The queen of cards

From Renaissance 'Tarocchi' to TikTok Tarot; Tarot cards have been tumbling through history, unlocking secrets of the heart and wisdom of the soul. Meet the Queens of Cards who have shown generations of women how to reshuffle their decks and win at the game of life.

A status symbol featuring 'selfies': the earliest known Tarot cards, aka 'Tarocchi', were gorgeous, hand-painted playing cards, commissioned in 15th century Italy by the wealthiest of families. Their noble members posed as some of the Tarot characters we still know and love today, from the voluptuous Empress to the fierce Queen of Swords. These decks, most famously the Visconti-Sforza deck, were playing cards with a twist, presenting ancient archetypes - many of them female! - that have the power to unlock our inner wisdom. In a world where women are rarely dealt the best cards, Tarot would grow into a tool that allowed any woman to become a Queen of Cards.

For many generations, we have been taught to mistrust our feminine intuition. Tarot offered an accessible way to regain our spiritual authority, whether we were the 'querent' (person having the Tarot reading done) or the 'tarotista' (female card reader). Take Marie-Anne Lenormand, the most celebrated fortune teller of 18th century France. When Napoleon's right-hand man first visited her, pretending to be a businessman, mademoiselle Lenormand saw right through his disguise by pulling the Knight of Swords card, followed by the King of Swords. "You are a high-ranking military officer, Sir, and your superior will one day be Emperor of France," she told him. Et voilá, Marie-Anne became Napoleon's most trusted advisor, using her influence to bring Tarot to women of all classes.

The 'Lenormand' card deck, named after the French tarotista, became a huge hit and is still popular today, but half a century after Marie-Anne's death, another talented woman would help create the most famous Tarot cards of all time: the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. A Bohemian outsider, born in 1878 in London to an American father and a Jamaican mother, Pamela 'Pixie' Colman Smith gave the classic 78 Tarot cards a feminine makeover, creating iconic characters like the Strength card's lovely-yet-fearless lion tamer. Even if you are unfamiliar with Tarot, you can recognize in these images the universal forces that influence all our lives, from fate (the Wheel of Fortune) and chaos (the Tower) to love (the Lovers). A powerful Tarot deck helps you reflect on those forces, teaching you to treasure and trust your intuition.

Since 1909, over 100 million (!) copies of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck have been sold, making Pamela's illustrations synonymous with Tarot itself for many. Still, the iconography of the Tarot keeps evolving with every new generation of (feminist) artists. The 1970s brought us the Motherpeace deck, a groovy take on ancient images from goddess-centered cultures, whose makers recently collaborated with Dior on a Tarot-themed collection. Two decades later, the Third Feminist Wave inspired a bonanza of 'girl power' decks - from the Modern Witch to the Sacred Sisterhood cards - that only keeps growing.

Recently, we saw a new tribe of 'TikTok Tarotistas' take over social media, with #tarot currently boasting over 85 billion views on TikTok alone. Opening their digital card readings with the words: "If you're seeing this, this message is for you!", these Queens of Cards share ancient Tarot magic, amplified by the mystery of the algorithm. And why not? If Tarot has taught us one thing, it's this: the cards may tell our story, but we write the ending.