Starri Knytes
When they show up in a reading it seems the natural direction to go. That was my experience anyway.
Sorry for being a buttinski!
Sacred Bridges Tarot by Rachel Paul!
Sorry for being a buttinski!
MoonGypsy
When they show up in a reading it seems the natural direction to go. That was my experience anyway.
Sorry for being a buttinski!
i am very glad you posted! You are certainly not a buttinski, my friend!
Tarotwolf
Thanks for posting the moon photo. That's an interesting take on the crayfish exiting the pond. I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the deck.
MoonGypsy
i am willing to take pics of 3 more cards, if anyone is interested.
Only 3 more... so which ones would you like? First come, first served...
Only 3 more... so which ones would you like? First come, first served...
rachelpaul
Hey there AT!
Thank you so much for your support of my sophomore ("wise Fool") effort. I especially appreciate your discussion of the symbolism in the deck(!) It is true that my use of white eyes is very intentional.
I consider myself a contemporary of Johanna Gargiulo Sherman of US Games' wonderful Sacred Rose Tarot, and she and I discussed our use of this style extensively last spring at the Readers Studio while I was working on Sacred Bridges.
Johanna believes the "white, all-seeing" eyes that we both use in our art serve to symbolize the fact that the images portrayed in tarot are NOT necessarily human--they are archetypes. Inclined to agree with her, I brought up the fact that in my drawings, I also use this style to symbolize the use of second sight, as you picked up on here. In many ways, I feel this mortal coil sometimes leaves us stumbling blindly like The Fool, blind until we fully realize ourselves as "the eyes of The World" (to quote the Grateful Dead). I am sometimes reminded of a quote from Erykah Badu: "The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all." Fortunately, tarot gives us a space to reflect on this state of being. And for this I am very grateful (as I'm sure you all are too).
In any case, as MoonGypsy mentions, the Sacred Bridges Deck is worlds away from Dark Carnival in many ways. I do consider it to be the polar opposite, the yin to the yang.
Sacred Bridges is a nonviolence deck and its theme explores how world peace can be achieved through (re)connecting with the Goddess energies, aligning humankind with the Earth Mother.
In many ways, Dark Carnival deck belonged to a time and a place. It was a "scene" or "cult" deck, created at a time when I did not know anything of the tarot or psychic community.
But Sacred Bridges...this deck...it is my OWN vision this time around, with no filter, as a woman weeding her way toward the heart of my connection to my source and those around me at a time of immense transition in my life. It is incredibly personal and thus I must be equal parts vulnerable and brave in releasing it to the world, building a bridge to the hearts of those who will listen, enjoy, and appreciate the transformation captured in these 78 images.
While Dark Carnival carried with it an extremely masculine energy, inspired by the vision of the ringmaster of the dark carnival circus that I ran away with as a girl child, Sacred Bridges marks my return to the feminine. My growth into a woman. And my realization of the Goddess in me and the Goddess in ALL of us.
I would label the deck as very much feminist and an illustrated quest to restore the world's balance through nurturing and restoring the feminine principal to modern society. Some of the art is incredibly satirical of multinationals and the capitalist energies that have seized hold and seem to only use and abuse the great Mother Gaia in this day and age. I'll be the first to say that in places, the deck is frankly a big "f*ck you" to capitalism. Not that it is my place to turn the sacred space of tarot into a political cartoon, BUT this deck seeks to document a path of humanity, bridging its way back to oneness and healing. Having at least some depictions of that trend in the human family seemed very necessary (though ultimately, in the World card, Gaia has the last laugh).
In any case, thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope you will receive blessings from my heart to yours. I offer up this vision with many, many thanks and gratitude.
Blessings and love,
Rachel
Thank you so much for your support of my sophomore ("wise Fool") effort. I especially appreciate your discussion of the symbolism in the deck(!) It is true that my use of white eyes is very intentional.
