17 | Curating alchemy and fine art Tarot with Cole Lopez
My guest today is Cole Lopez - a healer, herbalist, astrologist and Tarot reader born and raised in New Orleans, USA. Cole is the creator of the Alchemia Auri Tarot, the fine art deck steeped in European tradition. We talked about her work and her journey through the art of healing, and about the process of meticulously crafting a deck inspired by classical artworks.
You can find Cole and all her offerings through her website Enter The Portal. You can also obviously buy Alchemia Auri Tarot there - or in my shop Las Vistas Tarot & More (especially if you are in the UK).
Host: Gosia Rokicka of Las Vistas Tarot & More
Guest: Cole Lopez of Enter The Portal
This podcast is sponsored by Las Vistas Tarot & More, an online shop with indie Tarot & Oracle Decks. For a 10% discount in the Las Vistas Tarot & More shop exclusive to podcast listeners, use code PODCAST10 at checkout.
To be up to date with Las Vistas Tarot & More news, join the inner circle and sign up to the newsletter.
Also mentioned in this episode:
The Tarot Fayre in Brighton UK - sign up to their mailing list to be first to know if and when the event is going to happen in 2027!
Disclaimer:
Tarot readers, healers and practitioners of "woo" can offer valuable support, but they’re not substitutes for licensed mental‑health professionals. Listeners needing therapeutic help should seek accredited counsellors.
Transcript
Hello, magical beings and creatures of the forest.
Speaker:This is Kosia,
Speaker:your host of the Tarot and Mole podcast.
Speaker:And today I have the absolute pleasure to let you listen to my interview with Cole Lopez,
Speaker:who is the wonderful creator,
Speaker:healer,
Speaker:astrologist,
Speaker:herbalist, and tarot reader from the US and we are talking about her deck,
Speaker:which is called Alchemia Auri Tarot.
Speaker:And it is a very special deck because she curated it, she designed it, but she didn't
Speaker:draw it herself.
Speaker:It was drawn by several very famous painters and artists from Europe who died several
Speaker:hundred years ago.
Speaker:So basically, it is a deck that is based on classical,
Speaker:medieval, and Renaissance, primarily art from various European countries.
Speaker:And it's very special, it's very different.
Speaker:It's beautifully made with, like, lots of attention to detail.
Speaker:And I really, really fell in love with it when I. When I first saw it.
Speaker:And I was very happy when it turned out that I can stock it in my shop.
Speaker:Although there were some doubts at the beginning around the copyrights,
Speaker:but because all of the artists died way more than 75 years ago,
Speaker:it turned out it is absolutely, perfectly legal to.
Speaker:To sell this beautiful deck in Europe.
Speaker:So that's how it ended up finally in my shop.
Speaker:And I'm very, very happy about that because it.
Speaker:It is very different to everything else I'm selling.
Speaker:So I was very happy when Cole agreed to talk with me on this podcast about the process of
Speaker:creation of this deck,
Speaker:and without further ad,
Speaker:like to invite you to listen to our conversation.
Speaker:Hello. Nice to see you.
Speaker:Cole. Thank you very much for accepting my
Speaker:invitation for the podcast.
Speaker:It's my absolute pleasure.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:I mean, I invited you because I absolutely love your deck, and I have
Speaker:it in my shop, and I just wanted to kind of find out more
Speaker:from the creator, how it's.
Speaker:How it's.
Speaker:How you burst it into the world.
Speaker:But first of all, could you tell us more about
Speaker:yourself, about, you know, everything you are doing with regard to
Speaker:tarot and kind of energy work?
Speaker:Sure, absolutely.
Speaker:So my journey kind of started with, actually, herbalism was the portal for me and the
Speaker:healing arts, and I did grow up in New Orleans.
Speaker:So tarot is very.
Speaker:It's on the streets, it's in the culture, you know, it's in the French Quarter.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:It's very much at the forefront of the.
Speaker:Everything is growing up as a little girl, my mom was very much into spirituality as well,
Speaker:so going in and out of those little shops.
Speaker:But I really sort of went in through healing, through food and plants, as as a main sort of
Speaker:avenue for myself.
Speaker:And then I actually didn't learn until later as an adult.
Speaker:It's been about a decade now where I really started to sort of anchor in and study the
Speaker:tarot and then also marry in plant alchemy and healing arts and having it more as sort of
Speaker:like an initiation and tor in sort of like uncovering parts of self,
Speaker:you know, like shadow parts and.
Speaker:And really working to alchemize those parts of
Speaker:self and to bring light and awareness through.
Speaker:And there's just so many different ways that
Speaker:we can sort of create healing within ourselves.
