Sabrina Scott is a tarot reader and teacher based in Toronto, as well as the author of the award-winning graphic novel Witchbody (Weiser Books). I asked them some quickfire questions about their relationship with the tarot (think of this conversation as a three card draw) and what followed is a fascinating insight into the practice of a contemporary card-reading maverick. You can find Sabrina on Instagram @sabrinamscott.
Could you tell us which tarot deck do you work with the most often and why?
Every deck has its own energy and its own personality, and so to me it makes some sense that as we move through different phases in our lives we also build and shift our relationships with our tarot decks. There have been times in my life when I've not touched the Rider Waite Smith for months - I've been too fragile coming out of a tough or challenging season, and so during those times I've found The Wild Unknown comforting. Asking which deck I work with most often is like asking what friend I talk with the most, haha! Sometimes it might be one friend, sometimes it might be the other - it just depends what each of us have going on in our lives at that moment, and whether or not our vibes are aligned.
How would you recommend beginners choose their first tarot deck?
Personally, I strongly suggest everyone have an edition of Pamela Colman Smith's illustrated tarot deck, whether that's the Rider Waite Smith edition, the Waite Smith Borderless, or whatever. Her images are absolutely foundational to how tarot is understood today, and it's unavoidable. Becoming proficient in getting to know this deck will open up so many opportunities and pathways to understanding other decks that are inspired by it or based on it (whether loosely or explicitly). A lot of people have fought me on this, found their decks alienating, come back to the RWS, and been like... oh. Her illustrations are just incredibly intelligent and visceral - nothing's extraneous, everything has specific meaning and well-thought-out symbolism - from colour, to gesture, clothing style, composition, everything. As someone trained as a professional illustrator - and who later taught both illustration theory and practice at the university level - Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations impress me more than any other deck, despite how old they are. She was brilliant and her contribution to tarot is so important.
What is unique about your personal approach to the cards?
I don't believe in memorizing, and I believe in personal relavency and connection to the cards. Now that I've been practicing for 20 years, I do make more space to read tarot books for fun - and I must admit, I've been shocked by how common it is for readers to simply see tarot as a psychological tool and/or as metaphor, or 'just a fun party trick.' A surprising number of professional and well-known readers don't seem to acknowledge the energy and beingness within each deck of cards - tarot cards are often seen as 'inanimate objects.' I couldn't disagree more. The cards are alive - they are beings with whom we communicate and collaborate, and when our relationship with our deck is solid, meaningful, and reciprocal, that's when the real magic can happen when we give and receive readings. I see tarot as a collection of vibrant matter, energetic beings worthy of respect - who will reach out and speak loudly if we develop our skills of listening.
I also have an anti-oppressive lens on how I read and teach tarot, which thankfully is becoming slightly more common. By that, I mean I read with an awareness of race, gender, sexuality, disability, body size, class, and all that fun stuff. I bring this framework to how I interpret the cards. One example of what this means in practice is that I don't see cards depicting figures with larger bodies as being about 'greed.' It's just a larger body. Similarly, I don't see cards depicting disabled bodies as being metaphorical. Disability is disability - I don't read it as a 'metaphor' for some kind of temporary setback. In how I teach tarot, I also refer to the cards quite often in a gender neutral way, or use descriptors more along the lines of masculine and feminine, assertive energy and receptive energy - depending on the cards and the deck in question.
I see card reading as a dialogic, conversational process - between myself, my client, my cards, and the spirits and energies which surround me and my other collaborators during the course of the read. I don't believe in giving passive predictions that put my client in the position of passenger in their own life. To the contrary, I'm all about helping folks see the patterns in which they're entrenched, and see different pathways out of it - different choices create different results and a different life.