#19 The Sun
01 | 78 Kicking off this project with what could be the most positive card in the deck!
This is the first of 78 cards to come! I’m dusting off my handmade tarot deck project and officially folding it into my 2026 goals. My hope is to finish the Major Arcana by this time next year. Hopefully, sharing progress updates and pics will help keep me accountable.
For this card, I chose a dung beetle as the central image. These little guys were revered by the ancient Egyptians: their behavior of rolling dung mirrored the myth of the god Khepri, who was said to roll the sun across the sky.
My version, loosely inspired by the iconic Rider–Waite tarot, features a shimmery dung beetle pushing a gold-foiled sun. While it doesn’t include all the classic Rider–Waite symbols, I kept the sunflowers, partly because they represent the four suits of the Major Arcana, and partly because they’re simply one of my favorite flowers. Even without the white horse or the child, I still think the card shows inner strength and joy. This beetle is just doing beetle things, rolling along without a care in the world other than getting that shining orb of poo poo where it needs to go.
I’m not sure how many people realize that the scarab is, in fact, a dung beetle is just a tiny, beautiful creature pushing around a little ball of, well, shit. But honestly, aren’t we all? In traditional tarot reading, this is considered one of the most positive cards in the deck and represents joy, positivity, success and vitality.
For the more casual tarot enthusiast, I think that my version says a lot about life in general. We’re all out here doing our best, trying to take the shit we deal with and turn it into something that shines. My version says, you’re doing great, life is hard, but you are making the most of it and doing your best. Good things are coming your way.
Thanks for hanging out
— R