This summer, New York’s Morgan Library and Museum’s latest exhibition tackles tarot’s origin and its significance as a constantly evolving divinatory system. The exhibition divides itself between tarot’s birth during the Renaissance and the modern interpretations of tarot that have transcended beyond its original form.

I began my journey with the Renaissance portion of the exhibit. Exploring tarot’s foundation in Italian Renaissance art and archetypes that represented the varying social and political roles  during the time. Before its modern use, tarot cards began as a simple game titled, Tarocchi. The oldest commissioned deck in history was the Visconti-Sforza deck. The game works similar to any card game that attributes different values to different cards, with each player attempting to win “tricks” with the most high-value cards. 

As tarot further evolves, the archetypes begin to speak louder than a simple card game. Renaissance writers turned Tarocchi into Tarocchi Appropriati, a literary card game that more closely resembles tarot’s modern usage. In Tarocchi Appropriati, writers would assign random cards to participants and then create a poem meant to reflect the individual. It’s the first inkling of Tarot becoming a practice that combines intuitive thinking and an interpretation of literary themes and symbolic motifs. 

Across the hallway from the Renaissance room, was the portion of the exhibit titled, ‘Modern Visions’. Leaving Italy, the exhibit begins to meet us more closely to where we’ve been introduced to the tarot system. The iconic Rider-Waite-Smith deck is highlighted as responsible for the modern interpretation of the major and minor arcana. Beyond the classics, Modern Visions explores numerous decks created around the world that all venture off into their own understandings of the original archetypes we’ve been given.

When describing the contemporary progression of tarot, one of the many explanatory texts found on the museum walls stated, “Tarot’s ability to lend itself to diverse reinterpretations has made it a potent source of inspiration for artists confronting uncertainties and anxieties about the contemporary world…As the number of artists working in tarot has grown, so too has the number of tarot decks, many of which have reconceived the genre’s traditional format.”

This paints tarot as something that will always find itself planted into the human subconscious. The major arcana are simply just grander interpretations of universal concepts that exist within all of humanity and the art that we create. It’s similar to how we see ourselves in the narratives of our favorite movies or hear our plights reflected back to us through our favorite songs. Tarot provides another mirror that acts almost as a mouthpiece for the subconscious to finally find the language to articulate the emotional abstract. 

My favorite modern deck was the (Ta)Rot Pack by Dorothy Iannone created in 1968-69, and it veers entirely outside of the major/minor arcana. Over 28 cards, this deck depicts the intimate daily life between Iannone and her longtime partner, Dieter Roth. This deck shows that the most profoundly spiritual things come from the mundanity of the everyday. Through depictions of sexuality, family, mental strife, and love, this deck sets itself apart from the typical story.

This exhibition shows just how much tarot has been able to reach far beyond Renaissance-era Italy. The freedom of interpretation has allowed for artists of all different backgrounds to fit these pre-existing archetypes in context to the lives they’ve lived and the story they’re trying to tell. Finding one’s own deck is a highly personal process. So, I took myself across the bridge to Jersey City’s most famous botanica, The Metaphysical Shoppe, to find the deck that was just right for me.

“Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions” will be on display from June 26th to October 4th, 2026.