Sympathetic Magic of Poetry and Tarot

Language and magic are like music and dance; they feed and inspire one another. That sentence alone uses a basic element of sympathetic magic—an analogy. Both writing and magic rituals use metonyms and metaphors. As Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique argues in “Underground Realms of Being: Vodoun Magic”:

universal principles of sympathetic magic: natural and social systems of relationship that lie beyond the so-called rational laws of science, touching occult areas through analogy and metaphor

One common example of sympathetic magic is a basic spell to sweeten an enemy. A poppet of some sort is created with a hair–or other personal item, like handwriting–from the enemy. In essence, the person being represented by the poppet is metonymy. Then, the poppet is soaked in sugar water and stored in the freezer. This is basically metaphor; the sweet water soaking the poppet represents sweetening someone’s bitter feelings.

Poetry is filled with metonyms and metaphors. One poem that makes an explicit connection with magic is “Sonnet” (1928) by Elizabeth Bishop:

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

As in the poppet spell, water is an element. Bishop creates a comparison between music and water: a shower, the sea, and a “moon-green pool.” The speaker is represented by fingers, lips, head, and limbs (parts of her whole, or metonymy). And the wet music heals the speaker rather than sweetens an enemy (metaphor).

Tarot magic can work in a similar fashion. To correspond with the 14-line sonnet and Bishop’s watery magic, Temperance (XIV) can signify healing through mixing liquids—pouring water into wine symbolizes moderation, which can be important for physical and psychological health.

Decks: Visconti-Sforza Tarot, Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, Wizards Tarot, Tarocchi della Corte di Merlino

Similar to rain falling into an ocean or pool, the alchemical card can be used in visualization and as a talisman. The metaphor lies between healing and the imagery in the card, and the card itself is a metonym of the literary and artistic tradition of temperance. Some examples of this tradition are Spenser’s allegory of Temperance (in the Faerie Queene) and the familiar visual of pouring liquid between cups (seen below in Pietro Liberi’s painting “The Allegory of Temperance”). Sympathetic magic is a blending of poetic devices just as Tarot is a blending of poetic imagery. In A History of Magic, Cavendish argues “Language, like mimicry, is an instrument of power.”

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Italian Sonnet Spread

Love is a strong link between Tarot and sonnets. Both poets and Tarot readers seek answers to matters of the heart. Before the explosion of the English sonnet in the 16^th century, Italian sonneteers were writing little songs of love. Petrarch, who made the form famous in his 14^th century Canzoniere, has been tied to Tarot. And sonnets were the preferred form of Teofilo Folengo and other Italian renaissance Tarot poets.

I discussed the Shakespearean sonnet form in another post. While the Italian sonnet is generally the same length (14 lines) as the Shakespearean sonnet, its defining feature is the turn. A turn, or a change in direction, occurs near the middle of the poem; eight lines (an octave) follow one avenue of thought and the six remaining lines (a sestet) follow a different path.

Pablo Neruda uses the Italian sonnet form in VII (translated by Stephen Tapscott):

Come with me, I said, and no one knew
where, or how my pain throbbed,
no carnations or barcaroles for me,
only a wound that love had opened.

I said it again: Come with me, as if I were dying,
and no one saw the moon that bled in my mouth
or the blood that rose into the silence.
O Love, now we can forget the star that has such thorns!

That is why, when I heard your voice repeat
Come with me, it was as if you had let loose
the grief, the love, the fury of a cork-trapped wine

that geysers flooding from deep in its vault:
in my mouth I felt the taste of fire again,
of blood and carnations, of rock and scald.

The first eight lines are dedicated to the speaker’s longing, his call to his beloved. Celestial imagery (the moon and the star, that can invoke the Tarot for some readers) is used to describe the pain of unanswered calls. Then the turn occurs.

The beloved answers by repeating the call, and the world is transformed. Flowers and fire sweeten the speaker’s taste, and her voice enables release. In other words, the octave is about the lover and the sestet is about the beloved.

This structure can be used in a Tarot spread for relationships. A short version can reflect the four-stanza structure: two cards for one person in a relationship and two cards for the other person in a relationship. (A more advanced version would be eight cards for the lover and six cards for the beloved, reflecting the structure of the lines.) The reading is centered on the effect the beloved has on the lover.

A sample reading

Pablo Neruda wrote 100 sonnets to his wife Matilde Urrutia in the mid 1900s. This is a reading about their relationship.

Wizards Tarot by Corrine Kenner and John J. Blumen

Lover: Five of Cups and Seven of Swords

Beloved: Queen of Pentacles and Ace of Cups

He has lost love, spilled emotions, but retains his creativity and inspiration in the face of loss. Both mentally and emotionally, he is grounded, but he is also mischievous. In the book that accompanies the Wizards Tarot, Corrine Kenner says his power is “stealth and deception.” While clutching thought, he lets his emotions flow.

She is an earthy queen (in his sonnets, Neruda refers to “clay” many times in relation to Matilde). Also, she is more solitary; he has a past with more people. Kenner calls her “a patient and intractable woman.” She is both ruler and muse of Neruda—is the fount of his creativity and pours out her love to him.

If you are feeling inspired, try writing a sonnet based on your reading.

Shakespearean Sonnet Spread

I believe that reading poetry will make you a better Tarot reader and reading Tarot will improve your poetics. Poetic forms can be used as templates for Tarot spreads. One such form is the Shakespearean sonnet—this structure can be used in a four-card spread.

Most sonnets by Shakespeare are 14 lines long, and can be divided into four parts:

-Argument 1
-Argument 2
-Argument 3
-Conclusion

Often, the third argument is a counterargument. Each argument contains four lines (a quatrain), and the conclusion is the final two lines (a couplet). This structure can be seen in Sonnet 29

(Photo of the 1609 edition is from the Folger Shakespeare Library, retrieved via Early English Books Online)

Argument 1: The speaker is disgraced by Fortune, and therefore cries to the stars.

Argument 2: The speaker is discontented, and envies the lives of other people.

Argument 3: But then the speaker remembers “thee,” which causes rising joy.

Conclusion: The speaker decides having “thy sweet love” is better than having the lives of others.

To use this structure in a Tarot reading, shuffle the deck while thinking about a question or issue. Pull three cards to represent three claims about the issue (the third card being a counterclaim) and a final card to represent the conclusion or outcome.

A sample reading

Much has been written about the connection between poetry and painting. I thought about Sonnet 29 and asked ‘how are poetry and painting related?’ while shuffling.

Argument 1: The Lovers, reversed—A poem and painting can capture the same scene (such as Adam and Eve in Eden), and the artist must choose how to paint the scene. The relationship between subject and representation is complicated and choices are not always clear; this fraught relationship inspires art.

Argument 2: Seven of Pentacles, reversed—Poets and painters often create art because of dissatisfaction with work. Furthermore, art can be related to a lack of success in the material world (both poets and painters often struggle financially).

Argument 3: Three of Swords, reversed—However, poets and painters use sorrow and confusion to create art. They both hold onto and make meaning out of suffering.

Conclusion: King of Cups—Poets and painters need to accept emotions to find success; commanding creativity and understanding feelings will make them “scorn to change their state with kings.”

You can even try writing a sonnet based on the arguments and conclusion by using your Tarot reading as an outline or prewriting for a poem.

Would you like me to read for you with the Shakespearean Sonnet Spread? Visit Nerdy Tarot to book your reading!