Philosophical Tarot

2.) Advanced
Tarot as Question-Centred Tool Activity Sheet
This lesson plan focuses on tarot as a question-centred tool in college contexts, for teaching and research. You will need a bold heart and either open-minded or brilliant students.

At some point I'll add:

Tarot as beginning/end of semester reflection activity for the philosophy classroom
Tarot as quick icebreaker at philosophy workshops
Topic-specific philosophical tarot activities for epistemology, ethics, etc. This is the final product and goal of the 'tarot as pedagogy / philosophy research tool project'.

Teaching with the Newcomb Archive's Tarot collection

Essays

Click on the titles for synopsis, key words, the essay, and its cheat sheet

Purism and Pluralism: The Brilliance of Tarot and the Breadth of Epistemology

Gardiner, Georgi (2025) ‘Purism and Pluralism: The Brilliance of Tarot and the Breadth of Epistemology’ Evidentialism at 40: New Arguments, New Angles, eds. Kevin McCain, Scott Stapleford, and Matthias Steup. Routledge.

Essay draft and cheatsheet are here. (This is a temporary link until I set up GoogleDrive on my new laptop.)
Synopsis: Tarot is a valuable tool for inquiry, especially for self-knowledge. It is also a valuable case study for epistemological research
Topics: Tarot, epistemic value, inquiry, questions, introspection, self-conceptions, contemplation, salience, creative attention, interpretation, conceptual tourism, epistemic playfulness, co-created ideas, epistemic collaboration, epistemic emotions, breadth of epistemic normativity, purism, prophecy, epistemology of art & pictures, epistemic value pluralism, countercultural epistemology

Tarot: A Table-Top Art Gallery of the Soul

Gardiner, Georgi (2024) ‘Tarot: A Table-Top Art Gallery of the Soul’ The American Society for Aesthetics (ASA) Newsletter 44(2): 2-6.

Synopsis: On a naturalistic conception of tarot, paying creative attention to the cards—not which specific cards are pulled—underwrites tarot’s value. I motivate an iconoclastic, non-doctrinal approach to tarot that does not rely on textual resources or expert authorities.

Topics: Tarot, creative attention, introspection, zetetic value, inquiry, conceptual innovation, epistemic emotion, the epistemic skill of interpreting images, the aesthetic value of being stumped

Grant Application Materials (coming soon)

The bibliography lists other scholarly tarot essays.

Events

Mapping the Goods: The Structure of Tarot and the Goods of Human Life.

We will use the structure and imagery of tarot cards to illuminate the various values available to agents.
This is a philosophy research event. No background experience with tarot is expected or required.

Lunch is generously provided by Tulane’s Centre for Ethics.
Co-facilitated by Georgi Gardiner & Luca Ferrero.
RSVP Required. Sign up here.
Folks who work in philosophy or at Tulane are welcome. Others should check with me first.

Tulane Tarot

My students made a tarot deck based on their experiences at Tulane.

This is the website.

See the page on teaching philosophy through game design / teaching philosophy through art, play and adventure for more student projects. (Coming soon.)

Bad Tarot?

I argue that tarot readings can be done poorly or well.
This document contrasts a tarot reading by Biddy Tarot and an analysis of the same card by The Tarot Diagnosis podcast. I draw on the latter to argue that the first reading is not good.
I contrast them to demonstrate how tarot can be understood as a skilled, nuanced cognitive activity.
The ways that readings can be epistemologically criticised reveal ways that tarot is zetetic. That is, the fact that Biddy Tarot overlooks evidence shows that that there is evidence.

External Resources

Tarot Podcasts for Philosophers

During my research, I listened to tarot podcasts. When I thought they might be of particular interest to philosophers, I added them to this playlist.

You might consider assigning them for class. The "Alchemy of Language", for example, discusses nuances of language choice without focusing on the typical themes of, for example, ableist language.

This playlist can expand. Please email further suggestions to georgicloud9@gmail.com

Scholarly Tarot Decks

I do not know enough to recommend any particular decks. But these might be of special interest to academics.

Rider Tarot Deck. This is the most influential, well-known deck. It is the one my articles focus on.

The Philosopher's Tarot Deck. If you want to see them, many of them are here. But please also purchase the deck or ask your library / department to buy it. Tarot designers are independent artists.

Academic Tarot

Literary Tarot

See also the Tulane Tarot, above, which focuses on the US college experience.

Tarot Spreads and Meanings

A one-page handout with orthodox correspondences.
This webpage from Incandescent Tarot is a well-presented, easy-to-use guide to tarot spreads and meanings. They also have a podcast, recommended by philosophers.
This webpage from This Might Hurt Tarot is similarly helpful. The quick list of correspondences for the number cards is very helpful.
To prepare for tarot day, I ask students to either watch this 30 min explanation of the card meanings from Biddy Tarot or spend 30-60 minutes doing independent research on tarot meanings.
I think something like this could be adapted for campus or classroom programming. It's a spread based on college life. I wouldn't use it, except as inspiration for creating my own.

Articles by Others

I focus on tarot as an epistemic tool. Here are some other scholarly perspectives:
Krystal Cleary (forthcoming) “‘Some Decks May Be Stacked Against Us, but This Deck is Ours’: Justice-Centered Tarot in and Against the New Age.”
For roles in art education: "Tarot as Technology" and other articles by Hong-An Wu (University of Texas at Dallas).
For roles in building stories in literature, see this article and the Tarot Diagnosis interview of Mandy Hughes.
This article describes researchers making a tarot deck about transgressive researcher archetypes. The two black and white images on this page are from this article.
See also the grant application bibliography, below.

Media Coverage of the Project

Newcomb Institute

Grant Application Materials

Here is an example. It lists the team members.
I can provide more recent examples. The project has developed since then.

Benefactors

The tarot project is grateful to the following organisation for their support.

Tulane's Center for Ethics
Tulane's Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning (CELT)
The Newcomb Institute
The Howard-Tilton Library

Image Credits

"The Indigenous scholar" and "The Slow and Care-full scholar" were created by the process described in "From academic to political rigour: Insights from the ‘Tarot’ of transgressive research" by Leah Tempera, Dylan McGarry, and Lena Weber, linked above. Spinoza as the Hermit is from The Philosopher's Tarot, linked above. Images of my students with tarot decks are from the Newcomb Archive. Those images were taken by Bernadette Birzer (Tulane) and are the property of Birzer or the Newcomb Institute. The Rider Deck is in the public domain. I made all the images that use that deck.