I first intuited what felt like a waning phase in terms of activity and creativity in the tarot industry in 2022. But, you know, maybe it was just me. So I dismissed the thought.
Earlier this year, I started seeing comments in discussion forums from people in our community that were echoing those same thoughts. Apparently it’s not just me! I think people are really feeling it.
So I wanted to talk about my observations of the state of the tarot union as it stands now, at the close of 2023.
2015 give or take, we started to see this surge in tarot’s popularity, spilling in to the mainstream. Journalists were writing articles on tarot and astrology, endeavoring to normalize them through pop psychology. We were seeing more tarot cameos in Hollywood and music videos. Reddit threads discussed growing interest in tarot and witchcraft among Gen Z-ers. One winter holiday season, company-wide gift bags to employees included oracle cards with affirmations on them. Wow. It’s really mainstream now.
Every year it was like tarot just got more and more popular. There were even more decks on the market. Even more Kickstarters. Even more people going pro as tarot readers. More online tarot courses to learn how to go pro. Half a dozen privatized tarot certification offerings. More tarot influencer figureheads.
If I had to take a guess at it, I’d say the tarot industry, or this 21st century tarot renaissance peaked around 2020 and 2021 at the height of the pandemic. And then by the tail end of 2022, the frenzy turned into fatigue. Tarot YouTubers were remarking, hey, the tarot market saturation situation is overwhelming.
Indie decks and crowd-funding campaigns for indie decks flooded the market in 2021 and 2022, due mainly to many who were creating their deck art while sheltering in place in 2020. And the demand was meeting the supply.
One TarotTuber made an observation and after looking to see if they were right, I could not un-see it. They noted that many of the tarot and oracle decks of 2023 and in recent years were starting to look the same. The sci-fi/fantasy vibe of AI generated illustrations getting turned into tarot decks this past year added exponentially to that same-sameness.
I have this vague impression – and I don’t know if there is any rational basis for this impression – that between 2000 and 2010, the many deck options on the market were fairly distinct from each other. The individual deck creators’ art styles were noticeably different from one another.
Whereas in the last five years, many of the deck options on the market give the impression of more of the same or similar thing. Heck, these past few years, often I get genuinely confused, mistaking one deck for another because they’re all kinda starting to look the same. Same vibe, same art style, same premise.
In no way am I saying there weren’t stand-out decks in 2023 or the last few years– because there have been dozens. What I am saying is when you consider the marketplace in its totality, there sure are more and more that bear striking resemblance to one another.
Even when you think generally about what’s been released in terms of occult books, publishers have been more interested in re-releasing editions of old books than introducing us to new thought leaders. In the occult-witchy book space, has any book come out in recent years that has shocked us, got everybody talking because what it was saying was groundbreaking, or shocking to establishment in some way?
A lot of tarot professionals and indie deck creators have been sharing about how business has been extremely slow for them in 2023. To the point where many have had to move on to other industries, get day jobs, and just in general move away from tarot so that they can earn income. Recently, several well-known popular professional tarot readers, tarot authors, and deck creators made public comments about this downturn in sales and seeming decrease in the public’s interest when it comes to new tarot decks.
I think it’s logical to blame the economy and inflation on this downturn in demand for tarot-related products and services, but I’m not 100% convinced by that. Because the world talked about the COVID-19 recession between February 2020 and April 2020, but that was a profit boom for the tarot industry. And you’ll even hear people talk about how tarot services are “recession-proof.”
Also, it definitely doesn’t help matters that consumers are buying counterfeit decks because they are a fraction of the price of the authentic ones. Consumers are making the decision, why buy the $70 indie deck from the artist, or the $30 deck from the traditional publisher when you can buy the $10 knock-off? Even local brick-and-mortar storefronts have been complacent, selling knock-offs instead of buying wholesale from the authorized distributors and publishing houses.
Plus, it’s probably not a situation of less dollars being injected into tarot, but that these dollars have been redirected. Back in 2013, people who wanted tarot readings were getting them in-person and even when it was online, were engaging in 1:1 long-form intimate reading experiences. In 2023, $5 and $10 livestream call-in tarot readings on TikTok are usurping the revenue.
AI image generators are also doing something interesting, making it harder to compete in the commercial arts marketplace. Because AI can do what digital illustrators and graphic designers were doing but in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost, whether or not people actually buy the AI decks, the mere existence of AI decks has diluted the subconscious consumer demand for digitally created decks. Right now, AI has not taken over the art and illustration world yet, but I mean, at this point, we’re maybe just 5 years away from that?
