 The Lua Tarot and Lua Lenormand have been nominated for the 2021 CARTA awards! The Lua Tarot has been nominated for the following categories: *Best Tarot Deck *Best Self-Published Tarot Deck *Outstanding Artistic Achievement The Lua Lenormand has been nominated for: *Best Oracle Deck I'm so grateful and honored to have my work be included in the International Tarot Foundation judges' nominees list among some really incredible decks! Voting is now open to the public! If you'd like to participate, you may click through to vote in each category that I linked above. Thank you so very much for your support! Public voting closes Oct. 14th.
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 The Lua Tarot has been nominated for "Best Indie Deck" at the WDA 2021 Awards! What an incredible honor to be included in this group of amazing deck creators! Thank you to the folks who nominated it.
If you would like to support the Lua Tarot, please take a moment to vote at the World Divination Association Awards poll. To be counted, vote soon as the poll closes September 15th (London midnight), which is Tuesday, September 14th, 4:00pm Pacific time. Thank you ever so much!  I’m excited to announce that Divine Muses has partnered with One Tree Planted to plant a tree for every deck order! Starting with the second edition releases of the Divine Muses Oracle, Lua Tarot, and Lua Lenormand decks last month. If you purchased a deck in July, your order went to planting a tree! This organization gives me so much hope! One of the biggest news of the year for them was their partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute to plant 3 million trees in the Albertine Rift Forest of Uganda to help protect the chimpanzee habitat! They partner with many organizations all over the world, including those restoring the Oregon and California forests devastated by wildfires. Which has been completely heart-breaking to witness, as they get worse every year. So, all orders from July will go to plant trees in Oregon due to this devastation. Oregon is near and dear to my heart, as it has been my home for over 20 years.  We all know that the climate crisis is big and it may sometimes feel as though one tree won't make much of a difference, but it does! Putting all those trees together creates forests to benefit people, nature, and wildlife for years to come. One can feel helpless in the face of all this, but small actions can and do make a difference. It lifts my spirit to say, for every order that includes a deck, Divine Muses will plant a tree for you!  One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to global reforestation. They plant trees to restore nature and biodiversity. They also raise awareness about the importance of trees, offer businesses like mine a simple sustainability solution, and motivate younger generations to do something positive for the environment.
 Today's Lua Tarot “In the Card” description: The Chariot.
The charioteer is a Martinique woman wearing Madras headdress and a beautifully embroidered dress. As I’ve written before, many of these 19th century images are often unidentified and include captions like, “Martinique Madras.” This portrait came from a book about the French Antilles. The horses are from a British children’s weekly called Chatterbox. The original image depicted one horse actualIy, so I digitally added the other horse to reflect the RWS Chariot. Though here, they are black and white horses to represent the opposing forces, which the charioteer harnesses to propel herself forward with her purpose. Those opposing forces are Receptivity & Will—forward movement with the empathetic and sensitive energies of Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon. (Symbols are engraved on the Chariot like a license plate.) I added the curtains to build out the rest of The Chariot. This acts as a shell of protection, or home, and reflects the meaning that one’s body is a vehicle for spirit. I added the stars to symbolize the cosmic forces at work in this card.  The Three of Coins shows two men singing the Gregorian Chant, an abbot who is stroking his chin in contemplation, a six-pointed star from an architectural feature that I multiplied into the three that you see, and an arched hallway.
Sometimes these images are from an accompanying story, so there isn't a representation of someone specific. Quite a few of the people in the Lua Tarot are anonymous or unidentified, like this abbot. All that is identified about the other two people in the collage is that they are doing a Gregorian Chant. I put this all together, similar to the RWS Three of Pentacles, under an arch, but with three six-pointed stars it reflects the Hermetic “as above, so below” adage. The idea is that the collaboration of the Three of Pentacles can be spiritual AND material. The meaning of participating in a project with one's community is highlighted. We can almost hear the chanter’s chant being amplified and carried down the hall. The abbot listens carefully to their voices. He’s the director, a master of his craft, refining skills. He reflects the Master Worker, which is connected to the Three of Pentacles card. FYI: I should mention (if you don’t have the deck) that some of the ideas above are written about in the booklet. It’s just that the “In the Card” section couldn’t fit into the 160 pages I had for Lua Tarot (which is still an in depth Little Booklet!) My other projects had full sized companion books, which allowed me to explore my process and write more in depth. I do set up what’s in the image in the Lua Tarot booklet briefly! There’s just not the specific, “who is that?” But in a lot of cases, I don’t know who, as they are not identified. However, there’s still my creative process and some backstory that I can explore further, as I did above.  Discovering the people in the Lua Tarot. This is not Jesus. I know he looks like him, but this is from a photograph of a Persian man from the late 1870s. (That’s a laurel wreath on his head.)
