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Tarot Card Time Capsule

What happens when you put the story of your life into a divination tool? I prototyped a 78-card tarot deck to give it a try.

Materials List

  • Adobe InDesign

  • Adobe Illustrator

  • White Cardstock

  • Green Cardstock

  • Spray Glue

Overview

During this three-week project my class was told to make a time capsule that told a story. There were no restrictions on what or how we told the story, but we had to think about objects and how the story would be received 80 years down the line.  

For my time capsule, I wanted to tell the story of a period in my life that led to a lot of shifts in the way I was thinking and feeling and what I valued, so I created my Tarot Card Time Capsule, which told my story in archetypes.

Challenges

For me, the biggest challenge was thinking about objects that I wanted to put in the time capsule. I started thinking about my recent memory and what I would want to include. I quickly realized there were a few problems with how I wanted to present myself. 

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The story I knew I wanted to tell started in 2018 with a major shift in my career trajectory. In November 2018, a series of things happened simultaneously, and I had been on a journey of self-discovery since. A part of that was realizing that I was very connected to mysticism and that I wanted to ultimately put myself first. 

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When I started thinking about a typical time capsule I found three places where the model of putting things in a box and burying it wouldn't work for that story. 

1

In 2019, I valued experiences more than stuff. The things I brought into my life were either utilitarian or something I valued and wouldn't bury.

2

I was very proud of digital work, particularly my writing, that I had written that only existed online. If I buried these things there was nothing to stop anyone from thinking it was a run-of-the-mill pile of papers and tossing it out.

3

I needed a framework where I was going to own my own story and change my path. 

Research

I started to catalog some of the threads that I wanted to include in this time capsule, and one of those was a reconnection to witchy television shows. The timeline that I had planned for this story coincided with the premiere of Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and had driven me to go look into crystals and tarot as a way to process emotions.

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So I started digging into this idea of a tarot card deck and learned that the art of tarot isn't as occult as it seems. 

Tarot cards as we know them, particularly the Rider-Waite deck that is commonly seen on TV and film today, was created as a storytelling card game 

 

If you take away the ominous and supernatural nature, what you're left with is a way of telling stories with archetypes. 

Concept

Taking into account everything that I had thought of so far, I thought about how I wanted this project to present. I decided it would be a three-part project:

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  • The 78 card deck 

  • A handbound copy of the book 

  • A laser-engraved box 

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Part of why I wanted this to be three parts is because it felt very ceremonial and experiential. If someone was to find this, they would know it meant something. I planned to put crystals and a charm of sorts to protect it which would add to the mysticism.  

Card Design

When I started thinking about the size and how I wanted these cards to feel I looked into common sizes for Tarot Cards and I took into consideration things like rounded edges. 

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When I was filling the cards in with my materials, I had a Google document open a selection of keywords taken from Exploring Tarot using Radiant Rider-Waite.

 

The subjects would be listed there, and then I would find a photo source. In some cases, if it was n actual object in my possession, such as the wave from the Page of Wands card, I would go and take a new photo. 

I decided the name of the card would be the biggest text outside of the photo and that there would be a sentence or two of elaboration to explain what the card meant. 

 

In a complete form, I imagined both this wording and the book being complementary to each other and filling in the gap for any card that was lost or damaged, or if the book was to completely disappear in the passage of time.

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Some cards I knew I wanted to include immediately:

 

🔮The Fool: This card had to be me, the Fool travels through the major arcana and the idea is that card 22, The World they've felt "complete" 

🔮Death: This card was going to be my dog Sissy who died in 2019
🔮The Lovers: This would be my brother and his wife whose wedding was coming up and whom I had designed the invitations for

🔮The World: This would be London, England. A trip that I had wanted to take forever and which was derailed by the pandemic. 

Assembly

In thinking about how I was going to deliver this I decided that it didn't make since to have it live online for this assignment. So I decided I would make actual cards. I ended up designing my cards in Illustrator and then printing them on 60lb paper and fastening the white paper to some teal paper.  I ended up with a very thick deck. 

What I Would Do Differently

Given that this project only had a three-week timeline I only got to really dabble and plan regarding the book and the box that would go with this deck. This is actually probably a good thing because in the year since I've gotten to know my printer more, I am a little more in tune with my artistic practice, and I can push this design a little further. 

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My hope is to design a new set of cards with a mix of typography, quotes, art and photo and have this deck be a little more me now that the general concept has been completed. 

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I also plan to actually write and bind the book I was planning to make with it. 

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