Okay, so let me tell you about this little project I did, making an “everything is fine” tarot card. It wasn’t some grand artistic endeavor, more like a funny idea that actually got made.
Getting the Idea
It started, like many things these days, with that meme. You know the one, the dog sitting calmly in a room completely engulfed in flames, saying “This is fine.” I kept seeing it, and honestly, sometimes life really feels like that, right? You’re just trying to sip your coffee while everything around you is basically chaos. I’m into tarot, not super serious, but I enjoy pulling cards now and then. One day, I was shuffling my deck, feeling a bit overwhelmed with work stuff and life admin, and I thought, man, what I really need is a card that just gets this feeling. A card for when you’re pretending everything’s okay, but it’s really, really not.
Designing the Thing
So, the idea for the “Everything Is Fine” card was born. I’m no artist, let me be clear. My drawing skills peaked somewhere around stick figures. But I have a computer and some basic image editing software I mess around with sometimes. I decided to give it a shot.
I thought about what it should look like. I didn’t want to just copy the dog meme directly. I wanted it to feel vaguely tarot-ish. I considered using a traditional tarot figure, maybe The Fool, blissfully unaware, walking towards a cliff edge that’s also on fire? Or maybe Strength, trying to gently pat a lion that’s also, you guessed it, on fire. In the end, I went simpler.
I found a simple public domain image of a person sitting at a table, looking quite calm. Then, I started layering stuff around them.
- I added some flames licking up the sides, easy enough with some fire effects.
- I put some scattered, overturned cups nearby, like in the sorrowful Five of Cups.
- Maybe a few bent swords in the background, channeling the energy of defeat from the Ten of Swords.
- And definitely a cracked pentacle somewhere, just for good measure.
The key was keeping the central figure looking completely unbothered, maybe even smiling faintly. Like they genuinely believe everything is under control. At the bottom, I just put the text: Everything Is Fine. Simple, direct.
Making it Real (Sort Of)
Okay, “designing” was maybe a strong word. It was more like digital collage. Once I had the image looking vaguely presentable on screen, I wanted a physical copy. I don’t have fancy printing equipment. I just printed it out on some thicker paper stock I had lying around using my regular home inkjet printer. The colors came out a bit washed out, and the paper wasn’t quite cardstock thickness, but hey, it was a physical thing!
I trimmed it down to roughly the size of my other tarot cards. It looks totally out of place in my main deck, obviously homemade and a bit flimsy. But that’s part of the charm, I guess. It’s my custom card.
Using the Card
So, how do I use it? Well, I don’t usually shuffle it into my main deck for serious readings. It’s more of a commentary card. Sometimes, if I’m doing a reading for myself and feeling stuck or confused, I’ll pull it out and place it alongside the spread. It’s like acknowledging that feeling of denial or the pressure to appear okay when things are tough.
Other times, I just use it as a joke. If a friend is telling me about some chaotic situation they’re dealing with while trying to play it cool, I might just pull out the card and show it to them. Usually gets a laugh. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the biggest challenge is admitting things aren’t fine, and that’s okay too.
It’s funny how a little joke project turned into something that actually resonates. It captures that modern feeling of being overloaded but having to carry on. It’s not about predicting the future, it’s just about reflecting a very specific, very human state of being. And making it was a fun way to spend an afternoon, messing around with images and bringing a silly idea to life, even if the final product is just a slightly dodgy printout.