As a deck creator, particularly one who excavates 19th century photographs & engravings, I seek out images that fit intuitively & functionally with the collages I create. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a whole process. I get into a “space” for the card I’m designing and open to a particular flow of creativity. This is often a magical merging of serendipity, intention, and intuition. It can be challenging to find the “right” images for the cards. But when I do, there’s a feeling, a deep knowing. When I found this one, I “knew” this would be the The Emperor for the Lua Tarot. One big reason is because he looks a lot like my partner, David, who is an Aries. And, The Emperor card is associated with Aries. I considered that some people might see Jesus in the card, since any man with long hair and a beard like this seems to be identified as Jesus. But our global ancestors are full of men who wore their hair and beards like this. I wanted to turn this idea on its head. So, the Lua Tarot Emperor is not Jesus, but if you see Jesus, and you resonate with him being your Emperor, that’s great! (Interestingly, there are some who believe Jesus was born in early April, making him an Aries!) The tarot cards are open to your intuitive messages to come through. Reading the cards is YOUR mirror, your life experience. Your feels. There’s no judgment, just observing what comes through. There are many choices that we deck creators have to make for our cards. These choices are not always going to resonate with everyone. I ADORE this Emperor because he reminds me of my beloved Aries partner. I’m the Empress (my soul card). He’s my Emperor. I thought I’d take this moment to share about this card. I didn’t have space in the Lua Tarot companion booklet to include this extra information, as I have in my past projects. If you’re interested in seeing more posts like this, I’d be happy to share more. Let me know if there’s a card you are curious about! The 2nd edition Lua Tarot and Divine Muses Oracle orders are now making their way to their new homes! Thank you so much for your generous support of these decks!
It looks like a lot of work, and it is. But, it was kind of fun to pack them up. You get into a groove and it all becomes a working meditation. I was listening to music and infusing your packages with gratitude and blessings. If you placed an order last night to today, I didn’t get to everyone’s order. I will start working on those this evening. I just need to catch my breath. Those orders will go to the post office tomorrow. If you’re interested, (as of Monday July 12th) there are still a few Lua Lenormand "miscut" gifts available with a Lua Tarot order. Feel free to Contact me if you have any questions!  The Lua Tarot deck is featured in Parq Magazine! A Portuguese trends magazine dealing with art, photography, fashion and urban lifestyle. Read the article in English by tarotist Roger Winstanley.
Full Moon is exact tonight at 8:31pm PT (11:31pm ET). This Moon’s influence is under Scorpio, which is associated with the Tarot’s Death card—the Child of the Great Transformers, and the Lord of the Gate of Death. Scorpio’s ruling planet is Pluto and Pluto stations Retrograde tomorrow (1:03pm PDT) for 6 months. ALSO: The USA has been in the thick of its first Pluto Return, currently 26° Capricorn (within 1° orb of US’s natal Pluto). Pluto Return is a rare transit, it happens ONCE every 247 years. When astrologers talk about it, it’s often in reference to an event, or in this case, the USA’s founding (July 4, 1776). Its Pluto Return will be exact on Feb 20, 2022. If you’re interested in reading more what Pluto Return means for the USA, I wrote more in depth about it in this post. I’ll just say quickly here that Pluto transits are powerful times, which are evolutionary, intense, transformative, and healing. It has not been easy, but Pluto transits rarely are. Pluto offers evolutionary shifts. It can be emotional and intense times, and even destructive, but his archetype is Death AND Rebirth. It’s Transformational AND Cyclical. Pluto is known as the Great Redeemer, but as god of the underworld, he forces the death of old paradigms. Teaching us the lessons of Death: to let die what must die, so something new in its place can seed, grow, and live fully.  The Death card in the photo is from the Lua Tarot; the Moon and Snake cards are from the Lua Lenormand. There are still a few Lua Tarot decks left in stock. The Lua Lenormand is coming back to the shop soon!
