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I came to know Ellen Lorenzi-Prince as an on-line entity when she was in the beginning stages of her first Tarot deck - Tarot Of The Crone. Ellen is an amazingly talented and creative person. Through her artwork and poetry she opens doors to the soul, inviting each of us to walk the walk of transformation in whatever manner comes to us. Ellen is currently at work on a new deck, Pandora's Tarot, that will open doors for each of us that we didn't even know we were looking for! Here is Ellen in her own words:
BC: Ellen, let's go way back to the beginning. How did Tarot find its way into your life?
ELP: In 1985 I attended a women's spiritual retreat led by Starhawk. One morning she guided us on a trance journey to explore our inner place of power. In my journey I went towards the North, seeking quiet and solitude. But there I encountered a snow woman who told me I must go South instead, to find and claim passion for my life. I did, and ended up hunting a leopard and dressing in her skin. Later that day, I saw a woman playing with a curious deck of round cards and asked to see them. The first card I turned over was my snow goddess, and the second was the leopard woman. It was the Motherpeace Tarot deck, and I'd just seen the Priestess of Swords and the Magician. It felt as if magic and vision had leapt out from my inner world and found a way to exist in the world I could touch with my hands. Before the week was over, the woman with the cards had decided to give that deck to me, and I had found an incredible spiritual tool.
BC: What is Tarot for you? Is it more a tool for transformation through readings, a meditative tool, or a tool for use in ritual and ceremony? Or is it all of the above?
ELP: Tarot provides information and inspiration, with both being helpful in developing one's self and in navigating one's life. I'll ask the cards almost any question, from the mundane to the sublime, since I believe matter and spirit are basically indivisible. (I certainly wouldn't want to do without either one!)
I feel that whatever is of concern to me or to the querent is fair game. I won't limit myself, my curiosity or my questing, and I won't limit others either. Of course, if you ask a funky question, you can get a funky answer. But that's part of the fun of it.
BC: I recently started working with "Tarot Of The Crone" - what an amazing deck! The title itself
drew me in - working with the energies of maiden/mother/crone, accessing ancient wisdom,
and, yes, working with the feminist side of life. What was it that led your creative work in this
direction?
ELP: Thank you, Bonnie. What started me actively working with the Crone was that same retreat where I received my first Tarot deck. I connected with a small group of women there who shared a desire for deeper work than the program with the larger group allowed. They spoke of Hekate as a goddess of magic and change, as one who could lead you through dark places. They spoke of the Crone as a goddess who was not dressed up in pretty illusion and wishful thinking, a goddess who could be more real.
It was very compelling to hear them speak and to see their faces, much more so than any written narrative. For some time I'd had a sense of there being so much of me that was hidden behind this too tight, nice little girl dressing and I wanted a way in. Into myself, and whatever power and passion I might find there. According to these women, the Crone, and specifically Hekate, could show me a way in. And they were right.
Drawing and writing were activities I'd always liked, but on a more casual basis. When my relationship with the Crone began, my creative work flowered, because she proved so inspiring. Not to mention that there was suddenly so much happening inside me that expressing it became more of a need, and a fierce joy, than a pasttime.
I also use Tarot in my spiritual practice, in transformational magic and in trance work, by engaging with the cards in a deeply imaginative way where the pictures, the energies, and I can act and speak and create together. I don't use Tarot so much in ritual or ceremony, because I am more experimental than ceremonial in my practice.
Tarot is such a great tool because it is so flexible, prolific, and perceptive. I hope I always keep learning more ways to work with it.
BC: For me personally, "Tarot Of The Crone" leads directly to shadow work. The Crone will not
let me off easily! On your site, you say: "She is the One Who Knows Death. She will introduce
you to your shadow. She can free you from your fears. The Crone is She Who Has Gone
Beyond." Can you expand on this a little for us?
ELP: This was a way of distilling a part of what the Crone has meant to me, both in my own story and in our common history. Many folk stories feature witches, magical old women who challenge the hero or heroine to face and overcome fear and death. We have a great denial of death and aging in this country. Doctors speak of lowering the death rate - but as Thalassa, the queen of BATS*, says "it's still one per person." Aging and death are facts of our lives. When we deny them, they become our shadow. Whatever we deny lives there, in places we fear to look or don't believe exist. We often deny the magic and power within us as well.
The Crone can help us explore our shadow because she lives there. She can help us reclaim power that has been hidden by our fear and our conditioning. Crone goddesses exist in many cultures, and are always associated with supernatural powers, with death and with transformation. They are midwives to both the living and the dying, guides for transition into other worlds. Having a knowledgable guide into the shadow world is invaluable. It's true as you say, that she won't let you off easy. Because she wants you to be strong.
* Bay Area Tarot Symposium
BC: Which cards from "The Tarot Of The Crone" came easiest, and which tried to defy being
born?
ELP: When I first conceived the deck, ideas for some of the Major Arcana occurred to me immediately. The Bag Lady for the Hermit, Weeping Woman for Sacrifice, and the Loving Grandmother for the Empress, for example. The Wheel of Fortune I did several different sketches for, but wasn't satisfied until I chose the Labyrinth for the Wheel and made it a part of the Crone herself. I painted the Majors in order, and two of them I had no concept for at all previously. So when I got to their turn I had to talk to myself about what I wanted these cards to represent, and be both patient and determined, before the image became clear to me. These two were Temperance and the World.