Speaker:So I love to sort of braid in the herbs because,
Speaker:you know, to create a state change, it's like we have to get out of our own minds.
Speaker:We can't correct a problem from the way that we've always been.
Speaker:So we can actually lend intelligence from the plants and sort of initiate and enact a
Speaker:different part of self.
Speaker:So that's been a really profound sort of seed in my journey of self care and healing and
Speaker:transformation is marrying these three things together.
Speaker:And astrology is also a big part.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah. So how does astrology kind of go into it as well, together with the herbs?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:I actually really did an intensive study and deep dive into astrology first.
Speaker:But since each card has an astrological resonance, being a planet, a sign or a
Speaker:transit, you know, they just blend.
Speaker:So there's like this fusion between the tarot
Speaker:and astrology anyway.
Speaker:So it's been a really remarkable learning curve just to see sort of like, you know,
Speaker:flashing an image of a card and knowing that, like, you know, for instance, it has a
Speaker:scorpion resonance and like, what that means or what Scorpio means to me and sort of like
Speaker:using those as prompts as well.
Speaker:And then also herbalism, every plant has an astrological seat as well.
Speaker:So they really just.
Speaker:They just marry so beautifully and.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, it's kind of like, you know, the parts of the same universe, really.
Speaker:And art, I mean, definitely art.
Speaker:I. I guess it's quite important for you because your deck is.
Speaker:It's not like you didn't draw it yourself.
Speaker:You chose paintings and drawings from quite a while ago.
Speaker:And then actually when I. When I. I think I saw it on your website or in the description
Speaker:of the deck, before I even got
Speaker:it, was like old world art.
Speaker:And I just like, what is old world?
Speaker:And I realized, oh, that's where I am.
Speaker:This is.
Speaker:We are old world.
Speaker:Yeah, European art.
Speaker:Yeah, it's just like my regular world.
Speaker:But yeah, it's. They Are. They are European paintings and drawings from few hundred years
Speaker:ago.
Speaker:And how.
Speaker:How did you come up with the idea to use them as tarot cards, as the imagery for tarot
Speaker:cards?
Speaker:I just am absolutely blown away with these artworks.
Speaker:They're just like.
Speaker:I mean, some of them would take, I mean,
Speaker:decades, you know, like, or some.
Speaker:Or the course of someone's lifetime, you know,
Speaker:after they got into their craft.
Speaker:So it's just like there's.
Speaker:There's no comparison to me, it's just like.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It's like they're portals in their own right.
Speaker:And since Terra was also an ancient art,
Speaker:I really sort of wanted to marry as best I could,
Speaker:you know, kind of reaching back in time and bringing these artworks.
Speaker:And it's not.
Speaker:I mean, the timelines are all over the place, but just the fact that it's, like, historical
Speaker:and, like, really rooted in something and,
Speaker:you know, like.
Speaker:I don't know, the idea just came to me one
Speaker:day.
Speaker:It's something.
Speaker:I am an artist myself, but I cannot produce artwork.
Speaker:I mean, these are like the finest works of art ever created, like, coming out of Europe, just
Speaker:like the Masters.
Speaker:So I had a really high standard of what,
Speaker:aesthetically, what my sense was.
Speaker:I really wanted to have like.
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:Like a magical, deep, brooding,
Speaker:just gorgeous aesthetic to it.
Speaker:And I don't know, it just dropped in and there
Speaker:are many curated decks out there, but it's sort of.
Speaker:Yeah, I got this seed in my consciousness of like, okay, alchemy is a theme.
Speaker:Braiding in alchemical engravings and also these beautiful oil paintings together.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Yeah, one thing just in.
Speaker:In front of the other.
Speaker:And I, you know, I. It took me about, I think about eight months to sort of find the perfect
Speaker:resonance, because obviously each card has a very specific essence.
Speaker:So scouring through art and like, you know, I have a very particular style that I like and
Speaker:that I wanted to sort of have a cohesiveness as best I could.
Speaker:Being that it's historical art, you know, I did the best that I could to match everything.
Speaker:And I think that I feel very happy.
Speaker:I feel like it took me a while just to find
Speaker:the match that I really felt like grabbed the essence of the card.
Speaker:And then I have the duplicate cards because I think it's nice to be able to choose.
Speaker:This is a very personal art form to the practitioner, so, like, to have their own, you
Speaker:know, sense in there as well.
Speaker:And. And also the artworks are just so gorgeous sometimes I couldn't decide.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:And then my own, you know, artistic touches in terms of like the scrolling around and the
Speaker:bordering art and you know, I just was very perfectionistic when it came to it.
Speaker:I. I changed it a million times.
Speaker:It took me many iterations to just sort of get
Speaker:very things that like person probably wouldn't even notice that much.