So I do think artists and illustrators who still have a career in arts ahead of them need to start thinking about how they will adapt. As a collective consciousness, it almost feels like tarot artists have creatively gone into a hibernation of some sort, while they subconsciously mull over what their next move will be, as they confront the realities of generative AI.
To be clear, I do not think the popularity and interest in tarot is waning. Rather, what I’m observing looks more like a creativity or innovation lull.
Another interesting observation. Five years ago, in 2018, I recall there was this collective pattern of many YouTubers quitting, and it trickled into niche communities such as Tarot Tube where a handful of very popular Tarot Tubers decided, see ya, I’m done. The interest in and popularity of TarotTube leveled out a bit in subsequent years and the numbers climbed back up reaching a healthy height a few years ago. But now it’s 2023, and it’s kind of circling back to what happened in 2018, where the upturn has taken a dip and is now a downturn. Across the board there seems to be less people watching TarotTube than there was three or four years ago.
Even if you watch TarotTube, the general, collective tone has changed. Three years ago it was “look at my deck collection,” “look what I just bought,” and it was more in the positive and the additional in terms of tarot. Tarot blogs and videos leaned toward acquisition and expansion.
Right now I’m noticing a tone shift to “I’m getting rid of my deck collection,” “I’m losing interest in the tarot, I don’t want any new decks, nothing on the marketplace is calling to me right now.” By the end of this year, tarot blogs and videos were leaning toward culling, reducing, getting rid of, and downsizing.
The tone shift is palpable in other ways. For example, 2016 give or take, we started to see some questioning happening in the tarot community – where is the diversity? Hashtag #tarotsowhite was around that time. People started talking more about wanting to see diversity, equity, and inclusion in tarot art, and among tarot deck creators we were supporting.
Then in the last 5 years you saw a positive surge in depicting diversity in tarot art. Every other deck review you came across would have to assess the diversity of the deck as part of the review. Diversity took front and center. Social change happened.
But this year I saw quite a few TarotTubers express exhaustion and fatigue around the diversity issue, saying, “Okay, yeah of course diversity, equity, and inclusion is important, no dispute. But it also has to make sense. Some of how we are seeing diversity depicted has stopped making sense.” A few years ago, the most popular and talked-about decks centered diversity, but this year in 2023, some of this year’s most popular and talked-about decks do not feature diversity. That’s interesting.
Tarot conferences– I keep telling this joke, but at this point it’s really not a joke anymore and I kinda wanna take it seriously— I’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen to me that one of these days the workshop I “present” or that any one of us decides to present at a tarot conference is going to be or ought to be this: Before you enter, you have to sign an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. And then all the chairs in the room will be in a circle so we have to face each other.
And then it’s going to be total brutal honesty as we are free to rant and hash out and name names with respect to tarot community drama. And just like, talk it all out, getting super specific. How we feel about all the various personalities, cult figureheads in the tarot community, controversies, controversial figures, the cliques, what we think of the publishing houses, the industry, how do deck creators really feel, how to tarot consumers feel, how do tarot authors really feel about the publishing experience, the pressures of TarotTube, all of it. Let it all out. Tell us how you really feel. Let’s settle scores once and for all.
And then, because everyone signed that non-disclosure, you can’t talk about it after you leave. What happens at the tarot conference stays at the tarot conference.
Jokes aside though, why does that concept appeal to us? Think about it. It’s because as a collective, we need a catharsis. We really need community healing. There are so many open, unaddressed tarot community wounds.
Another shift I’m seeing– In the last decade, “practical tarot” and “tarot is for everybody” approaches, with more psychology-leaning discussions of the tarot were what dominated.
And now I’m seeing the pendulum swing back the other way to embracing fortune-telling and overtly witchy, magical practices with the tarot. So heads up, that might be an interesting change in trends to look out for.
In terms of a “State of the Tarot Union,” here’s a little something I’ve been wondering about. I think as a collective, we are waiting for the next rising star.
We currently don’t have that tarot community darling, or new rising star, in the tarot world. It’s been a while since we had that one big new name. And the stage, the conditions have been set in anticipation for one to come along.
So it’s about time for that to happen. Is it going to be you? Do you know someone who might fit the bill and needs one extra push to make sure they are that next Big Deal in tarot? (By the way, shortlist on one hand I can immediately name some I’m thinking of, but I’m curious what you think.)
