at the beginning of new books, too. I have always had a thirst for knowledge and love to learn. That is a part of the Fool, the openness to new things and willingness to learn about them. I was that annoying child at school who volunteered for everything and this has continued into my adult life, although I do tend to be a bit more reserved these days—because I am so busy I have realized I cannot do everything. I see volunteering as part of the Fool and some of those offers of “I can do that” have led me onto really interesting escapades. There was an expected life path set out for me following school. I had been accepted into college, with plans to follow that with university. Enter the Fool energy to totally rearrange those ideas. In the summer holidays before starting college, on my way to a shorthand class, I walked past a job advert in a window for an office junior. The Fool pushed me through the door— or should that be off the cliff? I went for the interview and was offered the job. Entire future plans for college and university discarded in one fell swoop. That started my career in the secretarial field, one that led me to eventually become Personal Assistant to the CEO of an international company. The Fool energy nailed it on that occasion and set me on a journey and a career path that I have loved. The Fool played a part in my personal life too—this card does like to interfere in all areas and has no boundaries. At the age of eighteen I left home, following romance to live in a cottage on a farm with a pig farmer. I went, with no hesitation, off the cliff again. For the next couple of years I ran my own home and alongside that I became part of the farming community and had a blast. The Fool energy of volunteering for everything played a big part in this era of my life and for a number of years after, when I held key roles in the Young Farmers movement. It took me on a six year journey of wonderful, eye opening, life changing chaos. Some of my best memories were made during those farm years, all set in motion by the Fool. The Fool can push you into the most amazing pathways. Generally, these Fool decisions and pivotal life moments work, and there are some decisions 14
The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! you take on his advice that can be heart breaking and emotionally difficult to deal with. These might not seem like the right choices at the time. Looking back now I can see the Fool has never let me down as each time those challenges sent me in the right direction or taught me a life lesson. Dealing with those choices at the time, though, can seem harsh. Big life change for me was leaving the farm and the farmer, and moving back to the family home at the age of twenty-ish. It was difficult but necessary. Then another nudge from the Fool onto the next chapter and my first marriage. One that should not have happened; an example of following the Fool energy where it led me. Was it the right course to take? Yes and no. No, because four years later I was divorced. Yes, because if I had not taken that leap, I would not be where I am now—and I would not want to be anywhere else. A case of stepping off the cliff but also having the small dog warning me at my heels. All mixed up in that situation, and after being made redundant—more Fool energy?—on starting a new job I met my second husband. This seems like fate again but there was a huge punch of Fool energy there. Taking a leap of faith from a marriage that wasn’t working into another relationship in a whole different world: to walk away from a marriage, a home and respectable (for want of a better word) life literally overnight to follow my heart and move in with a drummer in a rock band. Totally and utterly scary at the time, an enormous leap spurred on by the Fool. Thirty-four years and two children later we are still happily married. The Fool got it right. I am a very different person now than I was in my youth. The years have mellowed my knee jerk reaction to things. But the Fool plays a part on a regular basis. I still love to take new journeys and dive headlong into different pathways, although I do tend to stop and think a little first. The Fool energy is tempered somewhat, I like to think it is with wisdom, the experience you gain from having had so many adventures thus far. Although my husband will probably tell you I am still impulsive! I have a habit of completely re-arranging the furniture on an impulse or making big decisions about decoration or household issues on the spur of the moment. More recently the Fool worked that magic again and I found myself being offered a new job as Publicist for a Pagan publishing house. I cannot tell you how excited I was, I had no idea the job was even on the cards until I 15
The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! received a phone call with the offer out of the blue. The Fool didn’t even allow me to pause, my answer was an immediate “yes”: no thought, no discussion, no idea how I was even going to fit the hours into my schedule. But it was exciting, a new adventure, a different pathway to take. I have found myself rushing into ideas with this new journey and having to remember to rein it in on occasion. The Fool has appeared, renewed and re-energized but the energy does need a bit of taming every so often. Does the Fool play a hand in modern life? This card is firmly behind a lot of folk on social media for sure. Is there such a thing as too much Fool energy? Perhaps this is what makes folk instantly react to the post that catches your attention, so you find yourself tapping out a response quickly and passionately and hitting send with the full force of the Fool behind you. I have discovered there are a lot of folk with strong ideas and opinions that do not have any capacity to listen or even consider there might be other options, operating on transmit and never on receive. The Fool energy is the part that pushes you to hit “reply” straight away without thinking. These days I find I have the power to ignore the Fool on most of those occasions and keep scrolling, which is better for my mental health and well-being. The Fool has played a major role in my life and is a reflection of my personality. I love a challenge and have taken on whatever is thrown at me many times over the years. The Fool energy was also present when Jane asked me to be a part of this project, with me volunteering to take on any card assigned to me. Those experiences have taught me so much. Originally, I saw the Fool as a young person with all that pent-up energy and a childlike view of the world, but the Fool is so much more. Those qualities are there but exist for everyone no matter what age we are. We still all need that naivety sometimes, and we need the opportunity of adventure always. I like to think I have kept that positive, inner child energy. I express that in how I like to support others and help them on their journeys. Whether that is in the form of teaching witchcraft, tarot readings, workshops, talks or just being a friend or High Priestess, and now a Publicist too. The world can be a very scary place, perhaps not so scary for the Fool, but we are all in this together. We might all be in our own individual boats, but we are all on the same ocean, so why not do whatever you can to be a decent person who helps others?
