No Rain No Flowers

Foreword

For me, tarot is a psychological mirror.

It lets you see where you stand in the present. Precisely because we so often tend to muddle our minds, and because the past resurfaces with its traumas and frustrations. It can quickly get complicated.

Each card, each arcana, can trigger a precise memory you hadn't necessarily thought about.

And that, in itself, is what I find so interesting about tarot: it reveals clues about the psyche, about the unconscious, that we would never have thought of if these triggers through images hadn't echoed something.

And since tarot has a very clear structure of 78 cards with the arcana, we can rely on it.

For me, destiny is a path we are woven into, and some major key stages are necessary to our evolution, and that is something that perhaps can't be altered after all.

The things we go through, we will have to live in any case, I think, one way or another. And free will is precisely what lets us walk through them the way we decide to.

But it also means having the capacity to fight back against that destiny, that fatality.

I'm someone I think of as an Animist, if I had to stick a label on myself, but it would really be the general label. (laughs)

I'm also passionate about photography and philosophy, art, music and video games.

I'm a fan of the work of Carl Jung, of Plato, of Socrates, of the currents of philosophical thought that have shaped humanity, with their questions and concepts.

These currents of thought that have marked history and also shaped human intelligence and the capacity to think. I believe we are sensitive and intelligent beings, and sometimes, faced with our fears and traumas, it's harder to make clear or wise choices.

My beliefs

In my view, nature is alive, and even if it isn't a "soul", which is a term from human language, I feel that there is something in every flower, in every tree.

These souls would be, in certain places, like guardians really. You see, in a field of lavender, there wouldn't be one soul per stem, per flower; rather there would be one guardian of the whole field, who would be there, taking care of it.

My belief leads me to think that there are guardians in nature, and it's something that calls to me deeply. I think trees communicate with each other, I think water has healing power, there must be mermaids, water nymphs, and insects are fairies. (there you go)

Well, it's mysterious, it's something I like to believe, it's not necessarily real of course, but I find it beautiful to believe in it, it enchants me, really. And I think keeping that enchanting side in life is important, it nourishes my inner child. And I tend to forget it, by the way, so maybe that's also why this tarot is made of photographs of everyday objects and nature and animals and what surrounds us: to remind us that what makes up our environment is wonderful, and when we pay particular attention to it, it can become a warm place, a home.

Astrology, in particular: these planets orbiting in the solar system, their position, their energy. I'm sensitive to it, because even if it isn't always visible to the naked eye, I believe in the people who worked on it since the dawn of time, who looked up with open hearts and set down ideas according to the cycles and their daily lives. Imagine yourself in an era with no phone, no electricity, no screens. What better could they do than observe the universe and their surroundings? It's a trace of our history. I hold a certain awareness of it.

In 2014-2015, I studied traditional Chinese medicine, which is where I discovered the Chinese concept of yin and yang, of the body, the mind, the heart, the meridians. All of this fascinates me and I hold a deep belief in it too. Energy, chi, feng shui, even the placement of furniture at home, well, anyway, for me everything is connected, everything is incredibly interesting..

The message I would like to convey to people is actually short: my tarot is called No Rain No Flowers, which means that whatever happens in life, we grow, we leave things behind, and we transform little by little to move toward our own destination, despite the storms, despite the difficult times.

Tarot lets us get to know ourselves and maybe even individuate, as Carl Jung's work suggests.

Doing this work, to get to know yourself.

Who are we? Without our traumas, our fears, our frameworks, our taboos, our limits, our filters, the diktats of society, of parents, of friends, what is expected of us, and so on.

That's where this tool comes into play.

I can only strongly advise you to take a journal, a notebook, loose sheets, a sticky note, a phone note. No excuses. Even a voice memo would do.

But write down ideas, spreads, recurring cards, poems, questions. Tell a story. Leave a trace, for yourself. Because one day, you might need to remember where you come from and how things were.

This voice matters,

Flora.

My story with Tarot

The refuge of childhood and the discovery

Tarot came into my life following a trauma and an abandonment, at an age when you're not supposed to feel that. The death of my great-grandmother, whom I loved more than anyone. She was my anchor, my refuge, a calm and enveloping love; my protector against the traumatic climate in our home, against my father.

