Kaostic Tarot 016
take heart…
Hello Darlings,
I had a dreamy notion that I was going to take this week’s cards to Bend, photograph them under the clear night sky, and have a magical evening. The deck wanted stargazing. So did I. And we were going to Bend anyway…
Reader, it rained. It RAIIIINED. As a more than 30 year resident of Portland. As an Oregonian I’m telling you, it was raining too much to do that. We drove into thunder and lightning to get there. The sky opened up and poured the first night we were there straight through the next day and only wrapped up in the evening when we were ready to eat a pizza and go to sleep.
So I’m reading these cards here. At home. With a bit of drizzle looking out at my string lights and thinking about what fills in for the stars when we can’t see them.
The Reading…
I asked: what is your heart wishing for this week?
My deck said: VIII of Chalices.
This is the card about walking away from something that has been working in order to find something that matters more. The figure leaves a stack of chalices behind and starts toward what is calling.
I had to laugh. The leavings have been stacking up. For years. I seem to be leaving more things than I remember starting.
I held the card up to the window. The string lights came in like stars. The wish was already answering itself. Just not in the form I expected.
What did your deck say you’re wishing for?
The Context…
A salvage copy of a deck came in. Several cards missing. No box. The book was there, so I knew the name. I’d just never heard of it before.
At the time I’d been looking specifically for decks that were diverse without making a show of being diverse.
I fell for it on sight.
Some weeks later a friend came over for a tarot play date. We were sorting through the mixed-deck pool together — the loose cards waiting to be matched and remade into something new. She kept pulling certain cards out. The same cards. Over and over. Wanting to see the whole deck.
Reader, the deck was incomplete. I had to break the news.
So I did what any reasonable person would do. I broke my own no-buying rule and went out and got a complete copy of the deck for myself.
Star Spinner Tarot.
Here’s the thing. These cards have fairies in them. On them. My vision of the fairies. The actual fairies. The fairies I left letters to when I was wee. Trungles drew them. They’ve been here this whole time.
The Deck…
Star Spinner Tarot by Trungles. Chronicle Books. 81 cards — yes, 81. Designed by Maggie Edelman and Evelyn Furuta. A 128-page guidebook tucked into the box. Let the stars light your way… printed across the back, which is where 015’s “still shining…” went next, in case you were wondering.
Trungles is a comics artist. You can see it. Every card sits inside a Mucha-soft, art-nouveau frame, and the line work is exact in the way only a comics artist’s line work is exact. There are stars in every corner. The card backs are deep lilac with concentric rings of stars. The whole deck is asking you to look up.
A few of the cards have been renamed:
Strength is Fortitude.
Cups are Chalices.
Pentacles are Coins.
But the choice that made me sit down with this deck and actually look at it is the one no other deck I own has made. There are four versions of The Lovers. Not Lovers reimagined and replaced. Lovers expanded. Four cards. Four pairings.
This is Card Modification Studies material — Tarot for Kids solved the inclusivity question with replacement, when Lovers became Best Friends. Star Spinner solved it with expansion, when Lovers became Lovers, and Lovers, and Lovers, and Lovers. Different math. Different gift.
The deck is framed as a modern, inclusive, diverse, LGBTQ deck of tarot cards. And it is. Truly one of the most diverse and inclusive decks I’ve seen. But also... swooning and drowning in the whimsical and there is no place I would rather be. The illustration evokes so many beautiful childhood feels that I didn’t even know I still had. Trungles really outdid themself.
While I continue to work out the rating system I can say that this deck went from unknown to me to all time fave in a matter of seconds. And it happened before I even held the deck in its entirety.
That’s it…
Take heart. The stars are still spinning, and the light is still arriving. Some of it from very far away. Some of it from the deck in your hand.Love love love,
Cami