Reveal the past. Inspire the Present. Change the Future.
There’s a kind of woman people write poems about.
A woman brave enough to interpret her story.
She owns the room without asking permission.
Unapologetically, luminously, she is herself.
The tarot calls her Queen of Wands.
If you draw this card, your guidebook will probably tell you she represents confidence, charisma.
But that’s only the beginning of her story.
This is a character you know - a captivating woman who embraces her own power. She’s the fairy queen, dazzling every mortal who chances upon her. She’s the muse who inspires, and the artist who wields the brush. She’s a woman who lives with passion and intention, in accordance with her own voice.
In the classic Rider-Waite deck, she's holding a sunflower, a plant that turns toward the sun. But the Queen of Wands knows she is the sun. A black cat sits at her feet, a mysterious, enchanting companion that mirrors her own charisma. She owns the throne she sits on, feet planted wide, lions at her knees.
Every card in the tarot deck has these depths… and so much more.
Cues, lessons, paths, stories for you to wrap around yourself like a cloak of stars.
We invite you to walk with the Queen of Wands and wield her confidence. Leap into a new beginning with the Fool. Shine with the silvery intuition of the Moon.
Welcome to...
Me & The Moon is a course that combines tarot history, art, reflection, folk narrative, and intuition as a method to interpret your own story, and yourself, with confidence and insight.
Most importantly, you'll learn to use the cards as a tool to rediscover your voice, identify your patterns, and embrace your power.
What’s needed: a true sense of curiosity, an itch for creativity, receptiveness to historical and folkloric scholarship, and willingness to flex your intuition and trust your gut.
Whether you’re a seasoned reader or brand-new to tarot, you’ll strengthen your connection to the cards through clear-eyed cultural analysis, learn new strategies that rely on intuitive folk narrative, and gain confidence and flexibility in your ability to read the stories within the tarot.
Each week of the course will feature a deep dive into one of these topics...
The History & Folklore of Tarot
Tarot has a long, often wildly misunderstood history, full of twists, turns, and exposure to cultures and characters that radically changed what the cards stood for. We start the course by walking through the many incarnations of tarot so that you can experience how it has changed and understand what that means for you and your own take on the cards.
Tarot Symbols
Tarot is (in)famous for its dense, evocative symbolism, and endless ink has been spilled over their meaning and how to unlock them. In this module, we share our three-layered approach to understanding tarot symbolism so that you can read with flexibility and your own intuition at the helm.
Divination & Personal Reflection
It’s time to get hands on! We show you how to harness the power of fairy tales to jumpstart the process of telling your own story through tarot, knock down some of the biggest misconceptions and limiting superstitions about how readings work, and flex our storytelling muscles together in real time.
Tarot & Literature
Tarot’s inspiration goes far beyond readings - due to its versatility and symbolic richness, it’s often a catalyst for major creative ventures. Together, we explore texts and art rooted in the tarot and plant seeds for your own future projects that can grow from your tarot practice and reflection.
Look, tarot isn’t a magic eight ball or a winning lottery ticket.
We’re also folklorists, not literal Magicians.
But what we do know is that there’s still magic in the world. There’s magic in you and in the stories you tell yourself. There’s magic in learning to understand yourself, your choices, and your own power through a deck of cards.
This course will reconnect you with your intuition and sense of self, helping you create more moments of clarity and beauty as you step into being the confident interpreter of your life.
Some people give tarot all the power.
This program will teach you to draw power from the tarot and use it to tell your own story.
The Gates of Carterhaugh Are Open For...
Me & The Moon: The Folklore of Tarot is a live course that meets weekly on Tuesday nights. We encourage you to come live if at all possible - there’s nothing like the Carterhaugh community - but there will be replays posted within 24 hours of each live meeting because timezones are real and life happens.
What's Included:
-
Four core LIVE video lectures about the week's key concepts. Expect college-level discussions, complex topics in accessible language, hands-on practice, time for Q&As, and a sense of humor.
- Access to an exclusive Circle community for students of Me and the Moon. This moderated space will include weekly discussion questions and a dedicated section for sharing daily draws and reflections.
-
A custom PDF workbook featuring weekly discussion questions for learning and self-discovery to help guide your reflections, ground you in history and folklore, and flex your intuition; guided card spreads; further reading; and more.
-
A day-by-day PDF journal to record a simple daily card draw with prompts for reflection on everything you're learning in the course. This is where you'll grow confidence with practice (and step into some of that Queen of Wands energy!)
- Recommended weekly readings. You do not have to read these texts to participate, but they will enhance your understanding and experience. Please purchase or borrow:
- A booklet exploring the cards from a tarot deck of your choice (we recommend Rider–Waite, Cats Rule the Earth, or the Phantomwise decks if you don’t know where to start)
- The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino
- Conversations with the Tarot by Maria DeBlassie
-
The Hanged Man by Francesca Lia Block
Bonus Workshop: "The Cards That Choose Us: Tarot and Personal Story Making" with Dr. Maria DeBlassie
Tarot is more than a divination tool—it’s a mirror that helps us navigate our own story. Some cards call to us instantly, while others don’t resonate with us. Over the years I’ve been studying tarot, I’ve found that we all have an affinity card, or one that speaks deeply to our personal story, and an aversion card, one that we resist. Both contain medicine.
