Laetitia Barbier: Pocketable Museum — Tarot as Creative Language and Mirror

In Episode 7 of The Russi Hive Podcast, Alejandra sits down with Laetitia Barbier—tarot reader, writer, art historian, and longtime explorer of the strange, sacred life of images—to talk about tarot not as fortune-telling, but as a creative language.The conversation begins with Barbier’s childhood in France and her encounter with her first deck in a tobacconist’s shop. From there, they explore Barbier’s lifelong relationship to images—their power to instruct and enchant—with museums as surrogate churches and the tarot deck as a “pocketable museum”: a portable world of symbols and archetypes that keep rearranging themselves into new meaning.The core of the episode is tarot as a poetic practice. Barbier speaks about readings as intimate, collaborative encounters, where images are gathered into a kind of secret theater—opening space for reflection, vulnerability, and self-knowledge.They discuss New York’s countercultural lineages, the resurgence of tarot in a cynical age, and why people may be turning again toward ritual and symbolic depth. The episode closes by turning the cards toward creativity itself, moving from the Fool’s raw potential to the Star’s quiet clarity, with failure and transformation as part of the path.Original music and sonic identity by Antfood.Sound design: Federico Casazza.Follow The Russi Hive:YouTubeInstagramTikTokSubstack