Important: Backer Surveys and Other Updates!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 11:22:25 PM

It’s been a wild time, friends, but here’s some good news: I’ve received the funds from Kickstarter and I’m sending out back surveys starting today! I also sent the artwork for Fifth Spirit to my printer this morning, so I should have digital proofs to share with you in the not-too-distant future. Whoo-hoo!

Here's some important info about the backer survey and some other updates. Please read!

The Backer Survey and Why You Need It

I’m using BackerKit, one of Kickstarter’s recommended pledge management platforms, to manage and fulfill your rewards. That means your backer survey will be coming through BackerKit rather than Kickstarter, so watch out for it in your inbox folders! It will go to the email address you used for the Kickstarter.

The survey is being sent to just 5% of you today in order to make sure everything’s running smoothly before I send it to the rest of you. So if you don’t see the email yet, have no fear! It’s coming soon.

It’s super important to fill out your survey, because it’s the only way I’ll have your mailing address! You will be able to change or update your address through your unique survey link at any time before I ship rewards. Before I ship in the fall, you will receive advance notice so you can update your address if you need to before I lock everything in.

Through the survey, you will also have the ability to add extra decks and other add-ons to your reward, including the deck at the 20% off Kickstarter price. You’ll be able to pay for those items and any extra shipping through BackerKit, and add-ons will be sent out with your Kickstarter rewards in the fall.

If you added to your pledge during the Kickstarter in order to receive extra decks, altar cloths, or anything else, you will see a credit in the add-on store and will be able to select your desired items there! As long as you added the correct amount during the Kickstarter, you won’t need to pay anything extra. You can, of course, load on some more extras if you want and BackerKit will collect the difference. :D

Digital Rewards

The PDF Coloring Book and the PDF Guide Book should be available for you to download in July. With everything going on in the world, I’m working to get these ready for you as fast as I can! When they’re available for download, you’ll receive an email through BackerKit with a link to access your download.

Physical Rewards

Physical rewards are still on track to ship to you in October! All physical items will be shipped in one package. Currently, I’m still planning to use USPS for domestic and international shipping, but I’m monitoring the international shipping situation and will adjust if needed. Hopefully, worldwide shipping will be operating more quickly and smoothly by the fall!

Pre-Order Store

If you know someone who wants the deck and missed the Kickstarter, the pre-order store is open! Send them here: https://fifthspirittarot.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Continuing the Fight for Racial and Transgender Justice

Moving forward, a portion of every Fifth Spirit Tarot deck that I sell will be donated to non-profits and grassroots orgs for racial and transgender justice. This portion will be at least 10%, but I’d like it to be more if I can swing it. This isn’t temporary; it’s for as long as I’m selling Fifth Spirit Tarot. Currently, I’m donating to Black Lives Matter causes and the Transgender Law Center.

Witchstarter

Kickstarter interviewed me and some other tarot and occult creators about why esoteric projects have such resonance right now. Topics include witchcraft for resistance, questioning the notion of truth, self-care beyond capitalism, and more. Here’s an excerpt:

“I think what we’re seeing right now is a massive awakening to how we’ve been controlled by and complicit in hierarchical systems of oppression, and the resurgence of witchcraft and the occult arts is part of the resistance to those systems,” says Claire Burgess, creator of the Fifth Spirit Tarot. “Witchcraft, tarot, and astrology are all modalities that return power to the individual practitioner, rather than centralizing power in a gatekeeper institution. That’s also what makes witchcraft and other occult modalities so popular right now: A person who knows their own power is a person who cannot be controlled.”

Read the rest of the article here.

That's all for now, friends. Watch out for that survey email in the next few days, take care of yourselves, and take care of each other!

xx,

C

WE DID IT!! FIFTH SPIRIT WILL EXIST, AND IT'S ALL THANKS TO YOU!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, May 28, 2020 at 12:15:26 PM

OH MY GODDEXX, WE'RE DONE!! There are 561 of you gorgeous backers, and together we raised OVER 40K (!!) to bring Fifth Spirit Tarot into the world on a veritable slip 'n slide of love! Please excuse me while my I dissolve into a puddle of gratitude. 

THANK YOU!

I've been truly blown away by the support and enthusiasm for this project, and I've been so incredibly moved by all of you who left comments or sent messages sharing your connection to the deck. Several of you shared that Fifth Spirit Tarot will be gifted to your sibling or child as their first deck, which is an honor that positively brings me to tears. Others have shared that they're excited to use a deck that they can see themselves reflected in, which is exactly why I created it. 

There's a funny thing that happens with art and with tarot: we dream it in our own head and create it with our own hands, but once we put it into the world, we discover that it was much bigger than us all along.

In March, I temporarily lost hope that this deck would come into the world any time soon. With these intensely challenging times, the odds seemed impossible, and a tarot deck seemed superfluous. You've all proven me wrong, overwhelmingly, 230%-funded wrong! There's always a need for art, and for tarot, and for tools that affirm our identities and celebrate our bodies and broaden our minds. 

Thank you all so much, from the bottom of my mystical queer heart! You have quite literally made my dream come true, and Fifth Spirit wouldn't exist in the world without you.

What's next

I'll be emailing a backer survey to each of you in about four weeks to collect your mailing addresses, confirm any add-ons, and give you an opportunity to add more decks, books, cloths, and extras if you desire. I'll post an update here to check your emails when that happens! And in case you're wondering, you will be able to change your address on the survey up until I ship the decks, which is currently on track for September-October fulfillment.

