More about the card deck's author

Stuart Watson is a Portland, Oregon based Family Mediator who has spent the last 20 years devoted to transforming and healing conflict, through professionally teaching conflict resolution and compassionate communication, mediating hundreds of neighborhood, family and workplace conflicts, and counseling couples through rough spots and difficult decisions. Stuart provides mediation for couples, families and supports families through divorce in Oregon. He has been a long-time Mediation Program Trainer and Coordinator for Resolutions Northwest, and a co-founder of the Oregon Network for Compassionate Communication.

A Note from Stuart

The idea for this project sparked as I was contemplating how all beings reside in, and are defined by an inextricable web of relationships, and how desperately our families, workplaces and community need the consciousness and skills of this undeniable inter-dependence. Despite the deficiency of social education and modeling, these skills are easily learn-able and can be practiced, just as with soccer, chess, or any game. “Aha!” I then realized, “I want to make a game to help people learn and integrate these interdependence skills!”

The first draft was eleven cards, the second was 22 cards. It then gradually blossomed to 77 cards, until “Hail the Fool” arrived as card number 0. My goal was to make the skill or awareness on each card succinct, specific and practical, with any of the cards being more helpful than the unconscious habits we have absorbed through mainstream culture. I wanted the images to reflect the essence of each card’s message, yet be metaphoric enough to serve as a portal to the unlimited potentiality of each person’s inherent wisdom.

The process of the deck’s creation has been one of my greatest teachers. The limited printing space forced me to drill down to the core of, and live each card’s gift. The images were revealed in dreams, conversations and from Shahastra (the artist) with astonishing synchronicity, and sometimes with difficulty in translating them to 2D. Most of all, the deck has taught me how to not force it, but instead to just be patient and allow for the natural flow of inspired creativity. 

A Note from the Illustrator

Shahastra Levy is an Ojai, CA based artist who works with a variety of forms and media.  She writes:

The transformational qualities of color, light and movement inform all of my work – from pastel and acrylic paintings to colored pencil illustrations, which is the medium for this deck. Light holds inspirational energy and color is deeply nurturing; flowing lines and shapes assist in flexibility.

Creating this collection of transformative cards with Stuart has been a wonderful, synchronistic collaboration. As I worked on the illustrations, I played various versions of healing music imbuing the work with a high intent. I also found myself focusing on the cards’ clarity of purpose and noticed the content having real affects in my life. May this deck work with your soul’s intentions, holding you to deeper and wider expansions of the heart!

Contact Shahastra
for information about
her image-only card deck
for personal / soul reflection
entitled
“Meeting the Self”
or other questions
regarding the art.