About Quni Samiyuq
Following the Guiding Star
Some journeys begin long before we know where they are taking us.
I created Quni Samiyuq while preparing to walk through the Sacred Valley of Peru, following a trail of Tarot, history, landscape, curiosity, and a few unexpected threads that seemed to find their way into the journey.
The short answer
What is Quni Samiyuq?
Quni Samiyuq is my interpretation of Tarot through the landscapes, history, symbolism, and cultural traditions of the Andes, with a particular focus on the Sacred Valley and the Inca world.
Tarot is my language, and I wanted a deck I could carry through Peru that would help me connect more thoughtfully with the land I was walking through. The mountains, the Inca roads, Quechua language, Andean cosmology, and the relationship between people and the land all began finding their way into familiar Tarot archetypes.
I am not an Inca or Andean scholar, and this deck is not meant to represent an ancient Inca Tarot tradition. It is a personal interpretation created through research, curiosity, and a genuine desire to approach the culture and land with respect. It is the deck I wanted to carry with me as I walked the Sacred Valley, listened to the land, and continued learning.
The making of the deck
Notes from five weeks
Explore the five notes
I have traveled with Tarot since 2019. Wherever I go, my cards come with me. I love connecting with the history and culture of the places I visit, and Tarot has become one of the languages I use to understand what I am experiencing.
When I decided I was finally going to Peru and the Sacred Valley, I wanted to find a Tarot deck created by an independent Peruvian artist, preferably something hand-drawn that I could purchase directly from the person who created it. I searched, but I couldn't find the deck I was looking for.
With about five weeks before my trip, I finally thought, That's it. I'm just going to make one.
I began researching Inca history, Quechua language, Andean traditions, symbolism, cosmology, and the landscape itself. At first, I was simply making cards. One card became another, familiar Tarot archetypes began taking on new names and imagery, and somewhere along the way, what started as a deck I wanted to carry through Peru became Quni Samiyuq.
It is still, at its heart, a travel deck. I made it to walk with me. To pull from my bag while sitting in the Sacred Valley, along an Inca road, beneath the mountains, or wherever the journey takes me, and use the language I know to deepen my understanding of the landscape and culture around me.
About the traveler
Meet Connie
Hello! It’s nice to virtually meet you.
It all started in 2016 when I took a class on the Hero’s Journey that introduced me to Tarot as a way of taking that journey through the cards. As they say, the rest is history.
Today, I pull cards nearly every day. I have led three Tarot book clubs and currently lead a divination study group twice a month, where we explore all kinds of divination systems. Somewhere along the way, these 78 archetypes became one of the languages I use to understand life, human behavior, and my own experiences.
I am endlessly curious about the world. I love art, history, mythology, archaeology, psychology, philosophy, science, and the belief systems humans have created across cultures and throughout time. The more I learn about perspectives beyond my own, the more room I find for compassion, empathy, acceptance, and openness.
Travel is one of the ways I learn, and walking is one of my favorite ways to experience a place. I am a hiker, a mountain girl, and someone who would almost always choose an archaeological site, mountain trail, ancient road, or extraordinary landscape over a city. I love immersing myself in a place before I arrive and then discovering what happens when I finally step into that landscape and walk it for myself. That makes walking among the mountains and ancient paths of the Sacred Valley particularly meaningful to me.
I am also a nature-loving Pagan who celebrates the eight Sabbats and has spent much of my life informally studying religion, mythology, gods, and goddesses. I tend to meet them through the lens of archetypes and the collective unconscious. I don't need every way of understanding the world to give me the same answer. I simply want to keep asking questions.
Quni Samiyuq grew from all of those parts of me: the devoted Tarotist, the immersive traveler, the lifelong student, the mountain walker, the creative maker, the nature lover, and the person who will always remain endlessly curious about what might be waiting around the next bend in the trail.
A dedication
For Sami
Before there was Quni Samiyuq, there was a dog named Inca.
Adopting Inca created a curious thread connecting his shelter name, his adopted name, and a journey to Peru that hadn't even begun.
While creating this deck, I discovered that thread. And it became part of the reason this deck is named Quni Samiyuq.
This deck is dedicated to him.