Speaker:Just like the decorative little scrolling, I mean, took me months, you know, so.
Speaker:Because I just wanted to really kind of like match like, kind of like bring out or
Speaker:compliment as best I could, you know, as a. As a modern woman in this world and showcase
Speaker:these incredible works of art.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm just looking at the cards and yeah, they are.
Speaker:They are very.
Speaker:I think you're right that there is a lot of
Speaker:cohesiveness in the whole deck.
Speaker:Although obviously they are different artists
Speaker:and even from different countries, different periods of history and also different styles
Speaker:because they are oil paintings,
Speaker:but they are also like engravings and they are different, but it goes together really, really
Speaker:well.
Speaker:And even the actual,
Speaker:like the choice of cardstock, for example, it's that.
Speaker:The fact that it's, for example, not glossy, I think that lends very well to just the vibe of
Speaker:the fact that it's such an old.
Speaker:But yeah, when you were saying that obviously they are like masters, that you wouldn't
Speaker:produce such art because they are like masters of European art.
Speaker:And I thought, like, no one knows.
Speaker:I don't think anyone really paints in that way.
Speaker:There were some of those paintings, it took years to, you know, they were commissioned by
Speaker:rich people who are paying for an artist to paint something for months and months and
Speaker:months.
Speaker:There is no budget now for it.
Speaker:There is no time for it.
Speaker:The attention span of everyone is just so short.
Speaker:Of course as well we have a better technology.
Speaker:So like, you know, even mixing paint used to take forever because everything was from
Speaker:natural ingredients.
Speaker:And there was art in actually the process of
Speaker:preparing to paint.
Speaker:Well, now everything is like, you know, I'm
Speaker:not even saying AI, but like generally like even art can be done digitally by a person or
Speaker:even if we.
Speaker:If we are using paint and.
Speaker:And it's just so much quicker.
Speaker:Everything.
Speaker:And I think there is beauty in this and like perfection in the fact that someone spends so
Speaker:much time,
Speaker:you know, like,
Speaker:you know, painting that how it's a 10 of pentacles.
Speaker:And I can't exactly tell what painting
Speaker:it is by
Speaker:heart.
Speaker:Sort of is it Venus Sleeping or.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like an Renaissance painting, I
Speaker:think.
Speaker:But I can.
Speaker:Let me look up in the.
Speaker:And so the guidebook has each title of the work in Artist.
Speaker:I'm just gonna look up, make sure.
Speaker:Because that is very.
Speaker:I've got my own ones now.
Speaker:Cups. Let's see here.
Speaker:Swords.
Speaker:Pentacles are probably at the end.
Speaker:Each image, of course, is etched in my mind for forever, but.
Speaker:Yeah, but it's like remembering all the Danae receiving Jupiter.
Speaker:It's from 1603.
Speaker:Yeah. It's such a beautiful, beautiful painting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Here I'm.
Speaker:And it's just like, you know, 17th century.
Speaker:And I love the fact that they are still.
Speaker:You know, obviously they are still alive.
Speaker:We can see them in museums, especially in Europe.
Speaker:But,
Speaker:you know, this is something that is with you.
Speaker:Like, you can carry it with you.
Speaker:You can use it every day, and you can look at this art and have it as a part of your daily
Speaker:practice and part of your life.
Speaker:And I think it's.
Speaker:It's really.
Speaker:It's a really beautiful thing.
Speaker:Absolutely. And that was like.
Speaker:And that was a big influ.
Speaker:Influence for me as well, because,
Speaker:yeah, just gazing upon a picture and a painting,
Speaker:it's like it activates parts of our brain, you know, the visual cues.
Speaker:It's like, even if we're not consciously aware we're being worked on, there's something like,
Speaker:there's a transmission that happens, and so that happens through gazing upon art or tarot,
Speaker:it doesn't really matter, but it's sort of like opening up these feminine dimensions in
Speaker:ourselves.
Speaker:So I just felt like, wow, what a beautiful way to remember the ancients and honor them and
Speaker:also kind of bring them into the modern day to be, like, really appreciated and adored and,
Speaker:you know, as.
Speaker:As a collector of tarot cards.
Speaker:You know, like, people really appreciate their
Speaker:decks and.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:And treat them with reverence and respect.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah, I just felt like it just really made sense for me.
Speaker:It just like one day it clicked, and I was like, yes, this is.
Speaker:This is the avenue.
Speaker:And I was.
Speaker:I was so enlivened by.
Speaker:By the idea.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:yeah, I'm just.
Speaker:I'm really happy with it.
Speaker:And I. I really just wanted to create something that felt old and magical and
Speaker:ancient and so many secrets and, like, interlaced and just all of the.