Anyway all this only represents my personal observations as we close out 2023. I’m not seeing and can’t see the whole picture. So I’d love to hear about your observations of the state of the tarot union. =)
benebell wen 
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Hi Bell: I think I got very engaged with Tarot around 2014. You’re right that during the pandemic (and The Trump Years) my interest in Tarot and FB waned. Too much going on life–I can’t imagine what it was like for working parents especially, but anyone working….
Plus I’m getting older ;-). So yes, I got rid of lots of decks (although nothing like what I lost in the 2017 Tubb’s fire). No point in collecting anymore. My focus is on ‘my legacy’ (I’m sure you know what I mean). I also quit FB. I turned off notifications to everything but a handful of art groups and close friends/family. Then I just quit altogether. I have 4 Readers that I follow but I’m really just doing 1-3 card readings (mostly for myself) and have backed out of all other metaphysical groups. General metaphysical fatigue perhaps. I think there are some wonderful new decks out there but I’ve been sticking to about 6 decks and that feels like plenty. I’m always interested in what you have to say but I’m not interested in YouTube or Patreon accounts. As you have seen recently, I’m still interested in Tarot but I guess I would have to say that I have a rather narrow focus at this point.
Thank you for your blogs and all that you do. XO
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Yes! It is so important to find our niche enclave within the community. =) For simplification we make references such as “tarot community” or even “tarot industry” as I did in this blog post, but what those terms actually refer to is not something homogenous at all, or easily defined, but a salad bowl of many very distinct and unique enclaves. Glad you found your niche enclave! ❤
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I have no clue about a tarot community. There has always been strong opinions, and that can happen anywhere, but I lost intrest in community when it started becoming more of a shouting this is my belief and you are wrong if you don’t believe it. But there it is, a believe, not a fact. I feel like I am having cognitive issues and can’t always get my point across well anymore and so it may not be something I could fully participate in but I would so love to listen to debates/discussions without name calling and insults. We all have so much we could learn from each other if we could listen instead of yell. I also left all social media platforms as most were just influencers selling me stuff i don’t need and never ending supply of scam sales ads on any platform. It wasn’t enjoyable. Im tired of people telling me what to think and what to buy. Still interested in tarot I just lost intrest in the drama and selling
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Agree so much that what is most interesting in terms of tarot content are the debates and discussions. I wish there was a lot more of that. Sadly, I understand why. If and when you partake in those debates and discussions, you’ll inevitably get hit with backlash (almost no matter what you say – someone will be very angry at you and will want to make sure they know they’re angry or disappointed with you) and it’s a significant weight on one’s mental health. So I absolutely understand why we don’t see more debate and discussion in the tarot community. ❤
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I appreciate your analysis. I think a lot of people got into Tarot like they did with other things hoping it would provide a fix to their problems, and a quick one at that. I think there was some disappointment when they learned that it takes a lot of time and effort and does not guarantee results.
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Thank you!
What’s so thrilling to me about the world of tarot is how many different inroads can be taken to the same destination. If we’re all being honest with ourselves I think maybe the initial interest in the tarot typically begins somewhere superficial, even something such as “ooh, pretty pictures!” or “wait a second, why does this work? How is this working?” Or even as a fun tool for helping with decision-making (and maybe subconsciously hoping it is a quick fix to our problems).
Always love hearing your thoughts! ❤
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Your books and website are an incredible source of inspiration and knowledge for me. I am very new to Tarot, but have been involved in the world of spirituality for a long time. I so appreciate that you insist on depth and genuine work. It really makes a difference.
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This may be more of a long-form question than an opinion. I have always held an interest in the esoteric; there hasn’t been a year of my life when this wasn’t the case. However, my fascination with tarot peaked during the pandemic. I fall into the category of consumers you mentioned in your post, adopting a ‘why not now’ approach and desiring to learn it myself. Your book was the first one I purchased, and aside from the other book recommendations you provided, I haven’t felt the need to explore any others.
I delved into various rabbit holes on YouTube, following tarot readers, deck creators, and the excitement seemed palpable. It was evident that everyone was enthusiastic about learning, teaching, and creating. From what it seems, you’re conveying that this high level of activity was supported by a thriving market for products, services, and information. Naturally, this would lead to market saturation as more people aim to join and claim a piece of the pie. I don’t think it’s any different from people buying home brewing kits or consuming content on how to make sourdough bread during this same time period. I feel like saturation is an expected and natural outcome in such an environment.
