Tag Archives: cards

The Visual History Of Tarot Cards

September 28, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Conventional, creative, and centering uses of the cards to help you get inspired and come home to yourself.

Tarot imagery has inspired artists for centuries and continues to do so today. The iconography, the storytelling element, and, of course, the mystery of the unknown have a huge pull for any creative.

I personally came to this field later in life, or you could say that it found me.

As a kid, I wasn’t allowed to dabble in such tools. Growing up in the church, these kinds of practices were considered ungodly, and I ended up with a complicated relationship to magic, metaphysical, and occult items, even in a strictly artistic sense. On one hand,, they fascinated me and drew me in; on the other, they felt wrong and uncomfortable due to past programming. As I explored the cards more, they showed me a few interesting paths that surprised me, inspired me, and helped me see them in a whole new way.

I ordered a deck during COVID, when many of us were naturally drawn to healing tools and modalities. To be honest, the cards felt intimidating and even scary, especially when confronting some of the more intense ones like the Tower, Death, the Devil, and others. I set it aside, unsure of how to engage.

A few years later an amazing author and fellow Substacker, Chelsey 🔮 Tarot for Creativity, found me through our commn publisher Chronicle Books. I recorded an episode about her book Tarot for Creativity, and her framework for journaling and self-reflection rather than divination took me in a new direction that was gentle, curious, and non-condemning. I still use her brilliant book today, and it opened doors to even more resources and creatives that inspire me.

Chelsey Pippin (Mizzi)

My friend Sarah Potter Sarah Potter , a celebrity tarot reader, changed my life. Her book Sober Magic uses the tarot journey combined with the 12 steps to help individuals (myself included) move away from drinking and into more presence, self-awareness, and healing. Thanks to Sarah and her tarot guidance, it has been 10 months since I had my last drink.

In terms of navigating the scary cards, I have to shout out Tarot for the Wild Soul Lindsay Mack. The “bad cards” no longer intimidate me, and I found compassion, curiosity, and a deeper, less obvious meaning when interacting with certain images and messages. There are no doubt millions of amazing creators, experts, and readers who can guide you on how to use this tool, but I appreciate pracitioners who bring a gentle, trauma-informed angle.

Tarot for the Wild Soul

Today I want to share a snippet of visual art history of this practice based on a beautiful exhibition I visited at the Morgan Library.

Artist and Writer Ekaterina Popova at the Morgan Library

Morgan Library

Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951) and Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942). The Fool, from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (Deck “C”). London: William Rider & Son, ca. 1921–31 (first published in 1909). Chromolithograph. New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, PML 199373.

The show consists of two parts. The first explores the origins of tarot in Renaissance Italy, and the second its contemporary interpretations by artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Among these creators are familiar names like Pamela Colman Smith (1878 to 1951), Leonora Carrington, and Chris Ofili.

According to the museum, “Created as a courtly game of skill, tarot was not associated with occult secrets, divination, or the power of fate until centuries later. By the twentieth century, the cards came to serve as a source of inspiration for artists, offering an alternative to the strictures of modernist aesthetics and allowing them to explore other universes and imaginative possibilities.”

As I got more interested in the world of Tarot, I started to notice the influence of the cards on artists. At a surrealism exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the gift shop featured a deck by Dalí. And it wasn’t until I visited a Leonora Carrington exhibition at L Space in NYC earlier this year that I realized the artist herself had made a stunning deck.

Remedios Varo, Leonora’s best friend, is featured at the Morgan Library as well.

The inspiration for this exhibition was the Morgan’s Visconti-Sforza Tarot cards, the most famous deck to survive from the Renaissance.

Below, I am sharing a few of my favorites from the show.

I am curious. Do you use Tarot in your creative practice? If so, how?

Bonifacio Bembo, Death from the ViscontiSforza Tarot Cards. Italy, Milan or Cremona, ca. 1456-58. The Morgan Library & Museum

Chris Ofili (b. 1968). Midnight Conjurer, 2026. Ink, watercolor, staples, and paper collage on paper © Chris Ofili. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.

Leonora Carrington at the Morgan Library

For The Silo, Create! Magazine and Ekaterina Popova.

Culture

8 Great Christmas Presents For Caregivers To Give To Themselves:

December 10, 2019 The Silo Leave a comment

Peter Rosenberger, author of Hope for the Caregiver, offers these 8 great tips for caregivers to give to themselves for this holiday season and time of visiting family and friends.

