Month: September 2021

Eternal Seeker Oracle by Pamela Steele

On By benebellIn deck review1 Comment

Pamela Steele is one of my close tarot friends, and really, though she might not know it, also an art mentor. There’s a fiery and fierce “I’ll do it myself!” independence to her. If you tell her “no” and gatekeep her, she’ll dismantle the gate altogether. She’s also contributed so much to the tarot community at large, having always been a passionate advocate and supporter for deck creators.

I was honored to write the Foreword to the Eternal Seeker guidebook, and to do so, I had an early prototype of the deck on my desk for weeks, working with it everyday, doing daily card draws, and I found myself really connecting to this deck.

If you read just the card titles above alongside the imagery, you’ll see The Fool in The Seeker card, The Magician in The Magus, The High Priestess in The Oracle, and The Empress in Divine Feminine. However, the numbering diverges from the tarot Key numbers. Where we might commonly associate 1 with Magician, here it’s The Seeker (calling to mind The Fool).

So first, you need to dismantle any preconceived notions of the Major Arcana. Eternal Seeker is its own divination system, and simply hearkens to some of the Major Arcana tarot archetypes. The specific number associations in Eternal Seeker are rooted in numerology, and deeply intentional.

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Southeast Asian Myths and Stories (SEAMS) Tarot, a Collaborative Deck

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot community11 Comments

I was gifted an early prototype of the Southeast Asian Myths and Stories (SEAMS) Tarot, which was hand-cut by the Chairman of Singapore’s Tarot & Cartomancy Association himself, and now one of my most prized possessions in my tarot deck collection.

Please go support their Kickstarter campaign, here.

What you’ll see in these photos are the reviewer’s copy (tarot equivalent of an ARC), so I won’t be commenting on production value, since that’s likely to change from the time of this ARC to what the SEAMS team can produce after successful funding.

In this review, we’re going to look at the art and talk about the deck as a whole. The deck is going to come with a companion e-book that delves into the stories, mythologies, and lore depicted on each card. I’ll try to give a sampling of just how rich a tapestry this deck is.

Holographic version

The above photograph is a card from the holographic version of the deck.

Each copy of the SEAMS Tarot will be empowered with crystal skull energies and the mantras of Guru Rinpoche and the Medicine Buddha. In many esoteric modalities of Taoist qi gong or each Southeast Asian region’s version of qi gong (I’m using the Mandarin Chinese term for it only because that’s the term I know), the Medicine Buddha is either the personification of or the creator of the pillar of source “reiki” spirit energy that empowers healers. In that sense, each deck is imbued with reiki.

Because the premise of this deck is to celebrate Southeast Asian artists and their cultures, I love that you can see the artist of each illustration and country of origin. The deck’s namesake, SEAMS, is also a reference to the cultural quilt that has been stitched together from many different tribes, peoples, and traditions.

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The Wandering Moon Tarot by Rachael Jean

On By benebellIn deck review4 Comments

I love black and white decks and I love pen and ink illustration. So it is no surprise that the Wandering Moon Tarot by Australian artist and tarot reader Rachael Jean is right up my alley. This deck was gifted to me by the artist, whose art style I absolutely love.

By the way, you can’t tell from these photos, but the card back design is holographic, and when it catches the sunlight at just the right angle, it glitters! Super magical!

Working with solid outlines and pointillism while commanding white (or negative) space with finesse, Jean’s compositions are clean, always with strong focal points, and expressive. There are a couple of bonus cards in this deck, and The Wanderer, pictured above, is one of them.

Here, a “solitary traveler of the cosmos sits upon a planet’s surface, looking up and gazing at a crescent moon. This figure is surrounded by universal energy and cosmic love.” This card reminds you to stay grounded and present, appreciating the moment. Also, look at the chunkiness of that companion guidebook! It’s co-written by the artist Rachael Jean and Marion Kirk.

As tools, there are two types of tarot deck illustrations I like to make sure I have in my collection: the first is when each card illustration feels like a complete and comprehensive universe, and perhaps might be considered “busy” with all the detailing, and the second would be a deck like Wandering Moon, where each card’s illustration feels like anatomical parts of a sentence, or thought, the way signs and symbols would appear to you in a crystal ball.

And because of that minimalist aesthetic, with each card more likened to a glimpse into a crystal ball, Wandering Moon Tarot is fantastic for large multi-card spreads from the Celtic Cross to in-depth 15-card readings. With all that white space, this is one of those decks you could really customize with your own pen and ink additions, if you wanted to.

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Oracle of Dr. John Dee by John Matthews and Wil Kinghan

On By benebellIn deck review2 Comments

The Oracle of Dr. John Dee by the illustrious John Matthews and one of the tarot community’s favorite artists Wil Kinghan was first published in 2013. Anything with the name John or Caitlin Matthews on it is guaranteed to be well-researched and worth your while.

John Dee was an alchemist, astrologer, mathematician, geographer, philosopher, and historian. In other words, a polymath. Dee met Edward Kelly, who claimed to be a powerful medium. In a vision, Kelly told Dee that he saw Archangel Michael seated on a throne with a kneeling figure at the archangel’s feet, and that figure was none other than John Dee. Needless to say, Dee took a liking to this Kelly.

Dee and Kelly formed a partnership where, over the course of several months, the two downloaded an entire language system from Heaven, the language Adam used to converse with the Creator and the angels. Dee called this language Enochian.

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The Field Tarot by Hannah Elizabeth Fofana

On By benebellIn deck review2 Comments

The Field Tarot created by graphic designer and artist Hannah Elizabeth Fofana definitely intrigues me. It feels a bit like a futuristic mystery thriller with an indie ethereal, quasi-vintage (the floral patterns evoke this) aesthetic.

The deck was created to guide readers through the sacred space (“the field”) where the tarot narrative takes place. Noted in the guidebook: “The prominent horizon line used throughout many of the cards puts you, the reader, within this space, allowing you to connect the traditional tarot journey to your own.”

With Justice in the place of Key 8 and Strength as Key 11, plus something about how the deck resonates intuitively, this feels deeply Thoth-inspired.

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Download My Art Study Journal

On By benebellIn book writing, create your own deck, free download, grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, tarot community14 Comments

A while back on my Instagram feed, I shared photos of my 2020 art study journal. Now here’s the whole thing, though it’s still just a slim and sparse booklet.

I kinda didn’t wanna share this because it’s so, ew, a hot mess, disorganized, and you can even witness my mood changes as my handwriting teeters from neat and meticulous to hasty and illegible.

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