In a way, its accessibility, versatility, and open-source pattern make the Tarot de Marseille the deck of the people. The people’s deck.
The following is an extract from Charlie Claire Burgess‘s newest publication, the Gay Marseille Tarot and accompanying guidebook – out now!
Tarot is a tool for knowing oneself and directing one’s life outside of the prescribed paths of dominant social conventions and institutionalized norms.
Used by outcasts, occultists, and weirdos (a term I use as a compliment) for centuries, the tarot naturally attracts those who are othered and marginalized, offering an alternative pathway to spiritual knowledge—which is to say, knowledge of the spirit, which is knowledge of the self. Tarot’s liminality is built right into its use and design, making it a modality that inherently embraces and celebrates the strange, the different, the magical, and the queer in us all.
The Tarot de Marseille is a pattern of tarot iconography that developed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Where in prior centuries tarot cards had been the province of the rich, who could afford to pay for hand-painted tarot packs, Marseille decks were mass produced using woodblock printing. This made them more affordable and accessible to the common person for the first time ever. The game of tarot spread rapidly throughout Europe and beyond, with the Marseille style gaining new spins and variations in each place it ventured. In a way, its accessibility, versatility, and open-source pattern make the Tarot de Marseille the deck of the people. The people’s deck.
The Gay Marseille hopes to build on the spirit of the people’s deck by lovingly re-envisioning the Tarot de Marseille in queer, trans, poly, kinky, liberatory lights for the LGBTQIA2S+ community and others on today’s margins.
These cards unapologetically celebrate queer icons, queer culture, and stories from queer history, including cross-dressing folk hero Pope Joan as the Pope (Hierophant); gender transgressing saint Jehanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) calling their people to rise up in Judgment; and the patron saint of gay men, Saint Sebastian, erotically surrendering as The Hanged One. The green bloom on the Magician’s lapel nods to the green carnations worn by Oscar Wilde and his friends as a symbol of gay love, and the Popess’s book references the mystical language invented by potentially lesbian medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen. The Sun celebrates the role of bath houses in queer history as safe spaces for gay men to meet, be visible to one another, and find pleasure and connection in each other’s arms, and The Moon reveres the lunar orb as canonically sapphic.
The queer cultural references continue into the Minor Arcana’s numbered cards, called “pips”. Traditionally, pip cards show geometric arrangements of a certain number of suit symbols: three cups for the 3 of Cups, eight wands for the 8 of Wands, etc. The Gay Marseille integrates playful hints and queer flourishes to the imagery to make them easier to read, while still staying close to the classic designs. The 3 of Cups turns the red-lipped goblets into three mouths singing in harmony—or in ecstasy, as the case may be. The Ace of Coin’s leopard print and lipstick subtly invoke the card’s potential abundance. The 6 of Swords’ needle and vials celebrate hormone replacement therapy, lending new significance to the card’s meaning of transition.
Similarly, the court cards are modeled after the classic designs, but modernized with a cheeky, queer spirit suitable for our queer pack of cards. The traditional ranks of Page, Knight, Queen, and King are retained, but the gender expressions of the characters subvert and play with the gendered, hierarchical roles.
The Gay Marseille Tarot is playful and irreverent while also being seriously proud of queer people, queer history, and queer culture. The tarot has always been a queer-aligned tool for finding ourselves, shaping our lives, and making meaning outside of the sanctioned paths of dominant culture. With this deck, it’s written in the cards: the future is queer.
The Gay Marseille Tarot and Guidebook are now available from Little Red Tarot, or you can order direct from Charlie at their site, The Word Witch.