SOOTH - Divination Cards & Book

a new creation with artist Rima Staines

And so she is unveiled! And so she begins!

Today, as the new moon grows toward a slender crescent beside Venus, and I can smell the California summer mellowing into the ambers of autumn, I am thrilled to announce the *surprise* launch of SOOTH!

Many of you will know of Tatterdemalion, the 2017 novel I wrote in response to a series of my dear friend Rima Staines’ incredible paintings. Since then we have often been asked if we would work together again, and I am delighted to finally be able to unveil for you the secret project we have been working on since not very long after Tatterdemalion’s publication!

SOOTH is a divination deck, a joint creation birthed in deep collaboration over the past six years.

It began as a musing and a daydream under the August apple trees in Rima’s Devon garden in the summer of 2018, as we sat with books from her library strewn around us while her little one slept in his stroller.

We knew that we wanted to create our own kind of oracle, a set of divination cards at once ancient and magical, but also rooted in a sense of the living earth, of seasonal movements and stones and the ones who’ve come before. We also knew that we wanted to work in a new, even more intuitive manner than either of us had done before—to allow the living world and our soul’s singing to lead the way entirely. More than that we did not know…

So we sat down side by side with a candle lit, a strong pot of tea getting too brewed beside us, and plates of shortbread biscuits, and just allowed the words and images that wanted to come through to come through. Our one rule was that we weren’t allowed to explain to each other what we were writing or painting— we simply sat in the same humming river together, and out came the first cards and word-spells of SOOTH.

We did not know that as we put down those first words and images, each of us was poised at the beginning of a series of transformational and sometimes shattering life experiences. SOOTH accompanied us through all of them, growing as we grew, from then until now.

And so it is that we stand at the far shore, having arrived with the cards and their story-spells in our hands and hearts, ready at long long long last to offer them to all of you!

To do so, we have created an Indiegogo campaign as an easy place to pre-order your deck and at the same time raise the print costs needed to get SOOTH out into the world.

Your pre-order of SOOTH will include a set of 28 visionary oracle cards painted by Rima Staines, and a beautifully printed guidebook with Sylvia V. Linsteadt's written incantatory divinations, as well as instructions about how to use the cards.

Our Indiegogo page tells more of the story of how SOOTH came to be, and features a sumptuous film of me and Rima by the fire laying out the cards, with readings from my divinations and introduction to the deck throughout.

So, without further ado— we sincerely hope you will leap along to our SOOTH page to get yours now! And share the good news widely!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It has come to our attention that there is a sneaky attempt by Indiegogo to get you to give them a tip during checkout. Of course do tip them if you want to, but if you don’t want to (Indiegogo always takes 5% of their campaign profits so they are not, shall we say, in desperate need of donations ;-) ) just keep your eyes eagle-sharp for their tip shenanigans, and change the amount they have automatically filled for you back to $0.00

*ALL PHOTO CREDITS: Arwen Stickland © 2024*

the first of SOOTH’s spells © Sylvia V. Linsteadt