That sentence may not sound remarkable, but for me it is. The deck has existed for years as notes, sketches, and ideas. Over the last year, it has taken shape as a completed system with finished cards, a little white book, and a companion volume in progress.
At the moment, I am waiting for the final print-ready files. The deck itself is complete; what remains is the work of preparing it for publication.
Yet here, at last, is a version I can shuffle and hold in my hands!
Last night, I asked the cards about this strange in-between moment: the deck is finished, yet not quite published. Real, yet not fully born into the world.
I used the Three Dimensions Spread, which draws one card from each arcana to explore the three dimensions of creation described in the Sefer Yetzirah: Soul, Time, and World.
What surprised me was that all three cards pointed toward the same theme of revealing what has already been taking shape.
Soul Card - How am I meeting this moment?
Father of Cups - Guardian of the Open Cup (Action עֲשִׂיָּה)
Feeling deeply without losing clarity. Holding steady within emotion.
(Fire of Water)
The Father of Cups reminds me that not every challenge requires action. He remains present.
I am no longer asking, "How do I get this deck published?"
Instead, I seem to be asking: "How do I remain steady while the final pieces arrive in their own time?"
Time Card - What is unfolding in time?
Ten of Cups - Grace Made Visible (Presence שְׁכִינָה)
Shared joy. Love that endures because it has weathered strain.
(Tribe of Naftali, Pisces, Days of Rain, waning moon of Adar, Shabbat HaḤodesh)
This card seems literal.
The deck is visible.
For years it lived only in imagination and scattered notes. Then it lived on my computer. Now I can shuffle it, read with it, and place it on the table.
The title, Grace Made Visible, describes exactly what has happened.
The Ten of Cups speaks of joy that has survived effort, uncertainty, and delay. It belongs to the sefirah of Malkhut/Shekhinah, the realm where things become present and tangible. It is associated with the month Adar and Shabbat HaḤodesh, both of which carry themes of renewal and preparation.
The deck is no longer an idea. Now that it is real, our relationship begins.
World Card - What deeper structure or force is shaping this situation?
Reish/The Sun - (Jupiter) Peace and War
The Path Between Connection and Compassion
Where things stand revealed. In alignment or opposition.
The Sun does not create. The Sun reveals.
For months I have been living in the future:
When the files are finished.
When the deck is printed.
When the companion volume, The Tarot of Returning, is complete.
The Sun asks: What already exists?
Something real has already been created. The deck stands revealed.
Summary
World: Revelation.
Time: Something long-hidden becoming tangible.
Soul: Steady presence.
I have revised the cards and the little white book more times than I can count. There is still work to do. The final files are not yet at the printer, and the companion volume remains unfinished.
Yet the Eilat Tarot seems less interested in what remains undone than in what has already come into being.
Perhaps that is the lesson of this reading: sometimes the thing we are waiting for has already begun.
I spent much of this morning revising the “Structure of the Deck” section of the Little White Book for the Eilat Tarot. I had the deep certainty that it is finally complete. *
There is still more work ahead. I’m waiting for Amashé to finish the graphic design work that will refine the cards. Then I can submit them for professional printing, which will take about a month.
But I was tired of waiting. So I printed the current draft of the cards at home and trimmed them by hand.
They are a real deck now! After existing only in my imagination and on my computer screen for so long, it feels amazing to finally hold them in my hands.
I shuffled the deck and drew three cards using the Three Dimensions Spread from my LWB. It is a spread that draws one card from each arcana of the Eilat Tarot:
World Card - What deeper structure or force is shaping this situation?
Time Card - What is unfolding through time?
Soul Card - How am I being asked to meet this moment?
World Card:
Mem - The Hanged Man
Concealment
The Path Between Reverence and Persistence
Hidden depth. What obscures.
In the Sefer Yetzirah, the letter Mem is associated with water and concealment. As a World Card, it points toward hidden formation: immersion, gestation, inwardness, and what has not yet fully emerged into view.
The card suggests that something essential in this project still remains beneath the surface. The deck exists physically now, but its deeper meaning is still unfolding.
The path associated with Mem runs between Reverence (Hod) and Persistence (Netzaḥ). For a little over a year, I have persisted through an enormous creative labor. Yet this card suggests that persistence alone is not enough. The deck now asks for reverence: pause, contemplation, and the willingness to let the work deepen rather than forcing completion.
Some things ripen in concealment. Perhaps the Eilat Tarot is one of them.