Please note that I'm also going to have a pre-order store set up on Backerkit for folks who missed backing the deck here on Kickstarter. In the pre-order store, the deck will be its retail price (you got it 20% off here!) along with the book and cloth, and some of the extras will be available for purchase (you got the extras for free here). If you want to add anything to your reward, please wait for the survey instead of using the pre-order store! You'll have access to the 20% off deck price and bundled shipping via the survey, which will save you $$. 

However, if your non-backer friends want the deck, please direct them to the pre-order store! :D When the pre-order store is live, it will be linked at the top of the Kickstarter campaign page.

Now I've got a guidebook to finish and some bookmarks to illustrate! Speaking of bookmarks, a quick clarification: all single-deck tiers will receive 1 bookmark, and x2 tiers will receive 2 bookmarks, one for each deck!

Now stay tuned for updates on production progress over the coming months! 

Celebrate with me tonight!

My partner and I will be celebrating Fifth Spirit's success on Instagram Live tonight (the 27th) at 6pm PT! Please join us there to watch me try to open a champagne bottle, to hear more about the background and creation of the deck, and to ask me your questions! My Instagram is @the.word.witch. See you there!

And once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. 

xx Claire

STRETCH GOAL #3 UNLOCKED: I get to illustrate some super special bookmarks for you all! Plus a preview of the Guidebook cover art!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, May 28, 2020 at 08:06:19 AM

Wonderful friends and backers! There's only 17 hours left on the campaign!! We cracked another stretch goal yesterday, and it happened so quick I didn't have time to update you about it. But we did it—we reached the stretch goal I was most excited about: Original bookmarks of some cool weird thing I draw!! 

I'll be illustrating a series of at least three (probably four, maybe five, we'll see where the spirit takes me) all-new, Kickstarter-exclusive bookmarks and mailing one bookmark with every deck tier. The bookmark you receive will be chosen intuitively by me so it's a surprise when you open your package—kind of like getting a tarot reading from a bookmark! :D These bookmarks will definitely have a tarot theme and a tie to Fifth Spirit, but the illustrations will be all new. I can't wait to let my creativity play while illustrating these for you!

Speaking of bookmarks, let's take a look at what you can use them for! Here's a concept design of the cover for the full-length Fifth Spirit Tarot Guide. The print will wrap around the spine and onto the back cover of the book. The deck boxes will feature the same print, centered on the front of the lid and wrapping around the sides. You might recognize that print from the Symbology Cloth! I'm so excited for how everything is coming together!

In the meantime, we've got only 17 hours left on the campaign, and we've already put a good chunk into reaching the next stretch goal: a digital 2021 calendar with Fifth Spirit art and important astrological dates for everyone! Wouldn't it be great to have all those major transits on a calendar for quick reference? I sure think so!

Talk to you again in 17 hours! 

xx Claire 

Stretch Goal #2 UNLOCKED! Twelve Tarot Spreads for the Zodiac!
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 22, 2020 at 12:27:05 AM

Hello, incredible Fifth Spirit Tarot family! 

We cracked another stretch goal!!! *Does a little happy dance.* That means that now the Fifth Spirit Tarot Guide will include twelve additional tarot spreads for the zodiac signs! I've been creating original tarot spreads for the moon cycles and astrological wheel of the year since 2017, and I'm super excited to include some of my favorites and some totally new ones here! These will be included in both the print and PDF versions of the full-length guide. Whoo-hoo!

Speaking of, we just entered Gemini season yesterday, and tomorrow, May 22nd, is the new moon in Gemini, so here's a new Gemini tarot spread that I whipped up for the occasion! (This might end up being the spread in the guide book!) 

When I create my astro spreads, I always keep the corresponding tarot card in mind, so you might pick up flavors of The Lovers (Gemini's tarot card) in here too. <3 <3 

Gemini Mirror Spread

• 1. THE GLASS: What part of your life or self is inviting you into new relationship.
• 2. THE FRAME: What provides the frame or wider context of this self-relationship?
• 3. THE WARP: What is distorting your perception of yourself?
• 4. THE LIGHTING: How can you see yourself with greater compassion or clarity?
• 5. THE COSTUME: What can you try on or take off in order to feel more yourself? 
• 6. THE VOGUE: How can you explore yourself through experimentation and curiosity? 
• 7. THE REFLECTION: A clearer image of your beautiful self.

We're in the final week, my loves! Help me keep up the momentum and crack more stretch goals by sharing the campaign with your friends! The next stretch goal is maybe my favorite, in which I draw a series of weird, original illustrations and turn them into a randomly selected surprise bookmark just for you. Let's get there! 

And as always, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! You're making my dreams come true!!

Happy new moon! 

xx Claire

First Stretch Goal UNLOCKED!!! Plus, a lil' behind-the-scenes video. :D
almost 4 years ago – Sun, May 17, 2020 at 03:58:48 PM

Hello, beautiful Fifth Spirit family! 

Thanks to all of you, we surpassed our first stretch goal over the weekend!!! WHOO-HOO!!! That means that every physical reward tier will now receive two 3-inch-tall durable vinyl stickers FOR FREE in their shipment, and our digital-only (Art Witch) tier will get extra PDF pages featuring select Minor Arcana cards in the printable PDF Coloring Book! YAY COOL STUFF FOR EVERYONE!

We're already a quarter of the way to unlocking our next stretch goal, TWELVE EXTRA TAROT SPREADS FOR THE ZODIAC SIGNS in the full-length Fifth Spirit Tarot Guide (print and PDF). Please keep sharing and spreading the word so we can keep this glorious momentum going! 

Two weeks to go, loves! Two weeks!

In the meantime, I made you a little behind-the-scenes video with insights on how the art for Fifth Spirit was made and showing the illustration process in action. I hope you find watching this process video as cool as I do! 

xx,

Claire