Meet Maria Minnis, guest editor for The Rebis: Chariot

Hello friends, hello new subscribers!

It’s been a very busy June as we opened submissions for our upcoming issue of The Rebis, which will focus on the Chariot.

Last year at this time, while I was trying to pull together editorial and art for our inaugural Wheel of Fortune issue, The Rebis had just been born — no website, no newsletter, no Instagram presence. Our contributors took a chance on me and this publication, and together we created something profoundly beautiful. This year, when we opened up submissions, I was overwhelmed by how many of you wanted to contribute (in the best way possible). I spent hours reviewing the proposals and submission entries and felt an exciting thrum deep within me. The energy of the Chariot pulling us forward.

I’m not doing this alone. I’m very grateful to have Xaviera Lopez supporting us again as our artist-in-residence and creative director. She produced the Wheel of Fortune cover art, along with the original watercolor paintings inside the publication, and all of the branding for The Rebis. She’ll be at it again this year, bringing the thoughts and feelings of our contributors to life on the page.

Since the scope of this publication is expanding (we have doubled the number of contributors this time around — announcement forthcoming!), I decided to bring on Maria Minnis as our guest editor. I am more than a little obsessed with her playful perspectives on tarot, her introspective writing style, and the gorgeous way she expresses herself. You can feel Maria’s vibrant presence whether you’re sitting across from her in person or watching her through a screen. We’ve been working together for a few weeks to finalize our contributor list, workshop submission proposals, give feedback on editorial content, and swap ideas and Chariot stories. Maria has been an essential partner in building this next issue, so I thought it would be fun to do a short interview with her.

A bit of background: Maria is a Los Angeles-based tarot reader, writer, artist, ritual facilitator, and teacher with Southern roots. She writes and teaches about everyday magic and holographic thinking in the context of social justice and liberation, and her book Tarot for the Hard Work will be out in Fall 2023. Sparked by a Kundalini awakening after a near-death experience, Maria’s practice is inspired by voids, whale songs, Southern rituals, the moon, movement, experience, plant wisdom, and infinite interconnectedness.

You can follow her on Instagram for sex-positive and antiracist tarot insights. I’m especially loving her kinky tarot series, where she explores sexy, sensual adventures to shine a unique light on our relationships with each card.

Maria Minnis holds up the Experience card by Slutist Tarot, their interpretation of the Chariot card.

Hi Maria! We are so thrilled to have you as our Guest Editor for The Rebis: Chariot. Let’s kick off this interview with some history — can you share a little bit about how you discovered tarot and how you started working with the cards? 

I’ve been into tarot for over 20 years, starting by making my own 78 card associations. I wasn’t as concerned about getting it “right,” but more so having a psychic connection to the symbolic artwork. I do believe that it’s important to know the collective meanings of the cards because there’s an interconnected energy that runs through and between all of us. We don’t live in a vacuum — we are on an organic planet with billions of people and even more ancestors. I started reading professionally around 2017, where I used a pay-what-you-will structure until I could estimate how to price my offerings. I think there are as many interpretations of tarot as there are possible human experiences. So every time I read for myself or others, my relationship with the card evolves, even in the slightest way.

I’d love for our readers to get insight into your creative process. As a writer, artist, and witch, what is your relationship to creativity? How do you incorporate tarot into what you create? 

I think everyone is inherently creative. We’re creative when we mix food ingredients, plan parties, make repairs, and so many other things we do all the time.

My first creative encounter each day occurs right before my morning practice. I have a lot of enriching activities in the ritual list, but I tune inward and create a flow that only includes what I truly feel called to complete. Sometimes that is All The Things, and others it’s just two or three. I typically don’t get much out of the practices I force on myself. This includes my creative practices.

I have the luxury to create art in my time, my way, my space, and my inspiration. I think of project ideas every day and brainstorm wildly all over pieces of paper. I am overwhelmed by mess, so I then group thoughts by theme, then organize those groups in order of presentation. And then I begin, iterating regularly until I feel a natural end.

I’m a very methodical creative, so it makes sense that the structure of tarot works itself into my tarot practice in various intentional ways. For example, sometimes I pick a card and dance as though I am its central archetype. I really relate to the fact that my big three are fixed signs, so flexibility is always something I’m working on. That’s why I love to dance before I sit down and write or draw, to remember that there’s always enough space in the world for my art and that my favorite pieces develop in flow, not rigidity. 

