Ulysses Tarot (James Joyce)

noby

I just finished reading James Joyce's Ulysses, and I hope I'm not the only one here who has, who liked it, and who saw a lot of tarotic qualities in it. (It's worth noting that cartomancy appears multiple times in the book, Molly Bloom being a practitioner of it.) I immediately started thinking of the relation of characters and scenes to tarot cards, which, given that the book is based on that most archetypal of hero's journeys, seems apropos. I am so surprised at how closely so much in Ulysses reflects the tarot that I felt compelled to share this here! I mostly just thought of this in terms of the Major Arcana, but threw in a few ideas for pip and court cards too.

THE FOOL: Leopold Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Calypso." Bloom steps across the threshold of 7 Eccles Street to go shop for a kidney.

THE MAGICIAN: Stephen Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Proteus." Stephen writes a poem while looking out at the ocean.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: Molly Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Penelope." Molly lies in bed, reading cards, envisioning all she knows and all that no one knows she knows.

THE EMPRESS: Mina Purefoy. Scene: From the chapter "Oxen of the Sun." Mina has just given birth in the hospital while men tell ribald tales of fertility rites.

THE EMPEROR: Simon Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Wandering Rocks." Simon finally gives in to his daughter Dilly's demand for money, but with a sharp verbal rebuke.

THE HIEROPHANT: Father Garrett Deasy. Scene: From the chapter "Nestor." Deasy pedantically details his theories to Stephen as they sit in his opulent office, which is decorated with seashells, coins, and horse portraits.

THE LOVERS: Lydia Douce, Mina Kennedy, and Ben Dollard. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Dollard sings in the background while Douce and Kennedy tend bar in the foreground, seducing all with the charms of music and flirtation.

THE CHARIOT: Blazes Boylan. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Boylan's horse-drawn cab jingles its way toward Molly.

STRENGTH: Milly Bloom and Pussens. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca" (Milly doesn't actually appear, but Bloom thinks of her and briefly considers her similarities with their cat). Sexually blossoming Milly stands confidently with Pussens rubbing up against her leg.

THE HERMIT: A.E. Scene: From the chapter "Scylla and Charybdis." A.E. pronounces on esoteric theories at the library.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Throwaway and Sceptre. Scene: From the chapter "Eumaeus." A picture and headline in the newspaper show that dark horse Throwaway won over the heavily favored Sceptre.

JUSTICE: Martin Cunningham. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." Martin Cunningham helps Bloom escape the scene as the Citizen throws a Jacob's tin at Bloom and misses. Cunningham has just defended Bloom from the false accusations of other bar patrons.

THE HANGED MAN: Rudolph Virag Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom imagines the suicide of his father Rudolph Virag, who killed himself after the death of Bloom's mother. Virag left investments to Bloom that have been a saving grace for him financially.

DEATH: Paddy Dignam. Scene: From the chapter "Hades." Bloom, Simon Dedalus, Martin Cunningham and others look on as Paddy Dignam is memorialized and buried.

TEMPERANCE: Gerty MacDowell. Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Gerty sits on the beach, considering the virtues of temperance and how her father's abuse of alcohol has ruined her family. She notices Bloom watching her and teases and excites him by showing off her legs. They both fantasize about one another but do not speak to or touch one another.

THE DEVIL: Buck Mulligan. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Mulligan gives his blasphemous rendition of the Eucharist, then teases and tempts Stephen out of his home to join him later for an evening of debauchery.

THE TOWER: Martello Tower. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Stephen leaves the Tower without his key, knowing he has been usurped and may not be able to return.

THE STAR: 7 Eccles Street. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom and Stephen stand together in Bloom's garden, pissing under the stars.

THE MOON: Garryowen. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." In a fantastical imagining, the wolfhound Garryowen sits upright on a barstool, his hind legs crossed, holding in his forepaws and reading from a text that he has written in the Irish epic style.

THE SUN: Jacky and Tommy Caffrey (and Cissy). Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Young Cissy runs through the sand after her twin toddler brothers, who have been playing vigorously and naughtily.

JUDGEMENT: Bella Cohen and May Dedalus, among many others. Scene: From the chapter "Circe." Stephen and Bloom hallucinate a huge cast of characters who pass judgement on them for all their failings. This builds to a hallucinatory climax where brothel madam Cohen humiliates Bloom for his failures as a husband and Stephen's dead mother May reflects back to him his guilt over his failure to follow her dying wish.

THE WORLD: Molly and Leopold Bloom in bed. Scene: From the chapters "Ithaca" and "Penelope." Poldy and Molly Bloom lie in bed, facing opposite directions, reflecting and containing the world in their thoughts and their love.

