A literary tarot celebrating the nation's most iconic literature that will guide you through the alternative spiritual movement in 19th century America. Step back in time and celebrate the nation's most iconic writers with this traditional deck that blends American literature, esotericism, and Tarot. The Major Arcana tell the two intertwined stories that define the American Renaissance period in literature: the exaltation of the human spirit under Transcendentalism, and the epic fight to abolish slavery. - Major figures like Emerson (the Magician), Whitman (the World), and Thoreau (the Hermit) are outlined in the short chapters that accompany each card. - Listen as the Kings of the four suits, Herman Melville (Wands), Frederick Douglass (Coins), Edgar Allan Poe (Swords), and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Cups), tell their tales as illustrated in the Minor Arcana. Over thirty writers from the years 1825 to 1875 are profiled in this project that expertly reveals how America’s metaphysical history is at work beneath the surface of its classic literature. Card dimensions: 2 7/8" x 5" "The American Renaissance Tarot allows you to search your inner dimensions while discovering our esoteric history. The deck elevates Tarot into the field of historicism while doing nothing to reduce or sidestep its occult qualities. I believe this is one of our generation's most important additions to Tarot's expanding oeuvre." -- -Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America "What Thea Wirsching gives us in the American Renaissance Tarot is more than a book. It's a library. And each of its 78 cards takes us on a journey into the soul of America. She shows us legendary writers, radicals, and prophets who lived archetypal lives that speak to us through their poetry, novels, politics, and destinies. These are expressly American symbols that will resonate with each of us like the Visconti-Sforza deck did with the Renaissance Italians, the Rider-Waite deck with the British occultists on the eve of the first World War, and the Thoth deck with the 'tune-in drop-out' generation of the 1960s. Indeed not since The Motherpeace Tarot has there been such a dramatic re-envisioning of the Tarot deck itself." -- -Christopher Renstrom, author of Ruling Planets "I wish more Tarot books were like this one; if they were it would portend a revolution in the American occult. Not only is this book scholarly, it's also riveting. The American Renaissance Tarot offers radical new possibilities for working with the mytho-poetic tools of the arcanum. This book reaches back into American history to create myths, find unsung heroes, and inspire a new relevance for all the people using Tarot today." -- -Amanda Yates Garcia, author of Initiated: Memoir of a Witch "Thea Wirsching’s American Renaissance Tarot is a remarkable work. Combining a scholar’s understanding of 19th-century American history and literature with an occultist’s sensitivity to the force of symbols, Wirsching gives us a Tarot that works at once as a modern oracle and as a diverse reimagining of the American experiment. Along with familiar figures like Emerson, Poe, and Melville, Wirsching and her wonderful illustrator Celeste Pille invite scores of women and people of color to the oracular table. At the same time, their revisions go beyond a critique of American empire into an invocation of the country’s dormant seeds of spiritual liberty. This deck reminds us that Tarot is a vehicle of history as well as myth, as appropriate for times of tragedy and conflict as for times of concord and illumination." -- -Erik Davis, author of TechGnosis and High Weirdness "Rarely have I encountered a project which is so learned and creative in equal measure. For many involved in the esoteric milieu, Britain is held in esteem as the font of modern occult culture, but in this unique creation, Thea Wirsching and illustrator Celeste Pille ask us to reclaim the legacy of America’s distinctive esoteric history. The American Renaissance Tarot inspires us to remember the hidden stories of American’s past and to weave ourselves back into the tales of our own forgotten, sometimes uncomfortable, and often unacknowledged histories. The deck provides an important focus on diversity in American history and literature, illuminating stories and figures that have been overshadowed by dominant and incomplete narratives. Wirsching deftly presents genuine scholarship with her own esoteric practice to create a tarot deck that also serves as a pedagogical tool, offering an original interpretive framework for the history and literature of the peoples who shaped the emerging United States in the nineteenth century, and not glossing over the painful recurring motifs which are embedded in this nation’s story." -- -Amy Hale, author of Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-Loved Gully Thea Wirsching is a writer, scholar, and evolutionary astrologer. Her PhD research at UCLA focused on occultism in American literature. Thea’s astrol