It is an absolute pleasure to welcome Elaine Lorenzi-Prince the creator of The Dark Goddess Tarot to share her journey with my Tarot Tribe. I have reviewed The Dark Goddess Tarot and you can find that here.

There is always a huge amount of work that goes into creating a deck and writing a book so I love to have a space here to share creators journey’s.

Can you share a little about yourself. Where you are from, what you are passionate about and what is your profession?

I grew up in Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, and California. I’ve lived in Shrewsbury, England and on the Greek island of Aegina. Now I am happily settled in Portland, Oregon. I am passionate about my family and my goddess. I love myth and story, tarot and magic, trees and birds and water. I am passionate about creating, about self-knowledge through self-expression.

My career was in business software development. I had a good run with that; I got to go to Australia a couple of times as well as work from home whatever hours I liked. Then in 2008 I completed a four year contract and found myself with my skills out of date and among two hundred applicants for a single job. After beating my head against the wall for a year and a half, I decided to take a break and do the next creative thing that popped into my head. I drew some tarot paper dolls and had so much fun, I just kept drawing.

Where did the inspiration to create this Tarot deck come from?

I had been looking for a new project. I have a file of tarot and oracle ideas, and I drew one or more cards for several of these but nothing gelled. I could not sustain any momentum and pushing did not deliver results. I grew increasingly frustrated. I feared my newly reawakened connection with art would dry up.

Then one Friday night in December of 2011, I attended a simple but powerful public Hecate ritual. Hecate, the goddess whose devotee, student, daughter, sister, and priestess I have been for 30 years. In talking over the event with a friend afterward (over fries and shakes at a nearby pub, let’s call that my equivalent of cakes and ale), I mentioned how I loved dark goddesses best and I had my Eureka! moment.

How did this journey of creating the deck unfold?

That same night, that same moment, I envisioned my first card. Sedna as the Eight of Water. She is the Inuit Goddess of the Sea, the goddess of reaching for deep transformation. I drew for hours each day until she was done. Then I looked at her and thought, this is it.

While researching Sedna, I collected names of other goddesses associated with water. I knew I wanted the suits to be called after their elements rather than their emblems, to give both a primal and universal setting for the goddesses. From this list, I crossed out the names I felt had no dark aspect to them, though I expanded the definition of dark beyond the frightening or painful. With those remaining, I meditated on their qualities and stories, seeking an alignment to traditional tarot card meanings. My next card was Maeve, the Irish Goddess of Intoxication, as the Seven of Water. Sedna’s image is modeled on Inuit carving, Maeve’s appearance on drawings in the Book of Kells. My intention was to honor each goddess, her culture, and her people in this way.

In drawing the cards, I experienced something that had never happened before. It often felt as if my pencil gliding across the paper was not sketching the goddess but revealing her.

In March of 2013 the cards were completed. In May a longtime friend of mine was visiting. She doesn’t have a particular interest in tarot, but she loved the drawings I showed her. She said, these need to get out there, what’s the best way for that to happen? I replied, self publishing is the way to ensure that happens but I don’t have the money for the printer. She said, well I do, and she wrote me a check!

It was incredible, but I still didn’t know how I could make everything happen. I have no graphic design skills or software, and that is just the beginning of the work required to produce a deck. I thought, I can’t do all that. Then I thought, but my friend Arnell could. Arnell Ando could and did. We worked so well together, just five months later the Dark Goddess Tarot was in people’s hands around the world.

What were the unexpected challenges creating this deck?

I didn’t expect that I would have to draw certain cards again and again, like the Fool, before I could accept them. Also unexpected was the self-doubt I experienced when I drew cards that were different from the ones I’d drawn up to that point, such as the Ace of Water, and I would question their inclusion. But in the end, every choice I made to honor the inspiration and keep its expression made me believe in the project that much more.

What is your favourite Tarot Card? (of your deck or in general)

My favorites often change over time. Cards I don’t connect with immediately can grow on me and become beloved through our interaction and by me staying open to hearing their wisdom. But one card from the Dark Goddess Tarot has been special from its inception. In the winter of 2012, between illness and obligations, I had not been able to draw for over a month. I was worried that having so interrupted the flow, I would not be able to get it back. The project that meant so much to me would fail. The day after Christmas I picked up my pencil again. A few hours later, the card for Maman Brigitte as the Hag of Fire was completed. She came alive for me as a goddess in this rush of creation, and I experienced the healing of Maman Brigitte in my body and my soul.

For decks in general, I appreciate a strong Empress, an honest Death, and an enchanting Moon.

How do you use the Tarot in your spiritual practice?

It’s integral. It’s become my primary way of having a conversation with my goddess, and we have a nice chat every evening before I go to bed. But Tarot has been part of my spirituality from the beginning of my relationship with the cards. In 1985 I shyly attended a women’s spirituality retreat, looking to participate in a movement I had only read about until then. The experience opened up a new world within me as well as connecting me in a deeper way to the world around me. One of the women there had a deck of round cards, the Motherpeace Tarot. Out of curiosity I asked to see them. As I turned over the cards, I was stunned to find images that I’d seen in my trance the day before: a leopard woman (The Magician) and a snow goddess (Priestess of Swords). Later in the week, this same woman gave me my first tarot reading using these cards. One thing she said to me stays with me to this day–that it was time to “take off the little Ellen suit, and let the great big Ellen inside come out.” Then she gave me the tarot deck, saying “I think I brought this here for you.”

Any advice for the artists and creators reading this?

The main thing is to keep going. Keep believing that what you do is important and that your unique point of view is valuable. Make something meaningful. Give it your heart. Give less regard to future results than present satisfaction. Find a medium and a theme you truly love working with, because creating a full deck is a big commitment. Keep going.

Any exciting projects in the creative pipeline?

Coming soon is a Majors-only deck I created as a personal spiritual journey, a series of tarot prayer cards for the Hindu goddess Kali. Already out is the Minoan Tarot, a 78 card deck based on the artifacts and culture of ancient Crete. The deck was a joy to create and I find using it has been a most wonderful antidote to despair. Because it is no fantasy that a goddess loving, sexually open, and technologically advanced society existed; it is part of our true history. In the works is a Greek Goddess Tarot.

As far as speaking opportunities, I am presenting a workshop this August at the San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium. I am one of the featured teachers at the Sacred Space Conference next March in Maryland. And in September of 2016 I will co-lead a tarot and spirituality retreat with Joanna Powell-Colbert in Washington state.

Rapid Fire Round!

Starsign: Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Pisces Rising

Favourite flavour of ice-cream: Mint chocolate chip

Do you have any pets: Two cats. An in your face and in your purse tuxedo cat named Kato, and a lie in the sun all day orange tabby called Cowboy.

What book are you currently reading: I just finished a sci-fi anthology I picked up from the library: Robot Uprisings.

Name a film you have seen more than 5 times: A childhood classic: The Wizard of Oz. The flying monkeys don’t even scare me much anymore. 🙂

Who is your biggest inspiration: Rachel Pollack. Among her many achievements are a powerful tarot deck (one of the few other than my own that I still turn to) and an award-winning fantasy novel. She is spiritual and down to earth. She is wise and funny and passionate.

What is your go-to crystal: My newest love is a slice of aqua colored fluorite that helps me feel calm and happy. My oldest is a rutilated quartz point, whose smoky golden strands match my hair, or used to anyway.

How can we follow you and your projects?

Website: http://darkgoddesstarot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellen.lorenziprince