Speaker:All the different innuendos and.
Speaker:And the time spent.
Speaker:It's like time is so precious,
Speaker:and in our modern day of just instant gratification and go, go, go.
Speaker:It's like we're starting to sort of lose that preciousness of the chop would carry water.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:you know, like we mentioned before,
Speaker:some of these works would take a decade, 20 years, 30 years.
Speaker:It's like there's something really magical that's born from diligence and just blood,
Speaker:sweat and tears and, like, really having to work for something and to be with it.
Speaker:I mean, that's.
Speaker:That's alchemy.
Speaker:No matter what sort of entry point you're in, it's like, that's the alchemical process.
Speaker:It's like, it's.
Speaker:It's working on you as you work on it.
Speaker:So I just felt like.
Speaker:And having that as sort of like the foundational seed of the project,
Speaker:it made sense to sort of bring in these people that really understood that, these artists,
Speaker:these artists that really lived that.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Also when I was thinking, when you were
Speaker:talking that I've.
Speaker:I went to like a few weeks ago to Cathedral,
Speaker:which is in, like, an old city, city of Ely here in England.
Speaker:And it's a. It's a Gothic cathedral.
Speaker:And they was really big.
Speaker:I just like, my God, it's like, nicer than Notre Dame.
Speaker:Honestly.
Speaker:It's just.
Speaker:It's far less famous, but it's massive.
Speaker:And there was those, like, wooden ornaments on.
Speaker:On seats, like all those big bits.
Speaker:When I think the.
Speaker:The choir sits or like, maybe if they were more priests,
Speaker:they were just like, not for.
Speaker:Not for the people, not for the congregation,
Speaker:but the actual officials.
Speaker:And there was.
Speaker:It was so many of those details.
Speaker:And I was standing there and I just thinking, well, it looks like, you know, one person or
Speaker:maybe, you know, a couple of a team, a small team of people were doing that.
Speaker:Those, you know, hundreds of years ago.
Speaker:And I just.
Speaker:It was so much of it.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:it's like 10 years of work.
Speaker:It's like, literally someone gets a
Speaker:commission, and this is probably the only thing they are doing with the tools they had.
Speaker:At that time,
Speaker:you know, you didn't have laser cuts, so you were doing everything by hand.
Speaker:And it was so much of it.
Speaker:And I thought, yeah, well, that's.
Speaker:Yes, that's.
Speaker:Yes, you get the job.
Speaker:And, you know, you've got the job for years, years for this one cathedral to keep doing
Speaker:this.
Speaker:The same.
Speaker:The same.
Speaker:The same pattern,
Speaker:but there is beauty in it.
Speaker:And we just never do this anymore.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:And just to witness the difference, you know,
Speaker:like someone's soul is braided into whatever they're doing when they're just with it day in
Speaker:and day out, hour after hour.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:It's charged with, like a human essence.
Speaker:And I feel like,
Speaker:yeah, there's just something really sacred and beautiful about that.
Speaker:And I just wanted to.
Speaker:My body, I Wanted to try my best to sort of
Speaker:invite that back into our modern day.
Speaker:I think you succeeded, honestly.
Speaker:I think it's.
Speaker:It's really,
Speaker:really beautifully done and I'm very happy to be bringing it to more people because like on.
Speaker:We are recording it like mid July and in a couple of days I'm
Speaker:going to a market, like a tarot
Speaker:fair in here in Brighton in England.
Speaker:And yeah, I will have it with me.
Speaker:So I, you know, there will be more people who could actually see not only on Internet, but
Speaker:also just to actually touch and have a.
Speaker:Have a look properly on the, on a stall on the market.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:I hope it will get
Speaker:some traction as well.
Speaker:But yeah, I was also thinking about this choice of some cards having duplicates or
Speaker:even.
Speaker:I think there was one which.
Speaker:I don't remember which one now, but it was a triplicate.
Speaker:There was a. Definitely.
Speaker:There is a card which has three, three
Speaker:versions.
Speaker:And I love it because, you know, some,
Speaker:some visuals speaks to particular person better than others, like, you know, relate to
Speaker:certain card.
Speaker:I was just thinking, oh, it's a shame not
Speaker:everyone has.
Speaker:Every card has like two versions.
Speaker:But how did you, how did it, how did it happen that.
Speaker:That there were more of them?
Speaker:Just when I was going through the, the process of investigating and, and scouring art.
Speaker:Some like, so there are three, five of wands and I'll just like, wow.
Speaker:You know, like one is really intense.
Speaker:I mean, and I feel like it just encapsulates
Speaker:just that.
