Youngbloods in the Tarotscope

4 min readJun 9, 2023

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Get Together, the utopian anthem of unconditional love and peace by the Youngbloods, is one of the most hopeful (and, in retrospect, most naive) songs to come out of the “hippie generation” (although I sense a little of the poignant introspection of Kahlil Gibran or Omar Khayyam in it). Here is my interpretation of the lyrics using tarot cards. I had some difficulty choosing a deck with just the right quirky New Age vibe to create a compelling visual presentation for each couplet. I couldn’t let this one get by me with a straight face (nor do I think my readers would expect any less), and I won’t disappoint.

I tapped Brian Williams’ marvelously sly, cheeky, sociopolitically savvy PoMo Tarot (Harper Collins Publishers, 1994), primarily for its imagery and not for its rather offhand fidelity to the standard “RWS” meanings. I doubt Williams paid much attention to Waite’s traditional canon when selecting the paintings on which many of his images are based, nor did I when picking them for this exercise. You shouldn’t take it too seriously either. (For reference, in the PoMo universe Bottles are Cups and Bills are Pentacles. Williams saw Guns as Air and TVs as Fire, but I think he had it backwards since gunpowder is definitely fiery while broadcast TV arrives over the “airwaves.”)

Get Together was written by Chet Powers (aka Dino Valenti) of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Youngbloods’ leader Jesse Colin Young might not agree with “Sheer Force” (Strength) as the coda “Right now, Right now” to the chorus, but there are few cards in this deck that imply urgency (frankly, it does look more like “Evoking true love resembles pulling teeth”). Maybe I will apply it to the song Love Hurts by Nazareth in the future.

Love is but a song we sing
Fear’s the way we die