About Finbarre Snarey
I’m Finbarre Snarey, a tarot researcher, journalist and creator of CardMeanings.com.
I have worked with tarot for more than thirty years, with a particular interest in the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition and the ways tarot functions as a living practice, storytelling system and tool for conversation.
I created CardMeanings.com as a practical reference guide to all 78 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards. Each guide brings together the symbolism of Pamela Colman Smith’s artwork, A. E. Waite’s original 1910 text, historical context and interpretations developed through decades of research and reading the cards.
My wider work explores tarot as both a cultural practice and a method for creating conversations. I created Tarot Interviews, an audio interview format in which randomly selected tarot cards generate questions for writers, musicians, artists and other creative figures, and Tarot DMs, a written interview format conducted through mobile messaging apps.
I am also founder and curator of the British Tarot Archive, an independent archive documenting and preserving material connected with the history, practice and culture of tarot in Britain.
In 2026, I coordinated the community submission documenting Rider-Waite-Smith tarot reading practice in the UK for the UK Inventories of Living Heritage. The submission has progressed through the initial compliance stage to consideration by the Review Panel.
In June 2026, I presented Tarot Reading as Living Heritage: Documenting Contemporary Rider-Waite-Smith Practice in the UK at Tarot Cultures, organised by Goldsmiths, University of London. In November 2026, I will also present research at the Society of Antiquaries of London as part of its Collections & Research Day at Burlington House.
CardMeanings.com forms part of this wider body of work: documenting the cards, tracing the traditions behind their meanings, examining how those meanings have developed, and providing a clear and useful guide to interpreting the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot today.
Elsewhere
My Online Portfolio
Journalism, research, projects, talks and media work.
https://finbarre.com/Tarot Interviews
Audio conversations with writers, musicians, artists and other creative figures, guided by randomly selected tarot cards.
https://tarotinterviews.com/Tarot DMs
Written conversations conducted through mobile messaging apps and guided by the cards.
https://tarotdms.com/British Tarot Archive
An independent archive documenting and preserving tarot history, practice and culture in Britain.
https://britishtarotarchive.org