"Yes, you are right .... I am a woman of Fate!" - may have said the each one of the three Moirae.
Mythic narratives remind us that Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos used to wind the wheel of life for individuals at their birth. The Three Fates were recognized to be the Moirai, powerful goddesses of destiny. But, at the ancient oracle of Delphi, only the two goddesses of Birth and Death used to be honoured by Zeus, to whom they gave the infinite knowledge of human affairs.
~~~
Apart from my personal faith in the magical voice of mythic narratives, I simply believe that some images have a sort of secret voice that throw light upon our own and unique identity. Maybe this is the reason why art, myth, sound and even the potential value of silence have been the main references of my path in the fields of communication and graphic design. My professional life and my creative endeavours are touched by the fascinating speech of art and comparative literature. Following the sounded inspiration of many international researchers, I am also attracted by the same sort of calling one may hear inside the Temple of the Muses.
Inside my personal museum - innhabited by so many archetypes celebrated by ancient, medieval and renaissance art - there are also some real pictures. Actually, I had not three but two spinning Goddesses at birth: two wonderful women that conducted my personal approach to the arts, life and meaning. Their enlighted speech about nature, culture and beauty were deep enough to nurture my will to stay in touch with the visual heritage of a few art museums in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The imagery of those temples shaped my interest for history and interculturalism within the Mediterranean basin.
~~~
During my early years, I used to stay with my grandmother for the whole summer and winter holidays. Most of my further professional options represent a sincere tribute to the invaluable experiences we had together in Elvas, the small medieval village located in the Portuguese borderline, next to the Spanish village of Badajoz. Walking through the heart of the Peninsula, weather goes to extremes, somewhat between air, fire and earth. Leaving the Atlantic sea behind, the landscape of my childhood had the bright spectrum of the Sun and autumn falling leaves of olive trees. Yellow flowers, red poppies and fire colours seemed to celebrate the speech of the earth. But, most of all, this beautiful woman was an extremely sensitive woman: a gifted artisan and a wonderful singer, who led me into the realms of music, assemblage and collaged compositions using my own painted papers along with her old pieces of gorgeous tissues.
She also told me everything she knew about the divine wisdom of natural cycles; the exercise of Love through gardening; the healing properties of plants and the symbolic value of plants and animals in Christian spirituality. Always encouraging me to porsuit my own piano and design studies, this inpiring woman was my sweet Queen of Cups, also personifying a wise Queen of Staves to me. Celebrating her own faith and inner luminosity, she gave my mother the name of Estrela, the portuguese and spanish word for Star.
~~~
As the card of Star arot games, Estrela acted as a real guiding reference. She introduced me to the alchemy of arts & sounds because she worked in press and broadcasting for so many years, much long before I could even start to draw my professional path. She studied history of art and had a natural skill for architectural photography. Together with this scanning Queen of Swords - also a pragmatic and caring Queen of Coins always striving for action and structure - I used to wander along the pages of a few coloured art books. Modern and old illuminated pages so full of gorgeous drawings and vivid reproductions from Greece, India and Italy. But also from old Lusitania, Spain and Galícia. The bookshelves of the twenty-two houses my parents lived in, shaped my imagination of the opened essence of Time.
Houses represent structure. The architect of my being was an open-minded judge and economist, attracted by everything that sounds classical, tempered and natural. My father personifies the earthy Emperor and the heavenly Patriarch wise enough to share with me his books about medicine, the endless qualities of herbs and essences; but also his own experiences on Yoga, Meditation & self-empowering techniques. I learned from him that we must remain close to our higher Self and life purposes, especially when big tides are moving. He taught me how to stay centred and celebrate the Sound of Silence.
~~~
"To learn, read. To know, write. To master ... do not teach, but try to inspire"
My Father still uses to repeat this self-adapted Hindu proverb to me.
During the last years I received so many warm messages from so many distant Visitors of the Oracle Garden , that I felt encouraged to publish my first Light of the Goddess Tarot in an updated paper version. This led me to a new cycle of work, recreating the artwork of the original plates in a complete revised version. During this time, I was more and more convinced about the primal aim of this first Art & Tarot deck, composed to share with you my interest in the history of classical gardens devoted to the arts and divination, Renaissance Art and History, the Tarot archetypes and western symbology.
"This deck must have a strong educational and historical purpose", I used to say ...
By that point, I was already dreaming about a special companion guide for my Art & Tarot deck ; a unique Tarot Kit that may celebrate the divinatory tradition and royal court games of the Mediterranean basin and encourage different publics to the fruition of Renaissance art applied to our contemporary sensibility.
Light The Tarot Set was finally ready to show up a few months later, joining the primal educational and artistic purposes of the deck with a few further references to the original structure of the tarocchi and the most important European traditions in the fields of playing cards. Just by simple coincidence - rulled or not by the spinning Goddesses of Fate! - the whole set was published on late April, 2009; 523 years after the departure of the Renaissance muse I use for The Empress : Simonetta Januensis Vespucci.
~~~
Lets imagine that Simonetta, maybe together with goddess Venus, was probably born from the waves of Liguria, as Renaissance poet Poliziano once said. I decided to adopt her as the inspiring figure of the deck simply because Light of the Goddess Tarot Set is the fruit of my love for art and myth ; a project I couldn't dare to conceive without the supportive words and the invaluable messages you sent me along the years. Please be welcome to the nooks of this Oracle Garden: a place to follow the bliss of your own three fates: creativity intuition, and sensibility!...