How 78 Tenets Accidentally Became a Tarot Deck

How 78 Tenets Accidentally Became a Tarot Deck

 

The very strange birth of the Ozarks Church of Nature Tarot

 

I did not sit down intending to create a tarot deck.  That probably needs to be said first. 😂  I was trying to write down the foundational beliefs of the Ozarks Church of Nature.  That was it.

A collection of tenets. Principles.  Things we actually believe about the Divine, Nature, people, responsibility, love, death, healing, boundaries, community, animals, plants, justice, freedom and what it means to live a spiritual life instead of simply talking about one.

At first, I thought we were finished at 24.  Twenty-four felt like plenty.  Apparently it was not. 😂  A few more needed to be said.  Then there were 38.  Okay, surely THAT was the list………..Nope.

The ideas kept coming, one leading naturally into another.  Things I had believed for years suddenly had language.  Things that had existed separately began connecting. Questions opened doors to other questions…  Eventually we reached 57.

At that point, I really thought we had squeezed the toothpaste tube completely flat.  Apparently there was another tube.  😂  We kept going.  And somehow, without choosing a target number, without trying to build a card deck and without counting backward from anything…we stopped at…78.

78 tenets.

 

We made them into numbered Sacred Wisdom cards because they already felt like something people could pull individually, reflect on, journal about or use as conversation starters.  Beautiful.  Finished.

Goodnight.  I went to sleep.

The next day I was doing one of the profoundly glamorous spiritual practices that happens around here constantly……….. Moving the hose…the sacred magical hose…  😂😂😂

And somewhere in the middle of ordinary life came the thought, Wait. Aren’t there 78 cards in a tarot deck? I stopped.  Because yes.  There are!  A traditional tarot deck contains 78 cards.  LOL

Twenty-two Major Arcana.

Fifty-six Minor Arcana.

And suddenly the completely unrelated collection of 78 teachings we had just accidentally finished was sitting there looking suspicious.  So naturally we did what any reasonable people would do.  I walked back up the stairs and started playing with it.  Maybe SOME of our tenets could correspond to tarot archetypes…maybe???

Justice seemed obvious:  Justice is sacred.

Death?  Death is sacred too.

The Hermit?  Silence and solitude are sacred.

The Sun?  Joy, laughter, and play are sacred.

Okay.  Those were easy.  Surely the rest would require stretching things around.

Except…they didn’t.

They started falling into place.  And then they kept falling into place!

The Hierophant became:  We are all students and teachers.

The Lovers became:  We belong to one another without owning one another.

The Devil became:  We reject manipulation, coercion, and control.

Judgement became:  Accountability comes before restoration.

The World became:  The Divine is everywhere and within everyone.

At that point I was already staring at the screen wondering what exactly was happening.  Then we moved into the Minor Arcana.  Surely THIS was where it would fall apart.  That was way too easy….  It did not.  😂

The 3 of Swords, traditionally associated with heartbreak and wounds became:  We honor wounds that cannot always be seen.

The 4 of Swords:  Rest is sacred.

The 9 of Swords:  Growth does not require shame.

The Queen of Swords:  Boundaries are sacred.

The 5 of Cups:  Grief is sacred and has no timetable.

The 6 of Cups:  Children are whole human beings.

The 9 of Cups:  Enough can be sacred.

The 10 of Cups:  Nobody should have to stop loving someone in order to belong.

Then Pentacles arrived……….  And somehow it became even more ridiculous.

The 3 of Pentacles:  Our work should reflect our values.

The 7 of Pentacles:  Sacred time is not confined to a calendar.

The Queen of Pentacles:  Food is sacred nourishment, not a measure of spiritual worth.

And then we reached the 5 of Pentacles.  Traditional tarot imagery often shows struggling people outside a glowing religious building.  Our teaching waiting for that card was:  People and life come before institutions and profit.

At that point I believe my professional theological response was exactly, HOLY SACRED SHIT!?!?!?!?!?!?!  😂

Finally came Wands….Purpose.  Action.  Calling.  Choice.  Fire.

