The past few issues of Coreopsis have seen me discussing the creation of a new Tarot deck. I wrote in the last issue of Tarot and the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Tarot cards associated with that – Death, Temperance, the Devil, and the Tower. The past three years have been difficult on us all as the COVID-19 virus has wended its way through many populations and through several mutations. Despite our best efforts, my husband and I too eventually succumbed to the virus in the month of July 2022. It occurred to me that this could in fact be considered a kind of dark night of the soul considering that I have worried about this idiot illness possibly taking my life or the life of someone I love. Thankfully, both of us had what doctors consider to be a “mild” case (we felt there was nothing mild about what we experienced, however neither of us had to be hospitalized). I did consider the month of July to be a loss – virtually no work was completed by me, and I felt very much that I would never again catch up on anything.
I did manage to complete all of the illustrations for the new Tarot deck prior to catching the Corona virus, and I also managed to upload the illustrations to a print on demand site so that I could see how they looked and felt in my hands as a printed and usable deck. It is worth noting that most Tarot artists create their images for a Tarot deck at a size much larger than the card size. Images that are created at a larger size and then scanned at that size and a high resolution look wonderful as printed images.
To actually create a deck for use, I had to create an image for the back of the deck. This took some time and a lot of discarded efforts. The image on the back of the deck is particularly important to me because it features the tree of life glyph as it would appear in the four worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. For those who are unfamiliar with Qabala, these names refer to the Elemental Realms, which might be more familiar as Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, respectively. Qabala is a holistic system in which all of the whole may be reflected in part, and parts are reflected in the whole. In other words, in each elemental realm is an elemental Tree of Life that reflects the entire Tree of Life. If this seems complex, look at Figure One. It will probably still seem complex, but hopefully this conveys the idea. I played with this image until I came up with the one in Figure Two.
Just before COVID took hold of me in the second week of July, I managed to upload all of my images, front and back, to my print on demand company of choice, printersstudio.com. I placed the order for one deck to use as a prototype and went about my other business. About a week later, my husband and I came down with COVID. As we lay in bed together, alternately feverish and chilled, I stared at the ceiling and wondered melodramatically if I would live to see my prototype deck.
I was very ill with COVID for a full three weeks, and my voice did not return fully for a month after that. My husband, whose immune system seems very elastic compared to mine, bounced back in about two weeks. When my prototype deck arrived in the mail, he brought it into the house. I was elated and began to play with it immediately. Although there were some things I was not crazy about and would have to change (easy things to change such as the size and style of typeface for the name of each card), I had a deck in hand I could actually play with and read.
As I gradually got better, I began to use the deck to do my daily Card of the Day readings. Although I still sounded as though Harvey Weinstein was playing the role of me in a film, I felt happy to be doing readings with my very own deck, and I was pleased at how well the readings flowed. I did readings for several friends via Zoom and Facetime and found that they also liked the deck and the images. My readings were accurate, and I felt satisfied at least with the images I had created.
The month of August eventually arrived, and with it, my southern holiday in which I traveled to visit two of my dearest friends who had relocated from various places to South Carolina. I spent the first few days with my friend Lori in Columbia, where we reminisced about our moms and enjoyed the lushness of her beautiful and tropical backyard. I read the Card of the Day there each day, as well as traveling to several local bookstores for book signings. I shared the deck at the various metaphysical centers I visited, and people really seemed to respond to it. From there I traveled to Charleston to visit my friend Jackie, visit her Greek Orthodox Church and see the many beautiful ikons there, and play in the ocean at Folly Beach. I did a book signing at the Itinerate Literate Bookstore in their backyard under some large oak moss trees and enjoyed this different landscape.
Jackie and I read cards for one another, which we do often via telephone. I gave her a reading from the new deck, and although she really liked the imagery, she agreed with me about the font sizes and style, and also did not like the large black borders that I had selected to put around the images on the cards. I had to agree with her. The black borders were a little overwhelming to me, even though there were other people who really liked them. After one more day of loving the vibe of Charleston, it was time to return to Pennsylvania. I had felt better with each consecutive day, and time with these two amazing women was very healing for me.
Once I was home and well-rested, my attention was divided by continuing to get better, prepping for Fall classes, and prepping for several Pagan Pride Days. All of these left little time for attention to my new deck, aside from my daily card draws. As my health improves, and my schedule opens up, I hope to return the Qabala, the Four Worlds, and the Tarot.
This deck is intended to be part of a deck and book set in which I discuss the ways in which Tarot and Qabala are connected. A lot of Tarot users are turned off by Qabala, but the two have been intertwined for quite some time now, whether the connections are known or not. I have found that my knowledge of one has enriched my knowledge and enjoyment of the other, so I have been hoping to de-mystify Qabala for those who have said they don’t like it. I will continue to keep Coreopsis updated on my progress!
Helena Domenic is an accomplished artist, writer, witch, and professor of art history and studio art. Helena spent thirty years as a member of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel and was also an Elder in that tradition. She left to carve out her own path, both as an artist and a witch. Currently, she leads the Chester County Pagan Meetup and the Brandywine Kindred, a newly formed coven in Chester County.
Helena has shown her artwork in Philadelphia, New York, across the United States and in Egypt and South Africa. Helena was born in Vicenza, Italy where she was exposed to great works of art from a very early age. After viewing the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the age of eighteen months, her mother predicted she would become an artist. She holds a BFA from Kutztown University, an MA in Art Education from The University of the Arts, and an MFA from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. She currently teaches Studio Art at Kutztown University.
Helena has a forthcoming book called An Illuminated Guide to Wicca, available from Schiffer Publishing, coming out in April 2022. Helena has also created a Tarot deck and book, The Fellowship of the Fool Tarot, as well as a Runic Oracle deck and a Lenormand deck. Helena also writes articles on art, music, and tarot for Coreopsis, the Journal for the Society of Ritual Arts.
In her spare time, she enjoys studying Tarot and Qabala, and spending time in her studio in Phoenixville, PA.
Helena’s work may also be seen on her website: http://artofhelenadomenic.com
For more information, you may email Helena at [email protected]