Evvie Marin

Illustration & Esoterica.

[evviemarin]

Hi Tumblr! I’m changing up how I do social media this year, and bopping back on here real quick to let you know what I’ve been up to in the last couple years since I stopped posting on Tumblr. This feed is no longer active, but I’m leaving up a handful of the old tarot posts and spreads that people liked. I’ve been busier than ever creating more and better content in spooky watercolor and indie tarot. You can keep up with my work and catch the latest spreads on my websites: EvvieMarin.com and InterrobangTarot.com. There are blogs on each, though they’ve been on pause while I finished up the artwork for the Black Ink Tarot Deck and launched my brand new art & tarot club on Patreon, where I’ll be posting even more spreads than on the blog, plus exclusive art content, spooky folk music, macabre art history research, and monthly group readings! It’s a lot of fun, and support there will keep Interrobang Tarot running. Now that that’s launched, I’ll get back to regular blog posts later this month. I’m also fairly active on Pinterest and Instagram @evviemarin​ and @interrobangtarot. Glad folks have enjoyed the tarot posts here. Hope to see some of you where I hang out these days! 

[evviemarin]

Hey loves! I got to interview Krystal Banner, author/illustrator of the Keleidadope Tarot Deck on the blog! Krystal is a world traveling engineer by day, and digital illustrator by night. We had a fabulous conversation about art, tarot, spiritual growth, diversity in tarot, reinterpreting tarot for the modern world, and more. This post is also available in audio! Check out the interview here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/blog/the-kaleidadope-tarot-an-interview-with-krystal-banner  and support Krystal’s beautiful tarot deck on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kaleidadope/kaleidadope-tarot-a-dope-deck/description  

[evviemarin]

Hey friends! Just added a new blog post on organizing your dream journal to get the most out of if creatively and intuitively. Here’s a taste:

“Dreams are visual critters, and sometimes it’s quicker and easier to sum up a dream with a picture or diagram than with words. If you’re a doodler, consider keeping your dream journal in an unlined sketchbook, so you can easily blend text and pictures. Don’t worry about whether you’re “good” at drawing. Your dream journal is for your eyes alone. All it has to do is prompt memories and communicate the themes of your dreams back to you. Drawing is a wonderful tool for this, no matter what your skill level is. You can also use collage and scrapbooking if that’s your thing. Let your journal speak to you visually, as your dreams do.”

Check out the whole article here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/blog/make-your-dream-journal-a-goldmine-6-essential-organization-techniques 

[evviemarin]

A cat eye side view in today’s sketchbook. A gate and a prism.

[evviemarin]

Day 7 of Eight Useful Tarot Spreads. The Root Cellar Spread for getting at the bottom of an issue. 

1. x 2.    An Issue’s Surface 3.    What Lies Beneath 4.    And Below That 5.    And Below That

Deceptively simple, right? Check out full notes, variations, and pointers here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-root-cellar.html

Or start the eBook from the top here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

For entertainment purposes only.

[evviemarin]

Day 6 of Eight Useful Tarot Spreads: The Project Kindling Spread for sparking the pilot flame at the heart of a project. This one’s pretty straightforward and one of my absolute favorites. It’s versatile, easy to point at pretty much any area of focus, and a great go-to in your repertoire for creative projects. 

Spark 1

Spark 2

Spark 3: Three key elements that must combine to spark my project to life.

Internal Influences: How do my own patterns and approaches affect my project? What do I bring to the table?

External Influences: How do outside patterns and circumstances affect this project? What do others bring to the table?

Let Go Of: Something to resolve or leave behind to serve this project’s forward momentum.

Move Towards: Something to aim for or develop as I forge ahead in this project.

Read the detailed notes on this spread on the blog here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-project-kindling.html

Start the eBook from the top here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

[evviemarin]

Day 5 of Eight Useful Tarot Spreads: The Self Love Tarot Spread for fostering self love and care. 

Love: Something to love about myself.

Patience: Where can I be more patient with myself?

Kindness: Where can I be kinder to myself?

Strategies: Strategies to draw on in forging a better relationship with myself.