This lecture explores how affinity and aversion cards reveal our personal paths, illuminating the stories we live, the identities we claim, and the parts of ourselves still waiting to be seen. It will also explore how we can consciously shape our own stories and honor the narratives we are living into by working with these cards.
Your Teachers
We, Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman, are award-winning folklorists, teachers, and writers with a combined 26 years in higher education, two streaming series on The Great Courses+, and over 150 publications (including our new book, Fairylore: A Compendium of the Fae Folk!) Together, we founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, teaching creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. In 2019, Carterhaugh won the Dorothy Howard Award from the American Folklore Society.
When we aren’t teaching at Carterhaugh, we're scholars, writers and best friends who have published peer-reviewed articles, appeared on podcasts, sold stories and poems, written book introductions and encyclopedia entries, and written for magazines and blogs. (We’ve also been known to crush “Total Eclipse of the Heart” at karaoke.) We're regular writers for Enchanted Living Magazine, and we also deliver sold-out lectures at venues like the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Profs & Pints series, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and FaerieCon.
We love teaching. Our classes reflect the joy we get out of the strange and delightful world of folklore. We take scholarship seriously, believe in clear communication over jargon-speak, deeply value our community, and laugh a lot.
You'll love this if...
- You’ve found tarot too overwhelming or complicated, and you’re looking for a light yet shockingly familiar way in…
- You’re relying on memorization and guidebooks, but you’re longing for a more personal approach and more spontaneity in your practice…
- Your readings are feeling a little too static or unsatisfying, and you know infusing tarot with the enchantment of fairy tales will shake things up and tap into the power of your own intuition…
This isn't for you if...
- You're looking to the program for spiritual guidance
- You want us (Sara and Brittany) to tell you your future - we’re not doing individual readings as part of this program, and we’re more into personal reflection and collaboration than prediction
- You're looking for us to tell you the "one true meaning" of a card or a spread - if you’re looking for meanings you can just memorize, you’re not going to find them here!
If you're curious, open-minded, into juicy historical gossip (Aleister Crowley, enough said), and love experimental, artistic takes on tarot in addition to the basics, you can combine tarot with folklore to reveal startling and – dare we say it – magical truths about your own life with confidence, resonance, and grounded certainty.
FAQ
-
"I've never even tried to read tarot before... is this for me?" - There is absolutely no experience with tarot required for this course, just an open mind, curiosity, an itch for creativity, receptiveness to historical and folkloric scholarship, and a willingness to trust your gut.
-
"I already read tarot - why should I take this course?" - Honestly, we've never seen what we're offering in this course before! Even if you're very familiar with reading the tarot, we think that our method of combing tradition, folklore, and personal interpretation will resonate and spark new and exciting ideas for you.
-
"Tarot has always felt a little 'woo' for me... will I still enjoy this?" - 100% yes! We're folklorists, and that means that we're mainly interested in the cards via culture, art, and personal interpretation - that's where our focus will be. You can come in believing (or not believing) in anything you like and you will still learn and gain new skills from what we're offering here.
-
"Um, what exactly IS Carterhaugh?" - The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic is an award-winning online school dedicated to classes on fairy tales, folklore, and all things fantastic. It was created by Sara and Brittany in 2016 as a place for those who dreamed of elven battles while studying economics, those who have always sworn they could see ghosts, and those who longed for a school of magic to send them an unexpected acceptance letter. We aim to use our knowledge and passion for these subjects to share their wonder, solidify their importance in society, and spread a bit of magic into the world. Want to know more? Check out our "About" page by clicking here!
-
"When will I get the first lesson?" - Our first live session will happen on 5/19 at 7PM ET, with subsequent live meetings on 5/26, 6/2, and 6/9. And yes, they will be recorded if you can't make them live! Other lesson materials, each week's workbook pages, etc. will become available as we go through the course. The Circle group will be available starting 5/16 and the pre-recorded bonus workshop with Dr. Maria DeBlassie will be available starting 6/1!
-
"What if I can't come to the live discussion?" - You do NOT have to watch the videos on any specific date, nor attend any live session, as they will all be recorded and available for you to view later. We really aim to make this course accessible whenever is best for you. That said, our live meetings tend to be a LOT of fun, and we do encourage you to come live and participate in real time when you can!
- “Guys, I love this, but money is SO tight right now….” - Our school is an investment, it’s true, but it’s one you DESERVE. You are worth spending time and money on, and so is education. Plus, we're offering several different payment plans (along with AfterPay and Klarna through Teachable) to help you find an option that works. We know our community, scholarship, and the magic we make together is worth it, and we would love for you to join us.
-
"What if I hate this? Is there a refund policy?" - Please understand that we do not offer refunds. (You're not gonna hate this, we promise.)
Other questions? Contact us at theprofs@carterhaughschool.com!
Featured In:
The Gates of Carterhaugh are Open For...
If You've Read This Far...
Something about our school resonates in you.
We believe that art, stories, and community are magic.
The gates are open. Draw a card and step inside.