I consider myself a contemporary of Johanna Gargiulo Sherman of US Games' wonderful Sacred Rose Tarot, and she and I discussed our use of this style extensively last spring at the Readers Studio while I was working on Sacred Bridges.
Johanna believes the "white, all-seeing" eyes that we both use in our art serve to symbolize the fact that the images portrayed in tarot are NOT necessarily human--they are archetypes. Inclined to agree with her, I brought up the fact that in my drawings, I also use this style to symbolize the use of second sight, as you picked up on here. In many ways, I feel this mortal coil sometimes leaves us stumbling blindly like The Fool, blind until we fully realize ourselves as "the eyes of The World" (to quote the Grateful Dead). I am sometimes reminded of a quote from Erykah Badu: "The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all." Fortunately, tarot gives us a space to reflect on this state of being. And for this I am very grateful (as I'm sure you all are too).
In any case, as MoonGypsy mentions, the Sacred Bridges Deck is worlds away from Dark Carnival in many ways. I do consider it to be the polar opposite, the yin to the yang.
Sacred Bridges is a nonviolence deck and its theme explores how world peace can be achieved through (re)connecting with the Goddess energies, aligning humankind with the Earth Mother.
In many ways, Dark Carnival deck belonged to a time and a place. It was a "scene" or "cult" deck, created at a time when I did not know anything of the tarot or psychic community.
But Sacred Bridges...this deck...it is my OWN vision this time around, with no filter, as a woman weeding her way toward the heart of my connection to my source and those around me at a time of immense transition in my life. It is incredibly personal and thus I must be equal parts vulnerable and brave in releasing it to the world, building a bridge to the hearts of those who will listen, enjoy, and appreciate the transformation captured in these 78 images.
While Dark Carnival carried with it an extremely masculine energy, inspired by the vision of the ringmaster of the dark carnival circus that I ran away with as a girl child, Sacred Bridges marks my return to the feminine. My growth into a woman. And my realization of the Goddess in me and the Goddess in ALL of us.
I would label the deck as very much feminist and an illustrated quest to restore the world's balance through nurturing and restoring the feminine principal to modern society. Some of the art is incredibly satirical of multinationals and the capitalist energies that have seized hold and seem to only use and abuse the great Mother Gaia in this day and age. I'll be the first to say that in places, the deck is frankly a big "f*ck you" to capitalism. Not that it is my place to turn the sacred space of tarot into a political cartoon, BUT this deck seeks to document a path of humanity, bridging its way back to oneness and healing. Having at least some depictions of that trend in the human family seemed very necessary (though ultimately, in the World card, Gaia has the last laugh).
In any case, thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope you will receive blessings from my heart to yours. I offer up this vision with many, many thanks and gratitude.
Blessings and love,
Rachel
FLizarraga
I want that statuette! Give it to me! Gimme gimme!
MoonGypsy
Dear Flizzy, you have wonderful taste...
She is our Mama Gaia...Designed by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart...
She looks so much like his late wife/soul-mate--beautiful MorningGlory...
i had the great privilege of taking one of her classes 20 some years
ago in California..with only 6 other Women. i got to hold several of
MorningGlory's votive goddesses from
her incomparable collection she had gathered from around the world.
She was an inspiration and such a beautiful goddess
herself.
2 weeks later i was dancing the spiral dance with Margot Adler
[author of the "Drawing Down the Moon"...She is now gone, also...sigh..]
FLizarraga
Rachel, thank you for your beautiful statement. In another thread, I compared Sacred Bridges to a sort of Sacred Rose on ayahuasca. I was stunned to see you refer to the Sacred Rose and Johanna Gargiulo Sherman here.
It is an extraordinary deck.
It is an extraordinary deck.
FLizarraga
MoonGypsy
Yes, an extraordinary deck by an extra- extraordinary young woman!
Rachel touches my soul with her deeply cosmic beauty...
The words in her sacred scroll resonate with my heart