Speaker:That seed in humanity of sort of like conflict and compos competition or like power over.
Speaker:But it's like a very intense depiction.
Speaker:And then the other ones are a little bit
Speaker:lighter.
Speaker:So, you know, depending on, you know,
Speaker:what your mood,
Speaker:your mood like and what just sort of what resonates for the patron.
Speaker:I wanted to have different options, but yeah.
Speaker:So Saba come across some things that really
Speaker:made sense.
Speaker:It was like instantly I was like, wow, this really frames the energy of the card
Speaker:perfectly.
Speaker:It just felt like a resonance, like boom.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And so I would just welcome them in.
Speaker:I'm like, okay, let's.
Speaker:So the ones I have, there's 19 duplicate cards and there's an extra Arcana card.
Speaker:So there's a 00.
Speaker:That 00 oven.
Speaker:The egg.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, the egg just made sense.
Speaker:Absolutely. At first I thought it's a fall.
Speaker:I thought, I thought like kind of I saw the
Speaker:egg and I knew it's.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:It is an egg.
Speaker:Because I, I love that it's in Latin.
Speaker:By the way.
Speaker:But I do have.
Speaker:I, I did learn Latin in school and I really liked it.
Speaker:So I just like, yeah, that makes sense that like obviously Latin, all European paintings.
Speaker:But I wonder whether it's.
Speaker:Do you think that it may be difficult for people, like for the users of the card, the
Speaker:readers, the fact, I mean, I mean it's like in any other language you can,
Speaker:you can learn basically what they mean.
Speaker:But I wonder because.
Speaker:Mike, I'm Polish, but my experience with English speaking people is that sometimes it's
Speaker:a bit of, oh, if it's not in English, I, I don't know.
Speaker:So I wonder.
Speaker:I have gotten pushback for the Latin, especially in America.
Speaker:I feel like obviously so many Europeans know at least one Romance language.
Speaker:I haven't heard any feedback from Europeans and it's been doing very well in Europe.
Speaker:But I have gotten some pushbacks from stores in America about that.
Speaker:But it's not necessarily, I mean the deck is open to anyone and we can, we can of course
Speaker:learn.
Speaker:You know, it has the traditional rider waite meanings or so if you already know the cards
Speaker:and if you look at the image,
Speaker:I mean, I feel like they really make sense, you know.
Speaker:So like for instance, my husband, he's an incredible reader.
Speaker:He's never looked at a book and he just drops in.
Speaker:I mean, he looks at the image and he lets the image speak to them.
Speaker:So it's less about the words.
Speaker:And I, I find that when we're very much in our
Speaker:logical mind and we're trying to sort of like memorize or understand or this is what this
Speaker:is.
Speaker:It's like we've kind of lost our way a little bit from the magic that's available with tarot
Speaker:and the intuitive arts.
Speaker:It's like there's a place for logic, of
Speaker:course, and that gets.
Speaker:Logic got us on this call right now.
Speaker:You know, it's a beautiful part of the mind
Speaker:and the consciousness,
Speaker:but to really invite the intuitive faculties to come in, it's just looking at the image,
Speaker:like letting the colors, the shapes, the story reveal itself to you.
Speaker:Like walking into the card and,
Speaker:and smelling like the, the, the smells that would be present or the feelings from the
Speaker:people around you.
Speaker:You know, like there's so much information
Speaker:from that somatic sort of sense.
Speaker:But I feel like this deck is very niche and the people will find it that will really
Speaker:appreciate that it's different and it's not.
Speaker:You know, there's a million decks out there and there's one for everyone.
Speaker:And I created the one that really I felt wasn't in existence yet and that I really
Speaker:wanted.
Speaker:Sometimes it's the only way.
Speaker:I just have to make it yourself.
Speaker:And also, since the major arcana, they follow a very specific form like you know,
Speaker:formula.
Speaker:So if you know that zero is the fool, like,
Speaker:you know, you'll see in my deck, it's stoltis, which is Latin for fool, but it's number card,
Speaker:number zero.
Speaker:So it follows the same,
Speaker:it follows the same pathway.
Speaker:So it's.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:If someone is just like.
Speaker:If they know how to read Tara already and they
Speaker:just give a little glance at the book to be like, okay.
Speaker:Because for instance, the court cards are all alchemical symbols.
Speaker:But you know, the queen is a more mature looking woman.
Speaker:The king is a mature looking man.
Speaker:So it's like.
Speaker:And he's alchemical fire.
Speaker:So the upward pointed triangle.
Speaker:The queen is the downward pointed triangle.
Speaker:The.
Speaker:So if you just kind of like take a minute just to sort of like reference the guidebook, get
Speaker:sort of like the,
Speaker:the formula, I feel like it's easy.
