Greetings, dear reader! This post is the fourteenth in a series revealing my Heroic Tarot process featuring my award-winning X-Men cards.   Today we take a look at cards featuring Toad and Arcade!

The X-Men playing card deck is adorned with images of Marvel’s Merry Mutants.  I have created a system combining traditional Minor Arcana meaning with my vast knowledge of X-Men comic book stories.  The archetypal roles the X-Men represent bring the energy of the missing Major Arcana to the overall calculation.  I reveal the superheroic tales relevant to your path.   This dual reading is amplified by the elemental nature of whatever suit is pulled in addition to the numeralogical/feudal court energy contained therein.

One of the interesting aspects of the X-Men cards is that every character gets to be represented four times.  However, there are two different characters on the two Joker cards!  Each card features antagonists from X-Men mythology:  Toad and Arcade.  Due to their “bad guy” status, we will be looking at each character as a Shadow Guide.

A Shadow Guide is a spirit teacher that activates our fears in order for us to transcend them.  They represent a lesson that we need to learn in order to let go of negativity.   A Shadow Guide encourages us to return to the heroic path by activating change in our thoughts and actions.

It is important to note that the Joker in a deck of playing cards is not descended from the the Fool as many Tarot practitioners (including myself) have thought.  The Joker was created by a New York poker club as a ‘wild card’ to add zest to the game. That said, it does correspond to the same energetic qualities as the Fool, bearing in mind the figure of the court jester.

Note: I will be referring to each card by their traditional tarot names, although I will provide the equivalent playing card terms under each image.

Above artwork by Jim Lee.

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