I have noticed fatigue, frustration, or even burnout—maybe even boredom—setting in with some of my favorite creators. From what I’ve read, I understand why now. I honestly believe that there will always be sources for people like me who are still on the outskirts, just a little above novice, and who will happily listen to someone go over the basics. But what happens to a creator when the dopamine boost of seeing 500 people in a livestream isn’t there because there are only 5 people watching?
I’m still excited about new decks, and I haven’t gotten to the stage where I can tell one deck is similar to the other. But when sales for a 2 or 3-year project drop from $4000 a month to $400, why would anyone care that there are people like me hanging around? I wonder if the experienced practitioners, artists, teachers, etc., should be more evangelical, hunters for that economy or attention. Maybe they become impresarios of sorts, encouraging artists who normally don’t create in that space to go and create unique decks, partnering with them if need be.
Would reaching out to adjacent thought leaders or those who would be willing to entertain esoteric ideas, say in the environmental, financial, scientific, or even technological field to create material, books, etc., that can bring fresh perspectives to the space?
When you say, “In the occult-witchy book space, has any book come out in recent years that has shocked us, got everybody talking because what it was saying was groundbreaking, or shocking to establishment in some way?” that’s definitely relevant to someone at your level, but there are new people who venture into this space every day and others who don’t know enough yet to feel this way. It’s akin to the advice Max Planck received from his professor not to go into physics because “almost everything is already discovered.” The kind of evangelism I mentioned before would require someone like you who knows enough to know what makes sense in this space, to know what synergies can be made with other areas that fit into the tarot space. I know this is easy for me to suggest. I am not in the eye of the storm, so to speak, and I never will be. I am more than happy to be a patron when time and resources allow.
I am pleased that creators such as yourself exist, and my appreciation is at a level where I will never buy a bootleg deck. However, the temptation to believe that everyone is at the same level or that the community has reached its maximum size, may create an environment where we may think we’ve explored everything up to the boundaries of the map. I say (suggest, ask – at this point I think I may be rambling lol) this because I know that interest from persons such as myself isn’t enough to encourage the people we enjoy following in this space to stick around. The numbers may eventually become too small when creators are only left with diehard fans or those people who are already long-time members of the community.
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Absolutely agree – the glimmer and shine our community was generating attracted a lot of attention, for better and for worse. And you bring up a lot of great points!
Ultimately, I think a quick sound bite for the “state of the tarot union in 2023” would be that we’re going through growing pains. =) How we knew and understood the tarot community to be is undergoing a shift.
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It is indeed difficult to parse and identify what we feel is “off” about a large-scale social trend.
Part of me wants to say this is just a phase in the natural cycle of popularity. The tarot community has existed for hundreds of years, and over the generations, popular interest in tarot has waxed and waned. Every so often it balloons to the point where tarot seems to be everywhere and oracle cards are included in corporate gift baskets, but that never lasts long.
When those bubbles pop, the community seems to shrink, but I suspect it’s really trend-followers and businesses moving on from what was, frankly, a superficial interest. As they evaporate from the scene, they leave behind a strong core that has stood the test of time.
By “core,” I mean scholars and practitioners who have a deep involvement with tarot or cartomancy and who are pretty immune to the vagaries of popular tastes. They practice this art in the contexts of occultism, witchcraft, spirituality, psychology, creativity, or service to others, and they’ll keep doing it regardless of tarot’s public or commercial standing.
I don’t think that core is going anywhere.
What might be different this time is the commodification of tarot. There’s a lot of money in tarot, and when money dips, anxiety spikes.
In your essay, you used the word “industry” a lot. It’s a stumbling block for me. Everything is a freakin’ industry these days, and everything is treated as a commodity, even things that actually aren’t and shouldn’t be.
We talk about the shifting trends in all these channels, all these influencers, all these publishers. Where did all these things and people come from? How many of them have just been riding the wave of fashion? I’m not saying they’re fake. Some definitely are, and they can go. That’s fine. But many are serious practitioners. Are they quitting, or are they letting the trend fade and contracting back to their own true practices, which maybe don’t need to be spread all over social media and producing new decks every year.
