Occult London: Tarot Exhibition at Atlantis Bookshop
Tarot is all the rage in London right now. The pictures on this post show displays at Tarot Then and Now, an exhibition of decks, art, and other related items that’s currently on at the Atlantis Bookshop. There’s a second exhibition at the Warburg Institute: Tarot – Origins and Afterlives. I blogged about that when it first opened.
Yesterday, I popped into Atlantis to compare the two. They’re very different. The Warburg exhibition offers a historical overview from a scholarly perspective, but the one at Atlantis shows fascinating, rare, and unique objects owned and used by dedicated practitioners. Bali and Geraldine Beskin run the Atlantis Bookshop, and their family collection of occult items goes back generations. You can see original plates used for printing the Thoth cards, Austin Osman Spare’s pen holder and pictures, an original copy of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and some really unsual sets including one with a Peanuts theme.
When I chatted to Bali in the shop afterwards, she confided to me that there’s a third tarot-related event taking place in London. I quizzed her, but she was only allowed to give me vague details. Apparently filming is taking place in the city, and the company involved had ordered dozens of tarot decks as props and set dressing. I’m very curious to know what that’s all about…
Tarot Then and Now is in the Gardner Room, downstairs at the Atlantis Bookshop, 49A Museum St, London WC1A 1LY. It’s free to visit and is open daily, Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 6pm, until 30 April 2025. You can find out more here: https://theatlantisbookshop.com/
Other previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/04/pagan-eye-renate-von-charlottenburgs.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/12/pagan-eye-occult-art-show-at-atlantis.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2024/05/my-copy-of-austin-osman-spare-tarot-has.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/11/ithell-colquhouns-taro-at-college-of.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/08/anyone-know-anything-about-this-oracle.html
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Source: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/03/occult-london-tarot-exhibition-at.html