The Tarot Podcast with T. Susan Chang

Getting a tarot reading? How can you make sure you have the most meaningful experience possible?  How do you protect yourself against “querent remorse”?  In this week’s show, host T. Susan offers tips and caveats: how to prepare for a reading, what to expect during a reading, and what to do after a reading. (This one’s intended especially for those who are seeking out readings, but it’s also gener...

It’s Tarot On the Road! This week, the Tarot Podcast visits the Tarot Museum Belgium, where proprietor Guido Gillabel shows us what 40 years of pure tarot obsession can look like. If you find yourself somewhere between Brussels and Antwerp, be sure to get in touch with Guido for a tour. The audio and video versions of this episode are distinct.  In the audio version, you’ll hear my interview with...

In today’s show, the Tarot Podcast veers off the beaten path and turns to science! for an explanation of how prediction works. My guest is Siddharth Ramakrishnan, a neuroscientist who also practices tarot. He’s also a terrific explainer of brain biology for those of us without advanced degrees in the sciences. How has evolution shaped our perception of the future? What role does our brain play in...

For this week’s episode, we present something completely different for the Tarot Podcast! We recently traveled to Amsterdam and decided to do an episode on the tarot scene there. We interviewed three readers: Trippy, Melanie Webb, and Giulia Castagna. Trippy and Melanie are readers at the Embassy of the Free Mind, a Hermetic library in the heart of Amsterdam. Both Trippy and Melanie are Jungian-in...

In today’s episode, we take on a totally practical question for both new and experienced tarot readers: How do I take care of my tarot cards? The care and maintenance of a metaphysical object is just different from the way you deal with your ordinary household items. Whether or not you feel your cards are actually sentient (and some people do!) they deserve special consideration. And Tarot Podcast...

It’s the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Tarot Podcast! and have I got a show for you! Today we’re having a look at three Unexplained Card Phenomena that every tarot reader faces at some point or another.  They are: Jumpers: Cards that fall out when you’re shuffling. Stalkers: Cards you always get. Holdouts: Cards you never get. What do they MEAN?  What message is your jumper card trying to send you? ...

The tarot deck known as the Tabula Mundi is a modern tarot masterpiece, a memory palace, and a love song to esoteric tarot. Its creator, M. M. Meleen, is known for her work producing Thoth-inspired cards, as well as for co-hosting the Fortune’s Wheelhouse esoteric tarot podcast with me. In today’s show, we explore the interlocking astrological intricacies of the Tabula Mundi, and its origin story....

Tarot IRL is back! with the final installment of our numeric minors in the Wands suit. In this episode, we examine how the mighty—but exhausting!—10 of Wands shows up in the lives of ordinary folks. It could be called the Triumph of the Will, capable of channeling human ambition into extraordinary achievement and astounding brutality. The Lord of Oppression will demand everything you have, and mor...

In Episode 48, the tarot historian and independent scholar Sherryl Smith gave us an introduction to the classic European deck known as the Tarot de Marseille, or TdM. In this episode, our focus is how to read with these historic cards—which many modern tarot readers find intimidating. Sherryl demystifies the ins and outs of the TdM, explaining why some readers find the deck downright liberating. B...

The Rider Waite Smith and Thoth tarot decks may be the most recognized decks in the English-speaking world. But it is the Tarot de Marseille, known in tarot circles as the TdM, that has the furthest intercontinental reach and the longest history. Even today, it is the deck most widely used in European countries. This week, tarot historian and independent scholar Sherryl Smith takes us on a journey...

In this week’s Tarot Podcast episode, we welcome back goth tarot queen Laetitia Barbier to boldly engage! in a special kind of divination devised by Laetitia herself: ARTOMANCY!.  Together, Laeti and I do an on-the-spot artomancy reading on a listener-submitted question. If the technique intrigues you, you can book your own custom artomancy reading with Laetitia at her website! (Links below).   Fo...

In this week’s Try This at Home! segment, host T. Susan shares a powerful technique for reliably getting answers from your cards. Learn it in 5 seconds, apply it in 5 minutes, and enjoy the benefits for the rest of your life as a tarot reader! Give ‘priming the pump’ a try the next time you read for yourself or someone else—and let me know how it worked for you! Write to me on the Tarot Podcast Di...