ACE OF CUPS: Bar of lemon soap.
ACE OF PENTACLES: Bloom's potato.
ACE OF SWORDS: A copy of Sweets of Sin.
ACE OF WANDS: Stephen's ashplant.

TWO OF CUPS: Poldy proposes to Molly under the rhododenrons at Howth Head.
TWO OF PENTACLES: Father Cowley discusses how to juggle his debts with Simon Dedalus and Ben Dollard.

FIVE OF PENTACLES: The Dedalus sisters travel through town to pawn belongings and beg.

SIX OF CUPS: Dilly Dedalus asks Stephen for his input on the French primer she has bought.
SIX OF PENTACLES: Martin Cunningham leads the collection for the Dignam orphans.
SIX OF WANDS: The viceregal cavalcade proceeds through the town and people gather and wave.

SEVEN OF CUPS: Bloom pens a letter to Martha Clifford.

EIGHT OF CUPS: Stephen refuses Bloom's offer to stay and leaves.

NINE OF SWORDS: Bloom is frozen in horror and dread as he sits in the restaurant and realizes Boylan has arrived to meet Molly.

TEN OF SWORDS: Stephen is left knocked out and lying flat on his back by a punch from Private Carr.

KING OF SWORDS: Myles Crawford, editor of The Evening Telegraph.
KING OF CUPS: F. W. Sweny, drugstore proprietor.
KING OF PENTACLES: Davy Byrne, proprietor of Byrne's pub.

QUEEN OF SWORDS: Martha Clifford, Bloom's erotic pen-pal.
QUEEN OF CUPS: Josie Breen, an old friend of Molly's and old flame of Bloom's who is now a caretaker to her mentally imbalanced husband.
QUEEN OF PENTACLES: The old woman in the tower, who delivers milk to Stephen and Buck and is treated as a symbol of Old Ireland.
QUEEN OF WANDS: Zoe Higgins, prostitute who attempts to seduce Bloom and takes his potato.

KNIGHT OF SWORDS: Lyster, champion of learning.
KNIGHT OF CUPS: Denis Breen, avenger of mail pranks.
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES: The Citizen, defender of Irish pride.
KNIGHT OF WANDS: Haines, hunter of the elusive panther.

PAGE OF SWORDS: Joe Hynes, not-so-talented journalist.
PAGE OF PENTACLES: Pat, waiter at the Ormond Hotel restaurant.
PAGE OF WANDS: Alec Bannon, seeker after Milly Bloom's heart.
 

baconwaffles

I just finished reading James Joyce's Ulysses, and I hope I'm not the only one here who has, who liked it, and who saw a lot of tarotic qualities in it. (It's worth noting that cartomancy appears multiple times in the book, Molly Bloom being a practitioner of it.) I immediately started thinking of the relation of characters and scenes to tarot cards, which, given that the book is based on that most archetypal of hero's journeys, seems apropos. I am so surprised at how closely so much in Ulysses reflects the tarot that I felt compelled to share this here! I mostly just thought of this in terms of the Major Arcana, but threw in a few ideas for pip and court cards too.

THE FOOL: Leopold Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Calypso." Bloom steps across the threshold of 7 Eccles Street to go shop for a kidney.

THE MAGICIAN: Stephen Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Proteus." Stephen writes a poem while looking out at the ocean.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: Molly Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Penelope." Molly lies in bed, reading cards, envisioning all she knows and all that no one knows she knows.

THE EMPRESS: Mina Purefoy. Scene: From the chapter "Oxen of the Sun." Mina has just given birth in the hospital while men tell ribald tales of fertility rites.

THE EMPEROR: Simon Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Wandering Rocks." Simon finally gives in to his daughter Dilly's demand for money, but with a sharp verbal rebuke.

THE HIEROPHANT: Father Garrett Deasy. Scene: From the chapter "Nestor." Deasy pedantically details his theories to Stephen as they sit in his opulent office, which is decorated with seashells, coins, and horse portraits.

THE LOVERS: Lydia Douce, Mina Kennedy, and Ben Dollard. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Dollard sings in the background while Douce and Kennedy tend bar in the foreground, seducing all with the charms of music and flirtation.

THE CHARIOT: Blazes Boylan. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Boylan's horse-drawn cab jingles its way toward Molly.

STRENGTH: Milly Bloom and Pussens. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca" (Milly doesn't actually appear, but Bloom thinks of her and briefly considers her similarities with their cat). Sexually blossoming Milly stands confidently with Pussens rubbing up against her leg.

