This week’s guest author is Juno Lucina, creator of The Healing Tarot: 78 Ways to Wellness with illustrator Monica Knighton, as well as The Kingdom Within Tarot deck and The Alchemy of Tarot: Practical Enlightenment through the Astrology, Qabalah, and Archetypes of Tarot with illustrator Shannon ThornFeather.

I still remember the first time I held a Tarot deck in my hands.

I was wandering the Winchester Mystery House gift shop in San Jose, California, both spooked and enchanted by the tour I’d just taken, when I spied a single deck of cards laying there on an otherwise empty shelf: The Halloween Tarot by Kipling West. I’d always loved Halloween and card decks but had never given Tarot a second thought. I picked it up, completely unprepared for my visceral reaction.

After purchasing, I hurried home to “play” with my new deck. Back then Tarot decks only came with what was ambivalently called a “Little White Book” (LWB), and I read the one that accompanied my new deck in less than five minutes. I tried some simple readings using the LWB and was amused and mildly intrigued by my results, but I had the sneaking suspicion that much, much more was possible.

I decided to pursue that possibility.

I spent the next year reading every book I could discover on the topic. I practiced with every deck style I could find, from the Rider Waite and its many clones, to Crowley’s Thoth, to Pagan-themed decks, to what I can only call “Decks by an artist who created 78 cool pictures and decided to publish them as a Tarot deck to make money,” and everything in between. I read for myself; I read for friends. Before anyone had ever written a book or article about the idea, I used the card images as inspirations for my own poetry, short story, and novel writing.

Eventually, when I couldn’t uncover any more books to read, I began taking classes and attending conferences and symposiums. I explored Tarot through the lenses of Astrology, Occultism, Qabalah, Psychology, Archetypes, and History. Over time, interpreting and “seeing” the messages in a Tarot reading became instinctual: it became my symbol set and mythology. I read professionally at my local metaphysical bookstore for a time, and as much as I loved helping people see the truth of their lives with the wisdom of the Tarot, I became increasingly frustrated by my clients’ tendency to grow ever more dependent upon me to help them interpret the cards and make decisions about their own lives rather than make the transition to reading for themselves and using the Tarot for their own spiritual unfolding. Spiritual masters and teachers and ministers and gurus are perhaps necessary on the way to awakening, but it is essential that seekers journey beyond dependence upon others for their own spiritual development.

I felt very much about reading Tarot as Chef Gusteau from the Pixar movie “Ratatouille” felt about cooking:

Anyone Can Read Tarot.

However, even as I felt (and still feel) these words so keenly, I am aware of how simultaneously hypocritical that might seem after relaying to you my own Tarot journey. How many people have the time (or inclination) to read all the books I’ve read, do all the readings I’ve done, spend all the money I’ve spent, study with all the people with whom I’ve studied, or attend all the conferences I’ve attended? And is “all that” effort necessary, really?

Thus began my next pursuit in the possibility of Tarot: to craft a Tarot deck that incorporated everything I’d learned about Tarot so that—

Anyone Can Read Tarot.

I spent years writing the book, which was ultimately so long that my publisher prudently decided to publish it as a standalone coffee-table collector’s tome — The Alchemy of Tarot: Practical Enlightenment through the Astrology, Qabalah, and Archetypes of Tarot. With a foreword graciously written by one of the many Tarot Masters I met along my own Tarot journey, Lon Milo DuQuette, it was a huge amount of work that — although illustrated with images from my first Tarot deck by illustrator Shannon ThornFeather (The Kingdom Within Tarot) — was written to be used with any Tarot deck. My goal in writing The Alchemy of Tarot was to bring together everything I’d read and learned and experienced and practiced in one place, so that you don’t have to. Within its pages, you’ll find the following aspects of Tarot explored:

• Basic Classical, Horary, and Medical Astrology in Tarot
• History of Tarot
• Gematria (Hebrew Numerology)
• The Golden Dawn and Rider Waite deck
• Crowley and Thoth deck
• Qabalah and Pathworking for Spiritual Awakening
• The Fool (Hero’s) Journey via Joseph Campbell and the Sacrificial God Mythos
• Elements, Seasons, and Cycles
• Western Philosophy, Buddhism, Yoga, Christianity, Judaism, Paganism, and Hinduism
• Mythological Archetypes
• Myers-Briggs Court Card Connections
• …and much, much more….

Now, if you are reading that long list and thinking, “I thought you said, ‘Anyone Can Read Tarot’—in no way can I learn all of that!” I get it. I penned The Alchemy of Tarot for the person who wishes to explore the muchier possibilities that these 78 cards might have to offer in one expansive book.

The opposite of an LWB.

But, The Alchemy of Tarot is not for everyone, and remember where I began–

Anyone Can Read Tarot.

To this end, I collaborated with my good friend Shannon ThornFeather — who just so happens to be an illustrator, Ceremonial Magician, and student of Metaphysics in her own right — for almost two years to create a new Tarot deck. As I wrote the book and told her what I envisioned for the images on each card, she took my long and involved descriptions and manifested the artwork. It was Tarot Masters Mary Greer and Rachel Pollack who helped the two of us choose a name for our new creation — The Kingdom Within Tarot — as it was crafted to visually depict the Tarot’s archetypal roots in every image — the Kingdom Within Tarot, if you will — with the dual goal of helping each individual restore his or her own Kingdom Within through Tarot practice.

