Frequently Asked Questions
Will the Brady Tarot be reprinted?
YES! A freshly designed third edition is currently in production. I cannot publish this edition without your help, though! Please consider supporting my new edition by backing my upcoming Kickstarter, launching soon.
For updates, subscribe to my newsletter, located in a yellow box at the bottom of the home page.
What is your privacy policy?
Your information will never, ever be sold. Shame on businesses who sell your info!
Can you read these cards with reversals? What are the cards' meanings in reverse?
Reversed interpretations of the cards will be featured in the third edition's book!
In general, I leave reading in reversals up to the discretion of the reader. Personally, I go back and forth with reversals in my personal practice, and follow my intuition on whether or not to use them.
Reversed cards can mean many things. It's always important to recognize regardless of the card's orientation, it still showed up in your reading, thus the energy of the card is still present in some way. Perhaps that energy is blocked, or misdirected, or maybe the energy is turned inward instead of out into the world. A reversed card could also mean the card's influence is on its way out of the querent's life. All of these interpretations depend heavily on both the position of the card in the reading and the reader's intuition.
How frequently do you ship?
I ship orders everyday Monday through Friday. If your order is received before 2 pm mountain standard time, it will go out that day.
Can I get a signed copy of the deck?
Yes! Please send us an email through the "Contact Us" button on the lower right hand side of this page with your request.
If you already own a first edition deck that you would like signed, you can mail the box's lid to the artist, who will mail it back!
There is something missing or damaged from my deck. Can I get replacements?
Yes, absolutely! Please send us an email through the "Contact Us" button on the lower right hand side of this page with your request. If your deck arrives ANYTHING damaged or missing, we will send replacements free of charge. If a card has been damaged during regular use, a replacement card will gladly be sent in exchange for the cost of postage.
You will be required to provide pictures of any damage.
What is your return policy?
Items returned in the condition they were received will be fully refunded once they arrive to the return address. Buyer is responsible for the cost to return the item, and any initial shipping charges cannot be refunded.
Do you offer wholesale?
Yes, wholesale is offered for the decks! If you are interested in buying wholesale, use the "Contact Us" button on the bottom of the page. Please remember to include a link to your storefront!
Do you have a digital download of the book?
Yes! There is a QR code on the final page of the second edition's book that links to the PDF. For those with the first edition, please use the "Contact Us" button on the bottom of the page to request a copy of the PDF.
What is your cultural background?
My ancestors immigrated to America from England, Lebanon, Syria, Ireland, and France sometime in the 1800's. My father is English and Irish, and my mother is half English-French and half Lebanese.
I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where people of color are the majority population. The public school I attended from the ages of 13 to 19 reflected the city's demographic. I was raised culturally white in a privileged family, but respect, compassion, and humanity for all people of all walks of life was instilled in me at an early age. However, implicit/unconscious bias and straight-up racism is built into the framework of being a privileged white person in a southern Black majority city. There will always be ongoing work in my heart to dismantle that framework and heal the multi-generational wounds left by hate and oppression.
I was raised believing a long-standing myth in my family that my great-great-grandmother Medora Dove (my maternal grandfather's grandmother) was 100% Cherokee. My grandfather died when I was 7, but we were thick as thieves. Some of my most formative childhood experiences were with him in the deep woods of southwestern Mississippi. He educated me about which native plants and animals were harmless and which to avoid. We hunted for fossils and arrowheads in the cold water creeks, and talked about how those arrowheads were made. Sometimes we'd gather the naturally occurring clay out of the creek and try to make pottery, but it would always end up fragile and crumbly. We talked at length about the land's original caretakers, the Choctaw people, and about his grandmother Medora Dove.
In 2018, not long before the first edition of the Brady Tarot sold out, my parents did genetic testing and discovered that there was no Native American blood in our family. Mine was one of many families who perpetuated lies about our heritage. But after spending most of my life believing this lie, the pride and kinship I felt for Native people was already built into my understanding of the world. Although I have no genetic ties to Native America, my desire to connect to, learn from, and uplift Native voices has not diminished. Having spent a lifetime on North American soil, the language of the land has been forever woven into my experience as a person and an artist.
