Cilla Conway

The Shimmering Veil Tarot

The Shimmering Veil Tarot is based – very loosely – on the idea of an eight-dimensional universe, which fascinated me. While I was finishing a painting a large oil I called ‘Weaver’ (which had gone through a number of incarnations, its last being The High Priestess in this Tarot), a friend, knowing my interest in other dimensions, suggested a lattice representing the multi-dimensional universe. A few days later, hanging a painting of The Fool, another friend said ‘You should give him a dimensional lattice to hold, too’. Somehow that triggered the idea in my head and I began this new deck.

A tarot deck – with its seventy-eight cards – tends to be labour intensive, and I paint in oils, so for eighteen months, the studio was littered with cards at various stages of creation. It was great fun. Like my first deck, The Intuitive Tarot, I based the images loosely on the Rider Waite Smith tarot, but was quite creative about it: I was painting mainly for myself, so many of the ideas were from myths I enjoy, or figures I particularly relate to (like The High Priestess, or the Snake Goddess from Crete, both of whom you’ll see below).

I don’t paint the images consecutively; The High Priestess was the first to be finished because she was taken directly from my painting Weaver. Death began as a rather sombre beginning: he was all grey, until a friend (I have some wonderfully helpful friends) suggested I brighten him up, so he’s now golden. I consider him quite uplifting now.

The concept of the eight-dimensional universe was a wonderfully complex crystal lattice, so for a while the title of the deck was The Crystal Lattice Tarot. However, I then realised that people would probably expect the deck to be about crystals, and – it wasn’t. So, I re-titled it The Shimmering Veil Tarot, to reflect the idea that there are veils shimmering between each dimension, through which the Tarot allows us to move.

The Tarot is a powerful tool for self-development. Following the Royal Road, we move from naive infancy, to a view of ourselves as powerful (The Magician), into understanding, maturity and a position in the world. However, we then begin to comprehend the deeper dimensions to life – that the superficial things of the material world that mean so much to the majority of people, are not of any real value. As we move into the higher Major Arcana, we gain an awareness of other Truths. By The Universe, we have become a completely different Being… joyous, complete, self-aware. But in this deck, there is one more step to take, into a state we can barely discern: The Golden Fool. He is a transparent soul, depicting total freedom and utter simplicity.

In The Shimmering Veil, the suits are the elements (Fire, Air, Water and Earth). The cards have symbols and numbers in the lower right of each card. I thought this might challenge new users, but feedback suggests it has not done so.

The Fire suit is about creativity, passion, intuition, inner vision. The Air Suit represents the mind and intellect; determination, the ability to visualise abstract concepts. Water represents all the emotions of the psyche, selfawareness, and the ability to empathise across the elements. Finally, the Earth Suit is the grounded, practical, down-to-earth, elemental. A mature individual needs to be able to utilise all these elements, although we usually have one or two preferred modes.

Unusually, The Shimmering Veil Tarot has eighty cards in total. There are two Fools, the Zero – who begins in naivety and simplicity and ends as the Golden Fool. Then there are two Fire Queens, one as the Cretan Snake Goddess (above), and the alternative, holding lightning (some people have a real phobia about snakes).

This deck was published in 2020 by my publishing company (cc3 publications, London), and is available only through my website.

“Absolutely brilliant art, takes the soul into a cosmic journey that it is so familiar with, almost as if journeying back home.”

 

Shamita S, UK – December 2020

“When I looked at your artwork, I was instantly powerfully propelled beyond a veil. I am international, psychic, and do remote healing work and many other things. I have over 100 decks but know this one is very special. Can’t wait! Thank you!
I share this because your images speak and resonate with me. I guess The Devas brought this Tarot Deck to mind. I had to order it now.”

 

Brenda M, Mass. USA – October 2020