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The Fool’s Journey through Sunnydale: A Look At the Archetypes of the Major Arcana As Seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
210 pages, nonfiction (approx 85,000 words) trade paperback
tarot discussion and instruction
ISBN# 978-0-9826023-8-6
Cover Art by Jupiter Gardens Press and Winterheart Design

BLURB:
Take a walk with the Fool as he journeys through the streets of Sunnydale. Explore the meanings of each Major Arcana card as depicted in lore, and in the hit television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. An introduction to the tarot for fans, or as a way for tarot enthusiasts to deepen their knowledge of the cards, this book will take the reader on a journey starting with the Fool and ending with the World!

EXCERPT:
No one really knows how the tarot began. Rumors claim it may have begun in Egypt, China, or other exotic places. However, most sources agree the tarot originated in Northern Italy early in the fifteenth century. Lavish hand-painted decks from noble courts are the earliest existing tarot cards. These cards depicted the beliefs and styles of their royal creators, giving the cards a decidedly Western, Judeo-Christian focus. However, the symbolism found in the tarot deck is nearly universal, and today, decks cover nearly every religion and topic from Qaballah, Paganism, Native American beliefs, and even baseball.

Our modern 52-card deck of playing cards evolved from the tarot. All the “pip” cards, or the numbered cards, remained intact, and only the Joker survives as a remnant of the Major Arcana. This becomes easy to see when looking at older decks, which only had the picture of the symbol on the pip cards. For example, the Five of Cups, only had pictures of five cups. The suits came down through the ages nearly intact as well, with the swords, staves, cups, and pentacles (coins) becoming spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. The joker is synonymous with the Fool card, the first card of the Major Arcana, or first half of the tarot deck. The face cards, King through Jack, are the King, Queen, and Knight of the tarot deck. The Page cards were dropped.

The tarot deck is broken into two halves, the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana contains 22 cards, starting with the Fool and ending with the World. These cards chronicle the journey of the Fool as s/he learns the lessons life offers. Each card of the Major Arcana chronicles some aspect of the personality to be learned (the Star) or trial to be overcome (the Tower). As the cards progress through the Major Arcana, the Fool learns lessons, until he reaches the World, which is complete fulfillment and integration of all aspects of the personality.

The Minor Arcana, the remaining 56 cards, obtained pictures when A.E. White printed the Waite-Smith tarot in 1909. Before this time, the Minor Arcana cards contained only the number of their suit, such as five cups for the Five of Cups. Artist Pamela Coleman Smith contributed her own vision to the cards, especially through the evocative paintings on the Minor Arcana. This fully realized tarot deck became the one thought of when dealing with the tarot. The Rider-Waite deck is a later revision of this same deck.

The tarot didn’t always tell the future, however. Written records tell us the tarot was regularly used to play a card game similar to Bridge. The game was popular throughout much of Europe and is still played in France. It wasn’t until the 1790s when tarot decks became designed with divination in mind. This doesn’t mean that the tarot was never equated with esoteric or occult principles. The time when the tarot originated, the early Italian Renaissance, was a time of great intellectual diversity and activity. Hermeticism, astrology, unorthodox Christian thought, even Pythagorean philosophy, all thrived during this time. It is quite possible that any or all of these ideas made their way into the tarot deck.

While most modern students are familiar with the history of the tarot, very few study it intently. Instead, students look to the symbolism of the tarot to give them insight into their own lives. With the variety of tarot decks on the market, it is easy for a student to pick the deck that suits his or her needs best. It isn’t necessary to know the history of the tarot before diving into its study, but the knowledge does enhance the experience.

The cult television hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer inspires thoughts on many esoteric subjects. The tarot is no different. Within the cast of the entire seven seasons lie the archetypes of the Major Arcana. Matching the divinatory meanings of the cards along with their personality traits, all twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana will be discussed within the context of the series. Starting with the divinatory meanings, then moving onto the aspects expressed by several different characters, and finishing with the one character (or group of characters) who embodies the context of the card, this volume explores the link between the Major Arcana and the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

So let’s open the door, and begin the Fool’s Journey through Sunnydale.