When you're 7 or 8, you're supposed to be supported, but that wasn't my case. So I looked for that support by myself, and I found it one day, by chance. A friend read my cards with a 52-card deck. She showed me a spread and said: "Look, I can tell you what's going to happen to you, I'm going to read your cards." It was a totally new concept for me. I didn't understand anything, I didn't know.

As soon as I got home, I took a 52-card deck that was lying around in my parents' sideboard and reproduced that spread in my room. I started telling myself: "Okay, this suit = this meaning..." She had told me that hearts were for feelings, clubs for money, and so on. I tried, all on my own, to remember her words and do my own reading.

I carried on that learning in my own corner, then I started doing it for my friends. I have waves of memories like that, where I see myself reading cards, learning, and discovering this universe little by little. A universe that isn't accessible to everyone, that nobody talks about, and that was somehow taboo. I had no notion of spirituality or religion.

I was a completely innocent little girl, with no esoteric upbringing, deprived of emotional support, and I had to search by myself. At 7 or 8, the understanding of such a young brain is very limited. But the heart is open to everything. I immediately felt that pull and that certainty: this was where I had to go. This was where I could find lost knowledge, knowledge that would only be accessible by myself, through this solitary discovery.

Adolescence and the spark of The Craft

Then I grew up. I wasn't stuck in it; it came in waves, depending on what I felt like. I always did it with my friends: when we got together, I would take out my cards and read whenever someone asked me to, or I did it for myself.

And then a film arrived on the small screen: The Craft. It was about four witches who got together and did magic. I think that film is what really set everything off. And my curiosity about the esoteric came back.

I bought books, I got closer to people who practised too. Little by little, it entered even more deeply into my life. It wasn't yet a daily practice, more of an exploration, a search, but it was very present in my world. And it was hidden, of course. Neither my parents nor my sister knew. It was my secret garden, shared only with my best friend.

The encounter in Nice and my first tarots

Time passes: studies, boys, friends, nights out... It came and went, always in waves.

One day, my sister calls me. I'm a young mum then, single, living alone with my first child in Nice.

She says to me: "Listen, I came across a man who runs an esoteric shop in Nice, I found him wonderful. We talked for more than an hour. I know you like the esoteric, I'd like us to go back together."

Of course I said yes!

So we went back, and it's in that shop, "L'ère du Verseau" (The Age of Aquarius), that I bought my first two tarots.

I chose a Tarot de Marseille (Jodorowsky's Marseille) and the Psychotarot, a black-and-white deck that the shopkeeper had actually advised me against, but that I bought anyway on impulse.

After that, I kept trying to learn the Marseille. I was very interested in the major arcana. For me, the minors were far too abstract at the time, I didn't want to dive into them. As for the Psychotarot, I opened it, looked at it a little, then set it aside without paying it any attention. I simply kept it in my collection all these years. In fact, I still have it.

The big change: Normandy

Life goes on. I meet my current partner. I have a second child, twenty years after the first.

I stop working to stay home with my little one.

Then we move to the other end of France.

I'm originally from Nice, and the three of us go to settle in Normandy to be closer to my partner's family. I leave everything: my family, my landmarks, my friends, my job as a police officer.

I find myself here without work, with my child, my partner and my in-laws.

And all that free time! That's when I dive right back into it. I take out my whole collection and tell myself: "Hey, I'd like to get back to this." I take out the Oracle de la Triade, the Tarot de Marseille, and I realise it's time to update myself, because that box has accumulated more than twenty or thirty years of history.

I start selling on Vinted the decks I no longer liked or that were too old, and with my little pot of money, I buy new tarots. It's at that moment, around the end of 2023, that I discover the Rider-Waite system. I didn't know it at all, I swore by the Marseille.

I buy my first Rider-Waite and dive into this system that seems much more accessible to me for the minor arcana, thanks to the little illustrated scenes. What I loved about the Rider-Waite is its little scenes: each card tells a moment of life.

That's how I fell back into the cauldron.

Then I opened my channel, Noctua (Latin for owl) Tarot, and decided to make videos on YouTube, to bring, in my turn, my vision, my opinions, my growing collection.

