Tarot of the Unconscious
Uncovering the Hidden Link Between Psychoanalysis and the Cards
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Red Wheel/Weiser
Publishing:2nd Jul '26
£18.99
This title is due to be published on 2nd July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
When author and longtime tarot reader and teacher Aliza Einhorn returned to school in order to become a psychoanalyst, she thought that she would have to put divination behind her. Instead, she discovered new insights regarding tarot and intuition. The result is Tarot of the Unconscious: Uncovering the Hidden Link Between Psychoanalysis and the Cards.
Inspired by Sigmund Freud and the deep-diving talk therapy of psychoanalysis, Tarot of the Unconscious is a unique exploration of the seventy-eight cards of the tarot. Einhorn probes the uncanny correspondences between the mysterious tarot and the groundbreaking ideas of Freud, the father and inventor of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is the origin of all talk therapy known today. Freud popularized the concept of the unconscious: the idea that we don’t know why we do what we do and that our motivations are often hidden from us. Numerous tarot and other spiritual books examine the teachings of Carl Jung, but Tarot of the Unconscious uniquely draws connections between tarot and Freud.
Tarot of the Unconscious features seventy-eight new tarot spreads that Einhorn created especially for this book. She also teaches readers to bravely create their own spreads. Einhorn writes, “In this book, we have Tarot for your Melancholia, Tarot for the Journey Home, Tarot for Not Getting Out of Bed, Tarot for Your Dark Night of the Soul. You get the picture. Tarot, like life, is not all love and light and neither is psychoanalysis, and neither is any real healing or creative process.”
Einhorn offers interpretations of each of the seventy-eight cards but also teaches readers how to interpret cards, as well as how to hone and rely upon their intuition. Tarot of the Unconscious is suitable for tarot readers of any level. It will help transform nervous tarot novices into confident, creative tarot practitioners and will offer new thought-provoking perspectives to seasoned tarot experts as well.
“Aliza Einhorn’s Tarot of the Unconscious brings Freud’s analytic ear into conversation with the tarot’s imaginal eye. It honors both rigor and reverie, science and symbol. What emerges is a work of serious playfulness and playful seriousness, a reminder that by exploring the unconscious, by listening to the cards as to our dreams, we come closer to the radiant child in The Sun card: open, joyful, and newly whole.”
—Mary K. Greer, author of Tarot for Your Self, 3rd Edition
“Aliza Einhorn’s new book taught me how to do something I’d forgotten about my tarot practice: she taught me how to play again, and for that I am forever grateful. In Tarot of the Unconscious, Aliza asks us to join her in using our imaginations and creativity to play with the cards in their meanings, as well as introducing some whimsy into what can be a quite serious thing.”
—Melissa Cynova, author of Kitchen Table Tarot
“Tarot may be associated most often with divination, but Aliza Einhorn’s Tarot of the Unconscious invites you to look at the cards when you need answers about what’s happening within you rather than what’s going to happen to you. This insightful book bridges the gap between tarot tradition, intuition, and psychoanalysis in a serious yet playful way. The real gems of the book are the seventy-eight tarot spreads—you’ll want to turn to them again and again. No matter if you’re new to tarot or an old hat like me, Einhorn’s thoughtful approach will help you break away from stuffy traditional meanings and develop your own deeply intuitive relationship with the cards.”
—Theresa Reed, author of The Book of Astrological Returns
“‘There is no single true Tarot,’ wrote Rachel Pollack. Tarot of the Unconscious offers a compelling new way to understand that truth. Drawing on the ideas of Sigmund Freud—dreams, free association, and the hidden life of the psyche—Aliza Einhorn presents the Tarot as a living language of self-reflection rather than prediction. The cards become mirrors, images become questions, and the reader becomes an explorer of their personal symbolic landscape. This book is an invitation to meet the Tarot where it has always lived: the threshold between imagination, insight, and the unconscious.”
—Amber Highland, author of The Oracle of Knotty Weave and publisher of The Cartomancer
“Tarot of the Unconscious presents an ambitious system for reading for oneself that sparks the reader’s curiosity, inviting them to step out of their comfort zone and explore what’s happening below the surface. Aliza Einhorn builds an accessible framework to understand her marriage of Tarot and psychoanalysis, as well as its uses. . . . Tarot of the Unconscious offers a deeply personal, transformative, and very intimate way of working with Tarot.”
—María Alviz Hernando, author of Tarot Tableau Revolution
ISBN: 9781578638956
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
224 pages