Y’all its been way too long! I completed my last buggy tarot card way back in January. I hope that this long in between cards never happens again! My hope is to finish up this deck and get it printed so that I can use it (and possibly pitch the deck to publishers).
Interpretation:
In the traditional Rider Waite card, the Magician represents untapped potential and manifesting goals. He holds a scepter or candle to the sky, essentially making him a conduit for the Universe’s energy.
Biddy Tarot goes into a more in-depth look at the traditional card but something I wanted to share from the site are the keywords they used to describe this particular card: Manifestation, resourcefulness, power, inspired action, manipulation, poor planning, untapped talents.
In my buggy version, I thought that the firefly (or also known as a lightning bug) made sense to represent the central figure because of its ability to produce a glow as an internal chemical reaction. Which, to me is pretty magical. and kind of feels like that whole “the magic was in you all along” trope but, like way more scientific.
Emotionally, these little wonders (ps. they are not flies, they are actually beetles) mean a lot to me. I had never seen fireflies growing up but our first year living in KC, we were hanging out with some friends who have a great backyard and off in the distance, I saw what was probably 20-40 twinkling lights. Once it clicked that what I was witnessing was this little beetle, it kind of took my breath away.
I think that’s the magic of nature, its so small and its always there but sometimes you don’t always see it unless you are ready to see it. Maybe when I was a kid fireflies were all over the place and I just didn’t take the time to observe them, but at this phase of my life, seeing a miniature swarm of these little beetles after a move across the country kind of made me feel like I was embarking on the next chapter of my life and was going in the right direction.
Behind the Scenes:
I didn’t do as great of a job documenting my process on this one, but still, I wanted to share some behind the scenes looks at the fully analog process that goes into making each of these cards. My source materials are vintage magazines, paint, ink, my own illustrations done on watercolor or mixed media paper. It’s all cut out by hand and layered together with glue and then, bam, it exsists!