Is this cultural appropriation?
This is a big question, and my journey with it is ongoing.
Cultural appropriation (also known as cultural misappropriation) happens when a dominant culture steals aspects of an oppressed culture's identity and uses them in inappropriate, out-of-context ways that are a perversion of its original meaning. Some quick and obvious examples of this with Native American culture would be that white lady wearing a war bonnet at Coachella, or the use of racist and dehumanizing caricatures of people as mascots.
First and foremost, this is a deck based in the natural world of North America, and is NOT a First Nations tarot deck. (You can view all the card images here.) About 15% of the deck directly references Native American culture. Making a realistic nature-themed deck about North America without considering the wisdom and insight of the First Nations is impossible and in itself a form of white-washing. Being true to the Spirit of North America was absolutely crucial to creating this deck, and the truth is that Native people are inextricably entwined in that Spirit. While creating this deck I listened to the heartbeat of North America, and the resulting body of work is an honest documentation of that dialogue. Ultimately, the Brady Tarot is exactly what it was meant to be. It's a tool to be used to connect to Source, a very vulnerable and intuitive conversation between artist and Spirit, a way to connect to others and give back, and it was made by a majority white person and will never be perfect.
Whenever there is a reference to Native cultures, such as a story or object, I tried to show it within the context of its culture to retain its original meaning. I used Native sources for virtually all of the research regarding their cultures. This body of work pays tribute to the 574 Native Nations of North America. It comes from a desire to understand and learn from the stories and the art they openly share.
The Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk had a vision as a child. In this vision, spoken by Black Elk and transcribed by John G. Neihardt for the book Black Elk Speaks, he saw his nation as a hoop of people. Within his lifetime, this hoop would be broken "like a ring of smoke that spreads and scatters" and his people would see so much suffering. He was tasked to help mend this hoop so it reformed as one again.
The following is an excerpt of Black Elk's vision:
I looked ahead and saw the mountains there with rocks and forests on them, and from the mountains flashed all colors upward to the heavens. Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
Black Elk's vision resonates with me deeply, but there is so much mending to be done by the privileged who have benefited from the systemic disenfranchisement and oppression of Native people first. The work put into this deck comes from a place of reverence, reflection, and a desire to mend. The stories openly shared by the people of those 574 Native Nations are shared with those outside their cultures by them for a reason. If we are to survive as one hoop, we must stop and listen to the Earth calling us back. We must do this work now, and we must do it together.
This deck was designed to do two things: to empower people with tools for inner exploration and growth, and to give back to non-profits which benefit both Indigenous lives and the well being of our planet. I give as much as I can afford to while still surviving frugally and without going into debt. If I continue to see success, how much I give will grow accordingly. Posthumously, 100% of the deck's proceeds and all future work will be donated to environmental and Indigenous/human rights nonprofits. I do not plan to leave a human legacy. I recognize that it is still not enough.
If it still feels appropriative, I ask then how are we to mend broken hoops without wanting to connect to each other? Without the work that goes into understanding? Without being human and making mistakes and learning from them? It would be impossible to do that work with barriers that keep us from exploring the lives and perspectives of others. Art is my way of exploring and understanding, and it is a deeply personal journey. I will not censor my exploration and education into the ideas and spaces that I am guided to because no personal or societal progress will ever be made if we take a path of avoidance.
I do welcome and encourage any constructive criticism or suggestions for how I can better serve Native American communities and the planet. Every voice in the dialogue is valuable, and if we are to grow and heal together, we must keep doing this work together. You can reach out to me through the "Contact Us" button at the lower right hand corner of this page.
If you decide to use this deck, I hope it welcomes you. May it serve as a friend and ally on your path of self-exploration and growth, as it has for me.