Tarot in Popular Culture: Two TV Shows That Featured Tarot Cards
“We move from terror and loss, to unexpected good fortune,
and out of darkness, hope is born.” -Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, quoting the tarot.
It’s inevitable that tarot cards should make it into pop culture.
After all, in this world where people are worried about death and mortality, nothing is more alarming than the image of the Death Card. This tarot card is perhaps the most popular in the deck. Traditionally, TV, film, literature, and the other art have always dramatically presented the sinister side of this tarot card, and so audiences can be forgiven if they mistakenly assume that the Death card is equivalent to actual dying.
Just to clarify things, the Death card is not always a dreaded card signifying death. Instead, the Death card should be welcomed for the rebirth that must surely follow; it is the only way to be reborn. Death then is not just physical dying, but a catalyst for change and transformation to something better and grander.
Tarot as a Story-Telling Device
What really makes tarot ingrained in pop culture is its inherent story-telling powers. Tarot cards’ rich imagery and symbolism are a great minefield of stories and narratives which have inspired artists everywhere.
And thus we come to two remarkable TV shows which featured tarot cards in an innovative and un-clichéd light.
Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, episode in The X-Files
(first aired October 13, 1995)
In this
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