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The Posthumanist Tarot - speculative world-building

Tarot began as a game. Somewhere between the fifteenth century and the occultist revivals of the nineteenth, through the hands of Etteilla, through Lévi, through Crowley's Thoth deck and its deliberate fusion of Kabbalah, astrology, and Egyptian mysticism, it became a system for reading the world. A technology for telling stories about the unknown, for putting words into images, for imagining what comes next.

It has always been a form of worlding, making sense of existence through narrative, symbol, and relation. What it has not always been is posthuman.

This project asks what happens when the Major Arcana is pulled out of its individualistic framework (the hero's journey, the path of self-discovery, the single consciousness moving toward reconciliation with the cosmos), and reimagined as a multispecies, cosmopolitical practice. Not a journey of the self, but a map of entanglements. Not individuation, but becoming-with.

Each card is read through five registers: Jodorowsky's psychomagical tradition, Sallie Nichols's Jungian interpretation, posthumanist theory, Stengers's cosmopolitics and Celidwen's ethics of belonging, and finally a posthumanist translation that emerges from the dialogue between all four. The method is borrowed from Haraway, string figures, weaving old spells and new stories together, because it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with.

The result is not a finished deck. It is a speculative tool, an invitation to imagine hybrid worlds beyond the human, where the Fool is a wanderer without fixed boundaries, Death is ecological regeneration, and The World is a polyphonic cosmos of multiple agencies becoming-with together.


0. Le Mat



Original source of energy without limits, total freedom, madness, chaos or the initial creative force. “Every road is my road” (Jodorowsky, 2004, p. 147).
A. Jodorowsky

Represents beginnings, openness and potential. The innocent and the trickster. It’s the start of the journey, the innocence, spontaneity and willingness to step into the unknown with curiosity and courage. “The fool is both the beginning and the end of the journey, a paradoxical figure full of potential yet without attachments”.

S. Nichols

The Wanderer: embracing uncertainty, hybridity and transformation in a world without fixed boundaries. Openess to becoming-with others (human, non-human and tech). “It matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with, it matters what world world world; it matters what knots knot knots” (Haraway, 2016, p. 12).

Traditional Posthumanism
Willingness to explore unknown relationalities among beings, energies and systems. Embrace the uncertainty and the collective process of world-making. “To enter the cosmopolitical arena is to accept that we do not how to define the common world we are trying to compose (Stengers, 2005, p.994).

Cosmopolitics // Ethics of Belonging

Translation to Posthumanist Tarot
The start of the journey, the beginning and potential to explore unknown worlds, beings, energies and systems. The posibilities of becoming-with others, there are no fixed boundaries.




II. La Papesse



This figure acts as an incubator, in constant state of gestation of herself. A symbol of total purity, she reveals the side of us that has never been touched or hurted, the “virgin” we carry inside. A source of potentiality.
Often refered as a mother or grandmother, without intrinsic sexuality, often even cold. As well it could reflect a sacred character, like a therapist, a priestess, a guide that unites souls. (Jodorowsky, 2004, p. 160).
A. Jodorowsky

The Wise Woman: represents intuition, mystery and the connection to the unconscious. Embodies inner knowledge, the feminine and guides us to trust our intuition and swim in the unconscious.

S. Nichols

The Data Oracle: guardian of digital, informational and ancestral knowledge. Represents intuition within the psyche but within the networked entanglements of data, algorithms and collective intelligence. “Posthuman epistemology is embedded, embodied and distributed rejecting the idea of a single, autonomous knower”. (Barad, 2007, p. 90).

Traditional Posthumanism
The Mediator or worlds: representing the interface between different forms of knowledge and existence. The ethical responsibility to listen to other than human entities. It guides the respectful co-existance of multiple knowledge systems. “The cosmos is not a single unified order but a proliferation of divergent ways of inhabiting and making sense of the world” (Stengers, 2005, p. 995).

