A Magician from a 19th century woodcut. See full poster here.

Here's a proposal: always leave one card in every Tarot spread face down. Why? Consider this definition of the future:

"It should remain part of the definition of the future that it is unknown; and therefore allowed to retain its proper mystery." —The Future is Tomorrow: 17 Prospective Studies, 1972

Substitute the word "divination" for "definition":

"It should remain part of the divination of the future that it is unknown; and therefore allowed to retain its proper mystery."

See our analysis of Tarot archetypes in the Star Wars series over at MysteryArts.com.

See our guest post at BonnieCehovet.com about Tarot archetypes in Tom Stoppard's absurdist film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

The sunlight was a forgery, or a precise Tarot reading.
—J. Karl Bogartte, Antibodies: A Surrealist Novella

Photo: The Capricious Sun King, by Gilderic

In honor of Bonnie Cehovet's article about working with Tarot shadows, here's an illustration from 1912 featuring a procession of Tarot shadows, including the Fool's dog!

A scene from the story, "Inchcape Rock" (Charles H. Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland, 1909)

A Screenplay Directed by the Tarot

Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s phantasmagorical film The Mansion of Madness (1972) is loosely based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” in which inmates take over a mental institution and change places with the doctors.

Within minutes of the film, it becomes obvious that Moctezuma used Tarot cards to develop his story, character by character and scene by scene. Every archetype of the Major Arcana appears in the film, as do several court cards. A Hermit character is dressed in a brown robe and holds a lantern. A self-proclaimed Emperor sits on a throne, in full regalia. An effigy of a Hanged Man is used to stop a horse-drawn Chariot. A High Priestess with a bejeweled third eye performs a ritual dance. A self-described Magician creates the illusion that a man has three shadows (two of which end up belonging to the goons who carry the man to his cell; this scene symbolically communicates the profound wisdom that one’s convictions make one a convict). A scythe-wielding Death figure threatens the Fool who stumbled into this truly insane asylum.

Moctezuma’s love of the Tarot was presumably fostered by his collaborations with fellow director and Tarot enthusiast Alejandro Jodorowsky (who worked with Phillipe Camoin to restore the Marseille deck). The film adaptation of Poe’s story is all the richer for being imbued with Tarot imagery.

See film stills of the full Major Arcana here, as well as a free online reading.

Special thanks to Tarot Elements for showcasing our Mansion of Madness Tarot.

A semicolon as an inverted Hanged Man.

A Strength card, in which Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first edition.