Mystics & Makers – An Exploration of Tarot Art

Leonora Carrington (1955)

Welcome to "Mystics & Makers," an online exhibition that explores the mystical, symbolic, and artistic realms of tarot. This showcase brings together visionary artists who reinterpret traditional tarot through the lens of their unique artistic practices, connecting the past and present in esoteric wisdom and symbolism.

Tarot decks have been around since the 1400s in various formats. Scholars believe that they began as a party game and evolved into tools of divination and therapy protocols. As we enter election week, many turn to the cards for inspiration and comfort during unsure and chaotic times. This exhibit will focus on the extraordinary art that appears on tarot decks from the 1400s to modern and contemporary decks. Perhaps it is appropriate to highlight various versions of the Tower card as we enter a tumultuous political month. The Tower card is the 16th card in the Major Arcana. It symbolizes change, upheaval, danger, and crisis but is countered with the need for change and replacing ways that are no longer useful. New clarity can emerge from the rubble. “We are not going back.”

Bonifacio Benbo Visconti (1441)

Salvador Dali, Lyle Stuart publisher (1978)

Niki de Saint Phalle (2002)

Marseilles Deck, Joseph Feautrier (1762)

Abbreviated Tarot Timeline and Details
(Source: tarot-heritage.com)

1450
The Visconti-Sforza tarot deck was created. This deck is considered one of the most beautiful and inspirational tarot decks and is the basis for many modern decks.

1709
The first modern Tarot de Marseille (TdM) that we know of was printed by Pierre Madenie of Dijon in 1709.

1783
French cartomancer Jean-Baptiste Alliette was the first to assign divinatory meanings to the tarot cards.

1909
British Rider Waite created the Rider Waite Tarot in collaboration with Pamela Colman Smith and wrote the accompanying book, The Pictorial Key to Tarot (PKT).

1942
Aleister Crowley, a member of the Golden Dawn, and Lady Freida Harris collaborated on the Thoth deck.

1959
The Rider Waite deck was republished in 1959 in America with a reader-friendly book and instructions by Eden Gray, serving as an Anglo-American Tarot.

1970s
Mary Greer’s workbook Tarot for Yourself launched tarot into the post-modern world. Since that time, more than a thousand decks with many diverse themes have been created.

Additional Notes
The cards were initially hand-painted and were very rare. Wealthy families commissioned the cards as a symbol of their status. Different regions often modified the cards as they spread across Europe.

Resources

Workshop of Bonifacio Bembo (Italian, Cremonese, active ca. 1442–died before 1482). Queen of Swords, from The Visconti-Sforza Tarot, ca. 1450. Made in Milan, Italy. Paper (pasteboard) with opaque paint on tooled gold ground; 6 3/4 x 7 3/8 in. (17.3 x 8.7 cm). The Morgan Library & Museum, New York (MS M.630.23)

Hilma's Ghost

Artists: Dannielle Tegeder & Sharmistha Ray

ABSTRACT FUTURES TAROT by Hilma’s Ghost is a collaborative project between Dannielle Tegeder and Sharmistha Ray. Together, the artists created 78 original drawings for an original Tarot deck and 5 paintings that are based on Tarot readings from the deck. The duo’s abstract Tarot deck responds to the original Rider-Waite deck, which is the most popular deck in distribution in the world today. Illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, the Rider-Waite deck harbors the occult belief systems that prevailed in both America and Europe throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is commonly held to be the first deck used solely for the purposes of divination. More than a century later, Brooklyn-based artists, Tegeder and Ray, have taken an abstract lens to the cards’ rich symbolism to interpret their signs and symbols to generate divinatory meanings that can be unlocked through an interpretation of abstract forms, while honoring an overlooked woman artist’s achievements.

Both Tegeder and Ray are well versed in western and non-western abstraction, with Tegeder pulling from Bauhausian and Minimalist traditions, and Ray from spiritual and esoteric forms from South Asia, as well as the patterning and craft traditions of its textiles. Within the drawings, these dynamic systems of colors, shapes, and compositional elements entwine to express a culturally hybrid form of abstraction that is both daring and experimental. The artists worked together for more than 500 hours, blending their distinct styles, to construct the 5 paintings and 78 drawings for the Tarot deck. The original drawings are done on Fabriano Murillo paper with a combination of gouache, ink, and colored pencils and are directly proportional in size to the Tarot card dimensions. The paintings were created from Tarot readings from the deck. The duo used the readings as a compositional tool for the paintings, which are made from acrylic, flashe, spray paint, and ink on stretched canvas. After the paintings were complete, Sarah Potter, a professional witch and tarot reader, performed readings of the paintings which are now the titles of the works.

Link: Hilma’s Ghost Major Arcana
Featured Article: “Ahead of the Pack: Why Is Tarot Suddenly Such a Big Deal?”

Armory Show 2021

Adriene Jenik

Adriene Jenik (she/they) is an artist, educator, scholar-activist, and end-of-life doula who resides in the desert. In her work, she develops and shares creative processes that support personal introspection, social critique, and cultural transformation. Jenik’s current creative research projects include “data humanization” performances, immersive learning experiments, and public performances reading “climate futures” with her ECOtarot deck.

