History and symbols
How did tarot reach pop culture and literature?
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Tarot entered pop culture over the twentieth century, moving from an esoteric object to an image in literature, film and design. Poets and novelists used the cards as a symbol, artists' decks multiplied, and in recent decades social media made tarot a subject of self-knowledge and aesthetics.
From esotericism to literature
In 1922, T. S. Eliot cited a deck of cards and the figure of Madame Sosostris in The Waste Land, a poem that became a landmark of modern literature. The cards there work as an image of divination and of a world in crisis, which helped bring tarot into the vocabulary of educated readers.
In 1969, Italo Calvino published a book in which voiceless characters tell their stories by laying tarot cards on a table. This literary use shows what attracts writers: each card is an open image that can be combined into different narratives.
Artists' decks and films
In the twentieth century, several artists created their own decks, starting from the occultist model. A well-known example is the Thoth, drawn by Frieda Harris from ideas by Aleister Crowley and published in 1969, after both had died. Since then, the variety of independent decks has only grown.
Film has also used tarot, generally as a visual device for mystery. A well-known case is the James Bond film Live and Let Die, from 1973, in which the cards appear in the plot. These uses helped fix certain images, such as Death and The Tower, in the popular imagination, not always faithfully to their symbolic meaning.
- Literature: poems and novels use the cards as imagery.
- Visual arts: original decks and reinterpretations.
- Film and series: tarot as a symbol of mystery.
- Social media: tarot reading as self-knowledge content.
Frequently asked questions
- Does tarot appear in the work of T. S. Eliot?
- Yes, in The Waste Land, from 1922, there is a passage with a fortune-teller and a deck of cards. Eliot uses the cards poetically, without closely following a tarot system.
- What is the Thoth tarot?
- It is a deck conceived by Aleister Crowley and illustrated by Frieda Harris, published in 1969. It follows its own esoteric symbolism and has a visual style very different from the Rider-Waite-Smith.
- Has popularity on social media changed how tarot is read?
- In part. There is more emphasis on self-knowledge and quick readings, which brings access and also the risk of oversimplification. Care with context remains important.
Educational content, for reflection. Tarot does not replace medical, legal or financial advice.