3 Weeks Online Course taught via Zoom by Morbid Anatomy Programing Director Laetitia Barbier

Wednesdays December 7, 14, and 21
7 pm ET (NYC Time)
$100 (Patreon Members $5/mo and above) / $125 (Regular Admission)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Please note: Zoom invites are sent five days before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

Pale horses and crayfish. Foxes, ibis and cats. Tarot, from its earlier hours in 15th Century Italy, shapes itself as a symbolic zoo, the fauna serving as metaphorical counterpoint concealing latent meanings, a subtext read in parallel to the allegorical content of each card.

From Ancient Egypt to Medieval heraldry, animals assume different identities, from divine messengers, mischievous helpers or moral example, a matrix of interpretation evolving through time, shape-shifting from one civilization to the next. The subjective, poetic observation of nature served as the substrate of myth, allowing to reconcile, reorganize the visible and the invisible manifestation of the natural world.

Together, and for the first two classes, we’ll travel through time, using Tarot as a kind of magic carpet, guiding us through a cross-cultural journey through the kingdom of beasts, chimeras and theriomorphic gods. From Ovid’s Metamorphosis to European folktales, we’ll look at animality in a variety of card divination systems as a repository of symbolic and often magical attributes. Tarot’s iconography can be viewed as a spectacular cabinet of curiosity, arranging esoteric teaching drawn from the natural world using the arcanas as a template.

In the third class, we’ll try to connect in a more animist approach to the cards, using fantasized and real animal behavior to reshape our understanding of the cards in creative ways. Through practical exercises, meditation and hands-on experimentation, we’ll imagine new configurations to rewild our Tarot eye and awaken our instinct as readers.

Class 1 - Animals as Seers

• Animals in Historical Tarot Decks

• Divination and the Natural World

• Animal Gods and Their Worship.

Class 2: Animals as Teachers

• Allegorical and their Symbolic Meanings.

• Zoological myth and their teaching.

• Unnatural History and Fantasized Fauna in the Tarot.

Class 3: Practice Class

• Reading like a beast: an instinctive way of reading cards

• Rewilding the basics of Tarot

• Animal Tarot - experimenting with zoo-centric decks.

French born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, as well as professional tarot reader and teacher. She earned a Bachelor Degree in Art History from La Sorbonne University Paris in 2009. Laetitia has worked with Morbid Anatomy since 2012 as a programming director, head librarian and occasional curator. She is the author of Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Images:

1. 10 of Heart from a French divination deck, early 19th Century

2. "Verkehrte Welt” German Tarot, 1840s

3. Wild woman with unicorn, French Tapestry, 1500

4. Moon card, Tarot de Besançon, 19th Century

5. World card, Jean Noblet Tarot, 1659

6. Fish Card, Petit Lenormand, Germany, 1875

7. Queen of Wands, Rider Waite Smith, Contemporary Edition, 20th Century