If you haven’t been watching the 2024 Marvel TV series Agatha All Along, it’s a spin-off from WandaVision focused on the character Agatha Harkness. And the episodes have been chock full of tarot (and witchy) goodness.
I love how the online tarot community is currently having fun with a fictional but bona fide tarot spread in the show, named the Safe Passages spread, a key feature in Episode 7 (“Death’s Hand in Mine”). It’s got Celtic Cross vibes in the formation of a pentagram.
(Ignore my graphic above; I squished all the card positions together, which is why you can’t really see the pentagram anymore. In the TV show, the pentagram shape is more pronounced.)
Just a head’s up: there may be spoilers in this blog post, but nothing too major; I’m focusing on the tarot parts.
Lilia Calderu is a Roma psychic and divination witch who, per comic book lore, uses the Ancient One’s Book of Cagliostro for divination. Here in this 2024 series, she uses the tarot.
A coven of witches are on the Witches Road and each episode spotlights one of the witches with a trial that she must pass, based on her particular witchy skill sets. (They do that whole kitschy potions witch, green witch, protection witch, the Wiccan, chaos witch thing, but it’s fine.)
And in Episode 7, it’s Lilia’s trial: divination. This is significant because at first, they’re doing readings for who they think the querent might be and are failing the trial.
The Teen (who is the Wiccan) does an awkward amateur reading and struggles with the card meanings.
Agatha (I think they’re typecasting her as either a chaos witch or a dark witch) doesn’t come to the tarot with the right intentions or sincere heart.
“Tarot is a con, like any other,” says Agatha to the Teen. “There’s no magic to it. There’s no skill.”
After learning of The Teen’s identity, the witches think maybe he is the querent and Lilia does a reading for him. Here’s where we get some fun insights into how to do a tarot reading. The querent must shuffle and cut, says Lilia. One of the characters, Jennifer Kale (the potions witch/social media influencer witch/rootworker) even protests, saying they don’t have time for that, and Lilia emphatically ensists that the querent must shuffle and cut.
Then, as you can see from the above screenshot, the deck is fanned across the reading table and the querent selects the cards one by one from the fan of cards, gives the card to the reader, who then notes the card selected, recites a few keywords, then places it into position in the spread. Once in position, the reader (in this case Lilia) proceeds to interpret its meaning.
Finally, Lilia realizes that since it’s her trial, she is the querent and needs to do the reading for herself.
Her significator, the card designating The Traveler, is the Queen of Cups.
By the way, the palace in the background of the TV Show Queen of Cups is from the RWS Four of Wands.
I love how in this show, they took Pamela Colman Smith’s art style from the RWS and edited it around to make the illustrations on each card better fit the show’s plot, but drawn in the style of PCS.
Like how the figure representing Agatha in the TV Show Three of Swords is based on the woman in the RWS Two of Cups.
It was a bit hard for me to follow which spread position was what because (1) that circular reading table spins so frame of reference kept changing, and (2) the directionality of what was upright and what was reversed kept changing from reading to reading.
What I was able to catch was that when Lilia pointed as you see above, she said that was The Obstacles position. [But then later you’ll see that in the show itself, this card position was The Path Behind card.]
Then when she pointed as you see above, that was The Windfall position. [But later, the final reading they did shows this card position to be The Path Ahead.]
And that final card crossing The Traveler (the significator card) was The Destination.
So based on Lilia’s narration of the card meanings and pointing at the positions, it would imply a tarot spread that looks like this:
However, based on the plot and that final spread we saw on screen, The Tower reversed is the Path Ahead card, the Knight of Wands upright represents one of the characters from a previous episode…
…and thus is the past Obstacles card… or, wait… is this maybe the Path Behind card for “wounds suffered, lessons learned”?
…and The High Priestess represents who one of the characters is transforming to becoming and thus is the Windfall position (maybe? the spread on a round table that kept on spinning didn’t make this easy…).
Ergo, it seems that the Safe Passages tarot spread should be as follows:
Now, of course, let’s try out this spread for ourselves.
“Ask a question that is crucial to your existence on earth,” says Lilia.
All right. Follow her instructions. =) Think of a question for test-driving the Safe Passages spread with. It needs to be a question “that is crucial to your existence on earth.”
Here are the card positions:
- The Traveler. This is you. This card tells us something about who you are and what you’re bringing to the situation, your core attributes.
- The Quest. This is what’s missing, the journey to be undertaken, what’s at stake, and the reason for your quest.
- The Path Behind. Wounds suffered, lessons learned, experiences gained.
- The Path Ahead. A space for growth and discovery, says Lilia.
- Obstacles. These are the challenges you will face. If it’s a past event, it designates what pain you’ve had to go through to get to where you are. If it’s indicating a future event, it’s a warning sign.
- Windfall. Gains to be had after you have faced the obstacles. These are powers, blessings, and strengths that come to be.
- The Destination. Omen of the future to come. The ending.
