The Tarot Podcast with T. Susan Chang

“Always.” That’s a big word. And it’s a bold move to say “The Cards are Always Right.”. But as tarot readers, it’s a creed we embrace. So what do we do when our cards fall silent? Where does our belief fall short. and what do we do about it?

Host T. Susan gets into it in this solo show. Pick up some reasons to believe, some causes for skepticism, and some helpful suggestions as to WHAT to do and what NOT to do when the cards don’t add up.

This week’s Patreon bonus content: Have *you* drawn a card that’s got you stumped? Bring it to the Tarot Podcast for a second opinion!

Links for this show:

______________________________

In today’s episode, we’re talking about the two most popular tarot decks in the world: Rider Waite Smith and Thoth. What makes these two decks so influential? What do they have in common, and how are they different? And how do you choose which one to take with you on your own tarot journey?!

My guest is Joe Monteleone, whose channel on YouTube has a devoted following on YouTube; he’s also the founder of Tarot Mysticism Academy. Joe is particularly known for his work with the Thoth Tarot, featured in his recently published book, Tarot Mysticism (Llewellyn, 2025)

This week’s bonus content: Take the poll!  on the Pepsi and Coke of the tarot world.  Are you a Thoth nerd? Is RWS your ride-or-die? Curious about one or the other? I want to know!

About Joe Monteleone

Described by The Huffington Post as a "one-man band of magical-thinking-made-reality," Joe Monteleone is a tarot master teacher, modern mystic, best-selling author, and content-creator with over 80,000 YouTube subscribers. He is the founder of the Tarot Mysticism Academy, where he teaches tarot and mysticism as a psycho-spiritual framework rooted in the perennial philosophy, bridging Western Esotericism and Eastern Mysticism into a path of divination, self-awareness, personal growth, and transpersonal/spiritual awakening.

He is the author of the award-winning Tarot Mysticism: The Psycho-Spiritual Technology of the Thoth Tarot and the #1 Bestseller Tarot Mysticism: Visual Primer. Joe has taught, performed, and written for various institutions and platforms, including The Readers Studio, World Divination Association, Tarot Readers’ Academy, Anahata’s Purpose, Esotoracle Magazine, and the New York Pagan Pride Festival to name a few. Before becoming a teacher, Joe was a professional dancer and choreographer who created and toured multimedia dance works based on mystical philosophy.

He continues to provide free resources in tarot and spiritual education, including authoring many free e-books.

Links for this episode:

____________________________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Tarot readers, it’s long been observed, have a particular affinity for Jungian thought, probably because Carl Jung’s theories of archetype, synchronicity, and personality offer us such rich and thought provoking frameworks for thinking about what’s going on in a tarot reading.

This week’s episode features the first of a series of conversations with Mariana Louis, whose “archetypal tarot” approach applies Jungian thought to the practice of tarot, allowing readers a way to engage deeply with the symbolic content of tarot imagery.  In this episode, we talk about the Jungian practice of active imagination, and how it can extend our dialogue with the cards.

This week’s bonus content!: Host T. Susan and Tarot Podcast video producer Randy take the active imagination train ride with a mystery card! Find out which one—and what happened!—in this week’s Patreon post for members at https://patreon.com/thetarotpodcast.

Mariana Louis is a professional tarot counselor, scholar, and creator of Persephone's Sister, a platform for psycho-spiritual education and guidance. After stumbling upon Jung's The Undiscovered Self in her grandfather's attic library, Mariana began her study of depth psychology and the archetypal language of the soul. This led her to pursue a degree in Western Intellectual Traditions at the CUNY Graduate Center where she focused on archetypal perspectives in the transformation of Western thought. Marrying this scholarship with her expertise in the tarot Mariana formulated the archetypal tarot approach, which she teaches in the Archetypal Tarot School and other programs. Mariana is the author of Tarot and the Psychology of the Soul: Exploring the Archetypal Mirrors of the Psyche, as well as the co-host of the Soror Mystica podcast and a faculty member at the Jung Archademy.

Links for this show:

_________________________________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Tarot IRL is back, with our next court card! In this episode, we examine how the charismatic and charming Knight of Wands shows up in the lives of regular people like you and me.

When you draw the Knight of Wands, look out for the following themes:

✨ To share your stories about the Queen of Wands for the next Tarot in Real Life segment - please join as a Patreon supporter of the Tarot Podcast! https://patreon.com/thetarotpodcast . You can also write in to the show at thetarotpodcast.com/about, using the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Links for this episode:

Ep. 60: Intro to Court Cards.

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Whether you’ve been reading for a month or a decade, once in a while we can get kind of stuck in our tarot practice.  Fortunately, Barbara Moore is here to tell us all about how to revive a faltering tarot practice. In this brief episode, Barbara walks us through a variety of ways you can jump-start your cards, find your inner oracle, get the riffle back in your shuffle.

Our bonus for patrons this week?  How to find a Tarot study buddy.

Links for this episode:

________________________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

The Tarot Podcast is sharing the secret sauce this week! it’s the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure spread, my hands-down favorite form of narrative problem-solving.  Choose your starting point and endpoint—and then let Fate handpick three magical tasks to accomplish on your personal heroic journey!

