The Gaian Tarot

Joanna Powell Colbert is the creator of the Gaian Tarot.

1) You live on a small island. What’s it like?

I think everyone who lives here has the consciousness of knowing it's a very special place. We are privileged and blessed to be able to live here.  Our spirits are nourished by the natural world every time we walk out the door.  I don't know anyone who doesn't feel that way, even when they don't agree on politics, religion or anything else.  The population is small, around 800 or so -- more in the summer  -- but even still there are several overlapping communities. Lots of artists, alternative/holistic types, organic farmers, musicians -- but also fishermen and ranchers and loggers.  Over the last few years a lot of wealthy people have started to move here too.  So it's quite a diverse mix of folks.

Living here has all the pleasures and challenges of small town living -- both a strong sense of community, and a rumor mill that never quits. There's a lot of controversy over development. Most of us of course would like to see the island stay as rural as possible. It's becoming more and more difficult for moderate and low income people to live here, which is distressing.  I volunteer for several island groups, including the conservation land trust that works to preserve open spaces, and the community land trust that provides affordable housing.

Sometimes I miss town life -- I miss a lot of things that happen in the evenings in town  because it's just too much of an effort to get there with the ferry wait and drive.  Nowadays my most favorite getaways are to Big Cities -- New York, San Francisco, Victoria BC.  I guess you always crave what you don't have.

2) When did you become interested in tarot?

I picked up my first Tarot deck, the Rider Waite Smith, around 1970. I played with it for several months, looking the meanings of the cards up in AE Waite's book, which was rather obfuscating.  He really enjoyed making things as difficult as possible to understand, I think.  This was before Mary Greer wrote "Tarot for Your Self," which revolutionized the way most of us work with the Tarot.  During those first months in 1970, I kept turning up the 9 of Swords over and over again in almost every reading I did.  The 9 of Swords is a card of great grief and nightmares, showing a woman sitting up in bed with her face hidden in her hands.  In September of that year, my high school boyfriend was killed by a drunk driver and I embodied the woman depicted in that card.  That pretty much unnerved me (I was only 18 at the time) so I
put the cards down for about ten years.  I came back to them in the early 80's with the publication of the feminist deck Motherpeace, and I've been a Tarot aficionado ever since.

3) Creating all the illustrations for a tarot deck of 78 cards is a big project, especially since one card can take 100 hours of work. Has the project ever seemed overwhelming?

Every day.   I just had a party to celebrate the completion and publication of the Major Arcana.  It feels like a giant milestone that I was able to complete these 22 cards.  I was encouraged by people in the Tarot community to self-publish an edition of the Majors when they were finished so they wouldn't have to wait another few years for the entire deck. I'm so glad I did.  At least now I have the cards out into lots of hands and they are already becoming alive for many, based on the cards and emails I've received.

But I still have 56 cards to go -- the Minor Arcana.  In order to work more quickly, I've begun to develop a creative process that is a marriage between the traditional medium of colored pencil painting and the digital medium.  More and more, I go back and forth between the two -- scanning my drawings and paintings, tweaking them in Photoshop, printing them out and doing more handwork then scanning them again to add the finishing touches.  It saves a lot of time, and takes me into some new and interesting creative territory.

4) The major arcana cards in the traditional European tarot have various biblical and occult associations that have developed over many centuries. Since you are creating a modern Gaian version, you have reinterpreted and renamed some of the cards – for example, the traditional “Judgement” card has now become “Awakening.” Have you heard any complaints from tarot “purists?”

No, and I don't expect that there will be any complaints. There's no reason for them. There are many people who love to work with antique decks or with modern occult decks, and there are plenty for them to choose from. A preference for antique or occult decks is just that -- a preference.  They won't buy or work with any revisioned decks.  But anyone who is a Tarot aficionado knows that we are in the middle of a grand Tarot renaissance, and reinterpretations of the cards are common. We have the Buddha Tarot, the Gay Tarot, the Mermaid Tarot, the Ferret Tarot, the Goddess Tarot, Rock 'n Roll Tarot -- you name it, there's a Tarot out there for just about every interest.

That's one of the most compelling things about the Tarot to me, and why I think it has such broad appeal.  Even though the Tarot was born in the cauldron of 15th century Italy, with its Medeival/Renaissance worldview, it clearly embodies universal spiritual principles that are seen through many different cultures and lifestyles.

5) What other artists inspire you?

Emily Carr is probably my favorite artist, although she is not as well known in the states as her contemporaries O'Keefe and Kahlo.  I used to consume books of paintings by Gustav Klimt and the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Evelyn deMorgan, and also the illustrators from the late 19th/early 20th centuries -- Rackham and Dulac. I also love the work of contemporary illustrators like Trina Schart Hyman, Mary Azarian, Thomas Canty.  My list of favorites is pretty long.

6) Have you any other projects in the works?

Creating the artwork for the 56 Minor Arcana cards will keep me consumed for the next two years, as I also work part-time on my web design business.  And I create photo-illustrations of local landscapes and wildlife and sell those here on the island.  Those are an exercise in immediate gratification, as they only take a few hours to do instead of 80-100 hours like the Tarot artwork!

Bio / weblinks:

Joanna Powell Colbert's mythic art has been widely published in alternative magazines like SageWoman and PanGaia for nearly twenty years. Amber Lotus Publishers call her one of “the most accomplished and well-loved artists in the Goddess-spirit community.” She lives on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, where daily encounters with the mysteries of the natural world continue to inspire and inform her work. She has combined her love for the natural world with her love for symbolic, spiritual art in her Tarot deck-in-progress. It can be seen here:  http://www.GaianTarot.com   and a review of the deck can be found here:   http://www.TarotPassages.com/Gaian.htm

All images are copyright Joanna Powell Colbert.