Illustrating the The World
The World card, number 21 and the final card in the tarot major arcana, is a peaceful conclusion to the Hero’s Journey. I like what tarot author Michelle Tea says about this card:
“When the World Comes into your life, you have, quite simply, won… You’re receiving no less than a congratulations from the Universe!” (1)
As you may know, I am a space nerd. You can read more about my love of space in this post about my illustration of The Sun card. For now, I’ll focus on why I chose the Milky Way Galaxy as “the world” instead of planet Earth.
HINT: Scroll to the end of this post to see the final card design!
Pale Blue Dot
In early 1990, I was getting ready to start high school, and I was working my first paid gig in a performing dance company (more on that here). That same year, the NASA spacecraft Voyager 1 took this photo of planet Earth as it hurtled away from us, 3.7 billion miles away.
Astrophysicist and author Carl Sagan was a visiting scientist on the Voyager project. According to NASA, it was his idea to photograph Earth from so far away. We needed some perspective, literally, to see our home planet as the vulnerable yet gorgeous planet that it is.
Sagan’s book, Pale Blue Dot, followed. In it, he says:
“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world,” he said. “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
This is the ethos I wanted to capture with my illustration for The World card.
The famous “Pale Blue Dot" photograph of Earth, as seen from Voyager 1 spacecraft, 1990. Photo courtesy of NASA.
Examples from other tarot artists
Traditionally, this card is illustrated with a brilliant laurel wreath floating in the sky, and an angel-like woman floating within it. Other cards show the planets in alignment.
Here are some examples of The World card from various tarot decks I use.
The World cards from my collection of tarot decks; see footnotes for artist credits.
You are here.
I always loved the “you are here” meme, especially when paired with a photo of planet Earth. I decided to build on that for my illustration of The World. I added in my artist’ rendition of the Milky Way galaxy (there are no photographs of our home galaxy, we have simply never sent spacecraft far enough to be able to photograph it).
My sketch of The World tarot card.
Acrylic paint pen, colored pencils, and correction fluid on paper.
Painting space
I combined liquid watercolor and liquid black ink on wet watercolor paper to create the deep-space background for this illustration. Once that dried, I added the distant stars with Ph Martin Bleedproof White paint, diluted with water and flicked randomly onto the painting with a stiff paintbrush.
I layered my hand-drawn linework from Procreate on top of my painting to get a multi-layered effect.
Here is the background painting by itself:
Watercolor and ink background painting I created for my illustration of The World card.
The final illustration
What do you think? Leave me a comment below! I love to hear from you.
The World card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026. All rights reserved.
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Next up: The Suit of Cups
I am taking on the suit of cups for the next phase of this project. Cups represent the emotional realm, and the element associated with cups is water. Be sure to subscribe to be notified when I post each illustration this fall.
What do you think of this card?
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Footnotes
Materials and technique notes from this post
Blick Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper; EcoLine liquid watercolor paint and brush pens; Winsor & Newton masking fluid. I use an Epson Workforce Pro printer to print my drawings onto watercolor paper, using their water-resistant Durabrite ink.
Linework is drawn by hand with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro using Procreate app, and added as image layers on top of scanned painting using Photoshop.
Roman numerals and all calligraphy were drawn by hand using Procreate, Apple Pencil and iPad Pro.
Artists of other tarot cards featured in this post
Clockwise from top left: Rider-Waite Tarot, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith; Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle; The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans; The Gentle Tarot by Mari in the Sky; Rainbow Heart Tarot by Rachel Rosenkoetter; and The Reclaimed Tarot, ReClaim it! PDX, collage by various local artists.
Learn about tarot
(1) Want to learn more about tarot? I highly recommend the book Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self through the Wisdom of the Cards by Michelle Tea.
A note about Ai and this project
I do not use Ai (artificial intelligence) to write any of the content for this blog, my other blog Behind the Scenes, or this website.
