If you love to explore—whether it’s realms earthly, cosmic or internal—the Travel Tarot created by Palm Springs-based writer, astrologer and tarot practitioner Jeff Hinshaw could be for you.
Travel Tarot will be released on Feb. 17 by well-known travel publisher Lonely Planet. In Hinshaw’s deck, each of the 78 cards depicts a different destination, vibrantly illustrated by South Africa-based Studio Muti. The places range from the familiar to the far-flung, from Scotland’s Isle of Skye, to Rajasthan India, to the Simpson Desert in Australia, to Naples, Italy.
Traditionally, tarot decks consist of 22 named major arcana cards, which can represent a journey of spiritual evolution, and 56 cards in four suits: cups, wands, swords and pentacles. The tarot began as a card game played in Europe in the 15th century before evolving into a tool for divination and self-discovery, with connections to astrology and a range of mystic and spiritual practices.
In selecting a location to pair with each card, Hinshaw drew upon his own travel experiences, as well as extensive knowledge of tarot iconography and traditions. The deck comes with a guidebook which includes travel stories, information about the cards, and both a question and affirmation for practitioners to consider.
“It’s a tool for self-reflection,” Hinshaw said. “People may want to pull a card in the morning or for the week. I always encourage my students and anyone working with tarot to leave the card out,” which enables different meanings and interpretations to arise.
Hinshaw has been teaching and writing about the tarot for more than a decade, and learning about the iconography and history behind the cards for far longer. Interested in card decks, he picked up his first tarot deck when he was a teenager at a game shop, noting, “I was immediately drawn to it and have been studying it ever since.”
Hinshaw was further intrigued when he learned about the tarot’s connection to astrology, which first captured his attention when he was playing the computer game The Sims as a child. In the game, players could set a character’s zodiac sign as part of their personality.
“When I started realizing that the tarot wove together with something that, as a kid, I loved in a computer game, I just was fascinated,” he said.
Hinshaw’s work on the Travel Tarot blends his studies into the tarot’s art history and iconography with his degrees in psychology and creative writing, as well as his experience as an educator. He has noticed that interest in the tarot has become increasingly mainstream.
“(The tarot) is part of the collective consciousness in a bigger way than we’ve ever seen before, and I think this deck is a part of that movement and wave,” he said. “There are lots of tarot decks coming out, but it’s an art form that has been around for centuries, and it centers ancient, archetypal storytelling.”
To illustrate the process he used to create each card, Hinshaw told the story about the Lovers tarot, which he pulled from the deck on the morning of our conversation. The Lovers is paired with Hawaii.
“On a surface level, it’s about love and relationships, and I do think of the Hawaiian Islands as a place where people fall in love, but the Lovers card is also about bringing masculine, feminine and the spiritual side of yourself together,” he said.
“There are lots of tarot decks coming out, but it’s an art form that has been around for centuries, and it centers ancient, archetypal storytelling.”
Jeff Hinshaw
Hinshaw went on to recount that while living on the Big Island of Hawaii, he struck up a conversation with a fisherman while walking on the beach.
“The fisherman drew a triangle in the sand and put three letters—a K, Q and C—at each corner,” Hinshaw said. “He explained the ‘K’ sound in Hawaii is sacred, and then he said, ‘You can think of it as K for king, Q for queen, and C for creator,’ then he looked at me and said, ‘You embody all three,’ as a rainbow appeared on the horizon. So this card is in honor of that story—the king, the queen and the creator, all coming together within.”
Though he has lived in many places, including most recently in the high desert, Hinshaw is proud to now call Palm Springs home. He was drawn to the desert by the creative and LGBTQ communities here, and said he’s inspired by the region’s unique nature, from Tahquitz Canyon to Joshua Tree National Park.
“The expansiveness of the desert feels really healing for me,” Hinshaw said. “I’m deeply humbled by nature here.”
Twentynine Palms is featured in the deck, paired with the Eight of Wands card. The design features a jackrabbit moving swiftly through a rocky landscape dotted with Joshua trees. Hinshaw explained that the card can symbolize “rapid developments and fruitful serendipity, encouraging you to cast intentions to make magic with excitement and ease.” The card is inspired by Twentynine Palms’ desert landscape, as well as the creative and Native communities that call the desert city home.
“This is really a love letter to the entire high desert,” Hinshaw said.
In addition to Travel Tarot being a tool for personal reflection, Hinshaw said, he hopes the deck will enable connection and shared synchronicities. Hinshaw said he recently went to the restaurant Farm, in Palm Springs, to celebrate the deck’s upcoming release, and took his early copy with him. Seeing the deck, his waiter was intrigued, so Hinshaw invited him to pick a card.
“When he pulled a card, his jaw dropped, and he asked, ‘Are all the cards about Cuba?’” Hinshaw said. “And I said, ‘No, there’s only one card about Cuba.’”
The waiter then told Hinshaw that his parents emigrated from Cuba. It’s moments like this, which bring people together, inspire conversations and build community, that Hinshaw hopes the Travel Tarot will inspire.
“My hope for Travel Tarot is that it brings in more purpose and intention to the travel experience and cultivates a deeper reverence for our planet and for culture,” he said. “Without even having to physically travel somewhere, this deck allows you to travel to that place in your internal landscapes.”
Travel Tarot will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 17, by Lonely Planet. Find out more about Jeff Hinshaw, including his newsletter, podcast and upcoming events, at www.cosmiccousins.com.