Charlie Claire Burgess, Radical Tarot: queer the cards, liberate your practice, and create the future. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2023. ISBN: 9781401971472.
With that out of the way, for everyone else, this is a book to check out as it provides new insights into reading Tarot cards. This book not only re-envisions Tarot from a queer perspective. It also deconstructs traditional meaning to present a more diverse and open vision of the cards.
The book is arranged as follows:
- Part 1: Toward a Radical Tarot. In these chapters the author presents their Radical Tarot Manifesto and defines their vision of a Tarot beyond hierarchies and genders.
- Part 2: Major Arcana. These are the card entries for the Major Arcana. Each entry here includes card name and a title, a short list of alternative names, short list of domains, and the interpretation essay. Each essay is about 4 to 5 pages in length and may include endnotes. A card image is also included.
- Part 3: The Minor Arcana. The pip cards, 1-10, are presented by suit. Each suit has an introductory paragraph for the suit. Each card gets a paragraph of interpretation. Interpretations here draw a bit more from traditional meanings. Unlike the Major Arcana, the Minor Arcana meanings here do not go too far from tradition, but they still offer food for thought.
- Part 4: The Court Cards. We get a longer introduction, almost two pages. Here the author offers their alternate titles to the traditional court card names. Cards are then presented by rank: the pages, the knights, so on. Each card rank includes card name and title, short list of attributes, and the interpretation essay. Each individual court card then gets name, title, and an interpretation paragraph.
- Part 5: Reading Tarot Radically. This provides some instruction and advice on how to read the cards in five steps.
- Conclusion. The author's closing remarks.
- The book also includes endnotes and a bibliography. As I often do, I will be looking over the bibliography to see if I have read any of the text and to add new to me works to my TBR (to be read) list.
Initially, I found the book a bit heavy on tone. These topics are not easy in the Hard Times, if ever, but the book is still worth reading. However, once you get going the book draws you in. The writing is easy to read; esoteric jargon is kept to a minimum. I know that for books of meanings, some readers may skim that content because it may be repetitive. Not this book. You should read all the card entries, especially the ones for the Major Arcana. You may then want to reread the book as needed and keep the book handy.
As we see in the book, especially the Major Arcana, this is definitely not the usual book of meanings you find so often out there. This is a full reconsideration of each arcana and an updating for the modern times we live in. We get a new vision for each card but also the traditional is not completely discarded. This is also part of why I read broadly.
I am not saying this is the only Tarot book you will ever need. I am saying it is essential, and it is one you should probably keep handy on your shelf. Personally, I believe in reading history and knowing where we came from in order to know where we are going. So I am keeping a basic "standard" Tarot book handy along with a copy of Radical Tarot and a few others. This is a book that provides much food for thought, and it will likely change the way you read cards in an open and positive way.
This is a book I highly recommend for libraries, especially if they already collect works in esoterica and other pagan interests. This is a book I would order for our library.
Overall, as I mentioned, I consider this book essential for any Tarot reader out there. If you want decolonize, make your Tarot and cartomancy journey more diverse, more equitable, and more inclusive, you need this book. I will be suggesting this book to readers asking about Tarot books to read. I have this as an e-book, but I would buy a print copy for my cartomancy and esoterica shelf.
5 out of 5 stars.
Additional reading notes:
Books I have read that may have similar appeal factors:
On developing a personal Tarot practice:
"Developing a personal tarot practice requires paying attention to our lives and listening to our inner voice, which naturally aligns us more and more with our truth and authenticity. On top of that, working with the cards develops our intuition muscle, making it easier to access the vast libraries of our internal knowledge, buried down deep within us where our conscious minds don't usually go" (16).
What the book offers:
"This book offers a way of conceiving of tarot-- and by extension, ourselves ad this radically connected human life-- as magical, practical, spiritual, and alive. Radical tarot is a way of working with the cards that is explicitly queer, curious, intersectional, expansive, inclusive, transformational, nonbinary, and creative. It's part learning the tarot, part queering the tarot, and part guide to revolutionizing your own life" (17).
In case you doubted this book is political:
"However, this book certainly is political in that it is unabashedly queer, intersectionally feminist, anti-racist, anticapitalist, environmentalist, and invested in creating better, more equitable, more sustainable, more liberated futures for us all" (20).
Books from the bibliography that I have read; links to reviews if available:
- The Marseille Tarot Revealed.
- Parable of the Sower.
- The Power of Myth.
- Tarot for Change.
This book qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge: