Dans Mon Crâne: Archetypal Tarot

15- The Devil

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:33:22 GMT

I take my time with sharing these cards, but I have to say I am getting quite excited to finish them. I plan on printing out my Major Arcana and working with this deck.

14- Temperance

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:48:52 GMT

On to the next card in my series, Temperance. This is one that I had help with photographing as it was too complicated for me to press the shutter timer and then hold the props in time.

A big part of what makes me love this project is the props that I made along the way. that was fun and really brings together the handmade part of it.

13- Death

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:02:37 GMT

I was so excited to start working on this card. I mean, for an archaeologist who worked with human remains and mourning artefacts and funerary customs, Death is a card that I really connect with and look for in each new deck. So I was thrilled to work on the imagery for this one.

12- The Hanged One

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:42:09 GMT

I prefer the term The Hanged One vs The Hanged Man. It was an interesting challenge for me to imagine how I would approach this. Once I got my spark though, I was up and running…or rather I was hanging upside down ha ha!

11 - Justice

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:23:21 GMT

Carrying on with my Tarot Self-Portrait project and moving to Justice.

You’ll notice that throughout this project, I have mirroring cards. For example, the Fool/Tower, Lover/Devil, Wheel /World and Justice/Judgement is part of these. I tend to use similar visual cues for these pairings.

Creating A 2026 Wheel of Fortune Deck

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:02:58 GMT

Last year, my personal card of the year was The Moon. I loved that, especially in conjunction with 2025 being a Hermit year and the fact that I was turning 50. It felt nice and soft and supportive especially since it was such a big transition year for me and my family.

10- The Wheel of Fortune

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:13:50 GMT

How perfect that the first card from my tarot self-portrait project for 2026 is the collective card of the year: the Wheel of Fortune. I kind of did that on purpose!

9- The Hermit

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:13:26 GMT

I was excited to share the self-portrait of the Hermit, mostly because 2025 is a Hermit year. This year has felt very much like a ‘enter your cave’ type of year, but - like I keep saying to the people around me - the point of going in our cave is then to emerge with our lantern held aloft! Therefore this card has a special place in my heart and I wanted to share it before the end of the year.

8 - Strength

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 02:31:35 GMT

It’s absolutely wild to me that I am sharing the next card in my project, the Strength card, and that we are in November. November. That 2025 is already almost over is totally crazy. PHEW.

Anyway, the Strength card was so much fun to photograph. Just like for the Chariot, I enlisted the help of my cats, Khaleesi and Missandei…and my friend Erica to press the shutter and capture these!

7 - The Chariot

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:03:11 GMT

Oh The Chariot! One of my favorite cards in the tarot! I was so excited to get to work on this one. When I was first building my collection, the Chariot card would often be the one that helped me decide if I should buy the deck or not.

At this point in the self-portrait project, I started bringing in a bit more props…including cats!

6 - The Lover

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 19:18:16 GMT

You probably noticed that I called this one The Lover, singular, not plural. In French, the Tarot de Marseille does this, calling the card “l’amoureux”, which translates as ‘the Lover’. I will expand on why I did it this way later in the post.

I feel like this card is one that is so very open to interpretation. There are so many ways to love, so many iterations of that feeling, so many different situations and people it can be applied to. I kind of love that.

5 - The Hierophant

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 14:31:10 GMT

I was looking forward to exploring The Hierophant as it is a card that I really had to lean into understanding better. As always, if you are just learning about this project, you can find out more about it here and start with the Fool card here.

When I first got into tarot, the Hierophant seemed like a very rigid and dogmatic figure - all things that I really cannot stand. It was kind of how I saw the Emperor card but with the added institutionalised religion aspect. But I have come a long way in my tarot practice and I am better equipped to de-patriarchialize it (I know, I just invented that word but you get what I’m saying!).

Bold Machine Oracle Deck

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 14:37:23 GMT

Hello lovelies,

You may remember that I created an oracle card deck from ’s class on Art For A Spell. I called it the Bold Machine oracle. It blends bold words, archetypal and archaeological figures and iridescent papers on playing cards.

Most of the images I used came from vintage magazines (some dating from the 90s!) and from archaeological textbooks. I paired these images with magazine phrases, which is how taught the workshop. I didn’t expect to love this deck so much and to get so much out of it.

