Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy

by Chris Marmolejo

Designed to be used with any deck, Red Tarot is a radical praxis and decolonized oracle that moves beyond self-help and divination to reclaim tarot for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing. For readers of Postcolonial Astrology and Tarot for ChangeRed Tarot speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinking—LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particular—presenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves. Author Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, and explores an understanding of tarot as critical literacy. They show how the cards can be read to subvert the dynamics of white supremacist-capitalist-imperialist-patriarchy, weaving historical context and spiritual practice into a comprehensive overview of tarot. Situating tarot imagery within cosmologies outside the Hellenistic frame—Death as interpreted through the lens of Hindu goddess Chhinnamasta, the High Priestess through Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui—Marmolejo’s Red Tarot is a profound act of native reclamation and liberation. Each card’s interpretation is further bolstered by the teachings of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, José Esteban Muñoz, and others, in an offering that integrates intersectional wisdom with the author’s divination practice—and reveals tarot as an essential language for liberation.

Genres: Tarot, Divination, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, Queer, Indigenous

439 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2024

Reviews

[Srivalli (Semi-Hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 Stars

One Liner: That’s a lot to process!

Red Tarot is an advanced-level thesis that attempts to decolonize tarot symbolism and meanings. It caters to the BIPOC and the queer community to guide them to find themselves and their roots in their culture and divination. Being an #OwnVoices work, it has many personal insights and experiences shared by the author.

My Thoughts:

Firstly, this book is not a casual read. It is not for beginners. I put myself somewhere around the intermediary level, and this was still a bit hard to understand.

There’s an abundance of information, too much at times, which feels overwhelming to read at a stretch. I’ve been reading a few pages per day for more than two months, and still, I can’t say I got it all. Serious readers should buy a physical copy for easy reference.

Moreover, this is rooted in American history, which means I cannot always relate to it (though I’m a pagan by birth). If you belong to the same land, you are likely to find a deeper connection.

That said, some of the interpretations are beautiful. Though it draws from the RWS (Raider Waite Smith), I found myself visualizing the cards from the Light Seers Tarot Deck . There is certainly a connection between the two, which could help me as I learn more.



There isn’t a single illustration in the book. Having at least a rough sketch for each card would have helped a lot more.

The book doesn’t interpret the cards in the ‘standard’ order. It is grouped into Aces, twos, and on, with the major and minor arcana bundled under the subheads. This is an interesting approach as it also creates a link between different cards (the Magician and Wheel; Empress and Queens; Justice, Hanged One, and Judgment, etc.)

Many quotes are included in the book, with a clear bibliography at the end divided into neat sections. That’s helpful and efficient.

Sharing some of the many quotes I marked (these are from the ARC and might have changed in the published version):

The Magician is the astrologer and the Wheel of Fortune is the astrology, both images of each other.
The High Priestess shows us how we shape ourselves.

If Justice reflects our blindness, then the Hanged One offers the sacrifice of self that restores sight.

While the Empress births us into body, Death brings us back to Spirit. Birth and death are but two sides of the same veil.

If you could look at the rings of a tree without cutting it down you would be looking at the World card.

They (The Fool) are a dangerously free character, just as they are honest about the danger they face, on the verge of tragedy and comedy at the same time.

To summarize, Red Tarot is what would best be termed as an in-depth academic read with a liberal dose of personal experience and history. It is not a book for a quick reference.

Thank you, NetGalley and North Atlantic Books, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

#NetGalley #RedTarot

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide to Divinatory Literacy by Christopher Marmolejo is a text that I am grateful for, and one that I am so happy to see out in the world. This is the kind of tarot book that I am so excited to find and that I’ll absolutely keep on my bookshelf. I was thrilled to receive an e-book ARC but bought the paperback copy on the strength of the introduction and first chapter alone and continued my reading from there.

The text is structured numerologically, with chapter zero as an introduction. From there, ‘One’ includes the Magician, the Wheel, and the pages and aces, ‘Two’ includes the High Priestess, Justice, The Hanged One, Judgment, and all the twos, and so on. The Fool appears in the ‘Ten’ chapter with the World.