Not everyone, believe it or not, falls in love with the cards at first sight! In fact, many of us experience a light shudder, even a hint of fear! upon our first encounter with tarot. What’s up with that? What’s the reasoning behind tarot-phobia? My wise and witty editor, Barbara Moore, shares her thoughts on the subject in this week’s episode. Barbara Moore (Saint Paul, MN) has been in love with...

Multimedia artist Kat Black joins me to share the backstory of a tarot community favorite, the Golden Tarot (first published in 2003). Long before today’s indie deck culture existed, fans launched the Golden Tarot into print, making its blend of International Gothic style and readable scenic minors an instant favorite for readers and collectors alike. As always, there’s a patron reading! using the...

Tarot IRL is back! in a slightly more streamlined format. (You can still read the full text of examples in the video version in YouTube, if you wish.) In this episode, we examine how the gritty, resolute 9 of Wands shows up in the lives of ordinary folks. If it could speak, this card would say, What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger! Our wounded warrior, the Lord of Strength, has seen his share. Y...

This week my psychic friend, the author Mat Auryn, returns to the show to talk about a perennially interesting topic for tarot readers, which is: the difference between intuition and projection. When you’re doing a reading for someone else, how do you know if what you’re interpreting is true, useful information, or just something from your own bag of tricks? You might want to revisit Episode 26, w...

The grand finale! of our series on decans + tarot, just in time for Spring Equinox on March 20th. Here are my answers to ALL your burning questions: What is a decan walk? Why do we do them? And – most important of all: How do I start my own? Includes loads of examples from current practitioners of the modern decan walk – including your host! Let me know how you’re walking this year! (Write me via...

It’s week 2 of our three-week series on decans!  Mary Greer and I are back to explore the ins and outs of decanic influence on four specific cards: the 4 of Cups, the 5 of Wands, the 6 of Swords, and the 9 of Pentacles. Join us as we unpack the Lords of Luxury, Strife, Science, and Gain—revealing their astrological, Kabbalistic, elemental, and numerological layers. This week, we also have a Patreo...

This episode is the first of a three-part series on decans, as we count down to the spring equinox.  The legendary Mary K. Greer is in the house! for an overview conversation on the astrological structure of decans, and how they matter for tarot.    In next week’s episode, Mary and I will look specifically at four cards and their relationship with the decans. The third episode in this series, righ...

The fabulous Theresa Reed is back on the show! to talk about how your cards can help you in a crisis. Tarot is a matchless resource for those moments of acute agony that arrive uninvited in our lives; even when you feel you’re at rock-bottom, the cards can help you feel seen and chart a course to a place of more ease and stability. If you’re in need of a crisis tarot reading from someone other tha...

Tarot cards are GIANT compared to regular playing cards.  How the heck do you shuffle them?! This week, the Tarot Podcast has a quick explainer episode for all your shuffling needs. If you enjoyed this show and would like loads more tips on how to read tarot, check out my book, The Living Tarot , available wherever books are sold.  Or, consider The Living Tarot online class ! (discount for class a...

The Tarot Podcast has TWO different interviews! with two different deck creators this week. Here in Episode 36, we chat with Robert Place, the creator of the best-selling Alchemical Tarot. Bob drew the Alchemical Tarot in the style of 17th century alchemical engravings, and it became an instant favorite in the tarot community on publication in 1995. Along with Bob’s books, this deck is a crash cou...

Like a spring-loaded arrow, the 8 of Wands speeds through the world’s networks and pathways to land at your doorstep! The fast-talking (and morally ambiguous) 8 of Wands is known also as the Lord of Swiftness; when you draw it, look out for the following themes: Mail/packages Travel (esp. by air)/ being ready to go SURPRISE! Storms/electricity Acceleration/going viral Bright ideas/news Mercurial p...

As tarot readers, we specialize in divination—but what about magic?  Magic and divination are two sides of the same coin—but in this week’s episode we bring them together. How we can use the symbolic language of tarot to create a magic spell? Spoiler alert: it’s easier than you think. My guest is Judika Illes, who has written so many books devoted to magic spells, spirits, and witchcraft. My favor...

The Motherpeace Tarot (familiarly known as “you know, the round deck” in the tarot community) is a foundational document of the modern tarot era. First self-published in 1981, the Motherpeace revolutionized the world of tarot decks. Its creators, Vicki Noble and Karen Vogel, set out to dismantle the patriarchal underpinnings of traditional tarot with cards that honored indigenous, pre-historic, an...