And then one day, I discovered the Altered Tarot. A tarot made only of black-and-white photographs (apart from a few colour cards), very dark, animist, not easy to read, and a bit far from the meanings of the Rider-Waite-Smith.

So I told myself that my passion for photography might have its place here.

I went through my external hard drive, found my photographs, the ones from a whole lifetime, and searched in each one for the card that echoed it.

A few photos were taken on purpose to complete the deck:

• The 7 of Cups
• The 7 of Wands (the flowers)
• The 7 of Pentacles
• The 8 of Wands
• The Hanged Man

And that's how the No Rain, No Flowers tarot was born: from my memories, my sorrows, my encounters, my desires, my dreams, my joys, my travels, my passion for photography.

Inspired by the meanings of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot.

In this guidebook, by the way, I included the visuals of the classic minor arcana, with a space to write beside them. I think it can be interesting to write your own keywords, thoughts, or anything else.

The interpretations in this guidebook are suggestions. Everyone is free to make their own readings.

The Major Arcana

I like to think of them as allegories. An allegory is a figure of speech and an artistic device that consists of representing an abstract idea (like freedom, justice or death) in a concrete, pictorial or personified form. It's the whole scene that counts, describing an important event.

The 22 major arcana form an initiatory journey called the "Fool's Journey". Each card is an allegory that also embodies an archetype, a stage of existence or a great area of human life.

1. Beginnings and building the self (Arcana 0 to VII)

This first phase represents childhood, learning, and entry into active life.

• The Fool (0 or unnumbered): The allegory of freedom, of setting off into the unknown, and of the spiritual quest.
• The Magician (I): The allegory of potential, youth, creativity and the start of a project or a job.
• The High Priestess (II): The allegory of knowledge, intuition, secrecy and inner gestation.
• The Empress (III): The allegory of intelligence, communication, fertility and concrete creativity.
• The Emperor (IV): The allegory of stability, authority, material structure and protection.
• The Pope (V): The allegory of transmission, teaching, moral values and kindness.
• The Lovers (VI): The allegory of choice, free will, emotional relationships and commitment.
• The Chariot (VII): The allegory of success, action, travel and mastery of one's destiny.

2. Trials and maturity (Arcana VIII to XIV)

This second stage illustrates confrontation with the outside world, social rules and letting go.

• Justice (VIII): The allegory of balance, truth, fair decisions and laws (contracts, administration).
• The Hermit (IX): The allegory of wisdom, passing time, introspection and chosen solitude.
• The Wheel of Fortune (X): The allegory of destiny, the cycles of life, luck and unexpected changes.
• Strength (XI): The allegory of courage, mastery of impulses and inner power.
• The Hanged Man (XII): The allegory of blockage, sacrifice, letting go and a change of perspective.
• The Unnamed Arcana (XIII): The allegory of deep transformation, the end of a cycle and renewal.
• Temperance (XIV): The allegory of harmony, healing, patience and fluid communication.

3. Awakening and fulfilment (Arcana XV to XXI)

The last phase deals with human passions, great questioning and self-realisation.

• The Devil (XV): The allegory of passions, material desires, attachments and temptations.
• The House of God (XVI): The allegory of sudden rupture, abrupt liberation and the collapse of certainties.
• The Star (XVII): The allegory of hope, inspiration, gentleness and protection.
• The Moon (XVIII): The allegory of the unconscious, dreams, illusions, family and sensitivity.
• The Sun (XIX): The allegory of happiness, dazzling success, fraternity and clarity.
• Judgement (XX): The allegory of awakening, vocation, rebirth and unexpected news.
• The World (XXI): The allegory of total fulfilment, openness to others and wholeness.

The Minor Arcana

In tarot, the 56 minor arcana represent everyday events, concrete actions and the practical details of life, whereas the major arcana embody the great spiritual lessons and the major turning points of destiny.

They are divided into four suites (or suits), each corresponding to an element and a great area of existence.

1. The 4 suits and their areas of life

Each suit groups 14 cards (from Ace to 10, plus 4 court cards) that explore a specific aspect of human life.

