The Rider
Esther Rabinovitch, 2020
3.5” x 3.5”, Gelly Roll Pen on Artist Tile
Towers and riders atop horses appear frequently throughout Tarot and Oracle decks. They are two symbols that can inspire the most fear or peace depending on a diviner and querent’s life experiences, the spread, or even on the individual cards where they appear. In 2020, as a collective, we have already faced many tower moments. So now, as we get back on our horses, still in the wake of destruction, each of us has to decide how we want to move forward. From my self-published deck, “The Abstract Lenormand”, I designed these images in a loose fashion to help ignite intuition and to create the illusion of movement, as our outcomes and interpretations are continually evolving as we grow.
The Tower
Esther Rabinovitch
2020, 3.5” x 3.5”, Sharpie on Artist Tile
Towers and riders atop horses appear frequently throughout Tarot and Oracle decks. They are two symbols that can inspire the most fear or peace depending on a diviner and querent’s life experiences, the spread, or even on the individual cards where they appear. In 2020, as a collective, we have already faced many tower moments. So now, as we get back on our horses, still in the wake of destruction, each of us has to decide how we want to move forward. From my self-published deck, “The Abstract Lenormand”, I designed these images in a loose fashion to help ignite intuition and to create the illusion of movement, as our outcomes and interpretations are continually evolving as we grow.
The Abstract Lenormand deck
Esther Rabinovitch, 2020
2” x 2”, 36 cards
High Priestess
Ivanka Haney
2020, Digital print. From the ongoing Slavic Tarot series.
The patterns, colours, and practices used in this deck are original to the Hutsul region of Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains. A region deeply rich in culture and spirituality. Molfar is the Ukrainian word used to describe a Sorcerer and Healer well versed in this culture’s tradition of magic. Themes addressed in this work include folk medicine, magic, ancestral reconnection and generational healing.
Strength
Ivanka Haney
2020, Digital print. From the ongoing Slavic Tarot series.
The patterns, colours, and practices used in this deck are original to the Hutsul region of Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains. A region deeply rich in culture and spirituality. Molfar is the Ukrainian word used to describe a Sorcerer and Healer well versed in this culture’s tradition of magic. Themes addressed in this work include folk medicine, magic, ancestral reconnection and generational healing.
Arto Tarot deck
Jane Estelle Trombley (JET), b.1965 d.2013,
1998-2008.
Jane Estelle Trombley draws the body of her inspiration from her knowledge and love of symbolism, mythology, story, and archetypes. The late mythologist Joseph Campbell, in his book ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces’ said that “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation…” It is in this secret spiritual and dreamlike world that she envisions the images and archetypes that unveil themselves to her. She sees art as a form of self-exploration. Each image and poem is a personal map to the psyche of the artist. Using watercolour as her primary medium, she surprises the viewer with the intricate details and vibrancy of colours achieved in her art.
https://jetarts.wordpress.com/
XXI The World
Jane Estelle Trombley
1998-2008.
8 1/2" x 13", Watercolour on paper
IV The Hierophant
Kimberly Dewing
2015
13cm x 22cm, Watercolour
The Hierophant knows the old ways, their wisdom flows from the font of tradition. They know the path, and will offer guidance to those who are willing to ask.
II The High Priestess
Kimberly Dewing
2015
10cm x 17cm, Watercolour
The High Priestess connects to a spiritual self, lays trust in the mystery. They know that not everything is what it seems, but trusts in themselves to know the way.
Ace of Pentacles
Lisa Cristinzo
2020
24” x 36”, Gold Acrylic, Pleather, Full Moon Water
The northern beaver is a prolific, industrious and family-orientated species. Once on the brink of extinction, due to nearly 250 years of extensive trapping and fur trade in Canada for felt hats in the 18th and 19th centuries, the northern beaver is here to stay due to conservation efforts and an eventual change in fashion!
Today, the beaver and their lodges and dams can be seen throughout the Canadian waterways. The beaver is known to build its home using trees, mud, and water, creating a foundation for family lodge life and protection from predators. Beaver dams offer rich resources for wetland species and many animals take shelter in their lodges. The whole beaver family is involved in sustaining the household, parent beavers teach the kit how to harvest materials and build the family home.
