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Tarot Reflections

 September 15, 2004

 
     
 

Interview: Julie Cuccia-Watts
Debbie Lake


Debbie Lake is a cranky, opinionated Tarotholic who was born and bred in Hell's Kitchen, NYC. She has been married for 15 years (which explains the crankiness) and just loves working with Tarot, reading and driving friends and family crazy with her know-it-all-ness. She's also the FRN Assistant Manager of Readers. Visit her at her website at http://www.angelfire.com/moon/brennamor

(This is a photo of Debb with the Strength card from the 1910 RWS deck purchased on eBay by Stuart Kaplan. Taken at the Chicago World Tarot Congress.)

 

DL: What first drew you to Tarot?

JCW: My interest in symbolism is what drew me to Tarot. My hope was that tarot would help me interpret my dreams and metaphysical experiences better. I also wanted to enrich my artistic work by slipping symbolism into it.

DL: Do you read or collect decks?

JCW: I learned to read after I did the Ancestral Path. I wouldn't call myself a collector but I do have a handful of other decks. I actually like to read with other people’s decks especially when reading for myself. It is a case of needing a fresh opinion, sometimes reading with my own work is just too much 'me' and I start feeling nuts!

DL: What inspired you to create your decks?

JCW: When I started Ancestral Path I just thought tarot imagery would be interesting subject matter. My intention was to learn what the cards meant as I painted them. I had been offering my artwork at 'spirit fairs' cropping up in Milwaukee during the 1980's. I had finished 4 queens (not in the Ancestral Path) at the time I met up with Tracey Hoover through a mutual friend. Tracey loved the queens, and when I decided to make the four suits into the four races the original queens didn't work so they became a gift to Tracey. Tracey really helped me realize the manifestation of Ancestral Path. I wouldn't have had a clue how to go about getting a deck published without her help.

DL: What made you decide to use various cultures to represent the different suits in Ancestral Path?

JCW: Being home with my two year old son at the time we watched a lot of Sesame Street , multicultural was paramount. This was probably subliminally responsible, but I also have always had a personal interest in all things Egyptian ever since I was little. My interest in Native American culture came during my college years when I took an interest in the Anishnabeg spirituality because it just felt right to me. Arthurian legends were also a passion of mine since childhood. At any rate the four races just felt right. I couldn't just choose one culture, this tarot had to be global.

DL: How did you decide what moons, sabbats, etc to assign to the different cards in your Blue Moon and Maat decks?

JCW: I just sat down one day with the cards and matched the symbolism of the cards with the symbolic essence for each of the holidays. At the time I wasn't sure it would actually work out but I gave it a try and I think it does work. Though I did switch the Temperance and Devil positions with Maat.

DL: How do you feel your personal & spiritual beliefs impacted on your deck?

JCW: My transition from Catholicism in my childhood to Paganism in my adulthood is illustrated by my tarot cards. My Catholic upbringing hushed my metaphysical experiences, the tarot, occult and metaphysical studies of my adulthood has helped me reclaim the rich spiritual world that had always been silenced. The system of Tarot has allowed me to give my occult studies and my experiences of the metaphysical a framework and a voice. I have the opinion that Western culture has been spiritually oppressed and kept in a rigid framework for centuries. Other cultures evolving separately from Western culture have rich spiritual lives, which encompass the dreamtime reality and the contact with the spirits of the dead. Frankly white culture is pretty screwed up from not being able to talk to their dead like other cultures do. Granted the genius of our culture has found 'safe' and constructive uses for itself, manifested in its technical advances, but still all the mechanized world still leaves us wanting ... yearning for something more. That 'more' is the connection to other dimensions of existence.

DL: When you began creating your deck, did you have any intention of publishing?

JCW: Ancestral Path, no. Blue Moon and Maat, yes.

DL: How have your ties to the Tarot community (online or in the real world) impacted on your creation of this deck?

JCW: The Tarot community has served as great inspiration and communication. One day while reading emails on line someone was describing the Fool with his little white dog at his heel. The words transformed in my mind and I suddenly saw the Fool as Orion and the little white dog as the 'dog' star Sirius. This changed my vision of the Fool and deepened my meaning of the card. You see Orion in Egyptian mythology is associated with Osiris and his disappearance every summer. Along with the 'dog' star Sirius, it signals the Nile flood and the beginning of the Egyptian calendar/year, just as the Fool eventually will disappear off the cliff in the Fool card. Having this open forum, instant dialog and feedback is incredibly valuable and really keeps the ideas flowing.

DL: What other Tarot decks are you drawn to?

JCW: There are a lot of very beautiful decks out there but my all time favorite is Marie White's Mary EL deck. I love her images, I love to see what she comes up with.

DL: What advice or suggestions would you give to others out there interested in creating their own deck?

JCW: Don't do it for the money. Do it because you love it, do it because you can't sleep until you get an image on paper. Then you will never be sorry and you will be so enriched by the experience that you may even venture to do it again.


Emperor from Blue Moon Tarot and Knight of Cups from Maat Tarot © Julie Cuccia-Watts and New Moon Trading Co., Queen of Sacred Circles from Ancestral Path Tarot published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

         
 
 
 

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