3.5 years ago I did something crazy
Jul 07, 2025
Hi everyone,
I am Sean, Lieselle's son and collaborator and artist on Lieselle's Eternal Tarot deck.
Three and a half years ago, I did something crazy. Something I never thought in my wildest dreams I would ever do. I started drawing a Tarot Deck (in collaboration with my Mom).
To give you some context on how absurd a development was for me at the time...I was as far away from being "spiritual" as one could be. I believed meditation was for hippies, Tarot for the misguided and intuition a fairytale.
This started from a young age, where I always felt this "thing’" was a club I didn’t belong to, nor was accessible to me. Whilst my mom and brother could tap into unknown worlds and perceive things I could not, I rebelled, and consequently labelled it as stupid. My life carried on.
Months before this seemingly insane decision, in a crowded club in Melbourne, Australia, I stood paralysed as I watched my future hopes and dreams crumble before my eyes. Time was abstract, action impossible, as the pieces of the completed jigsaw that was my life, no longer fit together.
What happened then isn’t important; what happened next is.
A chance unplanned tarot reading (my first) revealed The Tower. When I asked what it meant (a sudden upheaval, the foundations being ripped asunder), I instantly felt this reflected my current reality. I also had an unexplained urge. No, a calling would be more appropriate - to draw my own Tarot Deck (feels weird for me to even say that now).
The next two years were filled with bliss, despair, re-found connection with my family, betrayal by my best friend I had known most my life, endless medical appointments and crippling side effects of prescribed medications, one after the other. But one thing remained constant; this deck and the relentless drive to complete it. The life raft in
the storm, where the crown was lost, the tower crumbled, and the foundation shattered.
I didn’t expect anything after completing the deck. My tendency to cynicism told me it wouldn’t go anywhere, it was pointless, and no one would care. Thanks to my Mom, we got it over the line, and she secured a reputable publisher to showcase our vision of the Tarot to the world.
Besides occasional setbacks, one could assign to the rhythms of regular life, today a new foundation is being set, upon which a new tower can be built. A crown adorned with hope, resilience and compassion will rest upon its apex.
Whilst "Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot" bears my Mother’s name, it is a deck we both poured our souls into. The cards are a testament to an ever-strengthening bond between Mother and son, and of a shared journey through the most chaotic years of my life (it wasn’t easy for my Mom either).
We are nearing a finish line of sorts in the coming months; close to four years since I started drawing, our deck will finally be published.
I’d like to end with a memory of that time, with someone I once held dearly.
She, like me, believed her artistic endeavours would amount to nothing. She is a brilliant writer, writing in a style I can’t describe. It was as if you were a fly on the wall, actually experiencing the scene. The emotions, the absurd and sometimes dark conversations of strangers out of focus, the fragments of thought we experience (but never talk about), wrapped up in such a manner that it just worked. In a moment of dejection, she exclaimed to me (as she usually did) that it was all rubbish and no one would ever see it.
But for once, I stopped and considered my response beyond the regular reassurances. “I’ve read it and it has enriched my life to have done so. And even if only one person in the world has their life enriched by reading your work, then I think it is worth it.”
I hold the same opinion now, if our deck and the story behind it can enrich the life of just one person. It would all be worth it.
If you have gotten this far, I want to sincerely thank you for reading this story, and for your ongoing support. If you are interested in our work and would like your own copy of Lieselle's Eternal Tarot, you can preorder here.
Sean