Downfall, Danger, an Urgent Choice: The Three-Card Tarot Spread in “Nightmare Alley” Explained
If you’ve not yet had the (creepy, dark, unsettling) pleasure of watching Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, I recommend it. My two-second pitch for those on the fence? Bradley Cooper and tarot cards. Film noir at its finest, my friends.
And while the movie is filled to the brim with moody mysticism, one of the most pivotal scenes centers on a tarot reading that (surprisingly) was not hokey and terrible! I love to see it. Fist bump to Guillermo for handling a nuanced topic with care.
In honor of tarot’s big break, we’re going to take a deeper dive into the Major Arcana guides that appear in that scene’s three-card spread. Minor spoilers follow. If you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, put a pin in this post until after you’ve seen the movie. It’s now streaming on Hulu and HBO Max.
A Little Backstory
Nightmare Alley’s plot primarily centers on a man with a mysterious past. Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle is a grifter with straight teeth and a charismatic charm that makes him a valuable addition to the traveling freakshow he joins as a carny. Among the contortionist “Snake Man,” “Electric Woman” and “World’s Strongest Man,” Carlisle finds a place working the crowd for a fortune-telling tarot reader named Zeena (the always-amazing Toni Collette) and her drunk partner in crime, Pete (David Strathairn), who has since given up his craft.
Carlisle is fascinated by Zeena and Pete, eager to learn the art of mentalism. He questions the couple, probing them for details about how they read a “mark” and deliver captivating and cryptic messages seemingly from the great beyond. Pete is happy to have a student, and Carlisle is a quick study. Soon enough, Carlisle has everything he needs to run his own show—the same grift in different threads.
While Zeena and Peter have principles that guide how far they’re willing to take the con, Carlisle is happy to push the limits. When Zeena comes to visit Carlisle and his partner Molly after their show has found an audience with wealthy New Yorkers, she brings her tarot cards with her. She warns Carlisle of what she’s seen in them. Naturally skeptical—a deceiver unwilling to be deceived—Carlisle isn’t buying it. Not backing down, Zeena implores him to pull three tarot cards and see what comes up.
The Three-Card Spread Explained
Carlisle chooses three cards: The Tower, The Lovers and The Hanged Man. Now, before we get into the individual card meanings and the spread’s overall message, let’s take a moment to talk about the setup. The three-card tarot spread is a common way to read cards. People use this setup in a number of ways.
One popular three-card spread is past, present, future. Each card that is drawn aligns with its respective focus, so the first card would speak to the past, the second to the present circumstances and the third to what’s to come. Another common spread is dedicated to mind, body, spirit. Biddy Tarot has a great post on 25 three-card spreads, so check it out if you’d like additional context and examples.
While Zeena doesn’t say what the three cards represent, the setup that makes the most sense within the context of the movie is situation, action, outcome. How did I come to this conclusion? After watching the scene, I mined the movie script for context clues (more on this below). Zeena only says a few things about the cards Carlisle pulls, but her words speak worlds about what’s happening, what he needs to do and how it’s all going to end.
One other thing to note is that Carlisle pulls three cards from the Major Arcana. In the 78-card tarot deck, the Major Arcana cards are numbered zero through 21. The Major Arcana begins with The Fool (card zero) and follows their journey to enlightenment. The World, card 21, is an indication that the journey has been completed and The Fool has matured from a new soul to a wise one.
Cards one through 20 are the guides that The Fool meets along the way. Each Major Arcana guide offers counsel that The Fool needs to successfully reach their destination. As such, the Major Arcana cards deal with big-picture themes. They tell the overarching story about what’s going on for a person, rather than digging into the everyday minutiae of what needs to be done.
Carlisle pulls three Major Arcana cards, indicating that the spread is focused on the overall trajectory of his life’s path, not one specific event. Although Zeena is encouraging him to reconsider one particular act, the tarot cards indicate that this act is merely one stop in Carlisle’s journey. It does, however, happen to be a point of no return. With all this in mind, let’s look at the cards themselves. More spoilers below; proceed at your own risk.
Card One: Situation: The Tower
The first card Carlisle pulls is The Tower in the upright position. Zeena interprets the card’s message as “downfall—impending danger.” I would agree with this interpretation. The Tower, which I often call “the most feared tarot card,” is a sign that what has been built cannot continue to stand. In this case, Carlisle’s new act has grown ostentatious, egotistical and too big for its britches. The success has gone to Carlisle’s head, and he thinks himself invincible. The Tower reminds us that he’s not.
When The Tower appears in a reading, it’s often to tell us that massive upheaval is coming. We can cling to what we’ve created for ourselves, but this is a dangerous course. The walls are coming down. We can either walk away from the death trap or tumble from the top as things collapse. Everything that is inessential will be stripped away. There’s no fighting the outcome because this problem has been developing for a while. By the time The Tower shows up in a reading, the issue has reached its breaking point.
