The Abyss tarot
Dear reader,
Welcome to the Abyss, the thirty-third card in the major arcana. You are now inside our collective destruction. We live our lives along the Abyss's edge, careful not to name it, careful not to acknowledge the cruelty of our optimism. We are good students, good children, good scholars, good citizens, desperate to escape the failures we think will destroy us. But those failures comprise our humanity. The relentless striving is what kills. Drawing this card tells you: you don't have to pretend anymore. Reader, you, we, are unwell, but unwellness is not the failure you think it is. Look into the Abyss together and find not the end but a beginning: what does our unwellness reveal about the conditions in which we have agreed to live? The Abyss can be a lens, a diagnostic tool, a method, a praxis, a way of being in the world, a demand for care. It is time to find others ready to dwell in unwellness together. Ask a loved one what hurts; make it safe for them to answer. Stay with them at the edge of the Abyss. Ask them to stay with you. Because that is the only way to live. * Mimi Khúc & Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis
Art by Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn; Text by Mimi Khúc & Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis
A new tarot card accompanying dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss. May it help us in some small way through these dark times.
Want to speak into the Abyss together? Share what unwellness feels like for you in our living archive of unwellness.