Melissa Cynova

I’ve known Andrew McGregor for a few years, and in that time have found him to be a silly, serious and interesting fellow. He owns the Hermit’s Lamp in Toronto, and has recently released the Orisha Tarot and answered a few questions for us about his work, his faith and his new deck. Why did the Orisha tarot come about? Like most people we work to understand something new in relationship to a system we already know. So I started looking at the correlations and overlap between the two systems of divination. How do they look at the same kind …

I met Jamie Sawyer when I taught at the Omega Institute (which was awesome) and she was super nice and gave me one of her decks. So sweet. I love the colors and style – similar to tattoo style (she also tattoo’s) (and does henna) and I fell hard for it. Jamie is working on a Lenormand deck, and I can’t see what else she’s got up her sleeve, but she stopped by to talk and say hi!   Tell us about yourself! I’m short, crafty and have a lack of vices… My creative mind likes to fill my “free” …

I got a copy of the Marshmallow Marseille deck by Jorge Cuaik of the Wandering Oracle, and Jorge was sweet enough to stick around long enough for an interview! Read on to find out more about Jorge, and click here to read my thoughts on the very shiny and pretty Marshmallow Marseille. Tell us about yourself! I’m a Mexican filmmaker, costume designer, screenwriter, sometimes singer, full-time sorcerer, astrologer in training and broomstick-traveler. I left Mexico City at sixteen to study high school in a picturesque boarding school in middle-of-nowhere Scotland. There I met the devil at the crossroads and decided …

I found Cristy Road’s work because a friend had the New World Tarot and unfortunately let me hold it for a while. I could not put it down. They actually had to take it back from me. If you haven’t seen this deck, stop right now and click on this link. Easily one of the most diverse tarot decks I’ve ever seen. Feminist, inclusive and representative of the world around us, Road’s deck is a clear departure from the straight, white tarot that most of us grew up with. After going down the rabbit hole researching Roads and her work, …

I found Karen Rontowski because I was depressed in 2010. I was tooling the internet, watching my friend Sara Benincasa’s videos and stumbled upon Maria Bamford. She made me laugh SO hard and feel so much better that I became an instant fan. I went to see her a few years ago, and her opener was Jackie Kashian. Jackie is also hilarious, smart and clever, so I started listening to her podcast. She has this great podcast called the Dork Forest, in which she interviews folks about things that they’re crazy excited about. So thank you – amazing chain of women. One …

I met Brian at one of our tarot meetups. And again at another. And then another. I am terrible with names (and also faces).  Brian is a really cool guy who has turned his tarot path into a goodhearted and funny adventure for us to follow. I’m excited just by the excitement that Brian and Ben bring to tarot. It’s fun to listen to folks discover something that I’ve known for so long – I ALWAYS learn something new. You can find the podcast here. Brian and his co-host Ben are taking the podcast on the road. If you’re in St. …

A long, long time ago, I created the Tarot MixTape Playlist. I asked a few of my buddies to find songs that defined the Major Arcana for them. “Pendulum Swinger” by the Indigo Girls, for example, nails the High Priestess for me. I love using pop culture to teach tarot. It’s accessible, it gives depth and texture to the cards, and it’s fun. Big fan of fun. So I got an email from a fella named Tarot Cat (Ste McCabe). Instantly curious, I saw that he played with some of my friends and had a very cool Zine for sale. This …