On Feb. 10, the Special Collections Department of the Sheridan Libraries & University Museums hosted Love in the Time of Tarot at the Brody Learning Commons, featuring free tarot readings and vintage Valentine’s card-making in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
For two hours, participants were able to visit the infamous Pickle Oracle (junior Kris Pham reading tarot, donning a pickle costume), four other tarot reading stations, view a hand-drawn 18th-century tarot deck beside a cyber deck and embellish their love letters with calligraphy and hot wax seals. To top it all off, a cherry Squishmallow was the main prize of a ticket raffle.
Katrin Flores, a freshman, enjoyed the card station the most. In an interview with The News-Letter, Flores expressed her appreciation for the event.
“This event has been really fun so far,” said Flores. “Because the line [looked] so long, I went over to the craft room. They had a lot of supplies and these little calligraphy pens that I can't quite get the hold of, but look how cute the seal is! I made [a card] just for my family.”
Further, when asked what Flores was most looking forward to that night, she immediately answered with the tarot readings.
“I've never gotten a tarot reading before, so it'll be interesting,” Flores smiled.
Finnigan Keane, a Special Collections sophomore staff member and an Archeology and Environmental Studies double major, greeted participants at the door and shared some of the history behind tarot in an interview with The News-Letter.
“There are a lot of decks and tarot used to be a very patriarchal system centered around the Catholic Church. Over time, it became radicalized and is now this emblem for feminist and queer identities,” said Keane, who is doing research on tarot’s cultural transformations and its significance in 21st century society.
According to the Victoria & Albert Museum, the 78 tarot cards are broken down into two categories: triumph, or “Major Arcana” (22 cards) and pip, or “Minor Arcana” (56 cards). Prior to fortune-telling and tarot divination in the 18th century, the cards were originally played out of fun. The origins of the cards trace back to China, Korea, Egypt and India in the early 12th century, and it wasn’t until the 1770s that tarot cards were read for divination.
Heidi Herr is the librarian at Special Collections and coordinator behind Love in the Time of Tarot. According to Herr, the hope behind events like these would be for students to have some fun and show them the reading room space.
“Students are really interested in tarot, and it's an opportunity to showcase our historic tarot decks. And we like to also combine these readings with kind of fun, craft events, too, so you can create, you can get your reading and then make a DIY Valentine. So, we just love having fun with students and bringing them into this incredible reading room space,” said Herr.
Highlights of the night included a tarot reading relating to pizza and a terrible set of cards that came with a silver lining.
“I was saying that I could do a [past, present, future] kind of reading. [Someone] was like, ‘Could you do, like, a past, present, future about my relationship with pizza?’ and I was like, why not?” said Celine Stodder, a Writing Seminars sophomore.
Participants could request their readings to be interpreted with respect to any area in life, notwithstanding the event being centered around love. Herr loved how career-oriented most of her tarot reading requests were.
“What I absolutely loved is how you cannot take the Hopkins out of Hopkins students. So the event was called ‘Love in the Time of Tarot,’ and most of the readings I gave, were to do with academics or career growth. And I just love that,” Herr laughed.
By 9 p.m., the raffle winner was announced, students shuffled out with ornate envelopes and the event rounded to a close. The Special Collections team shared highlights while packing up the tarot decks.
“Truly, the two hours flew by like nothing. So that’s how I know I had a good time,” said Pham.
The next Special Collections event is their annual Edible Book Festival, “Read It and Eat It,” on March 30 at the Glass Pavilion. Students can follow @jhuspecialcollections on Instagram for more information.