I have also noticed a lot of new decks looking alike. My opinion about that goes back to those pesky words, “industry” and “commodity.” In industrialized capitalism, nothing succeeds like success. If a deck in a certain style sells well, publishers and designers are going to feel pressure to exploit that popularity and crank out as many decks in that style as possible, as fast as possible, to maximize profits before interest cools. With tools like AI, you can now flood the market with hundreds of derivative decks every day. Is this what tarot should be about?
My instinct is to take a cool-headed look at what parts of the community are really fading at this time. I personally don’t think the heart and soul of the tarot community is changing. However, I do think there’s a lot of toxicity and parasitism in the modern world that is affecting tarot, and which we can afford to let go. Maybe any “downturn” will enable a healthier trend towards “community” and away from “industry.”
All that said, I think we are entering a time of rigidity and conformism, when practicing occultism, spiritual pathways, witchcraft, etc., will be increasing politicized and even socially fraught. Again personally, I think that letting go of superficiality and getting back to our own core principles would probably help brace us for challenging days ahead. Tarot has handled such pressures plenty of times before.
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It’s definitely just a phase in an ever ongoing cycle of ebb and flow.
One notable observation: When we use the term “tarot community,” people get critical and make the argument that there really isn’t a cohesive “tarot community,” and make the case that the term is misleading. When we use the term “tarot industry,” people get critical and make the argument that we should not commodify a spiritual art such as the tarot. It’s a no-win situation when it comes to what term we can use to easily and quickly reference the group we’re referring to. =)
What part of the community do I think is fading at this time? The forum for open, opinionated, compassionate, supportive yet robust debate and discussion on points of controversy in the tarot community.
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I agree with you about the difficulty of finding terms. I don’t really object to the term “tarot industry.” I object more to the reality of it, which is part and parcel with my objections to consumerism and the commodification of almost everything we do in general. It’s just my own social opinion and hang-up.
I also agree about the loss of forums for open discussion, but I wonder, if the platforms and venues of the tarot community are crumbling – similar to how social media across the board are starting to come apart – might that be more a fault of the communication tools available to us than of the community itself? It’s bad when people get cut off from each other, either because a system vanishes or it becomes overwhelmed with dreck, but I do have confidence in the community, so I feel like an alternative way to express our community can be found.
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This is really interesting to me! As someone who joined the tarot community in 2017 (ish?) AND as someone who has recently worked in metaphysical retail, I have noticed that there has been something of a comedown in the past two years. I think a huge part of it is market saturation, with there just being SO MUCH content people can engage with around tarot. Personally I find a lot of the material to be….maybe not shallow, but definitely repetitive. I feel like there is a tendancy of new tarot readers to maybe….. ignore the body of work written by older tarot scholars (this is part of a larger trend i have noticed, where people dismiss older works in academic fields). I dont think this is WRONG, but i do think it leads people to neglect really interesting ideas. I also think that Tarot works best when there are many different interpretations present, with different people contributing different insights, some of which are contradictory.
I guess that soeaks to your thoughts about people needed to express their honest opinions. I think that having actual disagreements could be hugely constructive. As things are, I agree that having new voices speak up in the community would be excellent. Personally, though, i think new tarot readers can also gain a lot from looking back on older tarot voices, and i dont just mean people writing in the 20th century. Recently I have been lurking on Tarot, Tea and Me, which was created to fill the void of Acclectic tarot forums, and I have really enjoyed seeing peoples opinions from the past ten or so years. It has made me realize that there are so many blog posts and forum threads that help me better understand so many facets of tarot. I don’t know if this is something everyone will benefit from, but I have certainly been enjoying it.
As akways, thank you so much for your insights! I love your writing, and I find you always introduce such interesting and relevant topics.
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Generational divides are always a thing, and a healthy thing. Before the digital age, the seasoned, established voices and the young and new voices had to coexist in the same forum and “duke it out” (in the best way possible), which leads to growth for the collective. Ultimately, the new generation learns and advances by first disagreeing with and challenging the older generation, and then ultimately coming to value the wisdom and experience of the older generation.
What I see now, however, is that the established voices and the young, new voices in the tarot world are not on the same forum. They’re each in their totally separate enclaves and rarely do the two meet, which is perhaps why you’re observing that the new readers don’t’ seem to be valuing the body of work of older tarot scholars. I think to a significant extent, that observation is right—they’re learning tarot on TikTok. =)
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Round of applause for your post from the French quarter. I’ve seen a lot in the 60 years I’ve been exposed to Tarot and fortune telling, and the waves of Oooooh! and Awwwwww! has been interesting, if not eye-rolling exhausting. In the ‘60s it was cool, by the ‘80s it was looked at sideways over a Rolex. In the last 20 years I’ve seen more dips and swells than ever, perhaps a growth spurt or a swan song, hard to tell.
