Rust Belt Arcana

Book excerpt: An insightful take on the Tarot through the lens of the industrial Midwest, and a beautiful piece of nature writing in its own right. What can the Tarot tell us about the flora and fauna of the industrial Midwest? In what ways might this ancient practice connect us to the Rust Belt today? Rust Belt Arcana uses the Tarot’s time-tested structure to answer these questions, juxtaposing the characteristics of the cards with the creatures and plants that surround us every day. The twenty-two idiosyncratic essays here—one for every card in the Major Arcana—bridge biology, natural history, and the human condition. They tell stories of abundance and loss, and they remind us of the Rust Belt’s persistent remnant wilderness, a landscape often dismissed as unremarkable. A magical book both for Tarot enthusiasts and for those who are seeking to see beauty in a beleaguered landscape and define their remarkable place within it. “Original and insightful. A vivid exploration of the beauty and brokenness of life’s community. Stansberry’s writing reveals the many surprising ecological, psychological, and cultural connections among human and beyond-human lives.” —David George Haskell, Pulitzer finalist for The Forest Unseen “A surprising, delightful book, filled with original insights about the rich diversity of nature in the Midwest. Highly recommended!” —Kenn Kaufman, author of Kingbird Highway “The essays in Rust Belt Arcana are like meditations from a parallel world —a magical place of nature which persists against all odds alongside the cities and subdivisions and highway interchanges of the Great Lakes region.” —David Beach, GreenCityBlueLake Institute, Cleveland Museum of Natural History