In any case, I printed out a few test copies and handed them out to friends. The feedback I got was a pleasant surprise and I was encouraged by them to sell this deck. So I have created a space on Make Playing Cards which will house my decks. I feel this may have been a long time coming!

https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/dansmoncrane

I have another two decks that are just waiting to be finalised and approved on there. I am also brainstorming a few ideas for new decks.

If you are interested in the Bold Machine oracle, it is a lovely small deck. It’s practical for daily pulls. The cards are also ideal as journaling prompts - whether it’s for writing or visual arts. I made the deck small enough to be portable, easy to carry around in your bag and ready to be used when inspiration strikes.

Here are some of the cards to give you an idea:

For the deck that is available on the Make Playing Cards website, the format is slightly different. When they sell designs, they have a stricter framing method and wouldn’t allow some of the cards I made where the text is too close to the edge. So the decks that are available on the site have a white frame around them. This allowed me to keep most of the image as close to what you see here.

I’m very excited to bring this to you and I hope you are excited too.

Find the Bold Machine deck here.

When you are on this page, just click “open preview” to see the first eight cards in the deck.

You can also see the cards here:

4- The Emperor

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:42:26 GMT

I was very much looking forward to this portrait for reasons I’ll explain below. As always, if you are just learning about this project, you can find out more about it here and start with the Fool card here.

The Emperor is a card that can be off-putting: too rigid, too masculine. But I really enjoyed taking this portrait.

3- The Empress

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 05:44:20 GMT

Moving right along to the next portrait in my Tarot Self-Portrait series, we continue our Fool’s Journey to the Empress. If you haven’t seen the previous portraits, you can start here with the Fool.

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Without further ado, here is the final portrait:

Holding Space

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 06:29:24 GMT

This will seem like a discombobulated post but there is a thread I promise. During May’s full moon, I had wanted to pull some cards and to have a ritual in circle with my art coven. But the night before, I learned of the passing of my friend B. The worst part for me is that she passed at the end of March, but I only learned of her passing in May. This is for a few reasons but one of them is that she was an ‘online’ friend. Sha also had to protect herself from some online interactions so it wasn’t unheard for her to drop off the grid for a period of time. Learning that she died a month a a half after the fact threw me off because we had connected over a lot of things including recently about her ‘new birthday’ and I felt terrible at grieving her so long after the fact.

So I cancelled my plans and made a ritual to mark B’s passing. One thing we shared was a love of tarot cards. I wanted to honor her big creative spirit and I wanted to keep my hands busy while my ritual was unfolding. I wasn’t feeling like doing the planned tarot pull for the Full Moon was a good idea. Instead, I pulled out all of my handmade oracles and looked at them. Here are a few:

I am also in the midst of triaging all that I have since I am moving. I was getting rid of some clothes that don’t fit anymore but that I love the fabric of - as well as sorting through my fabric stash. Then it clicked for me: I figured it was time for me to make tarot bags for all my handmade decks….and then some.

My Handmade Oracle/tarot Decks

I love altering cards or creating cards. Many of these were done for Art Witch Academy when I ran that program in collaboration with and . Others were done following lessons on Patreon or Art for a Spell or as Inktober projects. Here’s a closer look.

The one that started it all. I made this in 2015. It’s called 52 pickup and I altered a card a week for a year (there are actually 54 cards because of the Jokers). I used TS Elliot’s epic poem The Waste Land, found 54 excepts to illustrate and went about altering these oversized cards. The text is written on the back. I didn’t need to make a bag for these; they are housed in a box. A lot of these are interactive. I will share them in detail in another post. Oversized playing cards, vintage photos, found images, string, brads, washi paper, ink.

Season of Power Oracle. This oracle was an Inktober project. I actually used this one in my year ahead pull for this year. St-Armand paper, ink, vintage photographs, gel pens, stickers.

Les Chevalières. This was done from ’s Patreon project on creating a round table of warriors embodying our own qualities. I am over the moon for this deck. Fabric, magazine images and gel pens.

The Dark Tower Major Arcana. Another Inktober project, I made this major arcana based off of Stephen King`s Dark Tower saga - one of my all-time favorites and the reason I got into tarot. Pulling out these cards to photograph them made me want to continue with the rest of the tarot and to make this one available for purchase. Watercolor paper, ink, red pen.

Story cards, made from a lesson by on Get Messy. These are a great catalyst for storytelling. Paint, ink, gel pen.

