Liane Wakabayashi and husband Akihiko

Photos Courtesy of Caroline Parsons

Indulge in a tarot reading and you’ll quickly understand how the cards can be both enlightening and unnerving. So much depends upon the skill of the reader—in the wrong hands, the tarot is simply a deck of strange cards. The ideal situation would be to do your own reading and interpret the messages with your own personal wisdom. Sounds good, but how?

Liane Wakabayashi knew she was onto something when
the first series of tarot-like cards she created with artist Andy Boerger in 2000 helped inspire and guide her students. They were called the Genesis cards, and the results were remarkable.

After years as a journalist and creative writing teacher, Wakabayashi traded her pen for pastels, dusted off her Columbia MFA, and began to offer Genesis Workshops at locations throughout Tokyo. It worked like this: participants would first choose a Genesis card and then, without looking at it, draw freely and intuitively. Only after the drawing was finished would the artist look at the card. Wakabayashi would then help her students interpret their drawings. Some participants found answers to pressing questions, while others discovered a new confidence to create art.

Wakabayashi found the most successful workshops were those that she conducted in the relaxing atmosphere of a café, and she dreamt of someday having her own café-style art space. Two children and ten years later, she was able to turn her dream into a reality when she opened the Genesis Art Lounge last November, not far from her home in Setagaya.

“If you really want to do something, there’s often a challenge, something that is blocking you,” she says. “You feel, ‘I’m not good enough for this, I’m too old for this, what if something happens…’ What I’ve discovered is that art is a powerful way of pulling those barriers down so that we can achieve our happiness and have faith that we have everything it takes to achieve our goals.”

Nicole Mizoguchi, an intuitive artist from Texas, drawing with her son Hirota

The Genesis Art Lounge is a relaxing, colorful space. The walls are decorated with Wakabayashi’s soft drawings, which also appear on the Genesis cards. While you brew yourself a cup of tea and check out some of the 1,500 inspirational books in the library, your child can play with an assortment of educational toys or get busy with their own drawings.

Wakabayashi offers two types of art programs. The do-it-yourself Artmix Café offers a quiet, relaxing space for small groups and parties to use the Genesis cards and enjoy creativity together. High-quality European art materials are on offer at a reasonable price, as are the deck of 44 Genesis cards. Artists are invited to exhibit their work, and guest artists can give talks, teach art and also sell their work.

For independent creative exploration, the Genesis Workshops combine drawing, writing and intuitive development; art classes by guest teachers are also scheduled throughout the week. For parents, the Genesis Family workshops let adults and kids participate together, first by creating art separately, then by sharing their work.

“For people who work with tarot decks, there are many ways to use the cards,” Wakabayashi says. “My way is to use the Genesis Cards together with art. I can help people interpret their own art, but the point is to help them open their intuitive channels so that they can do their own interpretation of their drawing and the Genesis card they chose.”

Interior of the Genesis Art Lounge

Wakabayashi recalls one workshop participant who was uncertain about her planned move from Japan back to her native Europe. “Martine drew a picture of a tree encompassed by a large, bright sun. I could see that she was gathering the power she needed to move forward towards the future. She chose the #40 card—Trust—an image that looks like a moon with a red dot at its center. The tea mug she chose was printed with the picture of #12—the Dreamer—a reclining woman sleeping under a great full moon. Martine’s picture, with its giant red sun, seemed to me such a wonderful amplification of the red dot in the Genesis card, as if her own picture was telling her to trust the future. It was time to wake up from a dream.”

“It’s that simple,” says Wakabayashi with a smile. “There’s nothing more beautiful than the art you do yourself.”

For more information, see www.genesiscards.com.