Speaker:But I also made it.
Speaker:Spent many, many hours,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:of course.
Speaker:But no, I think I, I haven't made it.
Speaker:And I also.
Speaker:And well, yeah, I have this advantage of knowing some Latin, but I, I also found it
Speaker:easy.
Speaker:I think that the fact.
Speaker:Aries, for example, the imagery of, of pentacles and swords and, and wands and, and
Speaker:cups is very, very helpful.
Speaker:The alchemy symbols took me a bit longer
Speaker:because I don't know them like that.
Speaker:So I was like, oh my God.
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:is it, is it a queen? Is it?
Speaker:But then, yeah, logically it's an older woman, older man.
Speaker:It's like they are.
Speaker:You can very quickly get which one is which one.
Speaker:And yeah, and I just think with, with the, with the words like Latin names for major
Speaker:arcana.
Speaker:Well, arcana is in Latin, so that's already.
Speaker:But it's is.
Speaker:Yeah, it's basically there is, you know, 22 words to New words to learn.
Speaker:And it's always useful to learn something in a foreign language.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:And also people, if some, if someone,
Speaker:sometimes people use decks which are in language they don't know, then you may always
Speaker:make yourself a little,
Speaker:little kind of written on the bottom of the card.
Speaker:If, if it really bothers you that you don't remember what it
Speaker:kind of are.
Speaker:Just they make sense like Luna and soul.
Speaker:I mean, it's like I feel like they're very,
Speaker:I feel like very intuitive.
Speaker:Like it's like, oh, this is especially it's
Speaker:like there's.
Speaker:There's a sun on this card, there's a moon on
Speaker:this card, you know, so.
Speaker:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker:And I also sort of invite people to, like, okay, maybe, you know, I never took Latin in
Speaker:school.
Speaker:I did take Italian and I took Spanish, so
Speaker:there's, there's the roots there.
Speaker:But I didn't take Latin as a course of study, but I wanted to sort of invite people to,
Speaker:like, this is an opportunity to like, open your consciousness to learn something new.
Speaker:Like, I also used, you know, in.
Speaker:In the guidebook for the Virtues and the
Speaker:Shadows.
Speaker:I use words that are a bit more, you know,
Speaker:like back in those times when they were painting these paintings, like, people spoke
Speaker:very eloquently.
Speaker:It was like there was a. There was
Speaker:intelligence to the speech.
Speaker:I wanted to sort of mirror that with these
Speaker:cards and sort of invite people to like, wow, let's.
Speaker:Let's maybe learn a new word.
Speaker:Maybe you don't know what this word is.
Speaker:Let's sort of like open up a pathway and a level of perception.
Speaker:And so I think that's kind of fun.
Speaker:It's sort of like, it's, it's.
Speaker:It's mirroring the time periods as well.
Speaker:Yes, definitely.
Speaker:I think it.
Speaker:Including, like the guidebook, which is, which is digital and it has this.
Speaker:I don't know how you did it, but it's kind of opens.
Speaker:It's like the whole software for it that it opens like a book.
Speaker:I'm trying to describe it to people who listen.
Speaker:You basically click on it 10 pages, like an E book, but with like, illustrated E book.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and it's all like, including the font used.
Speaker:Everything is sort of matching the kind of old
Speaker:style.
Speaker:So it's very cohesive and,
Speaker:and very intelligent.
Speaker:I feel like it's a. It's a very intelligent
Speaker:deck.
Speaker:And not.
Speaker:I don't mean it by.
Speaker:Oh, it.
Speaker:It's, you know, you have to be very educated to use it.
Speaker:No, it's just like, bring its own intelligence to,
Speaker:to the reading, I think.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and it does.
Speaker:It does invite a lot of.
Speaker:Especially some of the.
Speaker:Some of the paintings just invite a lot of
Speaker:like, really looking into them and getting inspiration from the.
Speaker:The smallest details in the, in the painting.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah, well, absolutely.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:That was, that was my aim.
Speaker:So I'm happy that it's being perceived as such.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and I'm curious about the coming back to the 00 card.
Speaker:So like I said, when I opened it first I thought, oh, that's the fall.
Speaker:Then I thought, well, why is it zero, zero?
Speaker:Then I, you know, I turned next to the next card and I said, oh, that's the fool.
Speaker:So obviously it's an additional one.
Speaker:Makes total sense because obviously the egg is
Speaker:at the beginning.
Speaker:So how did you come up with it? Was it that you found the.
Speaker:Found the.
Speaker:Where is my camera? Found the picture or where you.
Speaker:Or whether.
Speaker:Whether that was the first.
Speaker:The idea.