Far from a standard card-by-card beginner tarot book laying out how to interpret each card in a spread, Red Tarot positions each card as a leaping off point and tarot itself as a text. The author’s reflections on each card are simultaneously personal and theoretical – the text’s analysis is rooted in lived experiential knowledge, intersectional and decolonial theoretical frameworks, and tarot imagery and symbolism. Here, tarot is a tool that readers can engage to “nourish emancipatory knowledge that undergirds all revolutionary praxis” [407-8] and daily draws have the capacity to “[transform] awareness” [411]. This book is unlike any other I’ve read, and I see myself revisiting it often; it has left me with much to ponder on everything from tarot’s epistemological implications to the tarot reading as a site of dialogue and new angles to consider on each and every card.

Of their wide-ranging bibliography, Marmolejo writes that their citation practice is “multifarious and polyvocal,” bringing Indigenous intellectualism and critical pedagogy into conversation with reference to each card [408]. Authors that appear cited in the text include bell hooks, Paolo Friere, José Esteban Muñoz, Toni Morrison, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Gloria Anzaldúa, and many more. I suspect some will critique this book as challenging to read or as ‘overly academic,’ but such criticisms miss the ways that language itself is central to the book’s very purpose and thesis on tarot as critical literacy. Marmolejo describes their book as offering “a visual framework for interpreting the tarot in a manner that perceives, disrupts, and rejects conditioned colonial consciousness” [2] – recognizing language as a site of contestation, the text invites thinking/reading/writing critically and necessitates thoughtful, deliberate, self-reflexive engagement.

Citation in the book is via endnotes; I would suggest putting a bookmark or post-it in the back of the book while reading so that turning back to learn the sources of quotations while reading is easier, particularly for readers unfamiliar with much of the source material.

Many thanks to Christopher Marmolejo, North Atlantic Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the concept of this book wonderful. It offers a much needed interpretation of the tarot through a decolonized lens. With BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and queer people to the forefront, it’s a gem. Something I have yet to see in the various tarot books I have read and own.

There was deep work, soul, heart and endless hours put in to this book - it is clear by the passion it was written with.

As a person of color who has been reading tarot for most of her life, I was excited to get my hands on this it.

I found the interwoven references to a multitude of BIPOC greats authentic and connective to the interpretations of the cards.

There were many refreshing and revealing views on tarot as a language for all oppressed peoples but specifically BIPOC and queer folks. The authors interpretations card by card solidified concepts which were inspiring and enlightening to me.

I used this book as a way to reassess my current views on tarot and add to my own interpretations.

It was an invigorating practice to do a one card reading for myself and then dive in to the authors interpretation of the card to access revealing ideas and enlightening notions.

While I was expecting a simpler guided reference book, it was much more of an academic deep dive.
It was written as what I can best describe as a marriage between academic and soulful prose.
The only negative for this book (which may not be universal) was that this style of writing did end up making it feel a bit inaccessible. As in, the important concepts at times felt very lost in the sauce.

Overall, I believe the concepts and interpretations of the tarot in this book are invaluable. They are vivid, striking and enlightening. A book that has been sorely needed by the tarot community.

It would make a great gift and addition to an advanced tarot readers library.

Thank you to NetGalley, North Atlantic Books and Christopher Marmolejo for providing an advanced reader copy of this book.

[Justin Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot, I'm not gonna lie. It's thick and leans more academic in tone than I expected. That being said, there's a lot of great lessons to be learned here, even you're not the intended audience.

Using Tarot as a base and showing how it can work in these times and how it can inform not only your practice but your point of view will only add depth to your readings and your perspective about society.

I'm not sure if this is a book that needs to be read straight through or used a resource. It can go either way. There are a lot of ten cent words here, which... love, but distracted me from the point a couple of times.

