Wild Card by Jen Cownie & Fiona Lensvelt

Earlier this year I was looking for some good contemporary, beginner-friendly tarot books and I came across Wild Card – Let the Tarot Tell Your Story. It was a good find. As suggested from the first chapter title, “Hello, friend,” this is an approachable and welcoming book.

On their website, Litwitchure, authors Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt state, “We believe that tarot readings should be empowering and enjoyable, and our approach to the cards is less about fortune telling, more about storytelling.” This makes Wild Card accessible to everyone. They believe that we read the cards for the same reason we read and share stories, to develop understanding.

Introductory chapters

In the first chapter they write, “These cards are an encyclopaedia of experience and emotion: archetypes and narratives that anyone and everyone might encounter and explore — whether that’s by accepting them, challenging them, or finding a new lens through which to understand them.” If this idea resonates with you then I believe you will connect with this book.

Chapter Two answers some “Frequently asked questions” and I like the approach they took here. They’re not afraid to say what they think and since the book is a collaboration you get two different viewpoints. For example, one author doesn’t give predictions, whereas the other is open to it. This ensures the book doesn’t feel dogmatic in anyway. Rather it both shows, and promotes the idea, that how we work with the cards is up to us. We are the ones narrating the story. Plus, their discussion on tarot’s predictive possibilities has shifted my viewpoint and given me something to look into more. So much so, it has inspired me to look at writing about it as a means to flesh it out further.

That is a sign of a good book to me. I don’t believe there is any book that is truly only beginner friendly.

Card meaning chapters – Minor Arcana

Next Wild Card moves on to the Minor Arcana, starting with a chapter giving an overview of the suits and the numbers. This chapter ends “The greatest stories aren’t just the broad brush strokes of narrative arcs: they live in the tiniest details, the minutiae of life.” I love that here they are encouraging you to not just learn the structure of the deck, but to look to the subtleties in the cards. In other words, to take notice of the images you are looking at, not just the card title.

Chapters Four through Seven move you through each card in the Minor Arcana, starting with Cups, then Pentacles, Wands and finishing up with Swords. Each card receives a few pages and having opened with a collection of keywords, they move on to paint pictures of meaning. They do this through personal stories, and by interweaving quotes drawn from books, both fiction and nonfiction, poetry, drama, song lyrics, classical works, articles and essays. They also incorporate ideas taken from film and television, games and even internet memes to help get their ideas across.

One quote, found in the Seven of Cups entry, is from Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night,

We are what we pretend to be so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

As someone who reads every book with a pencil by my side, that is something I would have underlined, as I did here.

Painting pictures – an example using the Ace of Cups

An example of the pictures they paint can be found in the first entry, the Ace of Cups. Having linked the Ace of Cups to the idea that “Someone has the opportunity to decide what shape and volume of space they would like to take up in the world” through the internet meme, “Cats are liquid” they move on to say, “It speaks to someone who is brimming with potential — this being the Cups, usually creative potential, or emotional potential — but hasn’t yet decided where to channel it.” Everything feels lovely. The Ace of Cups “invites you to ask where they want to direct their creativity, their feelings, their loves.”

But later they paint another picture which gives the entry the balance it requires. “Some people have an abundance of potential, and find it drained away from them by trying too much at once, like a bucket pricked with a hundred tiny holes.” They go on to talk about channeling love into the wrong places as well.

They progress through the suit in story fashion. For example, the Six of Cups opens, “Phew! We went through a slight rocky patch there with the Five. But don’t worry, grab yourself another cup, this is a chance to regroup.” Without directly saying as much they remind you to connect the story of the cards.

Each card’s section ends with a series of “Questions to ask when you see this card.”

Court Cards & the Major Arcana

Chapter Eight discusses the Court cards overall and offers some great suggestions on how to get to the know the “family”. Then it’s on to the Majors. This follows the same structure as the Minors.

The Practice Chapters

Then come what I have termed the Practice Chapters. Here you’ll find a chapter on spreads, followed by ones titled, “Practical Magic,” “Where Next?” “The Cards at a Glance” and “References”. The spreads chapter has the ones you’d expect albeit with some novel approaches. “Practical Magic” offers some sound advice on how to read the cards, what to look out for, reading for others, buying decks etc and “Where next?” talks about different decks, finding resources and so forth. I like that this chapter wraps up with, “Questions to ask yourself” which are designed to encourage you to “explore how you want to use the tarot.” This is something that is all too often overlooked but it is so important. With so many ways to use tarot it is worth having a picture of what that looks like for you personally.

About the Authors

Having met during a course they formed Litwitchure, a stage show that introduces “audiences to the tarot as a tool for self-exploration and conversation, and using the cards to interview artists and authors on stage.” Fiona Lensvelt is an editor for Unbound and Jen Cownie is a strategy director for an advertising agency.

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Wild Card Contents

1. Hello, Friend
2. Secrets of the Tarot
3. Suits You
4. The Cups
5. The Pentacles
6. The Wands
7. The Swords
8. Meet the Family
9. Major Behaviour
10. The Majors
11. Simple Readings
12. Practical Magic
13. Where Next?

• The Cards at a Glance
• References
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors

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Recommendation

Overall I would say this is a great reference book that is easy to read cover to cover. I like a good beginners book because it brings me back to beginner’s mind and reminds me to ask some question I’ve long since forgotten to ask. Some of the pages in my copy of Wild Card I’ve covered in underlines, yet many others have none. On other pages I have scribbled questions, challenges, personal examples, and additional notes. The fact I felt compelled to engage with the writing on so many occasions makes it a book I would happily recommend.

Publishing details

Pictured version:

I have the hardcover version first published in 2022 by Bluebird (an imprint of Pan Macmillan)

• A softcover version is available

Pages:

355 pp

ISBN:

978-1-5290-8210-4