The Hermit - Solitude
Lisa East
2020
6” x 6”, Major Arcana Collage on Panel
This collage was made in response to The Hermit card found in the Major Arcana of the Tarot. During the beginning of social distancing measures in Toronto, The Hermit card kept appearing to me in various tarot spreads as an answer, a blockage, and a perception. Using Monica Bodirsky’s Shadowland Tarot spreads, I began to deeply consider how the qualities of The Hermit card can assist me in cultivating reciprocal relationships - with myself, with my environment, and with others.
The collage process reworks components from disparate places and recontextualizes them, offering new forms of relationality and layered meanings. Spending time with the collage process allowed me to integrate The Hermit's teachings in a deeper way.
High Priestess
Lydia Knox
2020
11” x 14”, Oil paint on stretched canvas
The High Priestess represents all that is a mystery and all that is revealed through the process of time, instead of being in a temple, she rests in the woods, close to nature. A pomegranate is tattooed on her breast, representing the feminine mystery of seeds that have yet to be planted. She wears a crown of horns, representing the magical stag of the male energy. She is a balance of feminine and masculine, and inclusive in nature. She has taken off her shoes because she has stepped onto holy ground. A scroll unravels, with the simple statement of “Tarot” holding the knowledge of the cards. The letters carved into the tree represent, B, Boaz signifying the end of things, and J, representing the start of things.
A Weavers Deck
Margaret Gissing
2019
Digital painting
This small, nine card oracle deck was designed initially for a group of Live Action Role Players who meet annually at a medieval fantasy festival in Quebec. The group, made up of LGBT+ members provides a safe space to dress up in non-historical costumes and create fae characters to play make-belief, and explore the festival together. This tight-knit community has put work into developing an imagined culture that celebrates the real strengths, creativity, and vulnerability that each member brings to the table. This deck illustrates the different titles that are awarded in this imagined culture. Drawing inspiration from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot system for guidance, this deck is my first attempt at divination based illustration.
Anam Cara
Margaret Gissing
2019
Digital painting
This small, nine card oracle deck was designed initially for a group of Live Action Role Players who meet annually at a medieval fantasy festival in Quebec. The group, made up of LGBT+ members provides a safe space to dress up in non-historical costumes and create fae characters to play make-belief and explore the festival together. This tight-knit community has put work into developing an imagined culture that celebrates the real strengths, creativity, and vulnerability that each member brings to the table. This deck illustrates the different titles that are awarded in this imagined culture. Drawing inspiration from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot system for guidance, this deck is my first attempt at divination based illustration.
Dreamweaver
Margaret Gissing
2019
Digital painting
This small, nine card oracle deck was designed initially for a group of Live Action Role Players who meet annually at a medieval fantasy festival in Quebec. The group, made up of LGBT+ members provides a safe space to dress up in non-historical costumes and create fae characters to play make-belief, and explore the festival together. This tight-knit community has put work into developing an imagined culture that celebrates the real strengths, creativity, and vulnerability that each member brings to the table. This deck illustrates the different titles that are awarded in this imagined culture. Drawing inspiration from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot system for guidance, this deck is my first attempt at divination based illustration.
The Chariot
Natalie Very B
2020
2.75” x 4.75”, Ink on watercolour paper
This card symbolizes new beginnings and moving away from the old routine in a positive way. Starting anew is all The Chariot is about.
Full Flower Moon
Rowena Katigbak
2020
20” x 1 ⅜”, Encaustic paint on wood panel
“Full Flower Moon” is a visual narrative of an intense period of shadow work, confronting blockages, releasing fears, stepping closer into authenticity, and finding joy. It explores liminality and what it means to walk in both shadow and light with gratitude and finding grace within. The Full Flower Moon oracle invites the viewer to step into deeper conversations with themselves; to connect with their inner wisdom in order to bloom.
All Lovers
Shelley Carter
2018
12” x 18”, figureless Lovers card, mounted on painted wood
Intended as an interactive piece, All Lovers offers the opportunity for the traditional Lovers card of the Rider Waite Smith deck to represent a variety of partnerings.
The available interchangeable figures include many male, female and non-binary figures of various colours, age, and size. There are a few black-and-white “colourable” figures included, for interactors to individualize. There is also room for the inclusion of a third figure for polyamorous couples, and various statements of relationship status that can be added.