Overall, I'd recommend taking time with each card and feeling it and moving on. Take this slow and steady

[Alexa Esperanza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Tarot by Christopher Marmolejo takes the classic tarot and centers BIPOC and Queer experiences. It is probably the most unique book about divination I’ve come across and I really enjoyed reading about the different cards through this decolonial lens

The aim of this book is to empower the marginalized by way of divinatory literacy and i think it will definitely do that for anyone who reads it.

The writing style feels like a cross between academic prose and channeled poetry which is great, but for this reason, I would not recommend it to somebody who’s just starting out learning tarot and wants to get the basics down first.

I received this book as an E ARC but would definitely pick up a physical copy as well when it comes out. 🫶🏾

[Dannie Lynn Fountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A richly researched and deeply rooted guide to interpreting tarot with decolonization in mind. Red Tarot brings BIPOC and queer folks to the center, adjusting language and providing revised guidance for how to support others. This is a must read for anyone passionate or curious about tarot. Thank you to NetGalley and North Atlantic for the free advance copy.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Tarot unapologetically deconstructs the colonialist ideas that are embedded in the modern-day tarot and American society. Marmolejo dissects the tarot card by card and suit by suit. From the major arcana to the minor arcana – there are ways the readers will be challenged to redefine what they think of these meanings. I felt like the High Priestess reading the description and truly feeling like I envelop those ideals. For, the “High Priestess is the witness to the truths too dangerous for kings and patriarchs to express” – the idea that the women are always observing. The marginalized are always observing the injustices around us and mending the wounds we did not lacerate.
The descriptive analysis is dense and there are many moments I wish were structured differently. However – the paramount of the information included outweighs the structure itself. The presentation is how we decolonize our way of thinking. This is beyond just the tarot but understanding what these concepts mean in the everyday life. How do these apply to us the reader and our society at large? This poses the many ways we should be engaging with our community and understanding their struggles through this deconstruction process.
This narrative is for the mediums, the tarot readers, the spiritualists, occultists, the weirdoes, and the marginalized. Keep in mind that this is not a narrative you will read overnight. I am going to pick up my own copy to read alongside my personal tarot pulls. There is a lot of information and to truly absorb it is to take your time and refer back to it. This is a book that is meant to be digested over time and looking back for reference. A scholarly level of research, passion, and fully developed analysis define this narrative.
The Red Tarot goes further into the depth of analysis as Marmolejo relates cards and their meanings between one another. The relationship between the cards furthers the nuance of why this deconstructionist narrative is taking place. I appreciate that this analysis was curated about tarot and can help redefine how we consume the material. The intention of tarot is to make you think and thinking deeply is what makes these messages the most proximal to our own lives. An integral text that truly defines the extent of what it means to absorb tarot.
I promise you will want to grab a copy for yourselves if you appreciate lengthy analysis and discussions about American racism and colonial institutions. This is a read for anyone interested in understanding the depth of research that needs to be explained for marginalized voices to finally be heard. Do not read this lightly and give yourself time to go through each page. The structure is atypical for my us tarot readers but I promise it is worth reading every word! For the tarot readers who are always trying to be inclusive and conscious – this is the read for you.

For more recommendations, impressions, and ARC insights please visit my blog here, https://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com/

[Luc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm so grateful to this book for acknowledging the Anglowestern, cisgender, heteronormative biases often inherent in Tarot-based divination work. I love how this author reclaims the cards for much more expansive, inclusive interpretation.

Yet, I was often frustrated with this book because it seemed to rearrange the deck in somewhat arbitrary ways by shuffling the chapters out of your standard suit-based and Major Arcana-based shapes and into eclectic groupings under numbers "Zero" to "Ten." I'm intrigued by these groupings (like how The Empress and Death both fall under Chapter "Three"), but they seemed an unnecessary complication to force the reader to needlessly pore over the Table of Contents every time they want to sit with Marmolejo's words on a Major Arcana card.

