This article has been edited since it first appeared in print.
Illustration by Victoria Borges
Three cards look up at me from the table: the empress, crowned with stars and raising a gold scepter; the knight of cups, astride a white horse, a winged helmet on his head and golden chalice in his hands; and the king of pentacles, wearing garments patterned heavily with grapevines, his throne carved with bull heads.
This is my first tarot reading. The cards are speaking to me.
Rather, they’re speaking to me through Nick Lasky, a tarot reader at Aquarian Bookshop’s Carytown location. We’re in a back room, sitting across from each other at a small table surrounded by waist-high crystals and rocks. On a purple silk cloth, he has fanned out a deck of tarot cards, face down. As I select cards one by one, he places them face up between us.
Richly illustrated and full of colorful details, tarot cards are larger than standard playing cards. With interpretation, their positions and combination are touted as a way to provide insights into questions asked during the ceremony.
I’m not the only one making a foray into the cards. Tarot’s popularity is increasing, and stigmas associated with the practice are dissipating. Many people approach the cards not just for predictions, but as a tool for self-reflection complementary to practices such as meditation, even therapy. With the help of local experts, I set out to discover tarot’s place in Richmond.
The Basics
Tarot may have originated in 15th-century Italy, when the Duke of Milan commissioned an artist to create a deck of lavish playing cards. At first used for games, the deck became popular for divination as it spread across Europe. Along the way, cards were added, adapted or dropped.
There are 78 cards in a tarot deck. The “minor arcana” consists of four suits — pentacles, cups, wands and swords — each with a set of numbered and face cards similar to a standard playing deck. The “major arcana” comprises 22 cards with names including the emperor, the magician and the moon.
There are many different tarot deck variants, each with different sets of illustrations. The images are catalysts for readers’ interpretations. The most widely used deck is the Rider-Waite Tarot, published in 1909 in Britain, but there are countless other varieties, from Renaissance-style paintings to “The Lord of the Rings”-themed decks. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts gift shop sells a deck filled with images of famous artists.
A reader interprets the symbolism of cards drawn from the deck to answer questions for a client. The number and arrangement of cards drawn varies. Each card has its own meanings and symbolism, which may be affected by the position and combination of cards drawn, as well as the intuition of the reader.
(From left) Owner John Oliver and Nick Lasky of Aquarian Bookshop, a longtime Richmond tarot hub (Photo by Jay Paul)
Going Mainstream
Tarot has long carried a reputation of secrecy and impropriety. “In the ’80s, tarot was considered fringe, even in my world,” says John Oliver, the owner of Aquarian. And that’s saying something, considering Oliver is a psychic.
Fueled by “satanic panics” of the 1980s and ’90s, religious sentiment against the tarot was once more widespread and more intense than today. Similarly, many with a scientific worldview reject tarot out of hand.
Still, tarot claimed a dedicated, if small, following. Richmond’s Metropolitan Astrological Society provided a haven for those interested in the metaphysical throughout the ’70s and ’80s, but when many of the primary organizers passed away, no one stepped up to replace them. MARS disbanded by the early ’90s.
Now, like many niche metaphysical practices, tarot is going mainstream. A 2018 study by the Pew Research Center found that 62% of Americans hold “New Age” beliefs, and a 2020 report from market research firm IBISWorld measured the annual spending of Americans on “mystical services” at $2.2 billion.
In Richmond, Aquarian has been a hub for tarot since it opened in 1983. Other area metaphysical stores include Alchemists at Stony Point Shopping Center, Magdalena’s Botanica in Shockoe Bottom and Secret Roots in Powhatan — many of which host readings and classes for those interested in learning to read tarot themselves. Events including the monthly Richmond Moon Market at Stone Brewing’s taproom in Fulton Hill, bring together the practices of tarot, crystals and astrology with artists, foragers and more under the general banner of “craft and wellness.”