The Reliquary. A personal project about bones, stigmata, relics, women and the body. This was later turned into a lesson on Art Witch Academy and Art For A Spell. Watercolor paper, gel plate prints, iridescent papers, religious imagery, found words, magazine images.

The Hekate Oracle. This round deck was done from a lesson by on Art Witch Academy where we were invited to make mandala cards. I decided to focus on Hekate. The drawn side has one of her symbols at the center of the mandala and the back side is covered with collage and the title of the card. Watercolor, gel pen, stamps, torn magazine images, star glitter.

Bold Machine oracle. This was made from a lesson by on Art for a Spell. This is the first time I have a handmade deck printed professionally. I love the result and plan on exploring this further. Original cards made with magazine images, found words, book pages, irisdescent paper.

Self-Care Oracle. This was made following a lesson by on Art Witch Academy. Watercolor paper, ink.

The Luminous Teenager Oracle. This was from one of my Patreon themes explored in 2022. We made a deck to connect to our inner teenager. Gouache, pencil, glitter paint.

Archetypal tarot cards. I made these collage cards as part of the art invitation on my Patreon in 2022-2023. I am slowly revisiting these themes on this Substack. Oversized cards, magazine images, paint, stickers, iridescent papers, transparencies, thread.

Making Tarot Pouches

The whole point of me taking out these handmade decks was to see which ones needed a bag. I realized that quite a few of them already had bags but that some of my newer decks needed some. So I paired the imagery of the decks with some fabric from my stash and got to work.

The Source of Chaos oracle by comes in a tuck box, but I decided I would rather have it be in a bag. I paired it with a neon red ribbon. I also used a cathedral like fabric to house my Chevalières.

The next three bags were made from remnants of bigger fabric pieces. I paired the Story Oracle with this esothetic fabric. For the Season of Power, I used a fabric with triangles/diamonds from a collection by Umbrella Prints. All their fabrics were so incredible but they are no longer made. Finally, for the printed copy of the Bold Machine, I used this skullery patterned fabric. I only had a small piece left of it but it was just enough for this deck.

I don’t know if you noticed but I still haven’t shared the bag I made from that velvet skirt…here it is. I used it to house the gorgeous Lacrimosa tarot.

By the time I had finished with the last tarot bag, the candles for my remembrance ritual for B. had burned through. I bought both these bowls and part of their content from her when she was raising money for treatment in 2016.

As my hands worked, my thoughts and my heart turned to B. It felt right to be in a space of sitting with her passing while being also creatively engaged. She would have said that I was ‘back on my bullshit’. Love you my friend.

Thank you for looking.

2- The High Priestess

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Wed, 28 May 2025 02:59:14 GMT

Join me as I continue to share my Major Arcana self-portrait project. This is a project that I did to document turning 50 in February 2025. We move on to 2- The High Priestess.

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1- The Magician

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Sun, 04 May 2025 02:33:16 GMT

Join me as I continue to share my Major Arcana self-portrait project. This is a project that I did to document turning 50 in February 2025. We move on to 1- The Magician.

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0 - The Fool

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 02:28:15 GMT

Here we go! As I mentioned in the introduction post, I wanted to do something around self-portraiture for my 50th birthday. I decided to take some photos of myself embodying the Major Arcana of the tarot. So, naturally, we will start with arcane zero: the Fool.

The Fool is all about taking the leap, taking a chance, putting yourself out there and seeing what happens. You may fall flat on your face, but at least you launched, you know? So without further ado, I will share the final portrait and then will share some of my thought process around this image and some behind the scenes stuff.

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Make A Little Sacrifice And Get a Little Boon

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 04:08:45 GMT

Since working on The Whispering Siren archetype, I’ve been immersed in all things related to that creature. I have just finished my first playthrough of The Witcher 3 and was mentioning the Sirens in the game in the first part of the Whispering Siren. I watched The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. And because I am kind of obsessed, I rewatched the Netflix show.

I was struck by Freya Allen’s rendering of this beautiful song during the end credits of one of the episodes. This song refers to the things that happen in Sirens of the Deep. You can listen to it here:

I also just finished reading Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara. While there were some things that bothered me in the book, I came away with the often retold idea of mortals having to sacrifice something to get a boon from the gods. Although in this retelling, Eros also has to sacrifice something as well.

All of this - and my ongoing quest to connect with divine archetypal energies - inspired me to create a tarot template to explore some of these ideas.

For a deeper dive into my offering, consider becoming a subscriber.

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