• Wands (Element Fire): They embody vital energy, creativity, ambition and enterprise. They correspond to the area of work, projects, action and passions.
• Cups (Element Water): They symbolise emotions, intuition, empathy and imagination. They deal with emotional life, love, friendship, family and feelings.
• Swords (Element Air): They represent intellect, thought, speech and truth. They evoke decisions, conflicts, mental trials, justice and communication.
• Pentacles (Element Earth): They embody matter, the concrete, security and the body. They concern money, material goods, assets, physical health and tangible results.

2. The progression of numbers (from Ace to 10)

Within each suit, the numbered cards tell the evolution of a situation, from seed to outcome.

• The Ace: The initial impulse, raw potential or a new opportunity in the suit's area.
• From 2 to 5: Setting in motion, building, then the first imbalances, doubts or conflicts.
• From 6 to 9: Adaptation, the search for harmony, sustained effort and the accumulation of experience.
• The 10: The final fulfilment, the assessment or the point of saturation before moving on to a new cycle.

The Court Cards

I consider them to be Archetypal cards.

The Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings would be personality archetypes, because they have the energy of a behaviour, rather than being simple representations of the humans around us.

They represent facets, tendencies of the human being. Like stages of maturity, moving from the learning of the Page, the putting into action of the Knight, the nurturing of the Queen, and the mastery of the King.

Temperaments linked to the elements they belong to:

• • action for Wands
• • emotion for Cups
• • intellect for Swords
• • the material for Pentacles

A Jungian resonance: The psychologist Carl Jung himself studied the Tarot, seeing in it ancestral images born of the collective unconscious.

And since I'm a fan of his work (who hasn't read the foreword?) and of his vision, I like to reflect on the meaning of these arcana this way:

Each court figure represents an archetype linked to a stage of life or to a position toward the world:

- The Page: The archetype of the Apprentice, the Innocent or the Messenger. It is raw energy, curiosity, but also immaturity.

- The Knight: The archetype of the Warrior or the Explorer. It is movement, taking action, ardour and sometimes impulsiveness.

- The Queen: The archetype of Inner Mastery, Support or Intuition. She governs through listening, assimilation and emotional maturity.

- The King: The archetype of Authority, the Leader or the Protector. He governs through structure, responsibility, order and outer control.

The 4 Suits, which we can call: the domain of expression

These four faces are then expressed through four fundamental psychological energies:

- Wands, Fire: Action, passion, creativity.

- Cups, Water: Feelings, relationships, intuition.

- Swords, Air: Intellect, communication, conflict.

- Pentacles, Earth: The body, the material, concrete work.

The most commonly accepted system of elemental correspondences used in modern Tarot, notably inherited from the esoteric tradition of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, is the following:

- The Page = Earth: He represents initial grounding, the seed, raw potential and concrete learning in matter.

- The Knight = Fire: He embodies movement, momentum, ardour, dynamic action and the quest.

- The Queen = Water: She symbolises interiority, receptivity, emotional maturation and intuitive mastery.

- The King = Air: He represents detachment, intellectual structure, authority, the overall vision and strategy.

When a court card appears in a spread, it can indicate an aspect of yourself that you repress, or on the contrary, one to cultivate, to improve. In any case, one to pay particular attention to.

Concretely, an example:

When a Page of Cups comes out, it carries the elements Earth + Water within it; earth needs water to be fertile, but too much water drowns it. A raw sensitivity: unlike the Page of Pentacles (very pragmatic), the Page of Cups is deeply touched by beauty and emotions.

What makes him vulnerable: his "Earth" isn't yet solid enough. Faced with rejection or criticism, his emotions liquefy his defences. He can easily sulk, withdraw into himself or take refuge in the imaginary.

In summary:

Each suit has four characters who embody character traits, degrees of maturity or people in our surroundings tinted by the element they carry:

• The Page: Learning, curiosity, youthfulness of mind or the arrival of a message.
• The Knight: Movement, quick action, the quest, sometimes impulsiveness or travel.
• The Queen: Inner mastery, listening, receptivity and the fluid management of the domain concerned.
• The King: Authority, outer mastery, responsibility and the power of concrete action.

