Welcome Home: Visionary Woman Tarot with Kristine Gorman
Attend Kristine Gorman’s art show, talk, and Tarot deck signing at 6pm on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at New Hope Arts.
As a little kid, Kristine Gorman always spoke the truth, but her ability to read between the lines and voice keen insights did not always win her a lot of friends.
“I call it ‘sunroof,’” Kristine said. “Whatever drops in comes out of my mouth.”
A good use for her ability to say whatever popped into her head was not made apparent until later in life, when her husband gifted her a deck of Tarot cards in hopes that they might anchor all of her ‘artistic and truth-telling’ talents.
Although Kristine didn’t consider herself a good student in the traditional sense, she found that books about Tarot fell right into her ears. She easily absorbed information from 1880s scholars, and from books published since the 1960s.
Kristine later met Rachel Pollack, a Tarot icon who authored many titles on the subject. Pollack’s approach of using Tarot as a tool to embark on personal journeys was influential to Kristine, and Pollack became Kristine’s mentor.
The Journey of Returning
Tarot and tattooing often go hand-in-hand. Both disciplines were considered outlaw, but now they’re quite mainstream. Kristine’s husband, Shotsie, was a famous tattoo artist. The couple ran several tattoo/Tarot-related businesses together, including the Tarot Art & Tattoo Gallery in Sonoma, California.
Shotsie was originally from Patterson, NJ, and Kristine grew up in Wayne, PA. At some point in their California residency, Kristine felt that she had experienced the west coast, and she was suddenly ready to go home.
"There’re no lightening bugs in California,” she cited.
One night, Kristine visited friends in New Hope, PA and she found herself surrounded by fireflies. It gave her “that feeling of where I grew up.”
Kristine, her husband, and her son moved to Lambertville, NJ a few years ago. Sadly, Shotsie passed away in February of 2025 at the age of 73.
A Deck of Her Own
Kristine is one of the few people who can say they’ve created and published their own Tarot deck, but that accomplishment didn’t happen overnight.
“I had ideas about making a Tarot deck, but it just wasn’t really in front of me,” she said, talking about how her cards came to be. “Family was my first priority.”
It took years of doing readings, giving presentations at national conferences, and educating people in the Tarot community before she felt she had cultivated the wisdom to be able to share and say something that warranted her own deck.
When Kristine was finally ready, it wasn’t difficult for her to find a publisher.
The Visionary Woman Tarot deck is made up of 78 cards (based on the Rider-Waite-Smith archetype) each featuring an original oil painting. Accompanying the Tarot deck is a 106-page guide book, authored by Kristine.
“The guidebook is not Tarot 101,” she explained. “It’s my opinions about these cards as a long-time reader, and as the artist.”
Tarot decks often get assembled by separate artists and authors, which makes Kristine’s deck unique, because she made the artwork and wrote the book.
Embracing the Divine
Kristine regularly travels around the country to speak at Tarot conferences and events. She hosts a monthly Tarot meet-up at Union Coffee in Lambertville, NJ, and she recently led a workshop at Barnes and Noble using her own deck.
Doing readings with her own cards has been fascinating, and humbling. She often sees things in the work that she didn’t realize were already there. The first person she read using the Visionary Woman Tarot deck was herself.
“I was like, damn! It just kicked my ass,” she joked, wide-eyed and laughing.
Kristine’s down-to-Earth sense of humor is light-hearted, yet serious. You get the sense that she is a person who has been through some traumatic strife.
“I’ve done that. I’ve been there. I've seen it. I felt it. I get it.” Kristine quipped.
She elaborated, “Healers and gifted people often have to go through their own washer and dryer, and get completely pummeled to cultivate the compassion or the knowledge—the wisdom—through experience, as opposed to just book-smart kind of stuff.”
Kristine often compares life lessons to laundry to make her ideas relatable.
Once, during a reading, a woman sobbed when she accepted that her father’s death wasn’t her fault. The woman’s friend witnessed it and told Kristine, “I’ve known this woman for 40 years, and she’s never said anything like that to me.”
Another client said that Kristine doesn’t just read the cards, she reads what’s underneath the cards. That’s what it’s like to work with someone who has an educated Tarot lineage, and a whole bunch of real-world life experiences.
A lot of time has passed since Kristine received her first Tarot cards and now—when Barnes and Noble Booksellers carries copies of her signature Tarot deck.
Along that road, many hands have been dealt, many stories have been told, and many messages have been channeled through Kristine’s no-BS style readings.
“It’s a wonderful mirror,” Kristine reflected, describing the art of Tarot. “But they’re just paper cards. They’re not magical.”
When Kristine reads for her clients, she doesn’t ask questions beforehand. She just has them sit down so she can sunroof (say whatever drops in). Her goal is always for people to leave the table lighter than when they arrived.
“There’s no one route to get to your epiphanies. If we’re are able to cultivate even a minute of perspective when things are happening—that’s everything.”
More Information
Contact Kristine to schedule a reading online or in Lambertville, New Jersey. Follow Kristine to learn about upcoming Tarot workshops, events, and meet-ups.
Kristine Gorman on Facebook | Kristine Gorman on Instagram
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