Connect with Stephanie

  • Website: https://playdatewiththeuniverse.com/
  • Instagram (deck): @playdatewiththeuniverse
  • Instagram (artist): @stephjgilbert
  • TikTok: @steph_gilbert

About this episode:
Bex discovered and backed a tarot deck on Kickstarter, called Playdate with the Universe. Once she got her hands on the deck she knew she needed to know more about the origin story and talk to the creator of this exquisite deck Stephanie Gilbert.

And what a talk they had!

Stephanie Gilbert had a bingo card for 2025. One of the squares was to create a tarot deck. Then, on January 7th, the Eaton fire swept through Altadena and she and her husband lost their home, their community, and almost everything they owned. Six months later, something stirred. She picked up scissors, started collaging tarot cards, and posted them on TikTok. The Fool went viral. Stephanie found herself committed to one of the most ambitious creative projects of her life.

The result is the Play Date With the Universe, a 78-card hand-collaged tarot deck, sourced from vintage magazines and books spanning the 1920s to the 1990s.

What we cover:

  • The bingo card and the fire that changed it all
  • Why she started collaging in 2024. burnout, isolation, depression, and a book called Play by Dr. Stuart Brown
  • How The Fool card went viral on TikTok and locked her in to completing the full 78 cards
  • Creating in public: the vulnerability, the flow state, and what happens when tarot purists have opinions about your Tower card
  • The INNER-GY: Stephanie's original framework in the guidebook — what each card feels like to your inner child
  • A song for every card: how she built a full nostalgic playlist into the deck
  • The monarch butterfly that travels from The Fool to The World — and why she cried when she made The World card
  • Why the Hierophant is just a single key (and why that's perfect)
  • Social media fatigue, playing online, and why she thinks the tide has shifted
  • A podcast-exclusive announcement of her next project

Mentioned in this episode:

  • Play by Dr. Stuart Brown
  • The Wild Unknown tarot deck by Kim Krans
  • Kickstarter (where the deck launched)
  • Carl Jung's Bollingen Tower (the inspiration behind Stephanie's Tower card)
  • Alan Watts philosophy videos on YouTube
  • The Eaton fire, Altadena, January 2025



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