Back to card reversals for a moment. Not only was reversed card meanings significant to the plot of the TV show, but lately I’ve also noticed a growing trend in tarot social media moving back toward reading with reversals. We were preferring to read with reversals in like the early 2000s, and then the 2010s had us moving, as a collective, toward no reversals and reading all cards upright, and now I am observing a collective shift back to reversals. Fun!
I also love how the Death card in this show covered the range of meanings tarot readers debate over on what the Death card means. Is it dead-death or is it transformation, moving on to a new phase or cycle. I can’t get into why or how without giving away major spoilers, so I won’t, but the tarot reader watching this episode is going to catch them all. 😉 You’re going to be quite impressed and think, “Oh! Smart!”
And finally, the witchy, magical act of physically changing the positioning of one of the cards in the spread to change the course of events. The episode even covered tarot as spell-casting.
At a critical juncture point of the story, Lilia takes that “Path Ahead” card where The Tower came up in reversed and switches it upright. You even see glowing golden light and subtle sound effects to indicate that it’s a spell. Then by activating the card upright, she, well… that also would be too big of a spoiler. =)
The tarot deck featured in this show is going to become hot commercialized merch in 5… 4… 3… 😉 It’s just a matter of time before we start seeing it for sale. Oh, hmm, interesting that the show went with non-reversible card backs when the characters were reading with reversals. (Random last observation…)
In terms of witchy goodness, there are so many specific technical esoterica, culturally pagan and witches in pop culture through the decades references, plus tongue-in-cheek critiques in this series that I would wager they most definitely have a witchcraft subject matter expert on staff to help with the script.
For me, that’s something I really appreciate. Instead of a staff writer looking stuff up on Wikipedia and mish-mashing fantasy tropes together, this script is informed, and when it leans in to stereotypes, it’s humorously self-aware.
There’s even a bit of witchy Asian representation. One of the coven members, Alice Wu-Gulliver, has a protection seal that her mother had tattooed onto her daughter Alice’s arm, to safeguard her from a generational curse.
The Seal does seem to consist of actual oracle bone script, seal script, Taoist constellation glyphs, and common Fu talisman sigils in general, though itself is probably the TV show’s own original design. I see directionality glyphs for the south and west position; that center ideogram might be Wind though it’s hard to say; there are glyphs for center (or middle pillar), stars, and moon.
In practice, Fu talismans and seals can be uniquely stylized per the individual practitioner, so it’s perfectly plausible that others aren’t able to read out exactly what is what or decipher each glyph’s symbolic meaning.
The many cool, informed detailing is why I embrace reality mimicking fiction here with tarot social media unironically enjoying the Safe Passages reading spread.
If you’ve been watching the show and even if you haven’t but have gathered up a first impression from this blog post, what are your thoughts on the tarot and witchy representation found in Agatha All Along?
benebell wen 
Love the show; appreciate the occult accuracies so that I don’t mind when they go off piste to serve the fun script.
Definitely going to use the Safe Passages spread in my practise at the right time.
best, Dave
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I’ve been getting a huge kick out of this show. LOL, I’ve definitely shouted out loud when an aspect of witchcraft gets represented in an interesting or clever way. As soon as I saw your blog post I grabbed a pen and my tarot notebook to take notes. And yes, I will be pre-ordering the tarot deck (just heard about it yesterday on social media).
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It’s a fun popcorn show and budgetary success, but not without its flaws, mostly imbalance of yin and yang energy in the characters. The cast could really have benefited from including more wands (i.e. Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?). Agatha is too easy to hate, and her boyfriend seems a little young and out of place to me. The fortune teller Lilia is the one character I find most interesting, so I’ll have to check out this new episode once I’m not so busy. Thanks for reminding me. As for Disney and now Marvel’s record on racism, black and Asian representation, Jungle Book, Dr. Strange etc. I’d rather watch Anime to get hints and clues. Did you see “Weathering with you?” That movie really spoke to my inner sense of humor, as well as the weaver girl in “Your name” speaking to my inner sense of teenage romance. Shinkai’s set pieces also have interesting details like for example, putting cucumbers on the altar. This opens up authentic dimensions for viewers who look closely and notice what’s going on (try google “Obon”). In other related news, we had a nice discussion at Kwan Um Kansas yesterday that touched on Korean Shamanism, because Seung Sahn had a “zany sage mode” for esoteric practice. Judy was mixed up, and probably didn’t expect me to confront you with her book, but I think it was a helpful reference to have. The table on astronomical compass beings especially–but where did you get the part about tiger / turtle clairvoyance and clairaudience? That was potentially the most relevant part, because Soen and Zen are a lot about hearing and seeing from the phenomenal into the noumenal and the wisdom realms. Hope you are well. –Brad
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Hum, did you actually watch ? Cause Agatha is a lesbian and her “boyfriend” is gay.
