The Housewives Tarot is a unique and creatively designed tarot deck that presents the profound archetypal wisdom of the tarot through the distinct and relatable lens of 1950s domestic life. Created by Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum and published by Quirk Books, this deck is presented as a "domestic divination kit," packaged in a mock recipe box to evoke a sense of nostalgia and accessibility. The artwork and thematic elements are thoroughly rooted in the style, attitude, furnishings, and fashion of the 1950s, making it a light-hearted yet insightful tool for both tarot beginners and seasoned collectors.
The deck serves as a bridge between the mystical and the mundane, suggesting that the universal life themes found in the Major and Minor Arcana can be understood and navigated through everyday experiences. By re-framing traditional tarot symbolism within the context of household objects, social roles, and daily routines, the Housewives Tarot offers a fresh perspective on personal growth, decision-making, and self-reflection. It operates on the principle that tarot is a tool for empowerment, designed to help individuals find their own answers and shape their own futures rather than predicting a fixed destiny.
Thematic Framework and Symbolic Reinterpretation
The core philosophy of the Housewives Tarot is to make the tarot's wisdom immediate and practical. The deck's guidebook and imagery work together to translate complex esoteric concepts into the language of domestic life, suggesting that the home and its associated roles are a rich ground for spiritual and personal development.
The Legend of Marlene Louise Wetherbee
The deck is introduced through the fictional narrative of Marlene Louise Wetherbee, a "housewife extraordinaire" from the early 1950s. According to the deck's lore, Marlene was a seemingly perfect homemaker who possessed a devoted family, a pristine home, and a keen sense of intuition. She revealed her secret to success—a mystical tarot deck—to her bridge club friends, who were initially appalled by the idea of "mumbo jumbo." Marlene explained that the cards were her inspiration and muse, helping her to sort out troubles and answer questions. This backstory frames the tarot not as a tool of dark arts, but as a source of practical guidance and personal insight for navigating the complexities of life.
The Minor Arcana: Domestic Suits
A defining feature of the Housewives Tarot is its re-imagining of the four traditional tarot suits to align with its domestic theme. This substitution provides a direct, symbolic link between the suit's elemental meaning and its everyday representation.
- Cups: The suit of emotions, relationships, and intuition is represented by martini and highball glasses. This symbolizes social gatherings, hospitality, and the emotional currents that flow through family and social life.
- Wands: The suit of creativity, ambition, and action is represented by mops and brooms. This connects the suit's energy to the work of maintaining the home, the daily grind, and the act of clearing away stagnation to make way for new growth.
- Pentacles: The suit of material wealth, health, and the physical world is represented by dinnerware. This grounds the suit's themes in the tangible aspects of sustenance, nourishment, and the provision of resources for the family.
- Swords: The suit of intellect, conflict, and clarity is represented by knives, scissors, and other pointy objects. This imagery reflects the sharpness of thought, the potential for conflict in communication, and the need to cut through confusion to find a solution.
Each suit is also assigned a different colored border, aiding in visual identification and reinforcing the unique character of the deck.
The Reordered Major Arcana
The Housewives Tarot features a significant re-ordering of the Major Arcana, which alters the traditional Fool's Journey narrative. This new sequence reflects a path more aligned with the deck's specific thematic focus. The key changes noted in the source material include:
- The Empress is numbered II.
- The Emperor is numbered III.
- The High Priestess is numbered IV.
- The Fool remains 0.
- Strength is 8.
- Justice is 11.
This re-ordering invites a different interpretive journey, where the nurturing and creative power of The Empress precedes the structured authority of The Emperor, followed by the hidden wisdom of The High Priestess.
Symbolic Meanings of Select Major Arcana Cards
The deck's genius lies in its ability to translate the archetypal energy of the Major Arcana into 1950s domestic icons, making their meanings highly relatable.
- The Fool: The card represents "YOU"—the individual at the beginning of a journey, whether a new housewife or a young prince. It embodies the innocence and potential of starting a new chapter in life.
