Card Deck

I am designing a card deck for play, education & a revised form of divination rooted in a scientific world view.

My intention is to create a tool to strengthen archetypal literacy as well as reimagine why & how we use cards to reveal invisible influences to us. To me, fortune-telling & superstition are an outdated understanding of the spiritual realm & can cause harm when used ignorantly or malevolently. I personally believe that a revised interpretation of divination could be that the realm of spirits is instead interpreted as an external psychology, one which does not require avoidance to stay safe or morally sound, but one which can be navigated more effectively through the deepening of archetypal, symbolic & ritualistic knowledge.

More detail

For years I have been obsessed with mythological archetypes & have wondered how I could create tangible tools to revise & improve our awareness of the collective unconscious.

The new age paraphrase of the original hermetic text ‘as above, so below’ intrigues me deeply & I interpret it to suggest the entire universe is simultaneously within & outside of us. I do believe in the idea that the myths humans have used for millennia to personify & understand invisible forces are simply archetypes or segments of that external psyche which we all have access to & which reflects our own internal psychology.

If our internal & external psyche are interlinked, would strengthening our archetypal literacy & awareness help us to navigate our own psychology more successfully & thereby assist in healing the mental health epidemic?

I am fascinated by the archetypal knowledge consolidated & preserved in the Rider Waite Smith tarot cards, but not as much as I am by the controversy, terror, adoration & utility that tarot decks in general induce.

Although I do believe there are real dangers in ignorantly or malevolently using divination tools, I find it especially intriguing just how intensely some moral stances fear & avoid them. I do believe the fear derives from justifiable experiences, however, I don’t understand the need to throw the baby out with the bath water, let alone the need to suppress deeper education or broader exploration of these subjects.

I will be documenting my research, the development of my ideas & progress of my creations in my blog.