THE HERMIT: A.E. Scene: From the chapter "Scylla and Charybdis." A.E. pronounces on esoteric theories at the library.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Throwaway and Sceptre. Scene: From the chapter "Eumaeus." A picture and headline in the newspaper show that dark horse Throwaway won over the heavily favored Sceptre.

JUSTICE: Martin Cunningham. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." Martin Cunningham helps Bloom escape the scene as the Citizen throws a Jacob's tin at Bloom and misses. Cunningham has just defended Bloom from the false accusations of other bar patrons.

THE HANGED MAN: Rudolph Virag Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom imagines the suicide of his father Rudolph Virag, who killed himself after the death of Bloom's mother. Virag left investments to Bloom that have been a saving grace for him financially.

DEATH: Paddy Dignam. Scene: From the chapter "Hades." Bloom, Simon Dedalus, Martin Cunningham and others look on as Paddy Dignam is memorialized and buried.

TEMPERANCE: Gerty MacDowell. Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Gerty sits on the beach, considering the virtues of temperance and how her father's abuse of alcohol has ruined her family. She notices Bloom watching her and teases and excites him by showing off her legs. They both fantasize about one another but do not speak to or touch one another.

THE DEVIL: Buck Mulligan. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Mulligan gives his blasphemous rendition of the Eucharist, then teases and tempts Stephen out of his home to join him later for an evening of debauchery.

THE TOWER: Martello Tower. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Stephen leaves the Tower without his key, knowing he has been usurped and may not be able to return.

THE STAR: 7 Eccles Street. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom and Stephen stand together in Bloom's garden, pissing under the stars.

THE MOON: Garryowen. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." In a fantastical imagining, the wolfhound Garryowen sits upright on a barstool, his hind legs crossed, holding in his forepaws and reading from a text that he has written in the Irish epic style.

THE SUN: Jacky and Tommy Caffrey (and Cissy). Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Young Cissy runs through the sand after her twin toddler brothers, who have been playing vigorously and naughtily.

JUDGEMENT: Bella Cohen and May Dedalus, among many others. Scene: From the chapter "Circe." Stephen and Bloom hallucinate a huge cast of characters who pass judgement on them for all their failings. This builds to a hallucinatory climax where brothel madam Cohen humiliates Bloom for his failures as a husband and Stephen's dead mother May reflects back to him his guilt over his failure to follow her dying wish.

THE WORLD: Molly and Leopold Bloom in bed. Scene: From the chapters "Ithaca" and "Penelope." Poldy and Molly Bloom lie in bed, facing opposite directions, reflecting and containing the world in their thoughts and their love.

ACE OF CUPS: Bar of lemon soap.
ACE OF PENTACLES: Bloom's potato.
ACE OF SWORDS: A copy of Sweets of Sin.
ACE OF WANDS: Stephen's ashplant.

TWO OF CUPS: Poldy proposes to Molly under the rhododenrons at Howth Head.
TWO OF PENTACLES: Father Cowley discusses how to juggle his debts with Simon Dedalus and Ben Dollard.

FIVE OF PENTACLES: The Dedalus sisters travel through town to pawn belongings and beg.

SIX OF CUPS: Dilly Dedalus asks Stephen for his input on the French primer she has bought.
SIX OF PENTACLES: Martin Cunningham leads the collection for the Dignam orphans.
SIX OF WANDS: The viceregal cavalcade proceeds through the town and people gather and wave.

SEVEN OF CUPS: Bloom pens a letter to Martha Clifford.

EIGHT OF CUPS: Stephen refuses Bloom's offer to stay and leaves.

NINE OF SWORDS: Bloom is frozen in horror and dread as he sits in the restaurant and realizes Boylan has arrived to meet Molly.

TEN OF SWORDS: Stephen is left knocked out and lying flat on his back by a punch from Private Carr.

KING OF SWORDS: Myles Crawford, editor of The Evening Telegraph.
KING OF CUPS: F. W. Sweny, drugstore proprietor.
KING OF PENTACLES: Davy Byrne, proprietor of Byrne's pub.

QUEEN OF SWORDS: Martha Clifford, Bloom's erotic pen-pal.
QUEEN OF CUPS: Josie Breen, an old friend of Molly's and old flame of Bloom's who is now a caretaker to her mentally imbalanced husband.
QUEEN OF PENTACLES: The old woman in the tower, who delivers milk to Stephen and Buck and is treated as a symbol of Old Ireland.
QUEEN OF WANDS: Zoe Higgins, prostitute who attempts to seduce Bloom and takes his potato.

