Austen & the 7 Tarots

Jane Austen is one of the most celebrated feminist authors of the Regency period. She remains one of my favorites. There is nothing wrong with snuggling up on the couch with a fat cat and an earmarked copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Austen is one of the many female authors who pointed out the discrepancies of women in the writing profession during her time. Although she became inspired by a man who shunned the female sex, particularly Mr. Samuel Richardson (author of Clarissa and Pamela), her novels provide a fair but still harsh criticism of her sex and their various stages of economic despair. In some of Austen's best-known works, and with the help of Wollstonecraft and Bronte, the suffragette movement had plenty of material to use in fighting for basic legal and financial rights for women.

Yet being inspired by the spirit of Halloween approaching, we will take a different turn into Austen's books and correlate them with one of the oldest known arcane arts: Tarot reading. Tarot cards span from their use in Egyptian prophecies to card games among the French and Italian nobility. These mysterious cards hold some truth for those who believe in their spiritual purpose. We will summarize the main points between the novels with the help of these cards. Hopefully we can gain some new Austen fans.

1. Persuasion: Wheel of Fortune Tarot

I thought of mixing tarot with Austen's novels shortly after watching the remake of the Persuasion novel with Dakota Johnson, the actress whom we all know for Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey. Even though I could understand why most feminists were in arms about the movie, it did help summarize the plot behind the whole story. Hence if I draw a card from my pack of Tarot cards, I get the Wheel of Fortune.

The Wheel of Fortune is very similar to Anne Elliot's situation. The Wheel has no end but spins both high and low. You can gain or lose money, fortune, and fame; just like a wheel. Anne Elliot was in a position at the begging of the story of high status, but her father spent every penny he earned and they downsized due to his misuse of funds. She gave up marrying Fredrick Wentworth in the beginning because he had no money. At the end of the story, he was in a better position to marry Anne since her reversal of fortune. The only downside with the Wheel of Fortune is the waiting for the perfect opportunity.

2. Emma: Lover's Tarot

The classic scene when I see this card doesn't come from Emma, but from Roger Moore's time as Bond in the movie Live and Let Die. He fooled Solitaire into sleeping with him by fulling a pack with Lovers Tarot cards. She loses her use and position as the fortune seeker for the evil villain in the movie, but Bond gains another girl for his collection.

Emma and Mr. Knightley were fated to be together. Despite him watching her grow up to be a beautiful twenty-something woman, they marry each other because of their time together and how long they have known each other. While I personally do not enjoy Emma, the story does feel refreshing after dealing with love-torn people on a daily basis. The only downside is throwing away long and lasting love for an affair that only helps kick the edge off your stressful life. So don't throw away something you have for someone whose only purpose is to give you fifteen minutes of euphoria.

3. Mansfield Park: Chariot Tarot Card

The concept of the novel is based on the journey of adulthood. Fanny was raised from poor misfortune to become an intelligent and inspiring author and playwright. She chose to marry her cousin Edmund versus the scheming and deceitful Henry Crawford. (It is revealed in the novel's ending that Henry Crawford had plenty of adulterous relationships with women once he married Edmund's sister, even having an affair with his own sister).

The Chariot means you drive your own course and your own path. It is your journey through life. No matter how many people want to help you on that path it is your own choice in what you do. Fanny chose to refuse Henry Crawford and would not continue to obey her Uncle Tom because it would then incriminate Maria in a way that could lose her status as a pure and chaste woman. It is through the siblings of Edmund and their lack of understanding of certain people that they end up in their prospective losses of fortune or reputation by marrying the wrong people. Fanny and Edmund's relationship was purely friendship until she accepted Edmund's proposal. Their similar thinking also works for his spiritual career as a clergyman. The downside to the Chariot is the constant exterior changes you make when you are the one who needs to work on their restlessness.

4. Pride & Prejudice: Devil Tarot

This is perhaps one of my favorites. I have always fallen in love with how fleshed Elizabeth's character is within the story, while the more stern and cold Darcy becomes a handsome and wonderful husband for Elizabeth. They both overcome their obstacles of being proud and prejudiced to become happy in their married bliss.

The Devil tarot does not involve summoning or the Devil himself. It has nothing to do with evil. This card represents resent and buildup of prejudice or judgement towards a person, but also shows that tolerance and letting go of these certain feelings might have something better for you in store. Both Darcy and Elizabeth give up pride and prejudice for the purpose of happiness. Darcy even works on getting Jane and Bingley married, even paying off Colonel Wickham's debt so he can marry Kitty. Both attempts were to woo Elizabeth and show he has been in love with her, probably since she walked all the way to Netherfield.

5. Northanger Abbey: The Tower Tarot

The Tower card in the Tarot is not bad or good. It is known to be the Tower of Destruction. However, this card mostly means you need to let some obstacles go from your life. The problem with our main protagonist, Catherine Morland, in this novel is that she is obsessed with Gothic novels. Her ideal notion in life is to become a heroine of a Gothic story. Yet as she reads these novels, she tries to find her life in some version of Tales of Udolopho, that she ends up almost ruining herself and her family for the sake of living a Gothic story. On the other hand, once she has let go of this ideal, her newfound friend eventually becomes her husband, Henry Tilney. The downside of the Tower card is not learning from your mistakes.

6. Sense & Sensibility: Temperance Tarot

Temperance is about balance. The new move and relocation of more suitable lodgings for the three unmarried Dashwood sisters and their mother eventually provided both the means and ends of living sensibly in comfort and happiness. Marianne almost ends up a fling to the handsome Willoughby after it is discovered his character is more money than personal charm. She also undergoes an illness and therefore falls for her healer and caretaker, Colonel Brandon. Elinor marries her longtime friend and former flame, Edward Ferrars. She knew of the secret engagement when his chosen bride arrived to visit the Dashwoods in their new home. However, when everyone else found out about the secret engagement, she jilted Edward for his brother Robert who is shallow and vain and had more money to provide for her. Edward seemed relieved telling Elinor this and eventually they agree to marry. The two sisters live together nearby as neighbors. It is never revealed if the other sister ever married.

The Temperance card is all about steering clear of excess and avoiding it while you can. It also works on letting old resentments go. The downside is trying to keep everything at peace and cutting down the excess at a high cost.

7. Lady Susan: Fool Tarot

Lady Susan is a novel that many Austen readers find arguably critical. It is a wealthy widow who has a daughter and no shame in whom she confines for lovers or acquaintances. There is even a scheme in which her daughter is supposed to marry a chosen man she picked so that she could sleep with him. Yet, all her plans backfired. When her daughter's unwelcomed suitor takes the scene, the bachelor that Susan wanted her daughter to marry finally got a hold of her true character. Disgusted by what he hears and what he sees, he charms and fancies her daughter and the suitor that the daughter did not want to marry eventually marries her mother.

The Fool Tarot says that you can relay into your passions without a touch of regard, but there has to be a stopping point. You can only go so far into our own wilderness until you lose yourself completely. Once your head resurfaces from a wild chance of fun and freedom, sometimes the end result is not what you are looking for because the downside of being a fool is being immature or impulsive.

Thank you for checking out these tarot analysis of Austen's novels. Several of them were tied to at least two or three Tarot cards spanning from the Major and Minor Acrana to even the suits. While I dabble or explore that side of thinking, I still have to go with the instinct that while some people listen to the cards, I still need to have my head somewhere below the clouds that wander the sky.

If you're curious about learning Tarot, there are great websites to work and research Cassandra Eason has a decent book that explains everything in a more simplistic manner than you can find on some websites.