The Transient Light tarot story
This tarot deck is inspired by the sublime nature of transience. Although temporary, our current life can facilitate something more universally connected and priceless. Whether change is joyful or painful, it is followed by a new beginning where we can find wisdom and opportunity to heal and grow.
Come, sit in the present
Nestled in the neck of an hourglass
The future overhead
The past below
Reach out your cupped hands,
Into the stream of falling sand.
Simultaneously
Receiving
Holding
And letting go with gratitude
As the golden thread of time
Spools and spills through your fingers.To create, love, grow
Is to relinquish ownership
To let goTo live, is to embrace transience…
Denying not death, but fear.
The past is both bitter and sweet.
The future is obscured through a dark glass
But the transient light within you
Is here,
Now,
And it is in your hands.Ari Wisner - Transient Light tarot guidebook
With the spirit of growth, we can shift our focus from the darkness of loss to the light of transience. It’s the very fragility of life that makes it precious. If we have just a spark from the universe within us, what a deliciously brief life this is!
This deck was born out of my own journey toward embracing inevitable endings. Growing up in a very religious context, I learned to fear darkness and deny the idea of mortality. But my spiritual journey of loss, love, and self-discovery brought a new peace. A place where I endeavor to replace fear with acceptance, regret with gratitude, and insecurity with inner strength.
The 2020/21 lockdown and parallel world events have been an awakening to the fragility of life and structure around us. Inspired by this universal experience, I created this deck during the UK lockdown in early 2021. With the incredible support of 593 supporters on Kickstarter, I self-published the first edition of Transient Light in June 2021. I continually hold deep gratitude for the kind faith of everyone who helped make this deck possible.
With the spirit of growth, we can shift our focus from the darkness of loss to the light of transience. It’s the very fragility of life that makes it precious. If we have just a spark from the universe within us, what a deliciously brief life this is!
My tarot Journey
From my youth, I struggled to trust both humanity and my own self. My religious beliefs discouraged authenticity and encouraged a fixation on pinning down a singular truth, with the goal of denying the power of death. I believed my own heart and mind was evil, and that everything rested on a perfect future eternity.
In this quest to be ‘good’, I missed the nuances of life and the beauty in the many colours that stretch beyond black and white. As a result, I lived by fear and deception into my late 20s. Denying my queerness and power, and closing my mind to new perspectives. In the process, I caused much confusion, pain, and destruction to myself and others. I was so focussed on the divinity in the clouds… I missed the sublime divinity within my authentic self and fellow human beings. As my faith haphazardly unraveled, I faced the loss of direction and hope. It was the love shown to me by others that finally turned my focus inward and to humanity and nature for divinity. Turns out, that letting go and getting to know my light, dark and transience was very empowering.
One of the three main hurdles of this journey was coming to terms with transience. With the loss of future salvation, I lost my source of comfort and hope. Because I had never learned to listen to my heart, mind, body, and spirit in a balanced way, I was unprepared to make decisions or challenge my perspectives in order to rebuild. So, I started by exploring my intuition and searching for helpful spiritual practices. This was when I was introduced to tarot. This collection of familiar symbols, archetypes, and stories became a powerful visual tool that helped me build a new, healthier relationship with all parts of myself. My mind, heart, body, and spirit.
Exploring your own intuition is tricky, with many distractions and blocks. The tarot can help you cut through the noise of life and tap into your own internal source of energy, love, wisdom, and peace. This is why, as an artist, I wanted to create this accessible tarot for everyone to use as a tool to rediscover their own wisdom.
Gender-neutral and inclusive approach
As a queer artist, I was craving a deck that didn’t conform to the binary gender stereotypes that are traditionally found in the tarot. I believe the tarot is for everyone, regardless of gender, identity, sexuality, ethnicity, body type, or faith system. To aid this, I’ve changed the names of traditionally gendered cards and explored ways to express their qualities without gendered visuals. I have also reduced the use of bodies, skin, and clothing throughout the deck to shift the visuals from specific genders, ethnicities, body types, and ages.
Poetry by Fausta Joly
As a lover of poetry, I wanted to bring a poetic response to the Major Arcana, to aid you in your journey. I invited my good friend Fausta to write a piece for each Major Arcana card and for each of the 4 realms. Fausta Joly is a poet, uniter, performer, and mystic – bringing a wealth of wisdom, fresh perspectives, and challenges to the card guides.
My wish for you
May you explore your authentic self
May you believe in your own power
May you be kind to yourself and others
Breathe in with courage
Hold with love and generosity
Breathe out with gratitude
With much warmth,
Ari x