The Kingdom Within Tarot is meant to be taken straight out of the box and read effortlessly, no prior experience necessary. The guidebook that accompanies it is simple, straightforward, clear, and delivers precise divinatory readings for all levels of reader, including how to interpret reversals, “yes or no” questions, and questions of time. This guidebook can be used to read with any standard Tarot deck, although the pictures on each of the cards in The Kingdom Within Tarot deck focus the reader by visually portraying the meaning of each card to deepen your own intuition and confidence while reading. That said, while this system of interpretation may be used with any standard Tarot deck, there are many alternate ways of interpreting Tarot that also work exceptionally well. Please don’t think my book or deck have the final word on Tarot (that is like claiming to have the final word on Existence), but it does contain the ingredients you’ll need to see the truth of your life’s circumstances, and improve your life as a result, without the help of another person.

Tarot Master Ferol Humphrey helped The Kingdom Within Tarot find its publishing home with Schiffer/ Red Feather, and I supposed my foray into publishing about Tarot was complete. It was never my goal to create many different decks as some creators do, and with the publication of The Alchemy of Tarot for the more advanced reader and The Kingdom Within Tarot for “Anyone,” I returned to my other passion of novel writing.

Over the next year, however, it became increasingly clear to me that I had not quite succeeded in my aim, that–

Anyone Can Read Tarot.

Even though The Alchemy of Tarot contains a section that details how to utilize the Tarot for questions of health and healing, I realized this was a virtually untouched area by professional readers (for good reason — Tarot is NEVER medicine and NEVER should take the place of seeking medical advice from a credentialed medical practitioner), and at that time I could find no decks or books on the market to help people use the Tarot in addressing their own holistic health and healing. So, I decided to write the book.

I contacted an already well-established Tarot artist I had met before and whose artwork I deeply admired — Monica Knighton, best known for her Tarot of the Dead and Stolen Child Tarot — and asked if she would be willing to craft whimsical black and white illustrations of each Tarot card to visually portray the health and healing messages for this new project. This book eventually became a book and deck set, The Healing Tarot: 78 Ways to Wellness, also published by Schiffer / Red Feather. Monica’s card illustrations are truly exquisite, and I still have some of my favorite of her original drawings adorning the walls of my home today. The comprehensive guidebook (larger than what accompanies The Kingdom Within Tarot but smaller than The Alchemy of Tarot) thoroughly examines Tarot from the perspective of health and holistic healing by using correlations with Medical Astrology and is crafted to answer the age-old question: How do we heal? For each card, the traditional meaning is included, as well as the upright and reversed health meanings. The Major Arcana’s archetypal healing messages are explored in-depth, making this deck both practical for divination as well as a metaphysical and philosophical treatise on holistic health and healing.

With this second project completed, I returned to pursuing my other passions. In many ways it seemed I disappeared from the Tarot community, and many of my friends who shared my love of Tarot would ask me why I seemed to vanish from the Tarot scene?

Juno Lucina is my pen name (she is the aspect of the Roman goddess Juno who first opens a newborn child’s eyes to the light), and I am by nature a private person, uncomfortable with self-promotion. I prefer others to take the spotlight, and although I admire my compatriots who have risen in the Divination public eye over the past ten years with their personal branding, social media presence, and speaking engagements, I am truly happiest when at home researching and writing behind the scenes. I applaud and support my more famous friends but am quite content to have remained virtually mute for six years as I developed my novel writing and explored other aspects of my loves and this lifetime. I thought that what I had to give the world of Tarot was already out there for those who sought it, and that was enough.

But then COVID-19 struck our world…and everything changed.

Today, I find myself working on a new Tarot project — a book this time, rather than a deck. A book that builds upon what has already been written, but in no way repeats it. Its working title is: “Tarot Beyond Belief: Using the Tarot to Choose the Stories We Wish to Live.”

As you can probably guess from the working title, the intentions of this book far surpass in scope anything I’ve attempted before. But, if you’ll recall, Tarot is my symbol set and mythology, and the symbols and myths we believe and enact shape who we are and the world we create together.

Anyone Can Read Tarot, it’s true. But what matters more than the ability to read the Tarot is the dedication to apply the truths that Tarot teaches us to heal ourselves and our world.

Enjoy a Walkthrough of The Kingdom Within Tarot Deck:

Author Bio:

Juno Lucina‘s most recent publication in the realm of Tarot is a collaboration with illustrator Monica Knighton entitled The Healing Tarot: 78 Ways to Wellness. Also the creator of The Kingdom Within Tarot deck and author of The Alchemy of Tarot: Practical Enlightenment Through the Astrology, Qabalah, and Archetypes of Tarot (both with illustrator Shannon ThornFeather), Juno is an empress by design and a star by nature. Ever fluid and changing, Juno is more a verb than a noun, more an introduction than a conclusion. She wishes that All awaken from Vishnu’s dream, to see the truth and embrace All That Is. Juno is just a Story pointing the Way.