Modern Tarot: Connecting with the Cards by Michelle Tea—Book Review
Quote about the book: Infused with beloved iconoclastic author Michelle Tea's unique insight, inviting pop sensibility, and wicked humor, Modern Tarot is a fascinating journey through the cards that teaches how to use this tradition to connect with our higher selves. Whether you're a committed seeker or a digital-age skeptic-or perhaps a little of both-Tea's essential guide opens the power of tarot to you.
Who is this book for?
Tarot readers who are looking for ways to incorporate tarot energy into their spell work, people who also enjoy reading memoirs and literary nonfiction, and want to see that combined with an understanding of tarot. Those who are looking for tarot books with queer representation and an acknowledgment of the specific struggles of BIPOC individuals.
A bit about why I wanted to read this book ASAP!
Michelle Tea has been praised as a brilliant memoirist and a very skilled tarot reader for some time by a lot of authors I respect and love. When I first heard about this book, I knew I immediately needed to add it to my wishlist.
My sister-in-law gifted it to me this last Christmas and I only had a vague idea of what the book included. Everyone who had mentioned this book had discussed the ways in which it helped them move through a major change or how it helped them understand their experiences through a new lens. Once I received it, I opened it up and flipped through it. I knew right away it was much more than just a guide to reading the cards.
What I feel is important to know about this book:
This is one of the first tarot books that actively acknowledges queerness, the meaning of feminine and masculine energies in terms of existing within all people, and not being defined by our ideas of gender binaries or societally pushed gender roles. The illustrations feature a real representation of people, bodies, and witches that I feel lacks from so many books and decks.
How does this book work?
This book is organized by the tarot cards, starting with major arcana, then moving into minor arcana, and ending with the court cards of the minor arcana. Each section focuses on the card, giving a description that can be used for any deck. It does not mention reversals, really, but gives an understanding of the cards in a way that might help you create your own definition of the reversals. Michelle Tea pairs each description with illustrations from Amanda Verwey that are empowering, boldly queer, feminist, and unique.
Tea makes it a point to show that the tarot is a storytelling tool. You can use a single card to gather advice, but it is when the cards communicate and connect to your intuition, that you are most able to gather a clear image of the advice being offered.
As you move through the book, Michelle gives a description of her own general interpretation of the card’s meaning. With each card, she then incorporates a small tidbit of her own life to show what it could mean and how it can be manifested. Sometimes they're joyful memories, other times they might be sad but needed revelations.
The Tower Card description still sticks out to me. She describes how it came up often in readings with a person she was dating. Though both of them feared ending the relationship, they both knew it was over. Towards the end of the relationship, it popped up with even more frequency and helped both parties acknowledge and become aware of things that had already crumbled and helped them end the relationship sooner than later.
A great takeaway
This book, however, doesn’t strictly give interpretations. Aside from the memoir bits (which I loved reading), each tarot card offers, at the very least, one spell. Each of the spells involves minimal ingredients and are used to either draw in the energy of the card, banish the energy of the card, or understand the energy of the card. They're very chronically ill/disabled friendly which is what I love about them, and they can be used in combo with many other practices.
I used the 9 of Wands ritual earlier this summer. It involved collecting a set of nine branches and tying them with red thread while considering all it is I want to fight for and protect in my life (there was more to it but I'll leave that to you to read). While the spell seemed simple, as many spells do, this one also caused me to really think about all I wanted to hold tightly in my life. The spells in this book push you to truly consider why this card popped up, more than just the descriptions alone.
Finally,
This is literally the one book I recommend to anyone who is asking for book recommendations relating to tarot. If you don’t have this book, I highly believe it can help. I know that I've grown as a reader and now more fully understand how the cards can help us not just connect to our core selves, but to create change that we desperately want or need in our lives. Want to grab a copy? Shop through IndieBound!