KNIGHT OF SWORDS: Lyster, champion of learning.
KNIGHT OF CUPS: Denis Breen, avenger of mail pranks.
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES: The Citizen, defender of Irish pride.
KNIGHT OF WANDS: Haines, hunter of the elusive panther.

PAGE OF SWORDS: Joe Hynes, not-so-talented journalist.
PAGE OF PENTACLES: Pat, waiter at the Ormond Hotel restaurant.
PAGE OF WANDS: Alec Bannon, seeker after Milly Bloom's heart.
This is wonderful. I would love to own this deck and I certainly do see how tarot and Ulysses does seamlessly fit.
 

Le Fanu

Amazing parallels you've drawn - you've obviously been really immersed in the book! Years since I've read it and I was in a tarot lull so wouldn't have picked up on these parallels. Thanks for this! Great work!
 

noby

Thanks for the positive feedback, I'm so glad you both like it! I'd love to have this deck myself, but would need to work with a skilled artist to realize it. I can so see it in my head, done in a sort of detailed line drawing style a la an artist like Robert Place or like some of the art styles used by Lo Scarabeo. Too bad I lack the drawing skills. At the very least I am glad to have gotten these obsessive thoughts out of my head and to be able to share them with folks who don't just think I'm crazy for being this obsessed with a book and with the tarot :)
 

baconwaffles

Thanks for the positive feedback, I'm so glad you both like it! I'd love to have this deck myself, but would need to work with a skilled artist to realize it. I can so see it in my head, done in a sort of detailed line drawing style a la an artist like Robert Place or like some of the art styles used by Lo Scarabeo. Too bad I lack the drawing skills. At the very least I am glad to have gotten these obsessive thoughts out of my head and to be able to share them with folks who don't just think I'm crazy for being this obsessed with a book and with the tarot :)
This deck done by Robert Place or along the same style as his would be perfect. I definitely see it.
 

Zafero Berro

I just finished reading James Joyce's Ulysses, and I hope I'm not the only one here who has, who liked it, and who saw a lot of tarotic qualities in it. (It's worth noting that cartomancy appears multiple times in the book, Molly Bloom being a practitioner of it.) I immediately started thinking of the relation of characters and scenes to tarot cards, which, given that the book is based on that most archetypal of hero's journeys, seems apropos. I am so surprised at how closely so much in Ulysses reflects the tarot that I felt compelled to share this here! I mostly just thought of this in terms of the Major Arcana, but threw in a few ideas for pip and court cards too.
That is a brilliant idea. I can imagine a deck actually assisting study of the book.
THE FOOL: Leopold Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Calypso." Bloom steps across the threshold of 7 Eccles Street to go shop for a kidney.
Yes! It has to be him, of course, as he is the traveller.
THE MAGICIAN: Stephen Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Proteus." Stephen writes a poem while looking out at the ocean.
I at first thought that this should be Buck Mulligan, but I think you are right about Stephen.
THE HIGH PRIESTESS: Molly Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Penelope." Molly lies in bed, reading cards, envisioning all she knows and all that no one knows she knows.
I really thought that this had to be Bella Cohen, Circe.
THE EMPRESS: Mina Purefoy. Scene: From the chapter "Oxen of the Sun." Mina has just given birth in the hospital while men tell ribald tales of fertility rites.

THE EMPEROR: Simon Dedalus. Scene: From the chapter "Wandering Rocks." Simon finally gives in to his daughter Dilly's demand for money, but with a sharp verbal rebuke.

THE HIEROPHANT: Father Garrett Deasy. Scene: From the chapter "Nestor." Deasy pedantically details his theories to Stephen as they sit in his opulent office, which is decorated with seashells, coins, and horse portraits.

THE LOVERS: Lydia Douce, Mina Kennedy, and Ben Dollard. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Dollard sings in the background while Douce and Kennedy tend bar in the foreground, seducing all with the charms of music and flirtation.

THE CHARIOT: Blazes Boylan. Scene: From the chapter "Sirens." Boylan's horse-drawn cab jingles its way toward Molly.

STRENGTH: Milly Bloom and Pussens. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca" (Milly doesn't actually appear, but Bloom thinks of her and briefly considers her similarities with their cat). Sexually blossoming Milly stands confidently with Pussens rubbing up against her leg.

THE HERMIT: A.E. Scene: From the chapter "Scylla and Charybdis." A.E. pronounces on esoteric theories at the library.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Throwaway and Sceptre. Scene: From the chapter "Eumaeus." A picture and headline in the newspaper show that dark horse Throwaway won over the heavily favored Sceptre.

