When Tarot Becomes a Living Ecosystem
Tarot imagery has always felt alive to me. The symbols in each card—cups, moons, mountains, seeds, paths—carry emotional atmospheres rather than literal messages. When I reinterpret tarot through my artwork, I don’t copy the symbols; I let them dissolve into botanical forms and re-emerge as something organic, fluid and emotionally charged. The compositions become ecosystems shaped by archetypes. A cup becomes a bloom. A moon becomes a glowing seed. A threshold becomes a petal opening at the edge of shadow. Tarot transforms from a deck of images into a living, growing world.
Reimagining the Cup as a Vessel of Emotional Bloom
In many tarot cards, the cup is the vessel of feeling—intuition, longing, vulnerability and awakening. Instead of painting cups directly, I translate them into botanical shapes that behave like emotional containers. A curled petal forms a chalice around a luminous core. A concave leaf holds a trembling glow. A seed-cup pulses as though carrying a message not yet ready to speak. This transformation allows the emotional essence of the cup to remain intact, while becoming something rooted in the natural, symbolic language of my art.
The Moon as a Glow Beneath the Surface
The Moon card has always been a landscape of ambiguity—soft fear, soft truth, the pull of intuition. When I bring its imagery into my work, it rarely appears as a literal moon. Instead, it becomes a diffused source of light within the botanical world. A bloom might shine as though lit from behind. A shadow might ripple like water at night. A mirrored petal might echo lunar reflection. These forms carry the card’s mystery, its sense that clarity is shifting, and that emotional truth glows best when viewed indirectly.
The Seed as an Archetype of Becoming
Seeds appear across tarot as symbols of potential, grounding and cyclical rebirth. In my compositions, the seed is one of the most important structures. Sometimes it appears as a small glowing centre inside a bloom, sometimes as a cluster of luminous orbs, sometimes as a root-node where energy gathers. Each seed behaves like a promise—quiet, humble, unresolved. Tarot shows potential as something sacred and slow; the botanical seed mirrors that feeling, giving viewers a visual point where transformation begins.
Pathways, Roots and the Direction of Growth
Many tarot symbols suggest movement—journeys, choices, branching timelines. I translate these ideas into root structures that behave like emotional maps. A tangle of fine roots might represent uncertainty. A clear upward curl might signal decision. A mirrored pair of roots may hint at duality or relational growth. Instead of illustrating the traditional paths of tarot cards, I let the composition itself carry the momentum. The artwork becomes a living diagram of the same forces tarot speaks about: direction, hesitation, calling, discovery.
Thresholds and Openings as Emotional Portals
Tarot is full of portals—doorways, veils, arches, choices, horizons. In my work, these thresholds manifest as petal openings, shadow gaps or layered atmospheres that invite the viewer inward. A botanical form may open like an entrance. A soft glow may sit at the centre like a passage. These portals reflect tarot’s insistence that our inner worlds are not static—they shift, reveal, conceal and transform. Each threshold in the artwork becomes an emotional invitation: step closer, listen deeper, cross into the quieter part of yourself.
Translating Archetypes into Botanical Guardians
The archetypes of tarot—Priestess, Empress, Hermit, Fool—often emerge in my compositions as botanical guardians. Their presence is not literal but energetic. A protective bloom may carry the Empress’s softness. A stark, luminous seed might echo the Hermit’s lantern. A strange mirrored form might reflect the Fool’s leap into unknown territory. These guardians hold the emotional tone of a card without depicting its imagery. They become intuitive companions within the botanical world, vessels of archetypal resonance.
Why Tarot Continues to Shape My Botanical Imagination
Tarot gives me a symbolic grammar—a vocabulary of thresholds, cycles, dualities, fears and revelations. When translated into botanical forms, these symbols lose their rigidity and become fluid emotional landscapes. My art grows out of this fusion: tarot as energy, plants as metaphor, light as intuition. Through this language, each composition becomes both a contemporary artwork and a soft divinatory field. It invites the viewer to read, feel and interpret, just as they would with a card pulled at the right moment.