In Nightmare Alley, this card tells us that Carlisle is at a crossroads. Neither path forward is ideal, but one option is clearly better than the other. Carlisle can either abandon his plan and recalculate his next moves, accepting the consequences of bowing out of a highly profitable private show, or he can continue onward with the understanding that the shit will inevitably hit the fan—creating an even bigger and more unwieldy mess. You can probably guess what path Carlisle chooses: the one that makes for a better movie.
Card Two: Action: The Lovers
If you’re not familiar with the tarot deck, you might see The Lovers and think, “oh, The Lovers. That doesn’t sound too bad.” In most cases, you’d be right. The Lovers is usually a card that focuses on building connection, embracing love for oneself and others, and cultivating balance. This is an incomplete portrayal of the card’s meaning. The Lovers also speaks to the themes of choice, transformation and desire fulfillment.
When Carlisle selects The Lovers in the upright position, Zeena responds by saying, “an urgent choice.” Again, I agree with her read. The Lovers is a card that guides people to decide on their next steps, suggesting that they choose the path that leads to unity and feels like love. I would take this interpretation a little farther. In this case, I also get the sense that The Lovers card is an indication that Carlisle is pursuing his desires and that this pursuit is bound to be transformative.
The Lovers do not indicate that this pursuit is to Carlisle’s detriment or that the transformation will be against his desires, per se. In the action spot of the three-card spread, The Lovers merely signal what must be done to progress the situation. It’s the act itself that matters. What Carlisle chooses is up to him.
One thing we do know, however, is that the action will lead to an outcome—one that is described by the third and final card. This is a good point to explain that the outcome is not inevitable. The card Carlisle pulls for the third slot in the spread tells him what will happen if he decides to do what he’s been planning all along. Should Carlisle make a choice that is counter to his current course, the outcome could be altered as well (more on this below).
Card Three: Outcome: The Hanged Man (Reversed)
Alas, the moment we’ve all be waiting for: the big reveal. Zeena preps the audience with just the right amount of dramatic foreshadowing. “Now Stanton,” she says, “this is the last card—a decree. You turn it, you’re going to find out what’s coming to you.” He flips over The Hanged Man in the upside down orientation. The energetic shift is so palpable, even tarot newbies get the message. Carlisle is fucked.
Two things about this scene. The first is that I was fully prepared to chuck my glass of water directly at the screen if Carlisle had pulled the Death card. That cliché would have been enough to send me over the edge. Thankfully, Guillermo del Toro is a skillful storyteller, not some hack like the people behind Criminal Minds.
The other (less rant-y) thing about this scene is that it showcases how tarot cards are meant to reveal neutral, matter-of-fact messages. Carlisle isn’t actually fucked because the cards are neither good nor bad. They simply detail what is likely to happen based on what is true at present. If this is a little confusing, keep in mind that tarot is not designed to be a fortune-telling tool. The deck does not have psychic powers. It is merely a tool to connect us with our intuition. Because we have free will and are not obligating to continue behaving in the same way that we did up until this point, our outcomes are subject to change accordingly.
Zeena essentially makes this same point to Carlisle when she says, “The Hanged Man. It’s upside down. But you can still choose…”Carlisle chooses to flip the card over into the upright orientation and continue acting foolishly, but Zeena did what she could. Some people aren’t meant to be saved. The reversed Hanged Man makes this point abundantly clear.
To understand what this tarot guide is saying in reverse, it’s best to begin with the card’s upright meaning. The Hanged Man is all about changing our perspective and seeing things from a different angle. In the story of the Major Arcana, The Hanged Man has purposefully turned his world upside down. It is his intention to surrender to himself, to search for the truth, to let go of who he used to be in an effort to seek clarity about who he really is. The Hanged Man knows that true fulfillment requires sacrifice and unflinching self-examination. It is the price he must pay to experience genuine freedom.
In reverse, however, this message becomes somewhat inverted. The Hanged man is no longer hanging but balancing precariously on one foot. This orientation tells the tale of a man who stubbornly commits to the status quo. He is unwilling to see other perspectives or pursue what is morally just. The reversed Hanged Man is immersed in his ego. His need to be right supersedes all else.
This is Carlisle in a nutshell. You can see it when he has the audacity to turn the card upright and call it a day. The cards may not be set in stone, but to change the outcome, Carlisle must take a hard look at the situation and opt for different actions. The Major Arcana guides have spoken. He can heed the warning of his tarot-predicted demise or write it off as faux magical nonsense. Zeena had it right from the beginning. The spread is a decree, and we all eventually get what’s coming to us.
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