The way I see the world, many of the things which are culturally associated with women or men are simply human traits, with little to no relation to gender or sexuality. I have lived with cis heteronormative symbology my entire life, and can easily navigate it intellectually and socially, but that understanding goes right out the window when I am in a magical context because those meanings are so incongruent to my personal understanding of how the world works. For me gendering confuses the messages of the cards, by symbolically emphasizing culturally derived gender standards to convey meanings. I am an asexual trans intergender person, and both cis symbology and heteronormative symbology just do not stick with me when I am in a metaphysical context. Queering the Tarot bullseye addresses one of the main hang-ups I have with the vast majority of tarot decks – cis heteronormative symbology. I do use all of them, and each has their own personality, strengths, and weaknesses, but so far I have not been able to put down the booklets. Each is dramatically different in theme, art style, and symbology, in the hopes that maybe that deck would speak to me more intuitively. It disappeared during a move years ago, but I have collected a few different decks in the time since it went on walkabout. I honestly have no idea where that first deck went to. But, each reading takes me extra time as I clarify meanings and then contemplate what the cards are trying to tell me, even if I ultimately decide the message is different from the rote meaning given in a book or on a webpage. I get a lot of meaning out of the cards nonetheless, and have used them extensively in spellwork. I have used the tarot ever since, but no matter how much I love the tarot or how hard I have tried to memorize the cards or learn to intuit them, I have remained chained to booklets and references for most of my readings.ĭo not get me wrong. The same dear friend who introduced me to living witchcraft encouraged me to buy my first deck more than twenty years ago (a Rider Waite Smith Deck, at the time called the Rider Waite Deck, omitting credit to the wonderful artist Pamela Colman Smith who created the images). I love the tarot deeply, and I have owned decks my entire adult life. Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow is one of those rare books that sings to my personal practice, and has the ability to clarify and illuminate in a way like no other text I have ever encountered. It is presented here with typo and link edits from the original. Book Review – Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow was originally published to The Balancing Path column on Patheos Pagan, on November 20, 2020.