A poetic new essay collection in which the symbols of Renaissance-era tarot brush up against life in a changing world.
In 2018, author Jessica Friedmann bought her first deck of tarot cards, a facsimile copy of the Tarot de Marseille. This 15th-century deck, with its unfamiliar images, sparked a deep immersion in the art, symbols, myths, and misrepresentations of Renaissance-era tarot.
Over the years that followed, and as tarot became a part of her daily rhythm, Friedmann’s life in rural Australia was touched by floods and by drought, by bushfires and the pandemic, creating an environment in which the only constant was change.
Twenty-Two Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana uses the Tarot de Marseille as a touchstone for these years, blending historical research, art history, and critical insights with personal reflections. In these essays, Friedmann demonstrates how the cards of the Major Arcana can be used as a lens through which to examine the unexpectedness—and subtle beauty—of 21st-century life.
“These elliptical essays form a paean to the tarot and its transformative potential … Friedmann’s luminescent prose underscores how the tarot — maligned by some and simply misunderstood by others — can be embraced to access deeper nuance and introspection.”
Nathan Smith, The Saturday Paper
“Luminous and tender, full of nuance and possibility, it is a series of personal reflections on each of the 22 cards in the major arcana … she merges memoir with instruction, historical insights with everyday observation, consideration of the cards’ universal major themes with the specificity of her own circumstances, as well as wider reading into art, culture, spirituality, wellness, and shifting social attitudes around the cards. It’s a lucid reminder of the ’ongoingness’ of history, stories, and the self — a meditation on the everyday magic of life and an argument for the enduring legacy of the tarot.”
Mel Fulton, Books+Publishing
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‘Enlightening … Blending historical insights with her own warm, vulnerable perspectives, Friedmann’s book will influence how each of us—novice or expert—reads and interprets the Tarot.’
Holly Mortlock, Readings
Praise for Things That Helped:
“Things That Helped is a beautiful book—heartfelt, fiercely intelligent, and urgent. It is a powerful affirmation of friendship, family, art, and love, and how these things might shape a life, and give it strength.”
Fiona Wright, author of Small Acts of Disappearance
Praise for Things That Helped:
“Jessica Friedmann has left safety behind and walked into something vast—a self, a world, on the verge of unravelling yet exhilarating and full of love. This book runs deep and wide. It’s alive with arresting images, with thoughts too big, sometimes too dangerous, to pin down.”
Maria Tumarkin, author of Axiomatic
Praise for Things That Helped:
“Her transportive writing will break you open and fill you anew.”
Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of The Paper House