Time Card:
Five of Cups - The Mourner’s Path
Restraint (Gevurah גְּבוּרָה)
Grief acknowledged. Mourning that must be lived through before hope can be seen.
This felt like a strangely vulnerable card to appear in the first reading with the deck.
It seems to acknowledge not only the labor behind the project, but also the losses behind it: aliyah struggles, the surgeries, disappointments, yeridah, loneliness, and spiritual searching.
And yet this card is not despair. In the Eilat Tarot, the Five of Cups is associated with Gevurah: restraint, endurance, and the strength required to live honestly with grief without allowing it to become the whole story.
This card is also associated with the month of Ḥeshvan and with Yom HaAliyah. That pairing moved me unexpectedly. Crossings are never clean. Arrival always carries loss within it. And I suspect this deck might never have become real if I had not eventually returned to the United States.
Soul Card:
Mother of Cups - Keeper of the Veiled Cup
Formation (Yeẓirah יְצִירָה)
Sustaining compassion. Remaining present without excess.
(Water of Water - Neshamah, the soul of inward discernment)
This card answers the question of how I am being asked to meet this moment.
Gently. Inwardly. Without forcing revelation.
The Keeper of the Veiled Cup echoes Mem in striking ways: hidden waters, inward discernment, sacred concealment, and emotional depth held with care rather than exposed too quickly.
Because this particular Mother card corresponds to Neshamah, the soul of inward discernment, it feels more contemplative than emotional. It suggests quiet wisdom, compassionate restraint, and trust in what cannot yet fully be articulated.
This card seems to ask me to hold the project tenderly.
Conclusion:
Together, these three cards form a coherent reflection of this moment. All three are marked by hidden water, veiling, inwardness, grief honestly inhabited, and patient becoming.
This does not portray a triumphant ending. It seems more like the sacred pause after birth.
I now hold the Eilat Tarot in my hands. But whatever this deck is becoming is still unfolding quietly beneath the surface.
______
* I am a born editor. I have revised it twice more. So far.
Over the last few days, I pulled cards to reflect the progression of this week. Their message now seems surprisingly literal.
I have been feeling physically unwell for some time: headaches, abdominal pain, intermittent fever, exhaustion, and a persistent sense that something is wrong. Last night I finally stopped trying to ignore it. Today I went to the doctor. Blood tests, a CT scan, and a gastroenterology appointment are now scheduled.
Seen in the context of a medical issue, the cards describe vulnerability, discernment, and movement toward care.
Ace of Pentacles - The Gift of Earthly Presence
Divine Will - כֶּתֶר
A gift of physical life. The seed of embodied blessing.
The sequence begins with embodiment itself. The body is not incidental to spiritual life. Physical existence itself has become the focus of my attention.
Nine of Swords - Night of the Mind
Connection - יְסוֹד
Rest denied from within. Troubling thoughts brought honestly to prayer.
This card reflects the fear that arrives before answers do. Fear of what the tests may reveal. Fear amplified by fatigue and uncertainty.
Son of Swords - Rider of the Clouds
Creation - בְּרִיאָה
Probing and questioning. Quick thought without full discernment.
This is the impulse to diagnose before diagnosis exists. Speculation. Interpretation. This is the impulse to diagnose before a diagnosis exists: speculation, interpretation, the mind rushing ahead of reality.
Six of Swords - The Quiet Crossing
Compassion - תִּפְאֶרֶת
Careful passage toward safety, even when the journey remains incomplete.
This card changes the emotional direction of the reading. It does not promise immediate resolution, but it does suggest movement toward care. Seeing a doctor. Beginning the crossing rather than remaining stranded in uncertainty.
Seven of Cups - The Illusion of Choice
Persistence - נֶצַח
Proliferating desires and imagined outcomes. The need for discernment.
There are many possible explanations for feeling unwell. My imagination can generate futures faster than reality reveals them. This card cautions against treating every imagined outcome as certainty.
Samekh - The Chariot
Sagittarius - Sleep
The Path Between Reverence and Compassion
Carried in the unseen. Movement that continues.
The final card advises reverence for the body and compassion toward vulnerability. The most important thing I can do right now may be to rest and allow the process and healing to unfold.
One reason I created the Eilat Tarot was to explore tarot not as prediction, but as a symbolic language capable of clarifying lived experience. Sometimes the cards do not remove uncertainty. Instead, they reveal the structure within it.
