Arcana & Audiobooks: Tarot Card Pairings
Whether you’re a true clairvoyant or a casual believer, there’s something in a tarot deck for everyone. Getting a reading or even pulling singular cards for yourself can be extremely helpful in gaining perspective on tricky situations, self-reflection, and decision making.
And what is trying to pick your next audiobook listen if not a difficult decision?
We’ve pulled audiobook pairings for a selection of the major arcana tarot cards so you’ll know exactly what to press play on after your next reading.
The Star
Symbolizes: Hope, inspiration, contentment following difficulty, being blessed by the universe
If you pull this card, listen to: House of Smoke by John T. Edge
The Star card is a sign of inspiration–it has calm, healing energy that often comes in the aftermath of some kind of difficulty (see: The Tower). It can represent something one was always meant to do, but can only be discovered once the metaphorical rubble has been cleared. In House of Smoke, John T. Edge takes us on a quest for home in the South. Troubled by the violence he witnessed as a boy, Edge ran from his past, searching for a newer and better South. In the process, he became one of the most powerful voices in American food…until he found himself denounced by the audience he once guided and returned to his origins. His search spans the Deep South and charts a very American story of the truth telling and soul searching it takes to love your people and your place.
The Fool
Symbolizes: New beginnings, innocence, freedom, faith in the future and the universe
If you pull this card, listen to: Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
In the summer of 1985, Benji Cooper is concerned with mastering complicated new handshakes and state-of-the-art profanity. He will be tested by his misshapen haircut and by his secret Lite FM addiction. Sag Harbor, a Black Hamptons vacationing community where all of this takes place, is the place where Benji can embrace his authentic self. He’s at the very beginning of his life and a nearly parent-free summer, one he might carry with him forever. This sweet nostalgia is so reminiscent of The Fool: a card on that means you’re on the precipice of something brand new, rich with hilarious, charming naivete that comes with being young.
Death
Symbolizes: Change, transformation, endings, change, letting go
If you pull this card, listen to: The Only Constant by Najwa Zebian
Getting this out of the way at the top: Death is a good card. It signifies endings, hard stops that say you’re closing one chapter and another is about to begin. With it comes self-awareness and confidence to move on from what is no longer for you. The Only Constant is an excellent choice for when you find yourself in one of these transitional periods. In the audiobook, Najwa Zebian shares stories of change from her own life, including the bonds to the past she needed to break so that she could live more honestly. It’s a reminder that change is a fact. Who’d want to be stagnant anyway?
The Lovers
Symbolizes: Love, harmony, values, relationships, major choices
If you pull this card, listen to: The Lovers by Rebekah Faubion
This may seem a little on the nose, but this is the pick for The Lovers for reasons way beyond the title: a second chance romance for a card that is all about making big choices in a way that aligns with one’s values? C’mon. Kit’s cards once told her that she and Julia were Twin Flames, two halves of the same soul. Now that they find themselves working the same wedding, with a history of heartbreak and the complication of an ex-girlfriend in the bridal party, the pair have to decide if there’s a spark worth reigniting, or if it should be left unlit.
The Tower
Symbolizes: Chaos, upheaval, confusion, destruction (for a reason!)
If you pull this card, listen to: Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samantha Schweblin
The characters of Good and Evil find themselves at a point of no return. They become trapped in the instant in which the uncanny has lurched into their lives. Some are transformed, some are isolated, others waver between guilt or tenderness. All of them are driven by uncertainty. This is The Tower, undoubtedly: a card that represents a time in one’s life where you are straight up going through it. Up is down, and things not built on a solid foundation crumble and fall. But you can take heart in that it’s all for a purpose, and not just chaos for chaos’s sake. It’s hard, but what follows is rebuilding and absolute strength.
Wheel of Fortune
Symbolizes: Luck, destiny, karma, intention, life cycles
If you pull this card, listen to: Full of Myself by Austin Channing Brown
The Wheel of Fortune is a reminder that life and the world happen without consulting us, and that sometimes things are just wholly out of our control. It also is a card that represents working with what you’re dealt–just because happenstances can feel pre-destined doesn’t mean one needs to sit passively by. It’s important to meet ups and downs and life cycles with intention, whatever that may mean to you. In Full of Myself, antiracism educator and writer Austin Channing Brown finds herself at the crossroad of loving her job, but being entirely burnt out. She began to ask, “What do I deserve, not just as a citizen but as a human?” and in answering that question reveals the mechanisms that limit who Black women are allowed to be and the defining moments when she decided that self-possession is the justice work she had been made to undervalue.
The High Priestess
Symbolizes: Intuition, wisdom, mystery, reflection
If you pull this card, listen to: The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell
One of the more fun aspects of The High Priestess card, in my opinion, is the representation of the unknown, the subconscious, the unexplainable. In The White Octopus Hotel, Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a gentleman in 2015 and has the sudden feeling that she’s held his hand before. Maybe a few years ago, or maybe in another lifetime. If Eve and this gentleman named Max put logic aside, for an impossible moment at a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, love and healing are just a room away.