- The Magician: Depicted as an appliance salesman, this card symbolizes the false promise of an easy path. The salesman's gadgets are presented as magical solutions that will eliminate drudgery, but in reality, they serve to raise household standards, creating a new cycle of work and expectation. It is a commentary on the allure of quick fixes.
- The Empress: Represented as the "Ideal Housewife" with her "Recipie for Success," this card embodies creativity, nurturing, abundance, and the stewardship of the home. She represents the mastery of domestic arts and the power of creating a harmonious environment.
- The Emperor: Symbolized by Chef Boyardee Man, this card points to the world of structure, order, and authority, but also to the reliance on canned and prepared foods. It can represent a masculine, top-down approach to management or the establishment of rules and systems within the home.
- The High Priestess: Known as "Aunt Jemima" and called "Secret Syrup," this card represents hidden wisdom, intuition, and the subconscious. The "secret syrup" suggests a deeper, perhaps sweet but not immediately obvious, truth or knowledge that can be tapped into.
- The Hierophant: Depicted as a TV with a test pattern, this card symbolizes conventional wisdom, societal structures, and the transmission of established knowledge. The test pattern suggests a channel not yet fully broadcasting, perhaps indicating a need to tune into a different frequency for guidance.
- The Lovers: Represented by the pre-wedding romantic days and cruising in a car, this card captures the idealism, excitement, and choices associated with new love and partnership.
- The Chariot: Symbolized by a station wagon, this card represents the drive to move forward and the will to manage the journey of life and family. It is about harnessing opposing forces to reach a destination.
- The Hermit: Depicted as your private bath, this card signifies the need for introspection, solitude, and self-care. It suggests that wisdom can be found by retreating from the outer world to connect with one's inner self.
- Death: Represented by a jar of salmonella-laced mayonnaise, this card is a stark and clever depiction of transformation and endings. It signifies the danger of what is spoiled or decayed and the necessity of clearing it away to prevent harm.
- Judgment: The text provides a direct interpretation for this card: "The time has come to weigh the facts – and yourself! Judgment is about abandoning bad habits and accepting yourself for who you really are. Don’t be modest; take credit for all your good deeds and valuable traits. Shed the negative thoughts that weigh you down with their high calorie burdens. True happiness is more about eliminating low self-esteem than losing those pesky five pounds."
The Practice of Domestic Divination
The Housewives Tarot is designed to be an accessible tool for divination, with the guidebook offering practical advice and unique reading layouts. The approach is encouraging and empowering, emphasizing that the cards are a tool for self-discovery rather than a definitive prediction of the future.
Reading Spreads and Guidance
The instruction book included in the kit provides recommended layouts that are thematically consistent with the deck's aesthetic. These include spreads laid out in the shape of a martini glass and a clothesline. The guidebook offers "cheeky explanations" for each card and provides helpful advice on how to conduct a reading, making the process approachable for novices. The core message is that the cards cannot provide direct answers to all life's problems but can empower individuals to find their own answers and inspire them to make their own fortune. The wisdom of the tarot is presented as a catalyst for action, not a passive forecast.
Accessibility and Relatability
A key strength of the Housewives Tarot is its accessibility. By using everyday domestic situations to explain the cards' deeper meanings, the deck makes the tarot's wisdom relatable. The imagery of housewives in neat dresses, businessman husbands, modern appliances, and cocktails immediately sets a familiar scene. This approach helps users connect with the cards on a personal level, using their own life experiences as a framework for interpretation. The deck's light-hearted and kitschy nature, combined with its clever symbolism, ensures that it is both a fun novelty item and a genuinely useful tool for introspection and guidance.
The Housewives Tarot stands as a striking reminder of how immediate and practical tarot can be. It successfully merges the historical mystique of tarot with the iconography of a specific cultural era, creating a unique divination tool that encourages users to explore the universal patterns of life through the familiar landscape of the home.