Oracle Card

The Hindsight

This tarot has 100 cards. The ideal is to make your choice to keep 78 cards. The bonus card:

means perspective, retrospection. It can be left in the deck, as the card that might ask you where you come from. It asks you to remember why you are where you are. Sometimes we forget that what pushed us to leave, to change, or to say something, maybe wasn't that bad. We can even allow ourselves the

right to change our mind about what is already past. The way we determine our past plays a key role in our present.

Accepting our mistakes, our hasty judgements, made in the heat of emotion. Accepting that we may have lacked support, understanding, love too. And that this impact is still there, crystallised in us, somewhere.

This card shows that when we look behind us, we understand where we're going. And that it isn't easy, especially when our choices make us suffer.

I took this photo in my Fiat Punto, one evening on my way home from work. On the Mathis road, in Nice, in traffic. It was raining, and in front of me it was dark, the night already well advanced.

But in my rear-view mirror, an incredibly vibrant sunset made a perfect contrast. These drops of water on my mirror, witnesses of the rain I must have grumbled about that day, came to lay a little poetry at the edge of my car door.

When I drive, it's a privileged moment, with myself, and in these moments my thoughts go in all directions, I love it. I never think better than when alone, at the wheel. And my body drives on autopilot.

So my head is free.

Spreads

Let's keep it simple. Ask a question, and draw a card. It will give a start of something about which you have a line of thought, and from what you deduce, draw a second card to go further. Draw as many times as necessary, as long as you speak out loud. It helps.

This is the Patchwork spread, my favourite.

The card on the back of the deck comes to support the whole of what's at play. Often if I draw three cards, I read the three card backs. Never further than what is laid on the table. That's my practice.

In itself, I have a strong ethic, which is a line of conduct, but it fluctuates and can change according to needs. But when you read the cards for yourself, it's different.

Don't try to avoid medical advice.

Tarot is not a diagnosis. In my view, the medical universe must remain with medicine, allopathic or naturopathic.

Tarot is a help*, not a therapy.

Remember to take care of yourself, your body, your heart, your mind.

*"Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it"

Albus Dumbledore

Acknowledgements

To my great-grandmother, Lydia: you left me so much, everything open, my heart, an infinite protection of your love. Thank you! I wasn't able to tell you how much I love you and how much I miss you.

To my grandfather, papy moustache: my passion for photography comes from you, I know you gave me that gift and until the end you spoke to me, even though I couldn't come to see you before you left. I'm sorry.

To my two boys, my infinite loves, here or elsewhere, I love you more than anything tangible, visible, or nameable. Because, to see with your heart, names and words no longer have meaning. Maybe these cards will give you some, if needed.

To Thomas, I wish you to find a path, a door, toward your spirituality. You only believe what you see, so open your eyes, your heart. Who knows?

To my cat, Curly, my two of cups, who leaves his Minette very sad, without her lifelong companion. Forgive me for having been ungrateful toward you, my friend...

To all those who open their hearts to the archetypes of tarot, to ancient knowledge and to a constant search for balance.

To Laura, gentle Light, without you, I don't know if this tarot would have seen the light of day. You put up with me, helped me, gave me your opinions, always frank, even and especially when you didn't like, or didn't understand, some of my photo choices.

I am grateful for your presence over my shoulder, like the breath of a wild bird, whose species name escapes me, but which nevertheless seems so familiar.

To Eva, who provided me with the Hummingbird of the 8 of Wands, taken on your island of St Barthélemy, and this Queen of Wands, in Salem! I'm delighted to welcome these beauties into this tarot.

To Janice, who brought me a clear vision, of simplicity. Thank you for your words, because I was sinking into madness one evening over border choices, card cartouches. That's how we met, me sinking into quicksand, and you, with a hand held out, though you didn't know me.

To Chloé, who left me wild voice messages that warmed my heart when she discovered my tarots.

To Johanna, who reshared me so much on social media, who believed in me and in this project!

To the Salon des Arcanes, Nicolas, who also believed in this project, by supporting me on Kickstarter, and by inviting me to his podcast to talk about my creations!

And finally to Anne-Marie, dear passionate soul, burning, who received the first prototype, and who flooded the web with my tarot. I know today that you welcomed it into your heart, and that your hands honour it every time you use it in a spread.

And to everyone who supported me, who believed in me, on Kickstarter, an infinite Thank you!

Flora, Noctua Tarot, 2026