Today marks the FIVE YEAR anniversary of when I finished painting the cards for the SparkTarot® deck!
It took nine months to create the 78 paintings for the SparkTarot®, and it was in October of 2019 that I finished them all. I was still working on the book and packaging and had yet to send everything off to the printer, but the Tarot card images were DONE! A few months later the decks would be back from the printer and ready to roll out in February 2020!
But then…
Haha! We all know what happened then. That’s right, a worldwide pandemic. But while I couldn’t have quite the rollout I imagined — with in-person events and lots of Tarot card readings — something interesting happened.
People wanted Tarot more than ever. The uncertainty of the times led people to crave the empowerment that Tarot offers. What was crazy was that I had been trying to create a deck for a long time, but it was as if the deck knew exactly when it wanted to manifest. Once I began painting this Tarot deck, it was different and easier to make than it had been before — because it was on its own trajectory.
Also, thanks to the new normal of meeting via Zoom, I was able to reach more people all over the world. I could do online Tarot readings anywhere, not just in-person in my little downtown office. People from places in the country other than my town discovered and ordered the deck, and asked for readings with it.
“Wonderful Tarot deck that I connected with immediately! Thank you!”
—Susan Lewis, Atlanta, Georgia
I had found that many decks are beautiful but can be hard-to-read for various reasons, either it doesn’t come with a guidebook to that deck, or the imagery isn’t right for the card — even if it looks good — or the names of the cards themselves are triggering or distracting (The Devil anyone?) Even the size of the cards can be an obstacle.
I changed some of the names of the cards to make reading more intuitive, and I created the imagery I wanted to see when using a Tarot deck. It turned out that others also responded to these changes!
“Kary Hess…wanted to create a deck celebrating the Divine Feminine. Part of that divinity is the nurturing, and the caretaking, and growing that comes from that aspect of ourselves. The art is lovely in this standard size deck, and the book is juicy. It’s a wonderful deck to work with while we discover new aspects to ourselves and our communities.”
—Amanda Bell, Indie Deck Review
If you don’t have your SparkTarot® deck yet, or if you’d like to give it to a friend, take advantage of my anniversary offer! I’m including a free color downloadable copy of Living Tarot Zine: Ancestors with every deck purchase in October.
I created the zine because the best way to learn the Tarot cards is to associate your own stories with them. Living Tarot Zine combines learning the Tarot cards with personal, seasonal practices. Creating these stories intentionally with the cards can forge a deep bond.
Living Tarot Zine’s 24-page October issue Ancestors (the black and white print edition is sold out, but is now available in a color, ebook format!) focuses on seasonal practices relating to our lineages. They are practices that include food and celebration that we can do along with the Tarot cards that will deepen both our understanding of the cards and our connection with the seasons of the year. The download includes an epub version that can be read on Google or Apple books, and a pdf version.
Happy 5th Anniversary to the SparkTarot® cards! Here’s to five years of igniting intuition with an artist-made deck and guidebook, to the wonderful community around Tarot, and to many more years of discovery and creativity.
Love,
Kary