For the Minors, before I thought of any image, I developed my keywords for each card by determining and then combining my numerological and elemental concepts. The challenge then was how to express the card's message while incorporating the number and element into the image. The Disks proved the hardest of these, since they represent more the material realm rather than the abstract.
BC: "Pandora's Tarot" takes a new twist on the Goddess path - through Greek mythology and
art. I smiled at your on-line reference to "Bulfinch" - I think many of us got our first taste of
mythology here! An archetypal female was chosen to represent each of the Major Arcana
cards. Can you tell us a little about this process?
ELP: I'd had the idea for some time, actually. I remember looking at other Goddess tarots and thinking they were great but also so broad in scope that one could only get a small taste of any particular goddess within the context of her culture. I know best the Greek myths and the Greek goddesses were my first love, so working with them came immediately to mind. Selecting the images from ancient art and quotes from ancient texts were an attempt to bring alive the reality in which these goddesses were worshipped.
But still, after scribbling down some notes, the idea sat in my filing cabinet for years. It came back to me last fall when I was looking for a different goddess image for my computer's wallpaper, and saw again the beautiful Greek art. I was in the middle of a couple of large creative projects, one being producing more Tarot of the Crone decks for sale and the other being a novel I'm writing, so it was a great break for me to spend a week doing nothing but searching for art and designing Pandora's Tarot. Only 22 cards! A piece of cake after doing a deck of 78. Finding the time now to complete the drawings is the hard part.
BC: I look forward to continuing to work with "Tarot Of The Crone", and am following closely
the progress of "Pandora's Tarot". Will this be a privately published deck, as "Tarot Of The
Crone" was?
ELP: Right now I only want to finish it, for myself and to share with others on my site. I have no further intentions for Pandora's Tarot. Self publishing is such an undertaking! And so much is going on in my life that I don't want to think about that now. Maybe ask me again when the deck is done.
BC: I am sure that there are others out there that would like to privately publish a deck. Could
you talk a little about the process that you went through, and perhaps give some tips as to
how to make this a safe journey?
ELP: Oh goodness! I think other people have a much better handle on this than I do. Arnell Ando, the creator of Transformational Tarot, has some great advice on her site. http://arnellart.com/makenpub.htm I more or less felt my way along. I knew the cards would have to be made by hand as I didn't have the money to invest in a production printing. I read what I could about how other people had made their own cards, and I started experimenting. I will advise folks to be sure you're happy with the process and the result before you begin making deck after deck after deck.
I had my cards scanned and laser printed onto card stock at a local copy shop, four images to a sheet. I bought and returned a couple different ink jet printers (I couldn't afford the laser) and tried printing my own, but I was unhappy with the color and clarity of the image. I found a paper I liked for the backing. I found I didn't like the cards when they were laminated, as the Crone and plastic just didn't work together for me. I used spray adhesive to stick the page of card stock to the page of backing paper. It sticks well and doesn't cause ripples in the paper. Then I spray the sheets with a latex fixative, to help preserve the cards since they are not laminated. And then I cut them out with a guillotine paper cutter and round each corner off with a paper rounder. This is kind of like a paper punch and gives a nice finished look to the cards. I bought a heavy duty one online, because trying to use the small plastic tool I found at a local craft shop almost broke my thumb.
To present a complete package to my buyers, I contracted with Crystal Sage to make bags for the decks, and designed a small book (also printed and spiral bound by the copy shop) to go with them. Miniature magic wands, created by Arnell, I thought made the perfect finishing touch. I never advertised much. I put up a notice on my site, and talked about the deck on a couple tarot lists. Since I'd decided to make a limited edition of just 100, this was plenty to start. After that, reviews on Tarot Passages by Diane Wilkes and Tom Little helped fill the rest of my orders.
Doing it yourself isn't something you'd do for money, I think, unless you have some money to invest in production supplies that can keep your cost low, or you already have or can reuse the tools for other projects. And you can't expect to get reimbursed for all your time, especially if you need to spend more of it in selling and distributing. But it surely is an amazing feeling to find your work taking on a magical life of its own in someone else's hands.
BC: Ellen, this is your time. What would you like to say about Tarot, and about the Tarot world
as we know it?
ELP: I think the Tarot world as I know it may be vastly different from the one someone else knows! But that's one of the great things about it. Tarot is a framework that can facilitate creativity and insight on every level. There are always more paths to explore in this wonderful world.
I do find that Tarot people are among the most interesting and caring folk I have ever met. I am nervous about speaking in public, but I can do it at a Tarot conference because I am among friends. And everyone has a story, everyone has something special to share. There is something about these cards that brings out the magic inside of each of us and puts it into our hands. And I am all for that.
I want to thank Ellen for being willing to share her time and wisdom with us. More of Ellen's work, including scans from both of her decks, may be seen on her site: www.croneways.com.
Bonnie Cehovet
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