From my heart to yours...
This is a love project. It is one of those things you start, with a bit of naïveté and Fool energy, and, as it develops, you realize it's your life unfolding and it's what you want to do for the rest of your life. If I can make a living doing only this, I certainly will. But it's not about the money. Any project worth its salt is never about the money at first. It can't be; that goes against the laws and flows of the universe.
When I started this I had a "cute" idea of making my own deck in order to, for lack of a better way of putting it, learn more about the tarot. Simple as that. Never in a million ferry rides did I imagine it would take on the breadth and meaning that it has.
As I write this first blog post I have already photographed 25 people for this deck I'm making. I have 53 to go and I already feel like my heart is full to the brim. Like, how much fuller can it get!?
These tarot sessions have turned into so much more than making art. These sessions are therapy, connection, community in action... this project, like the tarot, itself, is life represented in the raddest way.
I'm obsessed, and I'm not stopping.
•••
Here's the gist of this project: I'm making a tarot deck with people photographed for each card. Everyone participating in this will model and embody one (sometimes two) of the cards in the tarot, both minor and major arcana. I bring costumes (sometimes people provide their own) and we get dressed up and make a living scene of each card. Then I make pictures. Ultimately, I will choose one photograph for each card (a seemingly impossible task) and I will paint on the backgrounds onto wood canvases, do a toner transfer method with the models' images on top of the painted backgrounds, and then add elements such as crowns, suns, swords, etc. These final pieces will be mixed media, and my goal is to have big ol' giant gallery show with everyone there. This is my dream come true.
My favorite part so far has been connecting with each model about the card. We get into what it means to each of us, and we both will inevitably have a part of the card that feels really important to us to include. That might be a color, a piece of jewelry, a costume, a facial expression, a pose... it's collaborative and deeply personal at the same time.
We start off with the Rider Waite-Smith deck as the first image we go off of, but some people have brought other decks that the love for a different inspiration. And not one time have we stuck to the original Smith art through to the end of the shoot. We always deviate... and that's kind of the point! And it makes total sense to me.
One thing that used to kind of trip me up about the tarot was thinking that the meaning had to be just so. Like, there had to be an answer or one symbol that meant the thing... coming out of the Christian church had me trained to think about everything through a very black-and-white lens. Thank god I have gotten away from thinking about the world this way. But it made it very hard for me to understand the archetypal nature of the tarot. I got married to using the Rider Waite-Smith deck because I viewed it as the "original" or "correct" one. Now I just love it because it's what I learned on, and I have entirely shifted my views on this symbolism and meaning.
Symbols are representations of deep concepts and emotions and life pathways, etc., that cannot be put into words. Archetypes are part of the human experience; we are all masculine and feminine. I have so enjoyed unpacking these concepts thus far in the collaborative tarot deck journey.
•••
I have chosen to represent the High Priestess and Judgement along with my husband. My son the the Sun. The High Priestess came to me about 9 out of 10 times as I was first beginning my tarot journey. And for about a year I pulled her all the time. Like, so often that I started asking seasoned tarot practitioners what it could mean. (Mind you, this was closer to the beginning of my deconstruction from Christianity, and so the idea of spirit or ancestors influencing my pulls was very far away and hard to grasp to me at that time). I couldn't imagine how this was a coincidence. I have recently learned that, according to numerology, my personality card AND my soul card is... you guessed it... The High Priestess herself.
Mind.Blown.
Coincidence? I'm thinking probably not.
That connection and card is a high inspiration for me for this project. And you know what? If I'm being honest I think I know the least about the High Priestess at this moment in time. Self sabotage? Fear? Who knows. But I'm so ready to learn and dive in.
•••
I'm beyond thankful for al the support thus far. The overwhelming answer to the call for models and participation has been, to put it simply, humbling beyond words.
In some ways, I can't imagine making a tarot deck in any other way. I thought about representing them all myself, but this feels so right.
I have chosen to keep this project local to Vashon Island where we live. This community has meant so much to my little family in so many ways, and this feels so right to keep it just amongst us here. I have not yet met many of the folx with whom I'll work, and I anticipate having a very full cup and a very full life after this.
#Thankful
One hope for this project, among many, is to add to the deep well of connection that the tarot brings to people if they'll open their lives to it. It's not just "woo-woo" (whatever that actually means), it's an ancient, human tool for connecting to the divine. It's truly magick because it's a symbol of our connection to spirit, soul, sentience. Each of us embody all of the cards at some point in our lives.
The tarot is life in card form. I'm happy to have this tool to consistently turn to as a means of guidance, self-reflection and validation in my endeavors.
And connection with YOU ALL.
Love you. <3
