Welcome to #Decklust! This is our newsletter beaming out semi-regularly to tarot lovers across the world. To get #Decklust in your inbox and be the first to hear our news, subscribe here.
Hey, friend.
Beltane has come and gone. In Welsh, it’s Calan Haf – the first day of summer. It’s blossom and bees, birthdays, fires and rain. Seedlings and digging and art. Weekends filling up in that way these middle-months do. Transition. Reaching tendrils of new growth. Just a few short weeks til solstice. It’s a beautiful and tiring time of year. There’s suddenly so much to do. I hold my prayer close – I do less, so I can love more – as I feel for my yesses and my nos amidst the rising tide of activity.
Meet our wonderful creators!
I’ve been busy talking with some of the creators of our beautiful decks and books. I want to put people before products in this space, connect the art with the artist and them with you, our community and customers. Absolutely we sell a gorgeous selection of indie tarot decks – and the humans that designed them are a magical bunch of people. I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know everyone :)
This page is a work in progress – slowly, I’m reach out to creators to talk about their work, their practice, their identities and politics. In April, I was excited to share interviews with two of our favourite creators: Casey Rocheteau and Charlie Burgess.
Casey Rocheteau
On surviving 2020 and embracing queer monsters.
“All of my art, all of my work really, is an expression of my queerness, whether that’s sexuality or gender. The vast majority of queer and trans folks have, at some point in their lives, come up against someone or something that has made them feel like they are something other than human, and while that is often a traumatic experience, there’s such a liberatory joi de vivre I feel in queer spaces, when I’m experiencing queer art, or even when I see another queer person passing by on the street.
I think that has so much to do with queer liberation being a daily and communal practice. To me, it’s less about confronting the chaos or the monstrosity than it is about embracing it.”
Charlie Claire Burgess
In their own words, on ‘becoming’ an artist and creating the Fifth Spirit Tarot.
“I’m a creative writer and digital artist who didn’t consider myself an artist until I started to create my first tarot deck, Fifth Spirit Tarot.
As a queer and non-binary person who’s married to a transgender man, my identities certainly inform my art because they’re an intrinsic part of who am I and how I perceive and experience the world. Queer and trans representation were at the core of my vision for Fifth Spirit Tarot and are central in my continuing work, and my understanding of Tarot itself is based in my perspective as a queer and non-binary person.”
#FREESIYANDA
21-year-old Siyanda Mngaza, a black woman, was camping and having fun with friends in Wales last year when she was the victim of a racist assault. She defended herself – yet instead of listening and protecting her, police arrested her for GBH against her white attackers. She is now in jail serving a four and a half year sentence.
Siyanda’s mother along with BAME Lawyers for Justice and others are running a fierce campaign to fight this outrageous racism and get justice for Siyanda – and it really needs everybody’s support.
PLEASE RAISE YOUR VOICE: There’s an online rally hosted by United for Black Lives next Sunday 23rd May, and freesiyanda.com has four clear actions you can take to show your support and sollidarity. Follow the campaign and spread the word on IG @freesiyanda.
In other news…
The Oriens Tarot has been picked up by a mainstream publisher – congratulations, Sun! We’ll miss this beautiful bestseller. Fortunately we have one more batch of Oriens mini decks (one of Hele’s faves!) and guidebooks on the way, so you’ll still be able to get a self-published deck if you’d like. They’ll be here in a few weeks.
HO YES there will be an Octavia E Butler Tarot Deck – as fans of the *amazing* Octavia’s Parables podcast will already know. Check out this first peek!
Casey Rocheteau is looking for a US stockist or publisher of their Shrine of the Black Medusa Tarot. If that’s you, or you have a hot tip, contact Casey!
Cedar McCloud is reprinting the Numinous Tarot later this year – yippeee! Colourful, inclusive, joyfully queer, this is one of our most beloved decks. We’ll have it in stock late autumn, or you can pre-order directly from Cedar here.
If you are waiting for news of the Akamara Tarot, I’m afraid I can’t say why it’s taking all this time …it simply is. I hope so much we’ll have this powerful and beautiful deck in soon.
Astrologer Alice Sparkly Kat has a new book coming out! Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Power & Labour is available for pre-order now. Meanwhile you can check out Alice’s frankly brilliant self-published books – Astrology and Storytelling and Planetary Alignment for Mental Bliss Planetary Alignment for Mental Bliss in the LRT Shop, and I’m excited to be talking with them about the new book next week :)
Deck recc
This month’s deck recommendation is Lettie Jane Rennekamp’s Many Queens Tarot. Large, sturdy cards with Lettie’s distinctive, striking illustrations of gorgeous genderfluid beings in gardens and rivers and scattered with diamonds… for me, readings with this deck feel like a weepy hug from a solid, never-judges-you best friend.
Here is a beautiful spring cleaning tarot spread by adrienne maree brown.
Have a beautiful weekend, friends. You’re fabulous, and you’re doing great.
Beth xx
