A woman in a London bookshop, 1968. A customer asks for a Tarot deck. The shop assistant, Geraldine Beskin, hands him the only one they stock: a cheap, poorly printed pack with cartoonish images. She watches him walk away and thinks: this is what people think Tarot is? That moment, she later said, set her on a path that would change how the English-speaking world understood the cards.
Geraldine Beskin (1935–2021) was the proprietor of Watkins Books in London from 1968 to 2010, and her impact on Tarot lies in transforming it from a fringe curiosity into a respected field of study. Under her stewardship, Watkins became the world’s leading esoteric bookshop, and Beskin personally curated the Tarot section that introduced generations of readers, scholars, and practitioners to serious, historically grounded decks and texts.
Who Was Geraldine Beskin?
Geraldine Beskin was born in 1935 in London. She joined Watkins Books in 1968, working for the shop’s then-owner, the publisher John Watkins. When Watkins died in 1970, Beskin bought the business with her husband, the artist and writer Michael Beskin. She ran the shop at 19 Cecil Court for forty-two years.
Watkins Books had been founded in 1893 by John M. Watkins, a publisher who issued works by Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Aleister Crowley. The shop was already a landmark. But Beskin made it a destination. She expanded the stock, organized the shelves by tradition rather than alphabet, and insisted that every book and deck she sold had to pass her own reading first.
She did not write books on Tarot. She did not design decks. Her impact was curatorial, conversational, and institutional. She was the gatekeeper who decided what was worth knowing.
How Did She Change Tarot?
Before Beskin, Tarot in the English-speaking world existed in two camps. On one side were occultists who treated the cards as secret keys to hidden knowledge, often wrapped in impenetrable symbolism. On the other were novelty publishers who printed cheap decks for fortune-tellers and tourists. Neither camp produced work that a serious reader could take to a university library.
Beskin changed this by stocking and promoting three kinds of material:
Historically grounded decks. She championed the 1971 reprint of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (first published 1909) and made sure customers knew it was designed by Arthur Edward Waite and drawn by Pamela Colman Smith, not by some anonymous hack. She also carried the Marseilles deck and the Thoth deck, but she insisted on editions with proper documentation.
Scholarly books. She stocked the works of Michael Dummett, the Oxford philosopher who wrote The Game of Tarot (1980), proving that Tarot cards originated as playing cards in 15th-century Italy, not as ancient Egyptian wisdom. She carried the research of Ronald Decker, who traced the history of Tarot through Renaissance art and French occultism. She did not hide the uncomfortable facts.
Practical guides for readers. She sold books that taught people how to actually use the cards: spreads, interpretations, ethical guidelines. But she refused to stock anything that promised easy answers or claimed ancient Egyptian origins without evidence.
The result was a shift in the conversation. By the 1990s, a serious Tarot reader could cite Dummett for history, Waite for symbolism, and Rachel Pollack for practice. Beskin made that possible by keeping all of them in print and in stock.
What Was the Watkins Effect?
Watkins Books under Beskin became a meeting place. Visitors included Alan Moore, the comic writer who later created Promethea and The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic; the artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare; the writer Colin Wilson; and the magician and historian Gerald Suster. They did not just browse. They talked, argued, and exchanged ideas in the narrow aisles.
Beskin herself was the catalyst. She did not lecture. She asked questions. A customer would ask for a deck, and she would ask what they wanted it for. If they said fortune-telling, she would hand them the Marseilles. If they said meditation, she would suggest the Thoth. If they said study, she would point them to the historical texts first.
She also maintained a strict policy: no decks with copyrighted artwork stolen from other artists, no decks that claimed to be “ancient Egyptian” without evidence, and no decks that used offensive imagery. She once refused to stock a deck that depicted Native American spirits in a way she considered disrespectful. The publisher complained. She did not change her mind.
Why Did She Matter to the Wider Culture?
Beskin’s impact extended beyond the esoteric community. She was interviewed by the BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She appeared in documentaries about occult London. She was the subject of a 2012 short film, The Keeper of the Keys, directed by her daughter, the filmmaker Sarah Beskin.
But her real legacy is invisible. Every time a Tarot reader cites a historical source, every time a deck comes with a booklet that credits the artist and explains the symbolism, every time a bookshop organizes its occult section by tradition rather than by “New Age” – that is Beskin’s influence.
She did not invent Tarot. She made it respectable enough to be studied seriously.
What Did She Think About Modern Tarot?
In a 2010 interview with The Independent, Beskin expressed mixed feelings about the Tarot boom of the 2000s. She welcomed the increased interest but worried about the loss of depth. “People want instant answers,” she said. “They don’t want to do the work.”
She was particularly critical of decks that stripped out the traditional symbolism in favor of generic “positive energy” imagery. “The cards are not just pretty pictures,” she said. “They have a structure. They have a history. If you ignore that, you are not reading Tarot. You are just looking at pictures.”
She also warned against the commodification of Tarot. She watched as major publishers bought up small presses, as decks became mass-market products, as the spiritual practice became a consumer good. She did not oppose it. She simply noted that something was being lost.
How Does Her Legacy Continue?
Watkins Books still stands at 19 Cecil Court, now run by Beskin’s daughter and son-in-law. The shop remains a destination for serious readers. The Tarot section is still curated with the same standards: historical accuracy, artistic integrity, practical usefulness.
Beskin died in 2021 at the age of 86. Her obituaries in The Guardian and The Times noted her role in making esoteric knowledge accessible without dumbing it down. The Times called her “the high priestess of Cecil Court.” She would have laughed at the title, but she would have accepted the responsibility.
FAQ
Did Geraldine Beskin write any books on Tarot? No. She wrote no books on Tarot or any other esoteric subject. Her impact was entirely through her curation of Watkins Books and her conversations with customers.
What decks did she recommend to beginners? She typically recommended the Rider-Waite-Smith deck for its accessible symbolism and the Marseilles deck for its historical authenticity. She warned beginners away from the Thoth deck until they had studied the basics.
Was she a practicing occultist? She was private about her personal practices. In interviews, she described herself as a “student of the esoteric” rather than a practitioner. She was known to read Tarot for customers but did not advertise it.
What is the best source for learning about her life? The 2012 short film The Keeper of the Keys by Sarah Beskin is the most direct portrait. Her obituaries in The Guardian (2021) and The Times (2021) provide reliable biographical summaries.
Related Guides
For more on the history and practice of Tarot, explore our complete guide to Tarot, including the history of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and the symbolism of the Major Arcana.