Disassembling the Tarot
Taking tarot apart to see how it really works
Do you take things apart to see how they work? Do you wonder what the symbols on a tarot deck mean? The Tarot Disassembled deck and book by Jennifer Cooper Steidley help you do both!
With this deck, Jennifer creates a colorful palette where she places symbols she has extracted from the relevant card — without scenes, human representation, or other imagery that may distract from those elements. Themes and meanings of the symbols are explored in the Tarot Disassembled Guidebook. The guidebook includes keywords, astrological, planetary, and elemental associations. These can be used to connect intuitively with any traditional tarot deck.
“I have loved playing with various tarot decks all of my adult life. But digging into the research for Tarot Disassembled has been like going on a walk in the forest and discovering that every tiny rock and leaf holds hidden treasure underneath,” she wrote on her website.
Tarot has a rich history of imagery used to inspire and guide, with the most iconic and well-known being the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Over the last two decades—thanks to the ease of self-publishing—creative versions of tarot have flourished. These decks often connect through pop culture, niche interests, or artistic explorations that go far beyond the RWS tradition. Independent creators like Jennifer have brought beautiful, inclusive, and thought-provoking projects to the divination community.
Tarot Disassembled is a great way to go into a deep dive or when beginning to study because it encourages a connection to the intuition of tarot. Jennifer brings out overlooked symbols of the RWS that are sometimes missed in newer interpretations.
The project doesn’t diminish the value of the scenes to the card and reading experience. Instead, it helps expand a connection to the intuition of the cards without relying on societal concepts like gender, skin color, age, or ability.
“If you strip out the pictorial scenes altogether, then there is no human representation to kind of get in the way. It kind of makes sense sometimes to get out of your own way and get all of those human constructs out of the way,” she said in her interview on episode 91 of the Gifts of the Wyrd podcast.
The Tarot Disassembled deck/book can be used with a favorite tarot deck to amplify and draw out more from your reading experience. The cards are beautifully designed and have the aesthetic of an old travel poster from the 1920s or 1930s.
Jennifer also has the Tarot Assembled deck, which breaks down the symbology even further, and the Symdala Tarot which consists of divinely inspired mandala partners created from tarot symbology (much of which you will recognize in Tarot Disassembled).
Tarot Disassembled (book and deck) is published by Red Wheel/Weiser and available on their website, at your local book shop, or from online book seller. The indie version is still available on her website/Etsy shop.
Jennifer Cooper Steidley is a graphic designer by day and a tarot deck collector, creator, and enthusiast at all other times. For more about Tarot Assembled and Symdala Tarot and to order, visit her website. Instagram @jennifercoopersteidley
Listen to our interview on Gifts of the Wyrd podcast episode 91 available on Podbean, Spotify, Apple, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