The Ace of Wands became:  Discovering and living your purpose is sacred.

The 2 of Wands:  The cross can represent the crossroads of choice.

The 5 of Wands:  The Divine does not belong to a side.

The 8:  No savior is coming to do our work for us.

And after every Major Arcana card and every suit had been matched, we counted again.  Twenty two Major Arcana.  Fourteen Swords.  Fourteen Cups.  Fourteen Pentacles.  Fourteen Wands.

78 cards!!!

Using:  78 teachings…..I thought I randomly wrote………..

No duplicates.  No discarded tenets.  No extra tarot positions.  Nothing left standing awkwardly in the hallway asking where its chair went.  😂  And that is when this stopped feeling like we were merely putting inspirational sayings onto tarot cards.

Something much more interesting had happened.  The traditional archetypes still worked.  The emotional and symbolic movement of tarot was still there.  But the language had changed a little…

The cards began speaking through the spiritual philosophy of the Ozarks Church of Nature.

The Devil wasn’t an evil creature waiting to punish someone.  It became bondage through manipulation, coercion and control.

Judgement wasn’t condemnation.  It became accountability before restoration.

The Lovers wasn’t possession.  It became belonging without ownership.

Death wasn’t damnation.  It became sacred transformation.

Pentacles weren’t simply money.  They became body, Earth, food, labor, stewardship and the question of what our resources actually serve.

Swords weren’t simply conflict.  They became truth, discernment, boundaries, wounds and responsibility.

Cups became the education of the heart.  Wands became the sacred responsibility of what we do with our fire.  And the Major Arcana became a spiritual journey through seeking, learning, questioning, choosing, surrendering, transforming and eventually recognizing connection with the whole.

Did some hidden part of me know there were supposed to be 78?  Maybe….?

Did I consciously plan any of this?  Absolutely not!  😂

Call it intuition.  Call it pattern recognition.  Call it synchronicity.  Call it creativity.  Call it the Divine.  Call it Sacred Hose Magic.  I don’t particularly need to decide which explanation gets exclusive ownership.  That would be rather inconsistent with the deck and this whole process. 😂

What I DO know is that we began by trying to answer a simple question:  What do we actually believe?

We followed that question until it stopped.  And it stopped at exactly seventy-eight answers.  Only afterward did we discover that those answers could walk almost seamlessly into one of humanity’s oldest surviving symbolic card systems and still retain both their own meaning and the traditional archetypes beneath them.

So yes.  We’re making the deck.

The Ozarks Church of Nature Tarot

 

As the deck began taking shape, I realized I didn’t want generic mystical scenery.  I wanted the cards rooted in the actual landscape of Ozarks Church of Nature. So the imagery draws from real places and real life here… the moon reflecting across the lake, sunrise over the water, springs running down the hill, the pond and lily pads, sacred gardens, vine-covered arbors, handmade stonework, fruit trees, wildflowers, herbs, cats, dogs, goats, deer, vultures, owls, butterflies, snakes, storms, rainbows, and the changing seasons of the Ozarks.  Even some of the scenes come from ordinary moments here: hauling rocks, working in the garden, getting lost in the woods, mowing tall spring grass, sitting quietly by the water.

The result is becoming less like a deck placed in the Ozarks and more like Ozarks Church of Nature itself translated into tarot imagery.

 

 

Seventy eight cards rooted in Nature, personal responsibility, freedom of conscience, compassion, boundaries, interconnectedness, service, mystery and the sacredness of ordinary life.  Working on the artwork now…….

And considering how this entire thing began…  I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.

Which apparently means I’m right on schedule.

If you would like to see a little rundown of how they all line up, visit here: https://ozarkschurchofnature.com/the-ozarks-church-of-nature-tarot/

To read our core belief tenets that accidentally turned into this, visit here: https://ozarkschurchofnature.com/core-beliefs-ozarks-church-of-nature/