Artist Roxi Sim Hermsen will be there, presenting her first show since 1999. And it’s a Tarot show called The Fool’s Journey.
After going on a very difficult journey herself through the last decade, contracting Lyme disease, and tragically losing both her son and her mother, it was art that helped her heal.
Inspired by the beauty of Granada, where she and her family moved for a while, she started painting, creating dozens of works featuring everything from goddesses to dolls from her grandmother’s collection.
Though she’d never really seen a Tarot deck, someone who saw her paintings suggested she make one. And letting the journey of discovery lead her, she did.
Her deck is called The Pearls of Wisdom, and is named for her mother Margaret. The Greek root of the name Margaret means pearl.
There are a lot of pearls in the images. And as an ode to her son Shea, lots of rainbows and crystals.
It’s a beautiful deck, lush, rich, and full of happiness. Despite the sadnesses she’s faced, Hermsen has clearly tapped into a deep source of joy.
All 78 original paintings will be on display this weekend, as well as two new ones. Get down to see them if you can.
In the off chance that you happen to be in St. Petersburg, Florida tonight and were looking for a Tarot oriented activity to attend, it’s your lucky day.
This Kickstarter project is meant to support a band. But it’s not their music I’m most interested in. It’s the fact that this band wants to publish a Tarot deck.
Cash Pony, a San Francisco area rock-fusion band is trying to raise money to professionally record their first full-length LP, Carpel Tunnel Vision Quest.
But not only are they trying to raise money for recording, mixing, and mastering, they need the funds to print album artwork, and a small deck of Tarot cards.
The deck is being drawn by artist Chris Russell, and is inspired by the songs on the album and the spirit of the Tarot majors.
Songs like Omphalos, Native DNA, and Seek Truth seem to describe energies similar to the Emperor, The Empress and Judgment.
And there’s one called Price of Eggs picturing a giant glowing egg hovering above a land mass of sorts.
I can only imagine what the song’s about, but the card brings to mind the Fool ready to burst out of nothing and into the world.
This deck reminds me a little of Morgan’s Tarot, an oracle deck from 1970 that I especially like. It doesn’t follow the rules, but it makes a lot of sense.
To hear Cash Pony you can go to their website or watch the video below. And if you’re thinking of donating, visit their Kickstarter page.
I know it’s short notice, but I just found out about it the other day … the UK Tarot Conference in London will be held on the 14th and 15th of October. I wish I could go!
Friday afternoon will kick things off with Trudy Ashplant revealing the insights of the Court Cards. Sasha Fenton will follow up with her presentation, Tarot and Astrology: A Forgotten Link Rediscovered.
Saturday will be a full day of seminars, starting with Gaynor Thompson. She’ll be looking at how to get beyond the literal meaning in the cards by connecting to your sixth sense.
Mark Ryan and John Matthews, creators of The Wildwood Tarot will be there as well, teaching a workshop about their deck and delving into some fascinating spreads designed just for it.
Finally, the conference will close with celebrated author Anna Franklin as she explores the journey of initiation as it unfolds within the Tarot.
Sounds like a wonderful way to spend a weekend in London. If you’re interested, sign up soon. Tickets are going fast.
Knighton is the creator of the Tarot of the Dead and has been illustrating The Healing Tarot, due to be released by Schiffer Publishing in 2013.
But it’s the Stolen Child Tarot she’s working on now. Named for and inspired by one of her favourite Yeats poems, The Stolen Child, this deck is somewhat non-traditional.
Instead of man-made objects, she’ll be using items found in nature as her symbols. Antlers have become crowns and animal skins are robes.
And replacing all adults in the deck will be changeling children, fairy-like creatures that have embraced different parts of the natural world.
Knighton is looking for help in publishing a limited majors only edition of the deck through Kickstarter. She’s hoping a full 78-card version will be next.
If you’re interested in helping her out, visit her page. You can get yourself a copy of the deck, and even have your own personal totem included in its imagery.
Arthur Waite is probably best known for being the ‘Waite’ in the Rider Waite Smith Tarot, one of the most popular decks in the world. But did you know he designed another deck as well?
Between 1917 and 1923, ten years after working with Pamela Colman Smith, Waite commissioned a second set of Tarot illustrations with artist J.B. Trinick as part of The Great Symbols of the Paths.
And though they’re not going to be a deck just yet, these beautiful and rarely seen images are soon to be part of a new book by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin.
The book will include high quality images of the 22 Major Arcana, an additional ‘path’ image, some extra variant designs, sketches and previously unpublished commentary by Waite himself.
It will also feature research into the lives of Trinick and others involved in the creation of this deck, as well as an explanation of how the images fit onto the Tree of Life in Waite’s ‘hidden’ set of correspondences.
Goodwin and Katz hope to get it published by the end of this year, and you can help them make that happen.
To help cover the costs of licensing, photography, and printing, they’ve set up an IndieGoGo page and are offering rewards to people who donate. Check them out.
And you can read the amazing story of how this project got started, and how it’s developing on Goodwin’s Tarot Speak Easy blog.
It’s going to be an exceptional book. I’m really looking forward to it, and to the deck that hopefully will follow.
Apparently, the Goblin King has ordered the creation of a Tarot deck, and Michael Wenman has been commissioned to make it.
The suits are Bones, Bugs, Cogs, and Tools, and the court cards are made up of the Mob, the Hero, the Avatar, and the Lady.
In the Goblin Tarot, the minor arcana commemorate great goblin heroes of history, while the majors describe the grand concepts guiding the destiny of the goblin hordes.
Wenman has been designing video games and illustrating comic books for years. Now he’s decided to take on the Tarot, and I like what he’s done.
The deck is already drawn, and a companion book written, but Wenmen has an IndieGoGo page to help raise funds to print them.
If you help him out, you’ll get a copy of the deck for yourself, and of course, the appreciation of the Goblin King.
If you’re looking for a Tarot retreat to truly inspire the divine within, you might consider Joanna Powell Colbert’s Listening to the Earth: A Gaian Retreat in Ancaster, Ontario.