Pluto stations Retrograde (Rx) on Tuesday, April 27th at 1:03pm (PDT). The Pluto energies have been so intense lately. Especially for the USA, as an immense astrology transit has been nudging ever slowly forth for the past year. The USA has been in the thick of its first Pluto Return, currently 26° Capricorn (within 1° orb of USA’s natal Pluto). Many people have heard of their Saturn Return, but what's Pluto Return? Pluto Return is a rare transit, it happens ONCE every 247 years. When astrologers talk about it, it’s often in reference to an event, or in this case, the USA’s founding (July 4, 1776). The USA's Pluto Return will be exact on Feb 20, 2022.  Pluto's Return, USA's transit chart. When the Past Becomes PresentPluto transits tend to reveal and magnify dark unconscious truths that undermine established orders. For a dwarf planet, demoted a few years back, he does not play small, no matter how we want to classify him! His archetype is as powerful a force to be reckoned with as ever. Although his archetype is often considered malefic, the lessons that surface during his transits can be deeply transformational and evolutionary; IF we choose to be open for growth and change. As a nation, the USA has been grappling with some heavy realizations, some too much to bear. Sometimes the pain is so overwhelming, that it’s just easier for people to ignore. But Pluto will not be disregarded! And, he favors those who are willing to work with his energies. The USA is a country trying to come to terms, in so many ways, with its collective shadow. The unconscious shadows being faced to heal the fractures from its dark history. The work that people do individually during this Pluto time will help the collective energies (as within, so without), but the work also has to be collaborative with self-responsibility and self-accountability. People have to come together to have productive conversations, to ask questions, and have social discourse. And, this sometimes feels impossible in these “United” States where every conversation has turned into a divisive political debate. The anger and righteousness is all quite Plutonic actually. Pluto's shadow thrives on power over/power under dynamics. And, ideology cults seem to be springing up, reflecting the Pluto archetype's manipulative side that wants to guilt & shame people. The cultish mentality insists that there is a right and wrong way, which creates "us vs. them" and black & white thinking. There is no room for nuances, or gray area, no in-between or "meeting in the middle path", no questioning or space for open dialogue about the core beliefs of a particular group. If this is the case, we may likely be observing group think, or worse, cultish behavior. Echo chambers condemn any outside questions and seek to vilify those with a different opinion, as questions are threatening to the beliefs of the group. Their true opinion is the correct way of thinking and anything that veers from their ideology is wrong and therefore represents the enemy. Pluto Return & Pluto Retrograde really turns up the knob of moral superiority. I’ve been studying the USA’s chart for the past year with an eye on its Pluto Return. The USA’s Pluto is in the Second House Capricorn, which is really interesting, as this can show up in someone’s chart as being stubborn and power-hungry, and can reflect a desire for possessions and be caught up with financial success. There's a need to control and a fear of letting go of material possessions and relationships. This Second House Pluto can also reflect possible trauma and a painful history. If there is awareness of the pain, and compassion, deep transformation is possible.  The positive side of Pluto reflects power and empowered self-reliance and ambition, but if not balanced can be at the detriment of the whole. Rugged individualism and the “every man for himself” attitude can only get us so far in the US. But, on the opposite end of the spectrum, where progressiveness goes so far that it becomes regressive, isn't balanced or a productive way to move forward either. I don't have the answers, but I believe that there is a lot of pain and anger and shame and guilt that really reflects Pluto. And, Pluto is all about catharsis. His shadow is devouring and his energy is quite dark. Let me paint an image of the way I’m visualizing the Pluto archetype unfolding right now. Pluto is god of the underworld. With the USA’s Pluto Return, Pluto is pushing up all the shadow issues to the surface that have not been dealt with, or reconciled. And, I’m seeing an extensive fog rising from the earth. The ghosts of USA’s past have been resurfacing and we’re all wading through the haze now, trudging through that what has been lodged in the land. Pluto is here to reveal and clear what's been stuck.  It can become more intense if we choose to ignore it as we creep closer to exact Pluto Return on February 20th. And with Pluto Retrograde, we may see the collective regressing during these next six months. Pluto Retrograde lasts until October 6th when it stations Direct. Then hopefully, we'll begin seeing some forward momentum in the collective. As things stand now, it may feel like we are going backwards sometimes, when so many are just ready to move forward already! Hang in there. Pluto Retrograde periods are good times to question the status quo. And they can be transformational, as we peel back the layers to reveal more and more of what’s at the core. Retrograde times, no matter the planet, allow us to reflect more deeply. Pluto Retrograde can offer, and indeed accelerate, evolutionary growth. It can be emotional and intense times. Pluto may be destructive, but his archetype is about Death and Rebirth. Sometimes we have to break things down to break through. That's part of evolution!  Pluto is associated with Tarot's Judgement card. The Evolution card is an alternate Judgement card in the Lua Tarot. I leave both of these cards in the deck when working with the Lua Tarot. Pluto's Return has not been easy, but Pluto transits rarely are. He is known as the Great Redeemer, but as god of the underworld, he helps force the death of outdated paradigms. Teaching us lessons of Death: to let die what must die, so something new in its place can be birthed. |
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