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srivalli's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
3.7 Stars
One Liner: That’s a lot to process!
Red Tarot is an advanced-level thesis that attempts to decolonize tarot symbolism and meanings. It caters to the BIPOC and the queer community to guide them to find themselves and their roots in their culture and divination. Being an #OwnVoices work, it has many personal insights and experiences shared by the author.
My Thoughts:
Firstly, this book is not a casual read. It is not for beginners. I put myself somewhere around the intermediary level, and this was still a bit hard to understand.
There’s an abundance of information, too much at times, which feels overwhelming to read at a stretch. I’ve been reading a few pages per day for more than two months, and still, I can’t say I got it all. Serious readers should buy a physical copy for easy reference.
Moreover, this is rooted in American history, which means I cannot always relate to it (though I’m a pagan by birth). If you belong to the same land, you are likely to find a deeper connection.
That said, some of the interpretations are beautiful. Though it draws from the RWS (Raider Waite Smith), I found myself visualizing the cards from the Light Seers Tarot Deck. There is certainly a connection between the two, which could help me as I learn more.
There isn’t a single illustration in the book. Having at least a rough sketch for each card would have helped a lot more.
The book doesn’t interpret the cards in the ‘standard’ order. It is grouped into Aces, twos, and on, with the major and minor arcana bundled under the subheads. This is an interesting approach as it also creates a link between different cards (the Magician and Wheel; Empress and Queens; Justice, Hanged One, and Judgment, etc.)
Many quotes are included in the book, with a clear bibliography at the end divided into neat sections. That’s helpful and efficient.
Sharing some of the many quotes I marked:
The Magician is the astrologer and the Wheel of Fortune is the astrology, both images of each other.
The High Priestess shows us how we shape ourselves.
If Justice reflects our blindness, then the Hanged One offers the sacrifice of self that restores sight.
While the Empress births us into body, Death brings us back to Spirit. Birth and death are but two sides of the same veil.
If you could look at the rings of a tree without cutting it down you would be looking at the World card.
They (The Fool) are a dangerously free character, just as they are honest about the danger they face, on the verge of tragedy and comedy at the same time.
To summarize, Red Tarot is what would best be termed as an in-depth academic read with a liberal dose of personal experience and history. It is not a book for a quick reference.
Thank you, NetGalley and North Atlantic Books, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #RedTarot
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Violence
laurareads87's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy by Christopher Marmolejo is a text that I am grateful for, and one that I am so happy to see out in the world. This is the kind of tarot book that I am so excited to find and that I’ll absolutely keep on my bookshelf. I was thrilled to receive an e-book ARC but bought the paperback copy on the strength of the introduction and first chapter alone and continued my reading from there.
The text is structured numerologically, with chapter zero as an introduction. From there, ‘One’ includes the Magician, the Wheel, and the pages and aces, ‘Two’ includes the High Priestess, Justice, The Hanged One, Judgment, and all the twos, and so on. The Fool appears in the ‘Ten’ chapter with the World.
Far from a standard card-by-card beginner tarot book laying out how to interpret each card in a spread, Red Tarot positions each card as a leaping off point and tarot itself as a text. The author’s reflections on each card are simultaneously personal and theoretical – the text’s analysis is rooted in lived experiential knowledge, intersectional and decolonial theoretical frameworks, and tarot imagery and symbolism. Here, tarot is a tool that readers can engage to “nourish emancipatory knowledge that undergirds all revolutionary praxis” [407-8] and daily draws have the capacity to “[transform] awareness” [411]. This book is unlike any other I’ve read, and I see myself revisiting it often; it has left me with much to ponder on everything from tarot’s epistemological implications to the tarot reading as a site of dialogue and new angles to consider on each and every card.
Of their wide-ranging bibliography, Marmolejo writes that their citation practice is “multifarious and polyvocal,” bringing Indigenous intellectualism and critical pedagogy into conversation with reference to each card [408]. Authors that appear cited in the text include bell hooks, Paolo Friere, José Esteban Muñoz, Toni Morrison, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldúa, and many more. I suspect some will critique this book as challenging to read or as ‘overly academic,’ but such criticisms miss the ways that language itself is central to the book’s very purpose and thesis on tarot as critical literacy. Marmolejo describes their book as offering “a visual framework for interpreting the tarot in a manner that perceives, disrupts, and rejects conditioned colonial consciousness” [2] – recognizing language as a site of contestation, the text invites thinking/reading/writing critically and necessitates thoughtful, deliberate, self-reflexive engagement.
Citation in the book is via endnotes; I would suggest putting a bookmark or post-it in the back of the book while reading so that turning back to learn the sources of quotations while reading is easier, particularly for readers unfamiliar with much of the source material.
Many thanks to Christopher Marmolejo, North Atlantic Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review.
dannielynnfountain's review against another edition
5.0
A richly researched and deeply rooted guide to interpreting tarot with decolonization in mind. Red Tarot brings BIPOC and queer folks to the center, adjusting language and providing revised guidance for how to support others. This is a must read for anyone passionate or curious about tarot. Thank you to NetGalley and North Atlantic for the free advance copy.
bookedbymadeline's review against another edition
Unfortunately this wasn’t for me. I became interested in Tarot only last year and had requested the book because of that. I thought this would be a nice reference guide to help me learn more about Tarot but learn it in the decolonized way right from the start of my Tarot journey.
The book is both academic and poetic at times. Many of the lessons felt lost in the prose while also making me feel a bit stupid with the big vocabulary being used 😅 I often got confused and felt the information go in one ear and out the other. I think this will be great for those with a lot of experience and knowledge in Tarot but not meant for beginners. Hopefully I can come back to this when I have more knowledge but for now it’s a DNF
The book is both academic and poetic at times. Many of the lessons felt lost in the prose while also making me feel a bit stupid with the big vocabulary being used 😅 I often got confused and felt the information go in one ear and out the other. I think this will be great for those with a lot of experience and knowledge in Tarot but not meant for beginners. Hopefully I can come back to this when I have more knowledge but for now it’s a DNF
barbarawoodland's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Chris Marmolejo’s Red Tarot sets out to examine the standard 78 card tarot deck through a decolonial and indigenous lens. Prior knowledge of tarot isn’t explicitly required for this book, but I think a basic knowledge of tarot before reading would help readers get the most out of these more complex interpretations of cards. The chapters are long but filled with the author’s insights. This book is certainly not intended to be read in a single sitting. I recommend reading a few sections of a chapter per sitting, and giving yourself time to take in and process the information. Red Tarot does a great job analyzing the cards that I’ve personally struggled to connect with based on the colonial capitalist lens typically attached to them. Some sections throughout the book could be edited down by a third or half as they repeat the same point reworded for a few pages. Some of the writing may be difficult to comprehend for someone unfamiliar with concepts like decolonization and intersectionality. If you don’t have much background knowledge on those topics, I would recommend a little research on the side as you read. Much of the book connects the cards to a relationship with God or experiencing God. It is noted about halfway through the book that God can refer to any Divine being the reader believes in or chooses, but I think it would benefit readers for this caveat to be moved to the introduction. If you are uncomfortable with reading a lot about God (and there is a lot) for whatever reason, I still recommend this book but maybe wait until you’re in a more comfortable mental space to handle it. Overall, I enjoyed Red Tarot, and I would recommend it to readers interested in advancing (or challenging) their established understanding of tarot.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced e-reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced e-reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
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