Tarot In Popular Culture – Two TV Shows That Featured Tarot Cards
“We move from terror and loss to unexpected good fortune,
and out of darkness; hope is born.” -Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, quoting the tarot.
Tarot cards should inevitably make it into pop culture.
After all, in this world where people are worried about death and mortality, nothing is more alarming than the image of the Death Card. This tarot card is perhaps the most popular in the deck. Traditionally, TV, film, literature, and other art have always dramatically presented the sinister side of this tarot card, so audiences can be forgiven if they mistakenly assume that the Death card is equivalent to actual dying.
To clarify things, the Death card is not always a dreaded card signifying death. Instead, the Death card should be welcomed for the rebirth that must surely follow; it is the only way to be reborn. Death is not just physical dying but a catalyst for change and transformation to something better and grander.
Tarot as a Story-Telling Device
What makes tarot ingrained in pop culture is its inherent storytelling powers. Tarot cards’ rich imagery and symbolism are a great minefield of stories and narratives that have inspired artists everywhere.
And thus, we came to two fantastic TV shows which featured tarot cards in an innovative and un-clichéd light.
Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, an episode in The X-Files
In this episode, a serial killer is on the loose, targeting fortune-tellers and tarot card readers. Peter Boyle gives a splendid performance here as Clyde Bruckman, a psychic gifted with the ability to predict people’s death a, nd whom FBI Agents Mulder and Scully enlist to help them catch the killer’s next victim.
Inarguably, this is one of the favorite episodes of many X-Files (fans of the show). Clever storytelling has made an otherwise simple detective drama into a brilliant story. As such, the episode reveals the tension between Scully’s skepticism and Mulder’s unwavering faith in such issues as psychic divination and fortune-telling.
Other People’s Daughters, an episode in My So-Called Life
Delving into the conflict of mothers versus daughters, this episode has Angela Chase (played by Claire Danes) learning tarot reading through a crash course from her best friend, Rayanne’s mom.
Who exactly is mothering whom? Here, Angela realizes she is a daughter to her mother, as her mother is also a child to her, and their disagreements often arise from their refusal to acknowledge this fact. Angela decides to escape her grandparents’ wedding anniversary party in favor of Rayanne’s birthday party, and there she sees firsthand her best friend’s troubled relationship with her mom.
In the end, Angela declares that each tarot card has a name, her friends, and family corresponding to the characters in them: the Magician, the Fool, the Empress, etc. No card is all good or bad. We all play a role; each of us is master of our fate.
Never Cut Your Nails on a Sunday
According to an antique European superstition, you must under no circumstances cut your fingernails on a Sunday. If you did evil, stories might be written you every week. Even worse, satan might observe you all week. Cutting fingernails became taken into consideration no longer simply a matter of doing work, but also being preoccupied with your outer beauty. This changed into something that was not tolerated on the day of rest and worship.
