Celebrating International Women's Day with Langdon Graves

To celebrate International Women's Day, we're looking back at two 19th century movements who gave women a rare opportunity to use their voicesthe early Spiritualists and women's rights activists. Inspired by these women, artist Langdon Graves creates a series of hand-printed oracle decks, akin to Tarot, titled Home Circle

>"Home Circle is a series of hand-printed oracle decks, somewhat like Tarot but the themes and symbolism in the cards come mostly from my family’s stories. I started making these a couple years ago because I wanted to create something interactive, that could highlight the storytelling aspect of my work."

>The imagery is largely inspired by ghost stories that my grandmother used to tell, which I started to revisit a few years ago with some of the women in my family. Going back into my grandmother’s stories and visions inspired me to explore traditions and practices of spirit communication, including the 19th century Spiritualists and their home circle seances. I learned that many of the early spiritualists were women’s rights activists, and the mutual interests of the two movements gave women a rare opportunity to use their voices."

>I expanded the deck to ten cards and added two new images that come from sculptures I’ve been making. I decided to print five unique decks, each with a different color palette and some details that only belong to that deck."

>I’m fascinated by belief in ghosts and what it can reveal about the living.  Throughout this process, I learned new things about my family and realized that reopening these stories gave us a fresh way to relate to one another."

Visit Langdon's page to shop the Home Circle decks, or learn more about the series