Medieval Ladies Tarot Cards

For my unessay I took some of the women characters from the texts we read, and created tarot cards for them. While I am not really a believer in tarot, or truly know how to read cards, I have always been fascinated by the art styles and meanings given to each card. My original plan was to create tarot cards for main characters from the texts, including men. However, as I examined the different meanings of each card, facing upright and upside down, I realized that the opposing traits given to each individual character felt very similar to conversations we had in class regarding perceptions of female characters. Throughout each story, we examined women that could be powerful, but that power could be interrupted as power used for a validated reason, or for evil. A woman could be sexual, and that could either be her owning her sexuality and being empowered, or as being a token of women characters only being good for being naked and looking hot. I felt I could use these double sided perceptions, and assign each character a preexisting tarot card that matched both sides of their identity.

The tarot card desk that I used for art inspiration was the Rider-Waite tarot deck. This deck was published in 1909, and is considered to be widely popular and influential. The Rider-Waite deck removed some religious imagery to some cards, and added even more to others, which also felt appropriate given a lot of our discussions of religion throughout this unit (Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, Wikipedia). It seems that often when you google a card and open google images, it is one of the first, if not the first to show up. Tarot cards can be traced back to late fourteenth-century European/French creations, with Italians adding additional suites and designs to the original. Over the next centuries the cards went from being used for games, to gaining meanings and suggestions for use in divination (A Brief History of Tarot, Learn Religions).

The Maiden

For the maiden from Lanval, I made her the Magician. Not only does this title align with her seemingly supernatural nature, but the card upright means power, influence, willpower, skill, and ability, which I felt aligned with her influence over men, and power, relating to her wealth and ability to share wealth. On the flip side her card means greed, trickery, conniving, cunning, and lack of mental clarity. For me these matched with again, the hoards of wealth she seems to have access to, her perhaps casting a spell over Lanval to make him dependent upon her, and the lack of mental clarity in which men seem to fall into in her presence. I depicted her about as naked as she is described in the story, and was able to incorporate the table from the original card design as a nod to the meal she served Lanval upon their first meeting.

Guinevere

Guinevere from Lanval I depicted as the High Priestess. Facing upright, her card means desirability, unattainability, mystery, and sensuality. I took this idea and related it to the fact that Guinevere feels a desire for Lanval, and eventually finds him unattainable. We as readers do not know if her interest was romantic, sexual, or her attempting to exert power. On the flip side, her card means unwanted attention, uncontrolled outbursts, sexual tension, and lack of self belief. I connected this to the unwanted attention that she gives others, and her uncontrolled outburst as her harsh remarks to Lanval after being rejected and having him put on trial for them. And I linked “lack of self belief” to the insecurity she must have been feeling to let remarks of a woman more beautiful than her to be such a bother to her. The card design also worked well for Guinevere, since it depicts a woman sitting on a throne in a long dress. I altered the design of the dress and crown a bit, as well as the style of the woman’s hair to match popular depictions of Guinevere. 

Grendel’s Mother

Grendel’s mother from Beowulf is the Empress card. Upright, this card means pregnancy, fertility, motherhood, sensuality, and nature. For this I was easily able to relate the cards related to motherhood as the fact that her character is literally defined by being a mother. There is also the connection to nature, which is easy to relate to her life in the mere. The card’s design worked perfectly for depicting Grendel’s mother, as I was able to switch it from being a forest with a waterfall behind her, to making the trees more swamp-like, and turning her throne into a rock. The flipside of her card was a bit harder for me to connect, but the term “overbearing tendencies” I am semi-able to connect to her violent need for vengeance, and “disharmony” being related to her home and self being invaded by Beowulf.

The Wife

The last character I chose was the narrator from The Wife’s Lament. The card I gave her was the Hermit. Facing upright, her card means spiritual enlightenment and soul searching, and solitude. This is related to her being first alone in a tribe that is not her’s, and then living alone in a cave, as someone who embraces her power of solitude, instead of being ridiculed by others. Upside down, this card means loneliness, paranoia, and isolation. This can be related to the narrator instead being forced to live away from anyone, being an outcast, and craving human connection with others. I also decided to depict this character as pregnant, which was a reading that we discussed largely in class when examining the tale.

Conclusion

Overall, my response to this literature matters because it is important to examine how women’s actions and motives are analyzed. It is fascinating to examine this in medieval literature, where we cannot speak with full confidence on how these characters would have been perceived at the time. Often, however, we are able to make well educated guesses that many of these women would have been simpy sex-objects, or horrendous villains. Today we are able to look at these characters and dig past those initial reactions, to examine what else might be motivating these characters. This also matters beyond just the scope of medieval literature, as women’s motives and actions are constantly being questioned. It is important to recognize how damaging it is to label people as simply one thing, such as “evil” “good” “sexual” “jealous” or “isolated”. They are not just those things. Instead, we should be aware that everyone going through life has a response to things that are influenced by their past, and that every action can be perceived in a multitude of ways.

Sources Used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider–Waite_tarot_deck & https://www.learnreligions.com/a-brief-history-of-tarot-2562770