“When I grew up, tarot was considered witchcraft,” says Joni Davis, an attorney at Schroder Brooks Law Firm specializing in intellectual property law and a student of the tarot. “It was something you didn’t talk about.” Davis says she was once kicked out of a bar in Nashville for getting out her deck to read for a soon-to-be bride. “Now I’m the cool mom who reads the cards for my kids and their friends. They’re not embarrassed about it,” she says.
After taking classes at Aquarian, she started reading the tarot herself. She incorporates the cards into a morning journaling and reflection practice. “The way everyone reads their horoscope and knows their sign, that’s the same way tarot is becoming more mainstream,” Davis says.
Social media has helped a new generation discover tarot, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Julia Ennis is a Richmond artist who also reads tarot for clients out of her home studio and in virtual sessions. “Back in the day, you would have to be brave enough to see a sign and knock on a strange door. Now, with a click of a button, you can see a tarot reader online.”
Ennis says there is a direct connection between her art and her tarot practice. “Tarot is like painting — you’re drawing a picture on the astral plane,” she says. At a reading, the cards might spark inspiration for you in the same way a sculpture in a museum does. “The universe speaks to us through symbols — you just have to open your eyes to see them.”
Katherine Berna is a tarot reader at the Stony Point metaphysical store Alchemists. (Photo by Jay Paul)
The Experience
During my reading, I tell Lasky I’m anxious about a new boss: What should I expect? This question places me in good company. He tells me relationships and careers are the two most popular topics among his clients.
The news is positive. The cards reveal it is going to be fruitful partnership. But, Lasky tells me, be sure to view it as just that — a partnership — and don’t let my anxiety close me off, but instead be open and focused on the work. It’s good advice, and it immediately seems like advice a capable career coach might tell me. Lasky’s reading buoys my confidence. But should I consider this some sort of magic that tells the future?
Here’s what I find without fail across all the tarot experts I talk with: No matter their individual beliefs, they agree that tarot is a tool that works in many ways, and everyone has their own way of using the cards. Most agree that during a reading, participants are tapping into something, but exactly what depends on the person.
People pray, meditate, do yoga — tarot is just a tool like those.
—Katherine Berna, Alchemists
Oliver considers himself an animist. He believes everything — objects, plants, animals, even inanimate forces — has a spirit. Tarot is a way of connecting and communing with those spirits. The symbols on the cards help make those spirits accessible, and the intuition and study of the reader help decipher what they are saying.
In contrast, says Tazmine Beggs, manager of Oregon Hill “oddities and curiosities” store Rest in Pieces, “I don’t feel that tarot is supposed to tell your future or that you’re tapping into some sort of divine power that knows everything — though I know some people approach it that way.” Surrounded by taxidermy, lush plants, old medical diagrams, skulls and large crystals, Beggs says she sees tarot as “a self-reflective, intuitive tool to draw answers out of yourself. The cards aren’t telling you anything you don’t already know.” A popular modern conception might view tarot as part spiritual practice, part meditation, part therapy.
“Tarot is therapy,” says Katherine Berna, a professional life coach and tarot reader at the Stony Point metaphysical store Alchemists. “I think that’s one of the reasons it’s become so popular. People are in need of that support.”
Berna’s views on tarot are also reflective of how many religious attitudes toward it have changed. (The Pew Research Center study found that Christians are more likely than atheists and agnostics to hold New Age beliefs.) “People say the tarot is of the devil? Nothing could be further from the truth. There’s no conflict,” she says. “I consider the tarot like prayer. Call it God, call it spirit, call it source — there are so many words for the power that’s greater than us. People pray, meditate, do yoga — tarot is just a tool like those.”
No matter if you perceive tarot as a literal conversation with the divine, guided meditation or a form of talk-based therapy, it’s less about what you believe and more about what you get from it. “If you’re open to it, it just works,” Lasky says. It’s a sentiment echoed by many of the readers I speak with: Tarot has the power you give it.
As I leave my first-ever reading, I decide to buy a deck (the Rider-Waite Tarot). The next morning, I shuffle the deck and pull a card: the hermit. You tell me what it means.