You’re working on a book about antiracism and the tarot, which is so exciting — and so necessary right now. How did that idea take shape, and how has your writing process been going? 

Yes! I’m currently finishing the first round of edits on Tarot for the Hard Work (Weiser Books, Fall 2023), my practical tarot workbook. The workbook contains a ton of tarot archetype-inspired tools and strategies to confront racism, spark personal insight, and prompt social change. It’s about the everyday. It’s overwhelming, the larger picture of ending systemic racism. There’s a need for great, wide swaths of change, but it’s also the daily actions we take that add up and move the dial forward. There’s a dynamism in every single Major Arcana card from which we can use to inspire the different ways we can create change in our relationships, groups, schools, workplaces, communities, and beyond. We can make magic when we embody the archetypes in responsible and brave ways. The writing process was lovely. I received so many bold downloads as I typed, which led to some profound realizations that still influence me as a person and as a reader.

[Editor’s note: while you wait for Maria’s book to come out, I suggest you browse her Antiracism with the Tarot blog for additional resources and exercises!]

You recently taught a “Witches With Day Jobs” workshop. Can you talk about what it’s like to have these two parallel experiences: your day job and then all of the creative and spiritual work that you do outside of that? 

I don’t dream of work, I hope for intentional communities where we each play a meaningful role in helping each other get free and strive. Yet, like so many of us, I have to work a 9–5. My magic is very grounded in Earth energy and the magic of the mundane. Few things are as mundane as some of our jobs. Yet we don’t stop being magical beings once we clock in. So I created a workshop about showing up to work in magically embodied ways, making the workday flow and release smoothly, and ensuring that work takes up as little energy from you as possible. 

I’m a professional witch who also has a day job. Though these spheres differ significantly, they share some boundaries. Because I want to protect my magic, I don’t work weekends, I respond when I can offer my full attention, and I require flexible scheduling for brief walks and sunshine. Protection magic was a large part of the workshop. In a world that tells us to prioritize our precious energy for work, it is a bold and magical act to take back that energy and use it to craft the lives and worlds we dream of. 

What brought you to The Rebis? How are you approaching your role as Guest Editor? 

I wrote about the Wheel of Fortune in the last issue of The Rebis and really enjoyed the conceptual journey I traveled while writing. Every time I write about a card, I evolve my relationship with that card. That’s why I’m so excited to guest edit The Rebis this year! It’s very easy to get into a habit of defaulting to the same beliefs about each card every time we read tarot. But the archetypes are so multifaceted and widely applicable. Each issue of The Rebis inspires readers to think of one card in multiple ways through high-quality multimedia. As guest editor, I get to help creators communicate their ideas as clearly and authentically as possible. This role feels like a spell where I direct my energy to facilitate powerful tarot reflections for those who read. 

We are overjoyed to have you on the team. The focus of our next issue is the Chariot. What is your relationship to this card, and what does it represent to you? Do you have any favorite interpretations of the card from any particular decks? 

The Chariot has been an ally during some of the most pivotal moments of my life. For me, it often arises when I’m very close to the first checkpoint in a series of accomplishments. In order for me to manifest my goals, I live the dream before it happens. I push myself forward by embodying the headspace I’ll need to inhabit once I’ve passed that accomplishment. I journal as though the goal is won. I make “just in case” plans according to ideal outcomes. You might think of it as “dressing for the job you want.”

I enjoy the Slutist Tarot deck’s depiction of the Chariot [pictured above]. The card is named Experience and features a figure on a motorcycle that is positioned to one side, as though it is turning. At the Chariot, we honor the experience and knowledge we’ve gained so far and use it to inform the journey interior. We’re not parked here, just pausing at a cosmic pit stop. 

Thank you, Maria!

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And thank you, to all of our subscribers both new and old. There are over 400 of you gathered in this little corner of the Internet, and while I am not in this for the numbers, I’m filled with a lovely warm feeling when I think about our publication reaching so many people all around the world. We are all connected through space and time. Please consider sharing this with anyone in your life who enjoys thinking about tarot and creativity!