When you think of tarot cards, doesn’t your mind immediately go to The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser? No? Me either, but no doubt are you able to connect the two! For this project, I took a dive at connecting some of the characters from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene Book 1, Canto 1 and 11 to Tarot Cards. The characters included are: Una, The Redcrosse Knight, The Dragon, Error, and The Sorcerer (who is later revealed to be named Archimago, but not in the sections assigned for this class).
Below is The Lover’s tarot card. The image on the left is the front of the card and the image on the right is the back of the card, was inspired by The Faerie Queene, A Poem in Six Books with the Fragment Mutabilitie: Book I, illustrated by Walter Crane.
Una is on the left and The Redcrosse Knight is on the right. Una represents purity and spiritual unity, with her name meaning “oneness.” Spenser describes her as “So pure, an innocent, as that same lambe, / she was in life and every vertuous lore” (1.1.37-38). This emphasizes her Christ-like innocence and moral integrity, and how devoted she is to Redcrosse, her family, and her faith reflects the importance of unity and harmony within herself. The reason Una is surrounded by white on this card is because according to the website Sensational Color, white is the “unblemished marker of purity” and “ the symbol of truth, unadulterated by dishonesty” (Smith, 2025).
Moving onto The Redcrosse Knight, despite his journey being far from perfect, he personifies holiness and undergoes moral and physical traits that lead to his redemption. Spenser writes, “A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine, / Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, / Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine, / The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde; / Yet armes till that time did he never wield.” (1.1.1-5). What this quote suggests is that holiness is not innate. Despite the “old dints” in his armor, he has yet to fully earn the holiness of the armor he wears and his faith must be strengthened through experience. Overall, the holiness and unity combined between Una and Redcrosse, along with their romantic relationship, is what made me choose The Lovers Tarot Card. The Lover’s Tarot Card represents embracing “connection and harmony in your life,” and “encourages you to make choices that align with your values and desires” (Gong, 2025). I thought this fit perfectly with how both Una and Redcrosse embrace holiness, unity, harmony, and their faith while alongside each other.
Above is The Dragon. The Dragon in The Faerie Queene is the embodiment of destructive pride and wrath. They are overconfident in believing they will easily defeat Redcrosse, which reveals the arrogance that leads to their downfall. Spenser writes that the beast “was swolne with wrath and poyson, and with bloudy gore” (1.11.72), emphasizing the Dragon’s destructive nature and unrestrained fury. I used no reference for drawing this particular character, but I used a lot of dark colors to emphasize the “evilness” of the Dragon. I found that the Chariot Reversed tarot card reflects this perfectly: it represents aggression, lack of control, and the misuse of power (Gong, 2025.) The Chariot reversed warns of prideful ambition and chaos. The Dragon’s “wondrous greatnesse” (1.11.71) is what destroys them in the end.
Shown above is the monstrous form of Error in The Faerie Queene. Half-woman, half-serpant, Error reflects the misogynistic views of the time, associating her form with temptation and sin. Her physical corruption mirrors moral corruption. Throughout the poem, Error is made out to be this disgusting and vile creature, hence my very…interesting drawing of her. I found that the Nine of Cups Reversed tarot card aligned with her best because it signifies indulgence and dissatisfaction (Gong, 2025), which parallels perfectly with Error’s deceptive nature and her association with temptation. Her defeat at the hands of Redcrosse represents the victory of discipline over physical indulgence. My particular drawing of her was inspired by the drawing incorporated by Dayna Plehn in her essay “Trial and Error,” as seen below:
The Sorcerer, later revealed as Archimago, is driven by envy and deceit. His envy of Una and Redcrosse’s purity and connection fuels his destructive manipulation. By producing lustful false visions and illusions, he seeks to corrupt what he cannot possess. I found that this directly mirrors The Devil tarot card, which represents bondage, illusion, and temptation. The Sorcerer’s lust is secondary to his envy, which compels him to destroy holiness through deception. My vision of him was an old wizard guy, hence the crazy long white beard. I also gave him a little spell book to emphasize his deceitful sorcerer powers.
Overall, I had a lot of fun putting together these tarot cards and analyzing the characters in The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser further. Connecting tarot cards to The Faerie Queene matters because it pushes literary interpretation and connections. Spenser’s portrayal of these characters and tarot imagery and meanings all rely on universal archetypes: purity, temptation, deception, and holiness, which all reflect human experience. I wanted to draw tarot cards because it’s a creative way to visualize the poem’s moral themes in a more modern perspective.
References
“Edmund Spenser – the Faerie Queene, a Poem in Six Books with the Fragment Mutabilitie: Book I – the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, A Poem in Six Books with the Fragment Mutabilitie: Book I – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/357387.
Ginabrandolino. “Trial and Error.” The Course of Horror, 3 Dec. 2017, courseofhorror.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/trial-and-error/.
Gong, Tina. “The Chariot Meaning – Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings.” Labyrinthos, 5 May 2025, labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list/the-chariot-meaning-major-arcana-tarot-card-meanings.
Gong, Tina, and Sheena. “The Devil Meaning – Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings.” Labyrinthos, 5 May 2025, labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list/the-devil-meaning-major-arcana-tarot-card-meanings.
Gong, Tina. “The Lovers Meaning – Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings.” Labyrinthos, 5 May 2025, labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list/the-lovers-meaning-major-arcana-tarot-card-meanings.
Gong, Tina. “Nine of Cups Meaning – Tarot Card Meanings.” Labyrinthos, 5 May 2025, labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list/nine-of-cups-meaning-tarot-card-meanings.
Pjamesstuart. “Illustrators of the Faerie Queene.” False Machine, 23 March 2018, falsemachine.blogspot.com/2018/03/illustrators-of-faerie-queene.html.
Smith, Kate. “Finally, Color Explained by an Expert in a Way That Everyone Can Understand.” Sensational Color, 14 June 2025, sensationalcolor.com/meaning-of-white/#:~:text=Meaning%20Of%20White:%20Color%20Psychology,and%20refusing%20to%20take%20sides.
The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Canto 1 (1596) | RPO, rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/faerie-queene-book-1-canto-1-1596. The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Canto 11 | RPO, rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/faerie-queene-book-1-canto-11.
Sprockets and Springes 