Also, numerous cards seemed, according to Marmolejo's interpretations, to sound on the same theme; they were often semi-excuses to share the same stories and reach the same conclusions, while I'm more interested in the cards as each holding a (sometimes slightly) different window/path into diverse learnings. Because of this, and also besides this, I felt like the interpretations sometimes avalanched all the current hip and in-vogue terms on readers without deep, thorough, convincing analysis of how these terms are really present and manifesting. Numerous sentences felt like polysyllabic word salads.

As a queer reader, the book's semi-reliance on fairly binary terms for body parts and gender identities (with this queer author as our guide, no less) was disappointing, as was the sometimes claims to Indigenous identity that never felt grounded in community-recognized identity (and so could give unintentional echoes of many "pretendians").

Still, though, I love the ambition and the goals of this book, even if not convinced of its execution.

[MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Marmolejo’s Red Tarot sets out to examine the standard 78 card tarot deck through a decolonial and indigenous lens. Prior knowledge of tarot isn’t explicitly required for this book, but I think a basic knowledge of tarot before reading would help readers get the most out of these more complex interpretations of cards. The chapters are long but filled with the author’s insights. This book is certainly not intended to be read in a single sitting. I recommend reading a few sections of a chapter per sitting, and giving yourself time to take in and process the information. Red Tarot does a great job analyzing the cards that I’ve personally struggled to connect with based on the colonial capitalist lens typically attached to them. Some sections throughout the book could be edited down by a third or half as they repeat the same point reworded for a few pages. Some of the writing may be difficult to comprehend for someone unfamiliar with concepts like decolonization and intersectionality. If you don’t have much background knowledge on those topics, I would recommend a little research on the side as you read. Much of the book connects the cards to a relationship with God or experiencing God. It is noted about halfway through the book that God can refer to any Divine being the reader believes in or chooses, but I think it would benefit readers for this caveat to be moved to the introduction. If you are uncomfortable with reading a lot about God (and there is a lot) for whatever reason, I still recommend this book but maybe wait until you’re in a more comfortable mental space to handle it. Overall, I enjoyed Red Tarot, and I would recommend it to readers interested in advancing (or challenging) their established understanding of tarot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced e-reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Ella-Mae Campling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really enjoy the aims of this intriguing book! Something that I have not considered, I was really intrigued by everything Marmolejo approached. It is clear that this book was a work of blood sweat and tears. I really enjoyed the fact the book allows a great depth to be addressed per card, and provides a really invoking look and encourages any and all tarot users and observers to consider their interpretations in a new light. It was heavy, less a guidebook towards tarot, instead a proper deepdive academic research piece I am greatful to have come across, however I think most with basic intrigue in tarot would be severely overwhelmed. I however, adored it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for review.

[Shirley Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red Tarot Explained

The author discusses what the color "Red" means to him, and provides some background information on why he wrote this book. Additionally, he explains each tarot card in detail.

The book is easy to read and the explanation of card interpretation is very understandable. This is a good book for beginners.

[fren · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's out of my comfort zone.

It touched too many grand concepts and the explanation that came with it left a lot to be desired. Often it lacked focus.

My assumption going into this book was an introduction to tarot from a decolonial perspective. Just a quick fun book. But it was way more than that.

[Y Sh A · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books on tarot with a decolonial approach, a fresh take on numerology and written with such poetry in its language use that it's a beautiful read regardless of interest in tarot. but come for the tarot, stay for the human rights liberation

Thank you North Atlantic Books,U.S. for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Beige Gurl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful thought-provoking interpretation and redefinition of tarot that decolonises the symbolism rooted in white hegemony opening readings up to include
wider spectrum of lived experience. It’s changed how I read tarot.

[Granddaughter Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book about the Tarot; however, the author goes so much deeper into social justice. Well educated, and brilliant information. A wonderful piece to any tarot collection! www.TheRedRead.com

[Leon Beauvais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential tarot reading... self discovery, transformation, reaching depths deeper within deepest.

[Air · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is honestly so important and an educational read. It gives us (me) a very real perspective into tarot and takes the important step towards decolonizing it. Into the spiritual belief and the proper background surrounding it. I absolutely loved it.

Thank you NetGalley and the author!