The Tarot of Leonora CarringtonThe Tarot of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington

One of the authors has a really opinionated interpretive framework, which sometimes gets a bit silly to my mind – but the sourcing here is fantastic. Pulling from classic and specifically Surrealist interpretations on the Tarot to contextualize the details of the symbolism. Showing paintings in addition to the cards. A wonderful read and I’ll be paging back through it just to spend more time with the art.

From here

The citations have made me want to go read

  • Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Way of the Tarot
  • Spike Bucklow’s The Alchemy of Paint
  • Something by Arthur Machen?
  • Book T
  • Carrington’s own The Stone Door
  • The White Goddess, maybe?? I have heard the anthropology’s all bunk, but maybe still
  • Edouard Schuré’s The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret Histories of Religions
  • Andre Breton’s Arcane 17
  • Dion Fortune’s The Mystical Qabalah
  • P. D. Ouspensky’s The Symbolism of the Tarot
  • Brian Cotnoir’s Alchemy: The Poetry of Matter
  • Oswald Wirth’s The Tarot of the Magicians

Some notes and quotes

The shade of red used in the High Priestess is vermillion, and this color is part of the trinity of alchemical color – it is made up of cinnabar which is a combination of Sulphur and Mercury.

The cabbage is the alchemical Rose for any being able to see or taste.

Marseille tarot has Justice as VIII and Strength as XI, as does Leonora; Waite swaps them.

The bones of the skeleton of the 13th arcanum are made of sugar.

[…] a woman stirring a cauldron, who was herself a Jungian concept of the shadow self, often allegorized by a solar eclipse.