Maybe it’s time for the hanger-oners to let go. For the wants-bees to move on down the road. For the Tarot tribe to reconnect and unite once again the common goal is determined. It is from that focus that our greatest chance in allowing a rising talent to emerge exists.
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Hey, Callie! ❤ lol at “by the ‘80s it was looked at sideways over a Rolex.” =)
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Such an excellent post. Thank you for voicing your observations.
Firstly, I think a Tarot Fight Club would be intense, but hopefully cathartic. When a room full of psychics get real and let it all come out, then there would probably be some permanent damage done. It could be good? I’d volunteer to be there just to meditate and hand out tissues. We’re probably due as a community for this.
My only other comment is about the industry. I also am seeing similar shifts in other types of communities and other industries. I think it is partly because people are just interacting with tarot differently than before. The huge swell in interest during the boom time was from people who needed something to get them through the darkest times politically and then the pandemic. But as people go back to a new normal, they don’t need their decks. It never became embedded as a permanent fixture in their lives. I’ve seen this a lot among my friends. They all bought decks during the pandemic and used them for 2 years. Eventually, they just forgot to use them. When an issue comes up in their lives, they forget the that even have to option to consult the cards.
The last thing is that I think people are just doing less collecting of things these days. People are probably realizing that they really don’t need more decks and crystals. Millennials and Gen Z just don’t have the cash and a lot of Gen X and Boomers are downsizing.
Thanks Benabell! Maybe your call for a new tarot darling might instead yield a new divination darling. Maybe it will be IChing, Lenormand, Oracles, Runes or something else entirely!
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Haha omigosh I wish I had thought of “Tarot Fight Club”!!!
Great observation re: maybe we all just needed Stuff to do during the pandemic. Someone else in the comments section raised the same point. It sure would be interesting to survey how many people are still making sourdough bread from scratch! =D
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The mistake I often fall into is equating tarotTUBE with the world of tarot readership and clientele in general. I think I was doing that pre-pandemic but lockdown-watch-hours definitely cemented the impression. That’s part of why I find this blog so helpful, for example. …But I often wonder about earlier deck creators and how it feels to see former die-hard fans forget all about their work, or whether there are actually more people out there who just have their practice and arent fussed about each new hot take… and when each new wave breaks and people ‘leave’ ‘the community’ (youtube) are we acknowledging if theyve experienced genuine pain? Again, personally, though I cover tarot a lot in my videos, I often feel like I’ve walked into a room in which I am (in general community/industry terms) deeply unwelcome. That hurts and I dont enjoy it at all. So I dont call what I do ‘tarottube’. But I wonder if waning creativity etc may also be that more people who were new or beginners a few years ago are advancing, specialising, and deepening… and *if* they’re producing decks it would correspondingly take longer, like it ‘used to’. A few years, a decade even? Especially if it’s not feasible to make it one’s main source of income! …One can hope, right?
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To clarify, the above are personal observations from someone who is neither a professional reader nor partakes in IRL tarot events or community. I mean more to add a personal 2 cents on how things seem from an admittedly limited perspective. 👻
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Hi Sorsha! Oh yeah for sure, I think I often inadvertently (and erroneously) extrapolate something I see in just *our* little niche of TarotTube to “THE Tarot Community.” Even “TarotTube” as a universe is all over the place, with many totally separate galaxies.
It really is interesting how diverse the “tarot community” is in terms of having multiple galaxies. The in-person tarot conference community circuit somewhat overlaps a bit with TarotTube but also not really. A lot of tarot enthusiasts reside mainly in tarot Facebook groups, and they tend to be the older and more experienced generation of tarotists. Newer and younger tarot enthusiasts reside mainly on TikTok and the biggest starlets in that community go virtually unknown to the other galaxies I just mentioned, and the biggest names in the older-gen world of tarotists go virtually unknown among Tarot TikTokkers. Kinda nuts.
I’m so sorry and it’s disheartening to hear that you experience that unwelcomeness. I love the content you create and I always value your perspective! You present thoughts beautifully (even in terms of aesthetics and poetic art) in addition to inspiring me to think further on the matter.