In this week’s bonus post: some tips to help you start and end your journey. Available to all paid Patreon members!

Links for this episode

______________________________

The effervescent Ethony Dawn returns to the show this week! to talk about an energy practice that’s really crucial for tarot readers: grounding. When you work with tarot, you’re reaching out with your subtle senses and making yourself alive to synchronicities and wonders. Groovy!  

But working these delicate antennae in extended client sessions can leave you feeling woozy, faint, and disconnected. In this episode, we talk about how you can reconnect with the Earth and re-anchor yourself in good ol’ reality.

Ethony is an author, tarot reader, tarot teacher, and High Priestess. She’s the author of Become an Exceptional Tarot Reader, Tarot Grimoire, and Your Tarot Court (Llewellyn) and created several decks, including Luminous Flow Tarot, Cosmic Wisdom Tarot, Modern Love Tarot, and Awakened Soul Oracle. As Headmistress of the Tarot Readers Academy, she teaches Tarot worldwide. Ethony is an ’80s child who loves Halloween, Care Bears, and the ocean. 

Links for this show:

Episode 58: Tarot Myths with Ethony Dawn

Ethony’s website

Ethony’s YouTube channel

Ethony on Instagram

Ethony on Facebook 

___________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

This week, the Tarot Podcast brings you one of the best-selling tarot decks of all time: the Wildwood Tarot. Creators Mark Ryan and John Matthews joined me to discuss the roots of this deck in pre-Celtic mythology, earth-based shamanism, and the lore of Sherwood Forest. (Artist Will Worthington was unfortunately unavailable for the interview.).  Anchored to the Wheel of the Year and the earth’s seasonal cycles, the Wildwood Tarot has proven to hold enduring appeal for pagan practitioners and mainstream readers alike.

As always, there’s a patron reading using the deck at the end of the episode. If you yourself would like to submit a question for a reading on the Tarot Podcast, sign up as a paid member!  You’ll find out when readings are happening on Patreon or Discord and be able to share your question then!

Mark Ryan (b. 1956) is an English actor, singer, author, and action director whose career spans West End musicals, television, and film. He's best known to mainstream audiences as the voice of Bumblebee, Jetfire, and Lockdown across the Transformers franchise, and for his iconic portrayal of Nasir in Robin of Sherwood and Mr. Gates in Black Sails, alongside work as a swordmaster and fight director on films like King Arthur and First Knight. Before entertainment, he served with British Army Intelligence and Special Forces, later working as a licensed US private investigator (as described in his 2015 autobiography, Hold Fast). Ryan's most enduring contribution to tarot is the Greenwood Tarot, created with artist Chesca Potter, which he later reworked with John Matthews and illustrator Will Worthington into the internationally bestselling Wildwood Tarot, followed by a 2017 companion workbook, Wild Magic. 

John Matthews, dubbed "Oxford's answer to all things mythic," has worked as an independent scholar since 1980, building a lifetime study of Arthurian legend and, more recently, the history of piracy, across a publication list topping 200 titles — among them Pirates, a number-one New York Times bestseller for 22 weeks in 18 languages. He has advised on major films including King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Prince of Persia, and won a BAFTA for the King Arthur education DVD. His tarot work began with the Arthurian Tarot, devised with Caitlin Matthews and now some 150,000 copies deep across three editions. He went on to create the best-selling Wildwood Tarot with Mark Ryan, along with The Shaman's Oracle, The Camelot Oracle, The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus, and The Sherlock Holmes Tarot. His latest publications include The Sleeping Beauty Oracle, The Circle of the Sidhe, and Merlin's Mirror Oracle.

Links for this show:

_______________________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Tarot IRL is back, with our very first court card! In this episode, we examine how the energetic and enthusiastic Page of Wands shows up in the lives of ordinary folks.

When you draw the Page of Wands, look out for the following themes:

✨ To share your stories about the Knight of Wands for the next Tarot in Real Life segment - please join as a Patreon supporter of the Tarot Podcast!  You can also write in to the show at thetarotpodcast.com/about, using the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Links for this episode:

Ep. 60: Intro to Court Cards.

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Animal decks are commonplace in the world of tarot, but to my mind the very finest of them is the Animal Totem Tarot, published in 2016 by author Leeza Robertson and artist Eugene Smith. In our conversation, the creators share the story behind Leeza’s meticulously-conceived animal correspondences and Eugene’s exquisite inkwork, which came together in an unforgettable 78-piece work of art..

As always, there’s a patron reading using the deck, at the end of the episode. If you'd like to see more of the Animal Totem Tarot in action, we have a few more readings in this week's Patreon bonus content. 

Leeza Robertson is an international bestselling author with Llewellyn Worldwide. She is a girl from the Aussie bush living her best life in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her wife. When she is not writing books or creating decks, she is helping other writers bring their dream of publishing into reality.

Eugene Smith is an illustrator born and raised in California now residing in Chicago, IL.  He decided all that time spent doodling in notebooks and scribbling on walls should be put to good use and so he pursued a BFA in painting and drawing from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. His work has appeared in books, editorials, tarot card decks, and educational graphic novels. He lives with his lovely wife, two children, and an odd dog.

Links for this show:

_______________________________

😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