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The Fool: I’m Going on an Adventure! I did not ever think I would be where I am now. Life has been full of changes, some welcome, others exciting, most scary, and a few I did not understand at the time. I have stepped off the cliff, unpacked the knapsack, felt the warmth of the sun, and generally ignored the yapping dog. All of that now makes sense: All of those choices led me to the point I am currently at. For the push in all of those directions, I am eternally grateful to the Fool. I look forward to whatever adventure the Fool leads me on next!
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A Spell for New Adventures You will need: The Fool tarot card, a yellow candle in a safe holder plus matches, and paper and a pen 1. Set the Fool tarot card in front of you where you can clearly see it. 2. Put the candle in the holder beside the card and light the wick. 3. Take a few deep breaths in and out and focus on the imagery of the card. 4. Say out loud, “Fool energy help guide me, new adventures and places to be.” 5. Take the piece of paper and pen and just write down the first words that pop into your head—do not overthink it. Write randomly over the piece of paper not in any order or specific place. 6. When you feel you are done, snuff the candle out. 7. Look at the words you have written to give you guidance and inspiration for new adventures.
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“A spectacular gathering of tarot talents.” —Deborah Blake, author of Everyday Witch Tarot
THE MAJOR ARCANA COMES TO LIFE Stories from 22 Tarot Experts The cards are a living, breathing system that connects us to our life’s journey and our own truth. Tarot requires more than study—it demands personal investment. Here we enter the realms of each major arcana card, including the Star, the Lovers, the Tower, the Magician, and Strength, and discover the deep and alive magic within each one. In this landmark anthology curated by bestselling author and longtime tarot teacher Jane Meredith, twenty-two writers recount a time when their life seemed to merge with the tarot. Each contributor shares a profoundly personal story centered on one major arcana card. These stories, along with spreads, rituals, and other exercises, will inspire you to renew your connection to tarot with fresh eyes and an open heart.
CONTRIBUTORS: • Jane Meredith • Courtney Alexander • Mat Auryn • Lucy Cavendish • Jack Chanek • T. Susan Chang • Ivo Dominguez Jr. • Lilith Dorsey • Amanda Yates Garcia • Mary K. Greer • Kristoffer Hughes • KamalaDevi McClure • Chelsey Pippin Mizzi • Barbara Moore • Fio Gede Parma • Rachel Patterson • Siddharth Ramakrishnan • Lane Smith • Cassandra Snow • Jhenah Telyndru • Cat Treadwell • Meg Jones Wall “A beautiful, fulfilling read that celebrates the intuitive, creative soul at the heart of tarot.” —Fiona Horne, author of Lost Book of Spells
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MEREDITH
© Luke Brohman
Jane Meredith is an Australian writer and ritualist. She is the author and coauthor of many books, including Magic of the Pearl Pentacle, Elements of Magic, and Journey to the Dark Goddess. Jane is passionate about myths and magic, cocreated ritual, trees, rivers, and dark chocolate. She teaches internationally and is a teacher within the Reclaiming Tradition. Learn more at JaneMeredith.com.
MA JOR ARCANA ANTHOLOGY
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Body, Mind & Spirit / Tarot