Why I Created "The Child Tarot"

Below is the full introduction to my handmade tarot deck, "The Child Tarot", which can be found in the first pages of the instruction booklet. For more information on this deck, please visit https://www.onlyforlight.com/the-child-tarot-major-arcana

Introduction:

Why I Created this Deck

Tarot has changed my life.

In the beginning of 2020, I received an overwhelming calling to return to the art of tarot after a long absence. Prior to this point, I had not for a second considered or believed I could share this practice with others, or that I would be skilled enough to channel messages for a large audience through a public platform such as YouTube. Yet the calling that day was so obvious, so powerful that I couldn’t ignore it.

Through the practice of tarot, I have become more awakened. More centered, grounded, and balanced. Gradually and patiently, I have worked with this art form to transform myself and my energy, simply by an earnest desire to channel messages for others and provide them, hopefully, with clarity and guidance. It has been my pleasure and privilege to receive these messages from a higher source, and the experience has proven every day to be more and more magical. Tarot has changed me. It has healed me. And through this deck that I’ve created, I hope to aid in the healing of others.

Similar to the initial calling, I received inspiration one day to create my very own tarot cards. This was a daunting idea, because although I possessed some natural creative and artistic skill, I simply had zero experience as an artist, nor had I ever sat down to see any creative project to its completion. My lifelong attention-deficit along with a collection of crippling mental health issues had always prevented this. However, the vision for this idea was comforting. It was real. And most importantly, it filled me with joy.

For the better part of this year, I crafted this deck, from the sloppy stages of index card sketches, to the compulsive editing of my final image drafts. This project was a transformative experience for me, again proving the impact tarot has had on my life. I’ve observed how from the beginning, my return to the cards has been closely intertwined with my own spiritual journey. And gratefully, it has ultimately allowed me to connect with the vastness of the collective, giving and receiving the support of my growing soul family from every part of the world. (Sincerely, I thank you all for your continuous love and support).

The ideas for this deck came to me only when I truly allowed them to. For the first time, I understood what real inspiration was—in that I was not the one creating this deck, but I was being allowed to create it. Similar to my experiences with the written word, I began to see how art was also a form of inspiration that already existed. And that it was my task as a conduit of sorts, to channel it from a mysterious place. I recognized this process to include the help of my guides, my wonderful spirit team who has been with me from the start, even long before I knew that “spirit guides” was a term that existed.

I had to learn how to relax. To still my mind. To quell my anxiety. This was not an easy task, and the fact that I managed to do this at all felt like a small miracle. But once I entered into this rhythm, everything became easier. One by one, the images flowed out like water, each one bringing me peace and contentment as I poured my energy into the art.

The name of this deck is “The Child Tarot.” It is mainly hand-drawn, with the intention of making it appear as if a child herself drew it (or maybe, my own inner child took the reins?). This deck is meant to be a journey. Of nostalgia, innocence, fun, and play. It is meant to be a reunion of one’s inner child, and by revisiting this energy, to be granted the unconditional love and healing that was this state of mind. It is my hope, to create a smile on the reader’s face, by spending time with these images—the vibrant colors, the memories of the past, and the nearly formless, ghost-like beings that are meant to represent the spirit of childhood themselves. And while I immediately acknowledge that for many of us, childhood wasn’t a happy place, it is my aim to recreate this happiness and perhaps a sense of safety, through the warmth and love that I channeled into each and every card.

There is nothing like the experience of childhood. Ideally, in its uninterrupted state, it is freedom.

It is home.

It is a state of eternal play.

I miss childhood, even though my own was perhaps a place I wouldn’t willingly return, still I honor it. Nowhere else was I ever so present, so curious and imaginative, free of the constraints of logic and time.

I remember, even without a friend in the world, I was happy.

Simply playing, running, or dancing.

I picture a pink and yellow sunset, the summer cicadas buzzing in the trees and reverberating with a song that I’d remember for the rest of my life. I stretched my arms out towards the sky, grasping my own limitless imagination and unburdened by thoughts of tomorrow.

Childhood was a beautiful place. Long gone. Irretrievable.

Impossible to go back.

Thank you, Tarot, for allowing me to visit.

--Christina “Firefly” De Lucia

December 2022