All Lovers
Shelley Carter
2018
12” x 18”, figureless Lovers card, mounted on painted wood
All Lovers - accompanying carousel
Shelley Carter
2018
9” x 11”, paper figures, laminated, Velcro
The available interchangeable figures include many male, female and non-binary figures of various colours, age, and size. There are a few black-and-white “colourable” figures included, for interactors to individualize. There is also room for the inclusion of a third figure for polyamorous couples, and various statements of relationship status that can be added.
The Queen of Cups
Sue Todd
The Queen of Cups, 2018
11” x 16”, Fine art giclee print of a digitally coloured linocut
The Magician
Sue Todd
The Magician, 2018
11” x 18”, Fine art giclee print of a digitally coloured linocut
Sue Todd
I am a great lover and collector of tarot decks and admire the seemingly endless creative interpretations of these 78 compelling cards. The power of symbol and its connection to the collective unconscious identified by Carl Jung is demonstrated in the practical use of the Tarot.
I would love to create a deck in future and have contributed cards to exhibits but have yet to build a cohesive deck of my own. The two images I have submitted to Witchfest 2020 are interpretations of The Queen of Cups and The Magician. The Queen of Cups originally appeared in a collaborative deck to raise funds for cancer, The Triumph of Life Tarot. The Magician was one of five cards I created for a deck based on the Tarot of Marseilles. I intend to complete it one day, only 73 to go!
Blood Bread & Roses Tarot deck
Wilma Van Den Boomen
2018
each card 3.5” x 5”, Digital Collage Art
The Devil
Wilma Van Den Boomen
2018
3.5” x 5”, Digital Collage Art
This card is one of the most controversial cards in my deck, which itself is a very personal deck that deals with themes of feminism, spirituality and mental health. What makes it controversial, is the use of my own image for the representation of The Devil. I have been repudiated for doing so and been accused in a review of arrogance for my hubris. But my choice for this was a calculated decision based on my own past experiences dealing with addiction and mental health, not an overriding sense of narcissism. At the time when this photo was taken, I was in many ways fully embracing and embodying The Devil, and of course the moniker of “Devil in a Red Dress” was an amusing twist I fully embraced. This is not to denigrate or claim shame for any choices made during this time, as it was an important time of exploration and pushing boundaries, and seeking to discover the edges of my sexuality, and hence embracing my inner slut and allowing her free reign.
Thus this is a card that takes the meaning of The Devil and adds to it layers of feminism not only in the choice of switching the gender of the Devil figure itself, but also in depicting aspects of normative society in the figures of the married couple to highlight that there are many structures, institutions, behaviours and choices from expected societal norms that can become unhealthy aspects we need to unleash ourselves from. That these normative societal institutions can become crutches we hide behind, or feel powerless to challenge because doing so requires a great deal of courage, and also facing backlash from friends and family. Unhealthy lifestyle choices, behaviours and coping mechanisms can be much broader then our narrow view of addiction.
So the meaning of this card is thus expanded to showcase that one does not only identify with the male and female couple, but one must also consider what of The Devil itself is mirrored within ourselves, and how sometimes we may deliberately choose to embody devilish behaviours consciously to overcome conditioning and programming from social norms or expectations.
Persistent Grief
Monica Bodirsky
2020
6” x 9”, Pen and ink, watercolour, dark moon water, herbal ink, earth pigments on recycled cotton paper.
I draw without knowing where I’m going at first and feel it is an important part of my process to reach deeply into the subconscious, access archetypal symbols, and allow imagery to emerge uncensored. I find the results are often disturbing, dreamlike, and darkly humourous.
Set in a house, a symbol of the psyche, the tethered teeth, and weights represent the persistence of complex grief.
Created during the dark moon using dark moon water, essential oils and herbs in ink, earth pigment watercolours by candlelight.
Awakening
Monica Bodirsky
2020
6” x 9”, Pen and ink, watercolour, dark moon water, herbal ink, earth pigments on recycled cotton paper.
I draw without knowing where I’m going at first and feel it is an important part of my process to reach deeply into the subconscious, access archetypal symbols, and allow imagery to emerge uncensored. I find the results are often disturbing, dreamlike, and darkly humourous.
A hand grows out of the earth and is covered by climbing vines representing life, death, and continuity.
Created during the dark moon using dark moon water, essential oils and herbs in ink, earth pigment watercolours by candlelight.