Cosmopolitics // Ethics of Belonging

Translation to Posthumanist Tarot
Embodied knowledge, the oracle that contains the different forms of knowledge and forms of existence. The entangled network of data, collective intelligence and intuition that guides all forms of life.


VIII. L’Hermite




Represents a step into the unknown, both the maximum state of wisdom and profund crisis. It shows the way to go or the way to god. “I’ve alredy done my taks, here I am, see me”. (Jodorowsky, 2004, p. 201-202).
A. Jodorowsky

The Seeker: represents introspection, solitude, the quest for wisdom, inner guidance and the search for a deeper truth. “The Hermit reminds us that answers lie within, illuminated by the light of our own soul”.

S. Nichols

Exploring inner and outer worlds through digital and multi species connections. Balancing solitude with a relational awareness of the interconnected web of existence. “The Posthuman subject is a node in a network, continously becoming with others” (Braidotti, 2013, p. 99).

Traditional Posthumanism
The Interstitial Observer:a figure who retreats to observe the interstices where worlds meet and interact. Values slowing down to percieve the subtleties of coexistence. “To practice cosmopolitics is to slow down and pay attention to the practices of the others who share the cosmos” (Stengers, 2005, p. 998).
Humility and attentiveness in navigating entangled worlds.

Cosmopolitics // Ethics of Belonging

Translation to Posthumanist Tarot
Introspection to slow down and reflect over inner and outer worlds, where do they meet and interact. The quest of wisdom in an interconnected planetary scale.


XIII.



Invites to a radical cleanse of the past, a revolution situated in the non verbal profundities of the being, in the shadow unknown of ourselves where it emerges our humanity. It calls to purification, to set the ground for a “new life”. (Jodorowsky, 2004, p. 225-226).
A. Jodorowsky

The Transformer: represents endings, change, rebirth, transformation and the cycle of life and death. Renewal and regrowth, embracing change.

S. Nichols

Recycling, symbolizing the cycle of decomposition and regeneration across human and non-human worlds. Ecological interconnectedness and constant flow of transformation. “The ethics of the Chthulucene require composting rather than burning” (Haraway, 2016, p. 33).

Traditional Posthumanism
The Ecological Recycler: represents the cycles of decay and regeneration that sustains life. Highlights the necessity of decomposition in ecological processes, in the cyclical nature of existence across species and systems. “Cosmopolitics acknowledges the transformative power of decay as a force of renewal and interdependence” (Stengers, 2011, p. 389).

Cosmopolitics // Ethics of Belonging

Translation to Posthumanist Tarot
Cyclical transformation, decay and regeneration. Ecological interconnectedness and constant flow of transformation. The power of regeneration.


XXI. Le Monde



Final and supreme realization. Union of principles, realized androgyny. Calls to acknowledge its profound reality, accept the fullness of the realization. Represents freedom from self destruction, recognize the suffering in others and putting oneself to the service of universe. (Jodorowsky, 2004, p. 227-228).
A. Jodorowsky

The Self: represents wholeness, integration and the culmination of individuation. Embodies fulfillment, harmony and the realization of potential. “The world signifies the union of all opposites, a moment of transcendence and completion”.

S. Nichols

Interconnection: the world becomes an interconnected whole, in a planetary and cosmic unity across human and non-human . worlds. Symbolizes the collective effort towards multispecies flourishing. “Posthuman ethics is about affirmation, recognizing our entangled existence with the material world and each other” (Barad, 2007, p. 392).

Traditional Posthumanism
Polyphonic cosmos: the coexistence of multiple voices, perspectives and agencies in a shared, yet fragmented world. The collective effort of making worlds together. “The cosmos is not a given but a constant negotiation of divergences, a polyphonic harmony of beings” (Stengers, 2005, p. 995).

Cosmopolitics // Ethics of Belonging

Translation to Posthumanist Tarot
The Whole: multiple agencies in harmony completing each other. Entangled existence becoming-with together.