As tarot continues to capture our imaginations, present-day practitioners weigh in on its possibilities for self-care and spiritual connection.
How to Use Tarot Cards in 2021
Back in 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri made her formal debut at the house of Dior with a breathtaking tarot-themed collection. At the time, she insisted that the symbolism tied into the brand’s belief in the power of material objects evoking a spiritual world. (Rumor has it that the late Christian Dior would do readings before all of his shows.) Since then, an homage to the practice has always been woven into the luxury fabrics of the fashion house. Dior’s 2018 resort collection incorporated iconography from Motherpeace, a feminist tarot deck created by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble in the late ’70s. So naturally, the Spring 2021 haute couture collection followed suit with 45 looks that bring the cards to life and forecast a paranormal future that anyone would want to be part of.
Looks from Dior’s Spring 2021 Couture collection.
Photo: Elina Kechicheva / Courtesy of Christian Dior
One of the creative director’s biggest inspirations is the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle and her 1998 installation Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy. Located on 14 acres of land within the village of Capalbio, this surreal sculpture garden is considered Saint Phalle’s “life’s work” and houses 22 ceramic masterpieces based on the Major Arcana of tarot. Her rare serigraphic major arcana deck is now worth as much as $425 on eBay. This writer purchased a spare deck from a seller who shared that it remains one of her most treasured decks, describing Saint Phalle’s depictions of the Majors as “a place I can always go for simplicity and clarity.”
Selected works of the late artist will be on exhibition at MoMa PS1 starting March 11. The curator, Ruba Katrib, states that Saint Phalle was interested in tarot as a tool for “understanding the journey of life” and studied the history of it across various cultures and belief systems. As someone who “wanted to challenge and break down dualities,” tarot provided a gateway for her “thinking through whatever one encounters in life beyond notions of good and bad.”
“I definitely see more openness to it in the present and a better understanding of its use of archetypes, not only as a divining tool, but a way of talking about our lives and relationships, our current situations, our past, as well as our hopes and dreams,” says Katrib. “It is a storytelling tool, so it is very connected to art.”
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Sydney Gore