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Reader for 40 years here. I’ve never stopped doing reversals so it was interesting to hear how prevalent the no-reversal movement was. With oracle decks I let them tell me if reversals are okay or not. Too bad I eschew TV, this sounds like an interesting series and I quite enjoyed your blog post! – Sue Jorgenson
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Hi, first time reader of the blog, but I HAVE to highly recommend the series. It’s a high-camp, high-kitsch, LGBT-friendly show, with actual reference to occultism (not 1:1, but oh well) and is a loving satire of witch history and how they’re portrayed in media! It’s funny, witty, and surprisingly emotional. Kathryn Haan DEMOLISHES as Agatha, being both a campy, over the top witch AND a sympathetic protagonist.
Some things might get lost if you haven’t watched WandaVision, but IMO, it’s very minor, as Agatha All Along is a much more self-contained series.
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Knight of Wands was Path Behind (Alice)
High Priestess was Path Ahead (Jennifer)
Three of Swords was Obstacles (Agatha)
The Tower reversed was Windfall
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the reversers tower is representing William->Billy
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I saw this show advertised but I haven’t seen it yet & I probably won’t, since I don’t subscribe to Disney ~ I simply can’t afford to subscribe to everything. But I am wondering if the tarot deck used in the show is going to be eventually sold ~ since that’s how marketing works & that’s the American way, after all. I really liked that Queen of Cups.
I’m going to add that spread to my collection. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi, yes it will come out in the summer 2025. we can already pre-order it on Amazon.
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I totally love this show for many reasons. Not only did I love the character of Agnes/Agatha from WandaVision because I loved Wanda so much, but because I love the representation of different types of witches; not all witches holy good or holy bad just like everybody else and I like to see that. Having a show about witches and not being condescending or overly stereotypical was wonderful and I felt very supported. But I also loved all the different real applications. Nothing was out of the ordinary or strange or even unreasonable not to mention everything was explained beautifully and truthfully. I know this is not a “real spread “, but it’s true though, and I can make it a real spread and that’s one of the things that I love about Marvel is that they got this totally right!
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So I have rewatched this episode and if you watch how she is explaining it to Billy the quest card is pointing him, but when she becomes the traveler. The first card is her, the quest or what is missing is pointing to her, the path behind is the upper left, the path ahead is the upper right, the obstacle is the lower left, the windfall is the lower right, and the destination lies over you. So the placement doesnt change just the wheel facing the traveler.
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I rewatched the episode finally because I want to do this spread and was curious about the confusion. When Lilia is outlining the positions, she’s doing it from Teenager’s position as the querent, which doesn’t make sense plot-wise, but since she takes that spot, the final visual makes sense as laid out. Just a weird snafu of continuity editing.
Also, the “windfall” for the air-element trial and how it ended is genius.
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Thank you, Benebell 💗
You always offer such lovely goodies!!!
I LOVED this AAA episode the best! I, too, appreciated the informed script and the respect to Tarot that was presented including being able to take control of your destiny by choice (Lilia turned the Tower card).
I almost didn’t watch AAA because I have a 3-episode trial before I commit to watching a series and Wanda Vision got on my nerves. A friend whose opinion I trust recommended AAA, so I went back and gladly finished Wanda Vision (which got better from Episode 4 for me).
I fully enjoyed ALL of the witchy references and I believe that a lot of folks will have an opportunity to expand their awareness of the beauties of The Crafts in all of their forms.
The notion of not reading Reversed Tarot Cards has always seemed ridiculous to me — like omitting key ingredients in a cake recipe and expecting it to have delicious form and function. The purpose of Tarot for so many is to assist us through all of the “conscious mind distortions” and connect to Higher Wisdom. That is not probable when you remove opportunities to have balanced readings.
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hello, my name Is Alessi 🙂 ! Thank you for posting this beautiful reading. I was amazed and this was by far the best episode every of AAA. I’m on the third focus of my path as a cartomante and i’ve recently obtained my third deck After 8 years of using my second One (Mantegna’s Deck). when It Will get the right time i Will use this reading and i Will tell you what i Will experience. Many thanks again! 😀 Ciao!
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Just finished binging it with a friend, and enjoyed seeing the whole story I two sittings. The writing is fun and well informed and creates a great spooky atmosphere without sacrificing the humor. And then we came to this gem of an episode. By far my favorite and as soon as we finished the last episode we tried out the Safe Passage Spread. I’m a professional Tarot reader and the spread is clear and helpful and very easy to connect with. Will be trying it out on more friends!
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ive been practicing the safe passage spread for almost a week now, and honestly it works pretty well. Adopting an entirely made up spread from a TV show was not on my bingo card this year lol, but hey when it’s right it’s right in tarot.
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didn’t she switch 3&4 and 5&6? Jennifer (High Priestess) was the path ahead, which was at the “top” with Alice (Knight of Wands) on the other side. 3 of swords (Agatha) and The Tower Reversed were obstacle and the path ahead, respectively. I didn’t see the orientation of the cards change though.
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First thing I thought while watching: Someone did their research, finally! So refreshing to see! Made me fall in love with the show the most
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