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Pollack wrote the 1985 book Salvador Dali's Tarot, an exposition of
Salvador Dalí's
Tarot deck, comprising a full-page color plate for each card, with her commentary on the facing page.[4] Her work 78 Degrees of Wisdom on
Tarot reading is commonly referenced by Tarot readers.[5] She created her own Tarot deck, Shining Woman Tarot (later Shining Tribe Tarot).[6] She also aided in the creation of the Vertigo Tarot Deck with illustrator
Dave McKean and author
Neil Gaiman, and she wrote a book to accompany it.[7] Gaiman sometimes consulted Pollack on the tarot for his stories.[8]
Comics
Pollack wrote for the comic book Doom Patrol, on
DC Comics'
Vertigo imprint, from 1993 to 1995. Her run of issues (64–87)[9] was a continuation of a 1960s comic which had recently become a cult favorite under
Grant Morrison. Pollack took over the series in 1993 after meeting editor
Tom Peyer at a party, telling him it was the only monthly comic book she would want to write at the time, and sending him a sample script. Towards the end of Morrison's run, Pollack began writing monthly "letters to the editor" in what she describes as a "gee-whiz
fangirl" voice asking to take over the book when Morrison was finished. In the final letter, she claims that she had already told her mother that she had been given the job. Peyer then used that response to that letter to officially announce that Pollack was, in fact, taking over the book. As a result of these letters being printed in the
letter column of Doom Patrol issues, some people seem to believe that the letters are the way she actually got the job.[10]
During her tenure, Pollack dealt with such rarely addressed comic book topics as
menstruation,
sexual identity, and
transsexuality. Her run ended two years later, with the book's cancellation.[11]
In 2019, it was announced that Pollack was reuniting with Doom Patrol artist
Richard Case and letterer
John Workman to create a short story—titled "Snake Song"—for the
Kickstarter funded "music-themed horror anthology" Dead Beats.[13][14]
Her
magical realism[16] novels explore worlds imbued with elements pulled from a number of traditions, faiths, and religions. Several of her novels are set in an alternative reality that resembles modern America, but an America of Bright Beings, where magic and ritual, religion and
thaumaturgy are the norms.[17]
Pollack's book The Body of the Goddess is an exploration of the history of the
Goddess and her relation to locality and landscape.[20] Pollack uses the image of the Goddess in many of her works.[21]
Teaching
For 32 years, Pollack taught seminars with tarot author Mary K. Greer at the
Omega Institute, in
Rhinebeck, New York. She also did seminars for several years in
California in conjunction with Greer, and she co-presented a breakthrough seminar with author Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman on tarot and
psychic ability, using her own Shining Tribe Tarot and Gargiulo-Sherman's Sacred Rose Tarot. Pollack was also a popular lecturer at tarot seminars and
symposiums such as Los Angeles Tarot Symposium, Bay Area Tarot Symposium, and the Readers Studio.[22]
Pollack was
Jewish,[25] and frequently wrote about the
Kabbalah, most notably in The Kabbalah Tree.[26]
She was a
trans woman and wrote frequently on
transgender issues.[27][28] In Doom Patrol she introduced
Coagula, a transsexual character. She also wrote several essays on
transsexualism, attacking the notion that it is a "sickness", instead saying that it is a passion.[29] She emphasized the revelatory aspects of transsexualism, saying that "the trance-sexual [sic] woman sacrifices her social identity as a male, her personal history, and finally the very shape of her body to a knowledge, a desire, which overpowers all rational understanding and proof."[30]
A Secret Woman features a police detective who is transgender and Jewish. The detective utters the prayer, "Blessed art thou oh G-d who made me not a woman. Double blessed is Doctor Green who has."[31] Pollack created the characters known as 'the bandage people' for her Doom Patrol run.[12] The bandage people are 'sexually remaindered spirits' who died in sexual accidents. The initials SRS came from the medical term '
sex reassignment surgery'. Pollack's essay "The Transsexual Book of The Dead: Osiris and the Trance Man", written for the anthology Phallus Palace, addresses the
Osiris myth and "reconfigures Egyptian mythology into a multi-layered map for transsexual experience."[32][33]
Fairy tales such as the
Brothers Grimm influenced many of Pollack's writings. Her book Tarot of Perfection is a book of fairy tales based on the tarot.[34]
On March 12, 2023, Gaiman announced on
Instagram and
Mastodon, at the behest of Pollack's wife, that Pollack was in
hospice care and nearing the end of her life. This led some outlets to mistakenly report that Pollack had already died. She was 77 years old.[38][39]
member of the Tarot Association of the British Isles.[22]
Published works
Non-fiction books
Anderson, Hilary (1989). New Thoughts on Tarot. North Hollywood: Newcastle Pub. Co.
ISBN0-87877-139-5.[26]
Hillman, James (1997). Marriages: Spring 60, a Journal of Archetype and Culture. City: Continuum International Publishing Group.
ISBN1-882670-09-4.[26]
Livernois, Jay (1996). Archetypal Sex: Spring : a Journal of Archetype and Culture. Irving: Spring Publications.
ISBN1-882670-05-1.[26]
Mckean, Dave (2001). Bento. Pacific Grove: Allen Spiegel Fine Arts.
ISBN0-9642069-4-3.[26]
Pollack, Rachel (1985). Salvador Dali's Tarot. Salem, New Hampshire: Salem House.
ISBN0-88162-076-9.
Pollack, Rachel (2019). The Beatrix Gates: plus The woman who didn't come back, plus Trans central station, and much more. Oakland: PM Press.
ISBN978-1-62963-578-1.[44]
Pollack, Rachel (2003). Delusions of Universal Grandeur.[44]
Pollack, Rachel; Michael Cisco; Jeffrey Thomas; Eric G. Schaller; K. J. Bishop; Stepan Chapman; Richard Calder; R. F. Wexler (2003). Reminiscences.[44]
^"Dead Beats By Tyler & Wendy Chin-Tanner". Kickstarter. April 9, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019. Notably, the book includes a reunion of Doom Patrol alums Rachel Pollack and Richard Case, working together for the first time in more than 25 years!
^Corallo, Joe (April 19, 2019).
"Rachel Pollack Signed Bookplates, Bigger Doom Patrol Reunion, and New Artwork!". Kickstarter. Retrieved April 23, 2019. We are also absolutely thrilled to announce that our Doom Patrol reunion just got even bigger! Legendary and award winning comics letterer John Workman, whose work includes having lettered Doom Patrol for all of Grant Morrison and Rachel Pollack's runs, will be lettering Rachel Pollack and Richard Case's story in Dead Beats, Snake Song! He's excited to be part of this reunion and we hope you're excited he's on board too!