Some of you have seen this one before on the blog. I wrote it around V-Day the year before last. There are two spreads in this collection that I’ve previously posted on the blog, this and the WTF spread. I have a rule for myself that I can only re-package prior work if I have significant changes to make, or significantly more to say about it, and that’s the case for both these spreads. In addition to the fancy new illustrations, you can read the copious new notes on this spread here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-self-love.html

And you can start the eBook from the top here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html 

Enjoy, and be kind to yourselves, duckies! Much love.

(For entertainment purposes only.)

[evviemarin]

Day 4 of Eight Useful Tarot Spreads. The Snowflake Tarot Spread for weaponizing perceived weaknesses. (That’s metaphorical weaponizing btw, not like a call to violence. I know y’all know that, but it’s the internet, so...)

Anyway, here are the basics:

0. My Center: How is the weather in my core?

1. I Spy: A pet weakness. Something I perceive within myself as troublesome or flawed.

2. I Listen: What does it have to tell me? What is the hidden strength in it?

3. You Spy: A trait others see as one of my weaknesses.

4. I Adapt: How can I best adapt and turn this into a strength? Is it truly a weakness at all?

5. Vulnerability: The nature/expression of my softness and vulnerability.

6. Power: The nature/expression of my fortitude and personal power.

Interpreting this one can get a bit tricky, so I recommend checking out the detailed notes on the blog. 

You can read them for free here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-snowflake.html 

Or start the ebook from the beginning (also free) here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

The notes for each of these spreads also contain elemental correspondences, for those reading in conjunction with other practices like astrology, spell craft, or visualization, as well as tips for how to adapt and point each spread towards different questions in different areas of life. (I’d share them here too, but they’re long. My Tumble gets the TL/DR version.)

For entertainment purposes only.

[evviemarin]

Day 3 of Eight Useful tarot Spreads: The Toolkit Tarot Spread for assessing and cultivating strengths.

TOP SHELF: TASKS

To Fix: Something to mend.

To Break: Something to dismantle, dissect, or leave behind.

To Measure: What needs assessment?

MIDDLE SHELF: TOOLS

A Talent: A talent to exercise.

A Resource: A resource to draw on.

A Skill: A skill to apply.

BOTTOM SHELF: BURIED TREASURE

What’s Hidden: A latent talent or forgotten skill to develop.

How to Unlock It: Strategies to access, develop, or rekindle this ability.

Where to Apply It: A potential project or path. Where might this ability take me?

Full notes, including variations here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-toolkit.html

Or start the eBook from the beginning here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

For entertainment purposes only.

[evviemarin]

Day 2 of Eight Useful Tarot Spreads. The Emotional Arrow Spread, for listening to challenging emotions.

1. Source: What prompted this emotion? What lies at the root of it?  

2. Impact: How is this emotion affecting me now? How is it riding me? 

3. Navigation: How can I better harness, navigate, and channel this emotion?  

4. Message: What is this emotion trying to tell me?  

5. Target: Best outcome/goal of working constructively with this emotion.  

6. Overkill: How does this emotion mislead me? How might it take me too far?

Read detailed notes and tips on how to interpret this spread here: 

http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-emotional-arrow.html

And start the ebook from the beginning here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

For entertainment purposes only.

[evviemarin]

Exciting news, friends! I just dropped a new eBook on my tarot site that you can read entirely for free. It’s called Eight Useful Tarot Spreads for Times of Resistance and Change. It’s basically as the title says, a collection of tarot spreads for introspection, self-care, and planning in times like now. The book contains detailed notes and tips for interpreting each spread, and applying them to different areas of life like creativity, career, and relationships. I’ll post a new spread diagram here each day, with links to the detailed notes. 

First we have the Balancing Action Tarot Spread, for balancing action and inaction.

1. Helpful Effects of My Actions: How are my actions helpful and productive?

2. Harmful Effects of My Actions: How are my actions hurtful or counter-productive?

3. Balancing Energies: Energies/strategies to balance these consequences.

4. Where to Step Up: Where and how can I do more?

5. Where to Step Back: Where should I step back or take a break?

6. Balancing Energies: Energies/strategies to balance action and rest.

Read the full description and notes on this spread here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/8u-balancing-action.html

And start the whole book here: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/eight-useful-tarot-spreads.html

For entertainment purposes only.

[evviemarin]

Summer Solstice Tarot Spread

Place the Sun card in the middle of your table before you shuffle and draw anything else. The sun is at its peak power up north. Summer means everything for us that the tarot Sun does.