Speaker:And then you were looking for the painting that would.
Speaker:Drawing that would work with it.
Speaker:I just saw the image and it was like.
Speaker:I was like, ooh, extra arcana.
Speaker:It just dropped in and it felt.
Speaker:It felt really right to me.
Speaker:I also love snakes.
Speaker:You'll see there's lots of snakes throughout
Speaker:the deck.
Speaker:So this cosmic egg, you know, having this.
Speaker:This egg sort of, and this.
Speaker:This serpent wrapped around it and.
Speaker:And the rich symbolism that the.
Speaker:That the egg and also the serpent stands for,
Speaker:it just kind of made sense for me to have this beautiful symbol.
Speaker:We all come from the egg.
Speaker:It's like.
Speaker:It's like that.
Speaker:The beginning of life.
Speaker:It's the seed, it's the source.
Speaker:It's like that spark of creation and consciousness.
Speaker:So when in an alchemy, it's believed that the egg holds all four of the elemental patterns
Speaker:as well.
Speaker:So it just kind of felt like the right way to kind of start, like the.
Speaker:The entry point for.
Speaker:For the deck, and then people can leave it out
Speaker:if they don't want it.
Speaker:It's an extra arcana card.
Speaker:Or you can.
Speaker:You can have an.
Speaker:Another beautiful visual prompt to sort of guide your journey in.
Speaker:But, yeah, it just came in the moment.
Speaker:I'm sort of like the kind of creative person
Speaker:where I don't really plan.
Speaker:Like, maybe I'll have a loose idea and then things will just sort of come together.
Speaker:It's very organic.
Speaker:And I take it moment to moment.
Speaker:No, I mean.
Speaker:And I think the idea lends itself to this kind
Speaker:of creation sort of.
Speaker:It's like a research.
Speaker:And how did you actually research? Did you travel to the museums or did you use
Speaker:books or Internet? Or how did you find all those?
Speaker:Because obviously, even in actual real life, they live in different museums now.
Speaker:Those, Those.
Speaker:All those paintings, different countries.
Speaker:So how did.
Speaker:How did it work?
Speaker:Well, I haven't been to Europe in quite some time, but I do plan.
Speaker:I'm coming back at the end of the year, so that's nice.
Speaker:So this time around, no, I do not.
Speaker:I did not go into museums.
Speaker:So it was just sort of like scouring the
Speaker:Internet and books I went to the library and just sort of diving into those sources.
Speaker:I mean, obviously we can find so much on the Internet and sort of like chase that rabbit
Speaker:hole of one thing to another.
Speaker:So between the Internet and books, I was able to sort of find everything that I needed.
Speaker:And yeah, I would just follow the course.
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:I discovered many new artists.
Speaker:And you can see, like, see I have in the back
Speaker:here.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:This is like one of my favorites.
Speaker:Absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker:So we have her as Oraculum, which is the High Priestess deck.
Speaker:So she's been one of my favorites for many, many years.
Speaker:I actually,
Speaker:I printed this out in college and she's been with me all those years watching and guiding
Speaker:me.
Speaker:So she's like a very big inspiration.
Speaker:And yeah, I absolutely love his work.
Speaker:So he's, he's showcased a lot in the deck.
Speaker:A lot.
Speaker:Yeah. But I also like the, the speaking of High Priestess that they are two of them and
Speaker:the other one is a black woman.
Speaker:So I quite like that there is,
Speaker:you know, people can maybe choose who is representing them, them better depending of.
Speaker:Of how they look and who they are.
Speaker:So I quite like that as well.
Speaker:Absolutely. That card is just.
Speaker:It's so striking.
Speaker:I. I came across that painting.
Speaker:That's the first time I'd ever seen it was
Speaker:when I was really deep in my research.
Speaker:I didn't know about that one.
Speaker:And yeah, the colors and just like the depth of that penetrating stare, I just feel like
Speaker:it's the embodiment of like seeing beneath the veil and like really kind of just like being
Speaker:guided by the intuitive faculties and gut instinct.
Speaker:Yeah. So that's by a French artist.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:A gorgeous,
Speaker:gorgeous painting.
Speaker:So, yeah, I tried my best to.
Speaker:To braid in diversity of as many cultures as I could.
Speaker:And yeah, I plan on many more editions.
Speaker:Maybe I'll have add ons in the future as I. As
Speaker:I continue to find more art.
Speaker:I'd love it to be even more diverse.
Speaker:And just, I was,
Speaker:I was gonna ask if you.
Speaker:Are you planning any more.
Speaker:Are you planning more cards or another deck or an oracle or something?
Speaker:Because obviously there is a lot of.
Speaker:A lot of paintings.