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Thank you Benebell, that’s so kind 🙂 And I love the analogy of ‘tarot galaxies’! It suggests to me that these changes and questions we face are clusters that form and shift around smaller centres (ideas, genres, levels of experience, reading styles, specific media, specific people). It helps place it in context too… adding more patience to the mix!
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Ye Gods, yes, I feel the fatigue. By and large, I’m not interested in new decks anymore. I think I bought a grand total of one new deck in the past couple years, and as soon as it arrived, I thought, “Why did I buy this? I’m never going to use it.” I try to keep things fresh for myself by exploring specific topics and methods with Tarot, but the exhaustion is there.
Part of it may just be that we’re getting old. Most Tarot books, classes, and other materials are (and to the best of my knowledge always have been) directed at beginners. In a market that’s so keen on being beginner-friendly, maybe more experienced readers always end up feeling alienated by a certain point. I don’t know. I think your broader points about publishing trends, pirated decks, AI, and oversaturation are all true and all contribute to the problem–but I can’t help wondering if ultimately the problem is me.
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Yes, I loved your year-long exploration of the TdM! It was a lot of fun reading along! ❤ Sigh, indeed, perhaps the problem is us! =D
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My observations have been quite similar
Various causes- pandemic shut-ins, media and capitalism’s focus on immediate gratification, loss of other senses of community, of course. And a wicked strong rise of “following the leader” both in buyers and artists. Print On Demand has gone from offering “1of a kind” items to offering that immediate satisfaction. 18- 24 month timelines for a publisher to buy, revise, market and ship a deck. Of course now self-published decks end up taking the same time. Add in Astrological forecasts of momentous forces. Ah… too much to absorb.
Brian Gryphon
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Yes to the closed rant and review. I would travel just to attend. I agree, and I will be watching and hoping for the rising star. I am a traditional pastel painter… but haven’t been thrilled with my early efforts.
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I’m late, and WordPress ate my original comment, but there’s so much I see here myself too. It’s honestly frustrating because I feel like people don’t understand that not supporting indie creators, not supporting marginalized people in our community, denouncing/not supporting DEI efforts, and supporting something as corporatized and capitalistic as AI art and counterfeits is why we’re in this space where there’s less diverse & blander decks being published and the community seems to be kinda bleeding out. Economic downturn is hitting everyone hard, for sure, but the answer to that isn’t to stop supporting artists/creators in our community – it’s to make damn sure they get through this with us.
Like…creating a Tarot deck is a massive artistic undertaking that can take years of work: it would cost one person anywhere from $10-40+ thousand dollars if they ever tried to commission a Tarot deck for themselves – depending on the artist. But, if even just a hundred (preferably more!!!) want that same deck, it’s less of a financial burden overall. That’s pretty much how even the smallest indie deck creators can feasibly make and sell a deck. But if smaller creators can’t support themselves financially at any point in that process AND can’t hope to even support themselves on deck sells after, we are just not going to have a diverse supply of creative decks available to buy. The people making them just can’t hash it financially.
Funnily enough, even though I know AI art is seen as an alternative, it’s not a good long term one for anyone desiring something actually creative. AI Art is pretty much a condensed conglomeration of stolen art from some of the largest artists out here, further boiled to what is considered most appealing (which comes with HEAPS of exclusion of marginalized folk due to lack of representation). AI art generators don’t leave much room for creative freedom, diverse representation, imaginative concepts, variation in art styles, and poses it can even do because that’s simply not what AI can create. AI just spits out the most recognizable patterns of what’s been created historically based on what’s requested of it – it doesn’t have the capacity for imagination or intelligent thought. Hence why, even though AI art is so new, people already find AI art decks repetitive: it’s whole thing is repeating what’s already been made to some extent. Truthfully, I think this can work great initially for people insisting on cashing out right now, but ongoing copyright issues, lack of creativity, and glaze/nightshade anti ai filters/processes is going to hinder AI art as profitable for tarot in the long term.
Anyways, bit of a bummer overall. I love tarot too much to ever stop supporting deck creators and the community entirely, but I could see myself fading back into the background if things slip back entirely to how they were.
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As a tarot reader who recently went “public”, i find your perspective really interesting. Though I have been reading for myself and my friends for over 20 years, I only recently expanded to read for the general public. I feel like tarot readers can be a dime a dozen nowadays and the internet has certainly expanded everyone’s reach. I think it’s important to find someone unique that you feel a connection with. I have always “stuck to myself” and done my own thing and never subscribed to the “love and light” new age mentality. I think as time goes on (I hope) this mentality will shift and the creators not in it for the right reasons, will fall away.
