According to Smithsonian Magazine, Sylvia Plath used the Tarot de Marseille deck, which her husband, Ted Hughes, gifted her on her 24th birthday in 1956. It is believed that she also used the Rider-Waite deck. The original Tarot de Marseille cards were auctioned at Sotheby’s and gifted to Courtney Love, who shared a post of her own tarot pulls from Plath’s cards. Upon encountering the notorious social media post, I started forming my humble understanding of Plath’s work, through the eyes of my degree in literature and as a tarot reader.
First, it’s important to know that tarot is a system of imagery in the cards, which is left open to interpretation. Yes, there are specific guidelines in the basic meaning, but the reader’s relationship to the card paints the canvas.
In Plath’s case, she literally draws reference to The Hanged Man in her poem “The Hanging Man,” describing someone suspended in midair, with their world upside down. Many scholars have said that the poem relates to an “unsympathetic” world and to her inability to fit into the status quo as a woman in the 1960s, due to her resistance and ambivalence toward taking on the role of a housewife.
I read these texts as Plath using tarot to explore the divide she feels between tradition and the loss of her heritage through an existential lens.
The Hanged Man in the Rider-Waite deck is depicted as a figure hanging upside down, representing someone who feels stuck and unsure of themselves, which is what the imagery of her words articulates. “The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard’s eyelid :/ A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket. A vulturous boredom pinned me in this tree.: If I were I, I would do what I did”
The Moon card urges us to acknowledge our deep-seated phobias and to comprehend the subconscious mind in intricate ways. In the case of The Moon, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Plath alludes to this notion in “The Moon and the Yew Tree,” by writing, “Its green vapors trigger an olfactory déjà vu like a recurrent nightmare” and “It haunts and threatens like a past trauma, showing her anxiety toward the moon and what it symbolizes.” Plath would have understood that the tarot card The Moon, as well as the celestial body of the moon, represents family.
In astrology, the Moon is a maternal influence. The yew tree is her father, spiritually affiliated with death and rebirth. The poem explores the divide between religion and her connection to the occult by discussing the blue saints in the church, as seen in the Hierophant tarot cards, which symbolize devotion to faith. In this poem, I read these texts as Plath using tarot to explore the divide she feels between tradition and the loss of her heritage through an existential lens.
The words in her work “Morning Song” and The Fool” are immense, although some argue that The Magician and The Star resonate with the poem as well. Personally, I believe that many things can be true at the same time, so I support all theories. The argument for The Magician stems from the opening line: “Love set you going like a fat gold watch,” referring to the sorcerer’s ability to transform words into objects and materialism into something else.
The Star represents hope and carries a positive connotation, which seems right for the optimism the poem lends to the start of a journey into motherhood, which Plath approaches with mixed emotions: “I’m no more your mother/ Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow/ Effacement at the wind’s hand.” While she recognizes a child will serve as a mirror to her mother, she’s hesitant in her approach to motherhood due to the impact it’ll have on her career. The poem’s ending depicts stars being swallowed by the dawn, alluding to the end of her ability to craft her writing career: “Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try/ Your handful of notes; / The clear vowels rise like balloons.” As we know, Plath continued to write poetry following the birth of her child in 1960 and in fact her creativity flourished, but her ambivalence about starting a family in the midst of a burgeoning career is understandable.
Even though The Fool has forward momentum, like Plath, that momentum can lead to hesitancy — one step in the wrong direction, and The Fool falls off the cliff.
“Thalidomide” can be read in conjunction with The Lovers tarot card. Both the card and the poem speak of juxtaposition and the ramifications of decisions. The Lovers is defined by the conflict of making choices based on opposing sides of the coin, and “Thalidomide” stresses the fine line between love and hate. Plath writes, “Blood-caul of absences./ All night I carpenter/ A space for the thing I am given,/ A love/ Of two wet eyes and a screech./ White spit/ Of indifference!/ The dark fruits revolve and fall.” As the grass is always greener with The Lovers, “Thalidomide” reconciles that notion of wanting to protect and abandon due to “indifference” and the Mercurial impact of desiring two distinctly dissimilar paths in life, similar to the fig tree in “The Bell Jar.” In the iconic poem, the “crotch” of the tree represents her frustration at becoming a parent, and each fig represents her potential in different areas as they fall and decay.
The Devil tarot card and Plath’s “Death & Co.” are intertwined. In The Devil, two people are chained together with The Devil presiding over them. The keys to the handcuffs are on the floor, making us ask why they continue to be restrained, if they can break free at any moment: “Two virtues ride, by stallion, by nag,/ To grind our knives and scissors:/ Lantern-jawed Reason, squat Common Sense,/ One courting doctors of all sorts,/ One, housewives and shopkeepersm” reflecting that we are the ones who choose to be a part of or stay in these situations.
Once again, Plath is addressing the question of why we torment ourselves over the things we want and attain. She is not sure of what the answer is, asking the reader to look at the tarot card to determine whether it’s best to stay or flee, to find a resolution to having doubts about what one has worked so hard to achieve. The answer is subjective, tarot and poetry are left to interpretation. Think of both like a canvas with the words and images as the broad strokes. However, it is my feeling she meant that.
The Devil and The Lovers pose conundrums about being a woman in the 1960s, which had a direct impact on Plath’s emotional landscape. The whore and Madonna complex is present throughout her work, in a form of independent versus dependence, as well as the maternal instinct and the fear of losing oneself in another human who is dependent on her (Plath’s daughter). She expresses in her poetry that the aloofness consuming her is the denial of her freedom. The dichotomy exists then and now, which is why Plath’s work has longevity, and tarot is still a powerful form of divination because both speak to the soul.
The infusion of the metaphysical brought understanding into Plath’s life, as did the tarot. Each card highlights a part of her pain, frustration, and critiques of society, offering a helping hand in conveying her sentiments. There have been times when I’ve done the same. For Plath, for everyone who finds solace and wisdom in the tarot, the cards are an articulation of the words we cannot express.
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