The Pandemic Tarot
Art by Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn; text written collectively
The Pandemic tarot card was collectively created in the culminating event of the UCI Center for Medical Humanities's 2020-2021 Open in Emergency series curated by Mimi Khúc. Series facilitators Simi Kang, Yanyi, and Shana Bulhan Haydock returned to lead break-out groups to generate language for this card, while Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn joined to live illustrate. Mimi Khúc & Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis drew upon the break-out groups' discussions to co-edit this card for the Asian American Tarot project, documenting our collective unwellness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Image description: On the left: Number 30, The Pandemic. A swirl of blue-hued illustrations including a person kneeling wearing a mask with their fist in the air, a Zoom screen, a window with a silhouette of a person with their hand against the glass, text message speech bubbles, a hospital bed with a mask and iPad, a medical essential worker, a dog curled up on the ground, a food essential worker, a casket with several black and brown faces nearby looking at it, the outstretched arms of a masked person far away reaching towards the casket. Text appears on the other side, white font over dark blue background:
The Pandemic is the thirtieth card in the major arcana. It has been a long year like a long decade, one of atrophying time. We miss the way it feels to walk in a city, in the current of everyone going somewhere. We don’t remember why certain things felt important in the beforetimes, do remember seeing a classmate in a casket on YouTube livestream. The Pandemic unmasks the lie of the word essential: who provides care, who deserves care, death visited disproportionately on the poor, the black and brown, the lower caste. Returning to normal is an impossibility brimming with longing and terror. In the center of the card is a discarded mask, an iPad by a hospital bed: say our goodbyes however we can. Toilet paper has become a totem of survival, sweatpants an emblem of refusal, sourdough a gift of renewal. All things will pass, like a kidney stone. When will we hold our brother’s hand again? Will our kids remember this as the worst time of their lives or as something strange and tender? Will our dogs forgive us when we return to work? Drawing The Pandemic card in a reading means a portal is opening. Where it leads is unclear, but remember people have always slept in doorways, huddled under them during bombings. Who knows if The Pandemic will ever end. *a collective card*
[up the right side border] CREATED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE UCI CENTER FOR MEDICAL HUMANITIES