1. Recover & Renew: What do I most need to pull from this season? What do I need to soak up from the Sun?

2. Rest & Relax: Where in my life do I most need to rest and relax? What’s stressors can I step away from for a spell? What can afford to sit on the back-burner while I take a minute?

3. Rumpus & Romp: Where in life can I celebrate and play? What’s a good theme for a summer adventure?

4. Release & Re-Block: Where do I need to watch for burnout? How can I protect myself to get the best out of the season with minimal scrapes and burns?

Full post with summer reading picks on the blog: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/blog/summer-solstice-tarot-spread

[evviemarin]

Re-blogging cause it’s that time again. Happy summer to those in the North, and happy winter to those in the South! (I haven’t written a winter solstice spread yet, or I’d post that one too, but still wishing a lovely day for all you Souther Hemisphere folks.) Have some fun today!

[evviemarin]

A Mercury Retrograde Tarot Spread

1. Signifier: Mercury Retrograde  - Place The Magician reversed in the center of your spread to represent Mercury moving backwards.

​2. Artifact - What is Mercury dredging up for me in this retrograde period?

3. Affect - How is it (the “what” represented by card #2) affecting me?

4. Signifier: Action - What would I like to do with this pattern/energy/baggage/what-have-you?

Cross the reversed Magician with: The Hierophant to learn from or teach something, Justice to set something right, Death to lay something to rest and move on, Temperance to integrate and balance past and present, or The Sun to rekindle something.

5. Lesson - What do I have to learn from it now? ​ 6. Resolution - How can I best resolve it? What strategies can I draw on to learn from it, set it right, lay it to rest, integrate it, or rekindle it? Notes The signifiers are optional. I know some folks are averse to consciously choosing and placing cards in a spread. If that’s you, no worries, you can skip the center cross.

You do, however, need to consciously decide what you want to do with the pattern you’re examining here in order to know what question card #6 addresses. It takes different strategies to rekindle a forgotten talent than it does to lay an old blockage to rest. For this reason, I recommend that you draw cards 4-6 only after you’ve drawn and analyzed cards 1-3.

You can use this spread anytime you’re feeling haunted by your own past. It doesn’t need to be a Mercury Retrograde to ask the same basic questions. Just use a personal significator, upright, for card #1, and ask, “what old pattern is haunting me?” or “what past baggage is on my case now?” for card #2.

For the full blog post head to: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/blog/a-mercury-retrograde-tarot-spread

[evviemarin]

Reposting cause it’s that time again. Mercury goes retrograde this Sunday, April 9, and stations direct May 3.

[evviemarin]

Just added a batch of giclée fine art prints to my shop this week. (Made to order.) It’s about darn time! These four would look great together framed and hanging on the walls of a craft room. The shop is all stocked up for the next couple months while I focus on some intensive tarot work. Will be adding more listings this summer. In the meantime, check out all the spring/winter trinkets from this year: http://www.evviemarin.etsy.com 

[evviemarin]

Happy Equinox friends! 

The Gardener’s Spring Equinox Tarot Spread: 

This spread goes from bottom to top. We begin in the underground, with death and decay.

1. Death/Passage: What died for me in the past season? 2. Decay/Fertilizer: How does that passage fertilize what comes next?

Next, we consider the perennial, and turn our attention to any old growth due to renew.

3. The Perennial (Rebirth): What renews or rekindles for me now? 4. Tending & Cultivation: How can I best greet and tend to it?

Finally, we look above ground to consider the annuals, the unplanted seeds, and our garden plans. ​ 5. The Annual (New Life/Seed): What do I plant next or start afresh? 6. Planning & Plotting: How can I best prepare to make sure that it thrives?

You can use this as a general spread, or direct it towards one area of your life. It should work particularly well focussed on your social life, work, or creative projects.

Full write up on the blog: http://www.interrobangtarot.com/blog/the-gardeners-spring-equinox-tarot-spread

[evviemarin]

Taking inspiration today from James Audubon's old paintings. The top four photos are of a vintage book: "Audubon's Birds of America: Popular Edition" Macmillan 1950. The artwork dates from Audubon's career in the 1800s. The last photo is from a set of vintage Audubon society picture cards, manufactured in the 1950s, artwork by various artists.

[evviemarin]

"Moon and Maple" by Evvie Marin. 8 x 10" Watercolor on cold press paper. January 2017