Tarot interpretation depends upon a paradox: the translation of a visual, symbolic language into verbal language. In truth, it can no more be done than a song can be described in words; all we can do is strive towards it. Once a symbol can be fully expressed in words, it ceases to be a symbol. Thus, it is interesting to see how a master novelist weaves words from the
Tarot. .
The Castle of Crossed Destinies is perhaps the best-known literary work based on the tarot. The
novel was written in the early seventies by the Cuban author, Italo Calvino. It was originally planned as three parts: The Castle of Crossed Destinies, The Tavern of Crossed Destinies and The Motel of Crossed Destinies. However, only the first two parts were actually written. Calvino describes his use of the Tarot as a “machine for writing stories” and this is how the novel progresses; card after card being dealt as each storyteller develops his tale; stories crossing each other and inter-weaving.
In the first part, a group of
travellers meet at a castle in the midst of a forest. Although, each is keen to tell his or her story to the others, the travellers find that they have all been struck dumb. All they have to tell their tales is a pack of Visconti-Sforza Tarot
cards; each storyteller laying out cards to tell his or her tale; different tales incorporating cards previously lain as a grid of cards is built up on the table by the travellers. The novel works as a prose poem, none of the actual stories are ingenious and they tend towards the fantastical. The overall effect is intended to be dreamlike and haunting. This works well at first, but the stories become more and more confused and it is difficult for the reader to maintain momentum as the novel progresses. The second section of the work, The Tavern of Crossed Destinies, increases this sense of strangeness as the travellers start to squabble over who should tell the next tale, the final tale revolving around the madness of Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth.
Calvino’s interpretations usually bear no resemblance to any traditional
meanings of the cards, but this only adds to the inventiveness of the book. Each character uses and relates to the cards as he or she sees them; they have no preconceived notions of what the
card meanings are. In fact, as the cards are laid out in a pattern on the table, many cards enter in travellers’ tales over and over again, each time with a different meaning.
This is what I enjoyed most about the novel: the sheer promiscuity with which Calvino attaches meanings to cards. Like most card readers, my introduction to Tarot came via a pack of cards and a book. From the very outset, my reaction to the cards has been shaped by the traditional assignations. Calvino’s approach and superb use of language gives a freshness to the cards that often gives pause for thought .
Having said that, it does begin to pale as one continues. Cards can be taken literally. The Devil can be a devil, The Hanged Man can represent a hanged man. At the other extreme, the interpretations can be extremely tenuous. The Ten of Cups can be linked to the view of a cemetery from the top of a tree. That’s not to say that the odd interpretation can’t stop you in your tracks and make you think of a card differently. However, the overall effect after having read story after story is that of Calvino’s machine racking out tale after tale long after the reader has lost interest.
There is another aspect to this novel which I do like; and that is the actual practice of storytelling from cards which is great fun to do for oneself. Calvino’s manner of using a type of free association rather than the traditional meanings does give a freshness to the process and creates another way of looking at the cards, as opposed to storytelling as another approach to carrying out a more traditional reading.
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