JUSTICE: Martin Cunningham. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." Martin Cunningham helps Bloom escape the scene as the Citizen throws a Jacob's tin at Bloom and misses. Cunningham has just defended Bloom from the false accusations of other bar patrons.

THE HANGED MAN: Rudolph Virag Bloom. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom imagines the suicide of his father Rudolph Virag, who killed himself after the death of Bloom's mother. Virag left investments to Bloom that have been a saving grace for him financially.
They are all very good. I'll think about them, though. Someone IS hanged, in Cyclops, perhaps it should be him.
DEATH: Paddy Dignam. Scene: From the chapter "Hades." Bloom, Simon Dedalus, Martin Cunningham and others look on as Paddy Dignam is memorialized and buried.
I was thinking that "The Man in the Macintosh" might be better.
TEMPERANCE: Gerty MacDowell. Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Gerty sits on the beach, considering the virtues of temperance and how her father's abuse of alcohol has ruined her family. She notices Bloom watching her and teases and excites him by showing off her legs. They both fantasize about one another but do not speak to or touch one another.
Very good!
THE DEVIL: Buck Mulligan. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Mulligan gives his blasphemous rendition of the Eucharist, then teases and tempts Stephen out of his home to join him later for an evening of debauchery.
I think an Englishman would be better, perhaps the guy from the Martello Tower. He does sort-of tempt Stephen.
THE TOWER: Martello Tower. Scene: From the chapter "Telemachus." Stephen leaves the Tower without his key, knowing he has been usurped and may not be able to return.
Great! It'll make a great image.
THE STAR: 7 Eccles Street. Scene: From the chapter "Ithaca." Bloom and Stephen stand together in Bloom's garden, pissing under the stars.
LOL. Absolutely. Good fun!
THE MOON: Garryowen. Scene: From the chapter "Cyclops." In a fantastical imagining, the wolfhound Garryowen sits upright on a barstool, his hind legs crossed, holding in his forepaws and reading from a text that he has written in the Irish epic style.
I'm not sure about this one. Surely something from the Circe chapter. Wasn't Kirke the Moon goddess?
THE SUN: Jacky and Tommy Caffrey (and Cissy). Scene: From the chapter "Nausicaa." Young Cissy runs through the sand after her twin toddler brothers, who have been playing vigorously and naughtily.

JUDGEMENT: Bella Cohen and May Dedalus, among many others. Scene: From the chapter "Circe." Stephen and Bloom hallucinate a huge cast of characters who pass judgement on them for all their failings. This builds to a hallucinatory climax where brothel madam Cohen humiliates Bloom for his failures as a husband and Stephen's dead mother May reflects back to him his guilt over his failure to follow her dying wish.

THE WORLD: Molly and Leopold Bloom in bed. Scene: From the chapters "Ithaca" and "Penelope." Poldy and Molly Bloom lie in bed, facing opposite directions, reflecting and containing the world in their thoughts and their love.
There is a huge amount to think about in your post. It's certainly a great idea! ...
 

Zafero Berro

The other side of each card could be an old map of Dublin.
 

noby

Thanks for the feedback and ideas, everyone! I'm pretty confident about my choices for most of the Major Arcana--in my view, the first three cards must be the 'holy trinity' of the novel; Buck has to be The Devil - listen to Frank Delaney's re: Joyce!--but I agree that The Moon and Judgment could each feature characters/imagery from "Circe." And I agree that the Man in the Macintosh would be great for the Death card. Maybe standing in the background (or foreground) as Paddy's hearse passes by?

I actually found - and bought - a deck of playing cards based on Ulysses that was published in the 1980s. I love the art style and they were a great tool for reflecting on the themes of the book after I finished it, but I found them useless for cartomancy as the system of meanings is rather obtuse. This was somewhat disappointing as half the reason I bought them was so I could do a cartomancy reading with them while pretending to be Molly :) They also weren't a particularly useful reference while contemplating scenes for a Ulysses tarot Minor Arcana... But I enjoy them all the same, and appreciate the elaborate, intuitive thinking behind them.

For anyone who's interested, they appear to be somewhat easily obtainable via the secondary market (I got mine off of eBay). They are officially titled "Ulysses a Vau-de-Ville" by R. Fanto. I don't seem to be able to upload pictures, but here's a website with some basic info and some thumbnails:

http://www.guntheranderson.com/cards/dec96/joyce.htm

And I love the idea of the back of the cards being a map of Dublin!