Jenik received her BA in English from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and her MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. At Arizona State University, she serves as Professor of Expanded Arts in the School of Art, is a Senior Global Futures Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Sustainability.

Project: ECOtarot
Background: Adriene Jenik is an artist, activist, and end-of-life doula with a practice that encourages introspection and social critique. Her ECOtarot deck, crafted from natural and recycled materials, provides climate readings inspired by scientific and philosophical perspectives. It connects tarot interpretation with climate knowledge, offering guidance on how to navigate ecological crises.
Link: Adriene Jenik's Website
Additional Project: Grief Deck
Artist Bio: Educator and professor at Arizona State University, Jenik combines art and activism, with a focus on sustainability and the climate crisis.

ECOtarot artists’ statement:

Since 2017, I have been performing in public spaces with my ECOtarot deck. The ECOtarot is a performance system where a custom tarot deck is used to offer “climate future readings” in public settings. The ECOtarot deck itself is an art object – made of handmade paper derived from agave plants and recycled cotton and linen and hand-painted with natural pigments. ECOtarot readings make space for the complex emotions surrounding climate disruption and focus participants on actions they can take and values they can foster, drawing from their specific talents and capacities. Interpretations of the cards are drawn from scientific knowledge and modeling (drawn from IPCC reports and vetted by climate scientists); philosophical texts that argue for new values necessary to support our continued life on this planet (cooperativeness, interdependence, resourcefulness, respect for nature); the presence of ecological heroines throughout the ages; and knowledge of the meanings of the tarot as passed down through languages and centuries. Since the project began, more than 1400 readings have been conducted in the US and internationally (in English and Spanish).

Pamela Colman Smith

"She’s the world’s most famous occult artist, but her name is almost unknown. Such is the enigma of Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951), an early 20th-century artist, writer, and mystic. Smith created dreamy, Symbolist-inspired watercolors that won her acclaim in her youth, including three successful exhibitions at Alfred Stieglitz’s famed New York gallery, 291, where she was the first non-photographic artist to have a show.

She was also an intimate friend of Dracula writer Bram Stoker, poet William Butler Yeats, and the actress and artistic muse Ellen Terry, for whom Smith designed illustrations and stage sets.

However, Smith’s most lasting artistic contribution was undoubtedly her designs for the Rider-Waite tarot deck. Made in collaboration with mystic and scholar A.E. Waite, Smith created the Art-Nouveau-inspired imagery of mythical archetypes set against luminous monochromatic backgrounds. Released in 1909, the deck is now regarded as the standard set, with more than 100 million copies in circulation. Smith’s imagery has become synonymous with tarot itself."

Project: Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
Biography: Often overshadowed by her male collaborators, Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951) is now recognized as a pioneering occult artist. Known for her Symbolist-inspired imagery, Smith created the Rider-Waite tarot deck in collaboration with A.E. Waite. This deck, now a tarot standard, has significantly influenced occult symbolism.
Featured Article: Pamela Colman Smith's Impact on Tarot

Above: the 'Sun' card from the first five editions of the Rider-Waite tarot serves as an aid to identifying the respective editions. Small tell-tale differences in the line drawings and colours, the lettering and the card thickness, allow these early editions to be classified. For example, in 'The Sun' card, an extra undulating line appears to the right of the Roman numeral at the top, but is missing in Pam-B. Differences in the facial expressions and eyes on the sun face are also discernible, as well as the shading lines in the banner, the printed calligraphy titles, the sunflowers, etc.

“Pam-A” is the second edition and was issued from April 1910 till about 1920 by William Rider & Son. The back of the cards have a brown crackled design. “Pam-A” has long been considered the oldest of the packs. There are two versions known: the difference between lies in the thickness and weight of the cards. The line art and colouring is the same, save for a few very small details one or two cards (in red). William Rider & Son probably switched to a slightly less thick cardstock in later years. It is also possible they started using a new red plate at this time. The early version has a thickness of approx 38-40mm and a weight of 268 gms. The later version has a thickness of 35mm and weighs 252 gms. “Pam-A” was sold in a maroon two-piece cardboard box, accompanied by the book “Key to the Tarot” by Arthur E. Waite. The date of the book is 1910, publisher William Rider & Son Ltd., London. There is no printer mentioned in the book. The cover of the book is blue. The title is a Ouroboros in gold embossed on the front and also in gold embossed on the spine. Alternatively it was also sold in a dark blue slipcase cardboard box and a Prussian blue cardboard slipcase box, both without the book. There is one pack known of the second version on the thinner cardstock that was sold in 1920 with a different looking book. This book was also blue, but no Ouroboros or gold. The title is embossed on the cover and spine. This book mentions the date of 1920 and the printer to be Butler & Tanner, Frome and London.

Leonora Carrington

"In 2021, Fulgur Press published The Tarot of Leonora Carrington, a book that presents facsimiles of the unique deck and serves as yet another portal into the artist’s enigmatic imagination.