I guess the difference for me is that I don’t think of tarot as an industry as it has wholly been a spiritual/meditative tool for as long as I have used it.
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Well, yes, I feel like we achieved Peak Tarot during the pandemic lockdown. I know I did. As so many people reached for something to help them get through the horror. So Tarot/cartomancy became super-popular. And just in commercial, capitalist terms, it started to consume itself. Supply outpaced demand with shallow, poorly made MM decks and outrageously priced indie decks that didn’t really bring anything to the table except UV spot gloss and gilded edges. I think the falling off of the heat in the market is actually a good thing. The energy was getting played out. Let it rest, it’s wintertime in the northern hemisphere after all.
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Interesting analysis – thank You.
I live in England and it is interesting to see how different folks define “The Tarot Community”. For me, here, my Tarot community is my fellow readers, my students and clients here – the people I interact with in real person scenarios. We have get togethers and these can be most enlightening and interesting – it is social and it is educational – no views are wrong. My community is people I come across in the practice in places such as Glastonbury and Avebury which I frequent and it is firmly linked in with my spiritual practices which are from the Western Pagan tradition.
I read occasionally about arguments in the Tarot community as if it is a monolithic thing where accord is required and this just doesn’t meet my experience. The idea of fads and fashions in decks and views seems a million miles from the Tarot world i inhabit which is one big glorious diverse approach to the cards taken by people I encounter. I have never once had a conversation with any of my own community who discuss these things.
I did however, initially learn from a very good online teacher, who is still online and still doing the business and she taught very much along the lines of “Learn the Meanings” and “Learn how to use Your intuitive psychic ability” and I guess I’m a product of that approach and that has informed my own practice as i became a pro reader.
So what am I waffling on about? I guess my view would be that the idea of a single Tarot community is perhaps an unhelpful way of looking at it and hoping for new trailblazers that will be universally adopted is perhaps far less likely now that the Tarot communities are so wide and diverse. It is quite possible to be a wonderful Tarot reader and never have engaged once with another practitioner. Perhaps we should just celebrate that there are so many wise and wonderful people throughout the past and indeed today we can pick and choose and learn from as much or as little as we like. For example, I had a wonderful reading a couple of months ago from a woman who told me that she practiced a mix of Buddhism and Witchcraft – she read in a manner I have never come across before – there were several decks of cards and by the end of the reading they were everywhere – all over the table, the floor etc – I have never seen anything like it but it was an amazing reading. I went away with both knowledge I needed in my life and a whole new way of looking at reading cards.
I guess in summary, I’d say, the community is not about stars and conferences and books, its about practitioners and learners and querents getting what they need from the cards. That has happened for centuries and I see no way it wont continue when we are all long forgotten.
Blessings to You and All those reading Your Blog
Dave
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While reading your article, the thing that kept popping up for me was the similarity that the music industry went thru after the 60’s. Before it was grabbed, packaged and marketed in uniform ways to sell sell sell – music was fairly free flowing. We bought albums and looked at the cover art and read the lyrics. It was a journey.
It isn’t just tarot where creativity lulls and fatigue sets in – we are in the late stages of capitalism. Corporate thinking, followers, constant marketing and positioning oneself to be the “darling” deplete creativity and true communal support and growth.
But the flowers still grow thru the sidewalks. I’ve been shocked. I was shocked reading Mat Auryn’s “Psychic Witch” because it set such strong foundational exercises and techniques that take time, practice and intent. People love it.
Rather than a mud slinging catharsis in a circle – I would love to see a big circle where we go Tarot Quaker. Let the spirit of Tarot speak thru us. Do wisdom readings with Rachel Pollack now that she is on the other side of the veil. We could ask about all the subjects you listed to clarify how we ourselves have dimmed the spirit of Tarot.
You were once considered the “darling” of tarot so if anyone could name new ones – you could. Lifting up voices that can sing tarot is important. I myself would name Liz Worth and Jenna Matlin. They bring a professionalism and wisdom that is beyond their years.
In the meantime, local magic and community is my major focus. My work has maintained as a strong river and I am grateful as shit for that. My little conference “North Star” will always be little and a safe lab for folks to experiment – especially the storytellers with Tarot as our narrator heling us make sense of this crazy world of ours.
Thank you for being willing to throw the first mud onto the wall.
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