Speaker:And also I was thinking that could be as well,
Speaker:a journey of trying to find different, like, not necessarily old European ones, but I don't
Speaker:know, old Japanese ones or old African art or something else or,
Speaker:you know, Native American or something.
Speaker:Obviously for legal reasons they have to be
Speaker:old otherwise.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:it's kind of the concept that can grow with you and travel around the world.
Speaker:Yeah, the main the images that I've chosen so far, I feel really connected to each one.
Speaker:But I could see.
Speaker:I haven't come across any yet, but I can see in the future, you know, coming across a
Speaker:picture of another gorgeous artwork that really kind of matches the architecture of a
Speaker:card of, of the tarot and, and inviting that one in.
Speaker:I haven't found anything yet, but in the future if I do, then they'll be part of the
Speaker:expansion which is the expansion cards which are included in the deck.
Speaker:Now that's.
Speaker:I do have my.
Speaker:My consciousness is starting to sort of bubble
Speaker:up around inspiration on a new deck.
Speaker:So I haven't started yet.
Speaker:I'm just sort of in that whimsical in between
Speaker:liminal space of dreaming about it.
Speaker:But yeah, do you want to share
Speaker:what it's kind of like vibe of it or are it still a secret?
Speaker:It will also be old but in a different way.
Speaker:That's what I'll say.
Speaker:I'm very curious,
Speaker:so thank you very much.
Speaker:And could you say to let everyone know how
Speaker:people can find you, what you can because you have beautiful website and you are doing lots
Speaker:of things.
Speaker:You are doing Reiki, I believe, and also astrological readings.
Speaker:You do a lot of stuff and obviously tarot.
Speaker:So how people can find you and what you can help them with.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So my website is enter-the-portal.com and
Speaker:there I offer astrological tarot readings and usually when we kind of go through these and
Speaker:they're available over the Internet, over zoom or over video conference rather.
Speaker:And in those readings many things can come through.
Speaker:We look at the natal chart.
Speaker:I pull cards on, on the major archetypes in
Speaker:the chart itself and sometimes different plant remedies will come through or movement
Speaker:exercises.
Speaker:It's very much about like alchemy or evolution of the spirit.
Speaker:I, I focus more on going in rather than externally.
Speaker:So less about future casting and more about how we can really heal or bring things to
Speaker:light, take ourselves to the next level, be an excellence.
Speaker:That's my point of focus.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:And that can, you know, each reading looks very different depending on the person and the
Speaker:transits and the timing and the who they are and where they are.
Speaker:So it's, it's a fun journey and exploration that we just kind of go in together.
Speaker:So that's where they can find me.
Speaker:I don't have social media so you just have to
Speaker:find me on my website and then we can connect there.
Speaker:Oh, that's, that's great.
Speaker:I don't, I don't like social media either.
Speaker:I have my little shop and everyone's like, why are you on Instagram?
Speaker:It's like, no, I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker:It's too much.
Speaker:But thank you very much.
Speaker:It was a lovely conversation and I hope that
Speaker:people will feel inspired now
Speaker:to have a look at your deck
Speaker:and to get it for themselves because it's definitely worth it and it's very different
Speaker:to,
Speaker:you know, most of the decks.
Speaker:I, I know and I sell and also I have and, and
Speaker:I see on the Internet is, is.
Speaker:Is just different.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much for.
Speaker:I'm so happy for this collaboration and
Speaker:partnership and that we found each other and yeah, have an amazing Tarot Fair.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:Looking forward to it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And this is it for today.
Speaker:I hope you enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker:Obviously, when you were listening to it.
Speaker:The Tarot Fair, which we mentioned is in the
Speaker:past now because it happened in.
Speaker:On the 18th of July,
Speaker:but it was just as a quick update.
Speaker:It was absolutely wonderful event.
Speaker:Very busy with wonderful, beautiful energy.
Speaker:Tons of people,
Speaker:readings,
Speaker:stalls, artists,
Speaker:music workshops, talks in a beautiful venue in Brighton in England.
Speaker:And we don't know whether this next one, the second one is going to happen next year.
Speaker:Fingers crossed that the organizers decide to,
Speaker:you know, just carry on with this beautiful tradition.
Speaker:Newly minted tradition.
Speaker:That's.
Speaker:I hope it will become a tradition.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah, keep an eye on the website, thecharofair co.uk which I will add in the show notes.
Speaker:And yeah, just sign up to the mailing list and put this in your diary tentatively that you
Speaker:know, it's worth coming to Brighton whenever this event happens.
Speaker:It was wonderful.
Speaker:So, yeah, that's it for today and stay magical.
Speaker:Sa.