1) Commit to seeing a doctor. More than 70% of caregivers don’t see a doctor

2) Commit to doing something that brings joy to your heart. It doesn’t have to be exotic: a good movie, watch a standup comedian, read a good book, paint, play the piano …something that speaks beauty and joy to you in the middle of your stuff.

3) Make a list of people you resent and forgive them and then burn the list. Lose the grudges but keep boundaries.

4) Make one small change in your diet. For instance, substitute water for a sugary drink. Grab a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar. Substitute a salad for a burger … olive oil for butter.

5) Send a Christmas card to yourself. Pick out a card your loved one would send if he/she were healthy emotionally and physically. And put a $10 bill in it.

6) Do something physical. Walk to the back of the house and back. Alan Alda walks around to John Phillips Sousa to help with his Parkinson’s. He’s not a doctor but he played one on TV …and it’s pretty good advice. He lifts up his knees. Something that simple can really benefit caregivers. Weight gain is common in caregivers. Peter quips, “I got so big my picture fell off the door and it took 2 dogs to bark at me!”

7) Isolation is crippling. Go to church or other places of worship. Slip in and listen to the music of the season.

8) Call a trusted friend and tell them you’re struggling. Take a leap of faith that they will listen. Don’t ask for solutions …just an ear and a tender heart.

A 30+ year caregiver for his wife, Gracie, who lives with severe disabilities, Peter Rosenberger understands the caregiver’s journey in ways few do. Broadcasting on Sirius XM’s Family Talk Channel (131) and an additional 180 stations through American Family Radio, Peter hosts the nation’s #1 show for family caregivers. From Autism to Alzheimer’s to Addiction, Peter addresses the needs of those caring for loved ones with chronic impairments.

Culture

Affirmation Cards From Canada Moms Intended To Affect Millions

August 23, 2017 The Silo 1 Comment

Everyone knows the old saying “to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been” right? This couldn’t be more accurate, and for you to truly relate to Love Powered Co. and where it came from, we feel that you might need to know a little bit about affirmation and about us first.

Our names are Anna Lozano and Lindy Sood and we would like to welcome you to the Love Powered movement. We are friends and soul sisters who realized that together, we have a powerful message to share with the world. Months ago, we started talking about what is lacking in the marketplace when it comes to personal growth products for families. How our children were most certainly gaining positive subconscious programming from stating their daily affirmations, but what about being consciously aware of the words they were speaking?

We wanted them to understand this beautiful new vocabulary. We wanted them to connect with these positive words and statements. We wanted them to link the affirmations to their own daily experiences, to their own unique feelings and emotions, and to how they interacted with others.

Our mission is to create a self-worth movement, powering the next generation of mindful leaders. A better tomorrow starts with our children, and that means we need to do the work now, healing ourselves in the process.

This is so much bigger than a product, it’s a global movement creating a better tomorrow. Welcome home, to our Love Powered family.

How Are We Different?

1. 22 POWERS

Parents & children think of examples and ‘times when’. Going even deeper, we ask ‘How did this make you feel’? By connecting their own experiences to each POWER, and remembering how they felt, it better helps our children to understand the words and statements they are saying, and connect deeper to the meaning behind them.

These are the qualities of emotionally intelligent trailblazers! The POWERS we all have within us, at times, we just need to be reminded of it.

2. CONNECTION

Instead of 1 affirmation per card, we have grouped together 3 related terms + a statement – helping our little ones to grasp the meaning of the words and how they all relate to each other. We are teaching our children a new, beautiful, positive vocabulary.

3. CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

Instead of 1 affirmation per card, we have grouped together 3 related terms + a statement – helping our little ones to grasp the meaning of the words and how they all relate to each other. BONUS! We are teaching our children a new, beautiful, positive vocabulary!

4. EXAMPLES & FEELINGS

We focus on the power of CONNECTION between parent & child. Leave the screen at the door, this is a time to be present, engaged and wholeheartedly connected.

5. AESTHETIC

These cards are so darn adorable and just oh-so-delicious, we are certain that you and your little ones will find it hard to wait to get your hands on them.

For more information, contact us here.

Conventional, creative, and centering uses of the cards to help you get inspired and come home to yourself.

I personally came to this field later in life, or you could say that it found me.

Remedios Varo, Leonora’s best friend, is featured at the Morgan Library as well.

Peter Rosenberger, author of Hope for the Caregiver, offers these 8 great tips for caregivers to give to themselves for this holiday season and time of visiting family and friends.

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