A Journey Through the Tarot

Three B.C. women have joined forces and talents and are beginning a journey through the tarot.

In December of 2000 artist Roxi decided that she would undertake a series of 78 paintings depicting the cards of the tarot.

Roxi has a bold illustrative style which is well suited to the tarot.

Each painting is full of symbols, flowers and gemstones with significant relevance, and the ever present pearls relate to the deck's name, The Golden Insights Wisdom Deck. Knowing little about the tarot Roxi asked tarot card reader and writer Jade Storm to assist with the research of each card and write the guidebook that will specifically address original interpretations of the cards. Roxi asked myself, her sales agent Cheryl Trueman to write a poem which will tell the questioner the attributes of the card, also to take care of the business aspects of the project and find a publisher.

The tarot has been used for centuries as a divination tool and to gain self knowledge. The tarot card reader interprets the cards as they pertain to the questioner's life story. A reading acts like a mirror to indicate what is happening in the questioner's life. The tarot is not a religion but a process of interpreting the symbolism of each card using intuition and knowledge learned through a guide book which will be sold as a companion to the cards.

The process of creating this deck is definitely proving to be a journey of self discovery for us. Before the paintings are produced, the three of us gather together and discuss each card. Jade has been reading tarot cards for over twenty years so she explains the meanings of the cards which inspires our "visions" of what the card is. We then talk about what we see. This helps Roxi to "feel" what the card is and then her imagination takes over. The paintings come easily for Roxi which is a sign for all of us that we our on the right path. People that Roxi knows occasionally "show up" in the paintings. The High Priestess definitely resembles her friend Carol, The Ace of Swords is a former student and The Ace of Pentacles is me!

Each of the "suits," or minor arcana (cups, pentacles, wands, and swords) represent different aspects of life. Cups are for love and emotion, pentacles represent the material world, swords represent intellect and wands represent intuition.

To date Roxi has completed fourteen out of seventy-eight paintings. A preview of the paintings may be seen at Roxi's summer show at "The Verve" in Vernon, B.C. The show begins July 15th and runs until Sept. 30th.

We anticipate that our project will be complete sometime in the spring or summer of 2003.

Good Luck on your journey! Cheryl

By Cheryl Trueman