Local artist Jan Wright held an intimate workshop at the Mancos Public Library last week, helping attendees use her handcrafted Hands of the Ancients medicine cards to receive guidance and energy from spiritual beings of the Four Corners.
Wright, a Mancos-based artist and Hopi-trained shaman, designed her deck to feature 28 of her watercolor illustrations that highlight Four Corners iconography.
"Twenty-eight is a very sacred number," she explained. "There are 28 sacred numbers, 28 ribs on ribs on a buffalo, 28 main constellations."
Additionally, the cards feature the seven sacred directions, represented by a colorful collage consisting of that direction's energies and symbols. There are three paintings under each direction of rock art, artifacts, and dwellings from The Four Corners, many of which have a personal significance to the artist and were chosen carefully. A booklet is included to provide information and suggested meanings or how users can interpret the energy of each painting.
"The words just flowed out of me when I wrote this, and its pretty meaningful," said Wright.
While it's easy to compare a divination deck to Tarot, they're actually more subjective and more positive, she said.
"As I've been struggling with my own illness, that has been tremendously painful and draining, using these every day to guide me and help me figure out what is it energetically I need to do to heal."
In working with a divination deck, you might ask a question about an issue you are facing, shuffle the cards, spread them face down before you, and select a card you most feel a connection to.
"It's really can be magical how people using these cards pick just the right card for them. Some choose to pick a card each day to focus an intention and their energy for the day," she said.
Wright, an Austin, Texas, native who says she really felt the call of home here in the Four Corners, is also a shamanic practitioner. Creating her own set of divinity cards was the link between her love of southwestern art and passion for the area's ancestral healing and spiritual practices.
Many of her colorful, vibrant watercolor paintings, currently on display at the Mancos Public Library, express Fifth World energies, she says: that of manifesting Spirit in the physical. Spirit beings, whether animals or ancients, often hide within the textures, shadows, and reflections of her own paintings.
"I was looking for my own spiritual path, and everything has really evolved into just listening. Just being in nature and asking for guidance," explained Wright.
The Hands of the Ancients medicine cards are available at the Mancos Artists Co-op. Wright's watercolors, many of which are featured in the decks, are on display at the Mancos Public Library.