Devotees of Carrington will hardly be surprised to learn of her tarot. Her oeuvre—composed of paintings, fiction, theatrical costumes, and more—paraded strange, indelible marvels and embodied her interests in mythology, alchemy, and the occult. These interests stemmed from a lifelong following of mystical traditions, which art historian Susan Aberth and curator Tere Arcq (who encountered the deck during research for a 2018 Carrington retrospective) diligently trace in an essay featured in the new book.

Hers was, as her son Gabriel Weisz Carrington puts it, “a permanent inquiring mind” shaped by a range of influences including Golden Dawn literature, Egyptian mythology, Surrealist rejection of logic, and indigenous witchcraft in Mexico, where she lived for most of her life. And, of course, she was a devout student of tarot. She not only read spreads but also incorporated icons such as The Magician, The Hanged Man, and The Chariot into her paradoxical visuals that refused intellectualization.

For Carrington, tarot symbolism was “deep and interchangeable,” Aberth and Arcq write. It “permeated most of her work and just kept recombining in new ways to suit her esoteric thinking and development.”

Carrington’s major arcana draw inspiration from designs in Papus’ The Tarot of the Bohemians, the Tarot de Marseille, and the Rider-Waite tarot deck (reprinted for the masses in 1959, four years after Carrington’s project). But the pictorial language remains hers alone, presenting unconventional colors and details. Aberth and Arcq, for instance, note that figures such as The Hanged Man and The Devil are androgynous, perhaps to upset a male dominance or represent a surrogate for the artist.

Red, they add, which anchors cards like The High Priestess and The Emperor, “appears to be linked to feminine magic in Carrington’s cosmology.” The cryptic figures could easily be characters in her sensuous, meandering fiction, where fantasies and anxieties mingle.

For Carrington, tarot was more than a divination tool; it was a stimulus to the unconscious mind, “a guide for the exploration of the psyche,” as Aberth and Arcq write. She was a tireless conjurer of subliminal domains. In envisioning tarot, she only continued to transcend the bounds of sense."

Project: The Tarot of Leonora Carrington
Description: This unique tarot deck offers a surrealist’s perspective on tarot symbolism, grounded in Carrington’s interests in mythology, alchemy, and the occult. Her Major Arcana incorporate diverse influences, from Egyptian mythology to the Rider-Waite deck, creating a deeply introspective and imaginative tarot experience.
Featured Article: Review of Carrington’s Lost Tarot

Niki de Saint Phalle

Project: Tarot Garden & Deck (Tarocchi Giardina)
While focusing intensely on the tarot sculptures, Niki had experiences shared by many tarot artists and authors – she felt the tarot archetypes working through her life in a very tangible manner. In an interview with Prince Michael of Greece she said, “not only am I making the tarot cards, I am also living them, playing with forces that must be respected…Ever since I started work here I’ve been living outside of time.”
In 1985, Niki created a limited-edition book, Tarot Cards in Sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle, illustrated with her tarot art, photos of the garden under construction, and her hand-lettered comments. In 2002, she issued a serigraphic major arcana deck in fifteen colors based on her drawings of the Tarot Garden sculptures. Niki de Saint Phalle’s art and life were an outpouring of joy, vitality, intense color, and fearless self-expression. Tarot was essential to her artistic vision."

Laura Zuspan

Laura Zuspan is an artist, dharma witch, and oracle.

"She is the creator of the Luminous Void Tarot deck, a divination tool for accessing the subconscious and igniting transformation. Featured in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica and selected for preservation at the MIT distinctive libraries. She is the illustrator of the Cantigee Oracle, published by North Atlantic Books.

For the last decade, she has worked with individuals using the Tarot in healing through the lens of art, embodied awareness, and symbolism. As a servant of the sacred arts, Laura acts as an intermediary between Spirit and the ordinary world. Her work teaches others to honor the invisible realm and to translate its wisdom and guidance so they can walk the path of their true self.

Laura’s practice is grounded in ancient Tarot, art, magic, clairvoyance, and the Buddha Dharma.

She is a student practicing in the Kwan Um School of Zen and Vipassana and teaches mindfulness (lineage MMTCP) and Buddhist psychology at the intersection of Tarot and art."

Project: The Luminous Void Tarot
Artist Bio: Known as a “dharma witch,” Zuspan brings together the sacred arts with mindfulness practices. The Luminous Void Tarot, selected for Taschen’s Library of Esoterica, invites viewers to access the subconscious, offering a reflective and transformative tarot experience. Her practice combines clairvoyance, Zen Buddhism, and traditional tarot symbolism.
Link: Luminous Void Tarot Website

Sarah Potter

Sarah Potter is a spiritual advisor, professional witch, tarot reader, psychic medium, and practitioner of color magic. She has a column in Cosmopolitan Magazine and has been featured in numerous other publications. She works with private individuals and corporate entities on problem-solving strategies. Potter is the author of the Cosmo Tarot: The Ultimate Deck and Guidebook. She also has a background in art history and curating exhibitions.