Death’s Hand In Mine… Tarot Excellence in Agatha All Along

A coven… a deck. Gorgeous work by @c0s0m2 on Twitter/X.

As the episode aired a week ago now I feel we’re clear to talk about the brilliance of Agatha All Along without fear of spoilers… but if you’ve not yet watched episode 7, Death’s Hand In Mine, I’d consider going and watching it before reading further!

Agatha All Along, as you no doubt know, is the sort-of sequel series to Marvel’s TV series WandaVision and it focusses on some quite obscure, re-thought Marvel witches. I’m not here to give you a blow-by-blow of the episode - thousands of nerds on thousands of blogs across the internet are already doing that, but I want to talk about the use of Tarot in the episode.

The episode focuses on one witch, Lilia Calderu - a divination witch who uses tarot cards… oh and is also played by Patti LuPone!!!

When TV shows or movies feature tarot cards or readings, they usually end up highly sensationalised, focused entirely on the major arcana and read in a… to put it politely… basic way. But the writers here clearly know their stuff, and maybe even have a love of the craft as the cards that are pulled are read well and make sense! Watching the episode I was able to read the cards along with the characters and come to the same conclusions in real time - that’s how accurate and nuanced I felt the interpretation was.

After stumbling over several cards that are failed starts at a reading, Lilia performs a spread that essentially tells the tale of her new coven and aligns each member with a card - and it really makes sense! Below is an overview of the comparisons as they were seen in the show and then some artwork which Marvel released via their Instagram.

Respectful of traditional imagery and meanings - the witches and their correlations

First we see Lilia as the Queen of Cups - in touch with her emotions, finding a motherly role and flowing with intuition.

A young Lilia, hundreds of years ago in Italy

“What is needed” is represented by the Three of Pentacles - the coven! Representing team work, collaboration and the ability to specialise.

Team work - they found the coven they all needed

Then we see the other witches as cards - either summing up their personality or role… or hinting at things to come:

The title character, Agatha Harkness, is the Three of Swords… heartbreak is coming and she seems to be holding Billy in her arms.

Is heartbreak coming… or does this represent the mysterious death of her “son”?

Billy Kaplan/Maximoff himself is the Tower Reversed, representing an opportunity for transformation and new beginnings, possibly averting disaster. This card is also a recurring motif in how Lilia sees Billy.

In this artwork (not the original from the episode) we also get a clue as to Lilia’s final fate

Jennifer Kale is the High Priestess - a witch fuelled by intuition and perhaps with the potential for greater things beyond the vale.

Surely a peachy card for a witch, no?

The recently departed Alice Wu is represented by the Knight of Wands - full of energy and passion, just needing to channel it.

Alice as the Knight of Wands… but without a horse and with her feet planted firmly? Is this a clue…?

And finally Rio Vidal is seen as… Death. We don’t fully know what this means yet and it can’t be good… but we’re here for it! Surely she must ultimately represent cycles, new beginning and fresh starts?

What are the true origins of Rio?

NightAspen on Twitter (X) does a great interpretation of Agatha’s “Nonsense” spread here - well worth a read.

For me this is a great episode because it seems to understand and respect tarot - a rarity in media. Yes, as a spooky queer comic geek I am predisposed to love this series (…Patti LuPone!?) but for me, this felt special.

If you haven’t already - go watch it!

My last thought… surely we deserve an official Agatha All Along tarot deck? Please make it happen, Marvel!