A new, locally created deck and guidebook gives family-friendly insight into the art of reading tarot.

In many cultures, playing with tarot is considered playing with fire. Demons can come. One may go insane.

But Enid Baxter Ryce and Luis Cámara, with their newly published deck and corresponding guidebook, The Borderlands Tarot: Tarot de Tierra Fronterizas, are bringing a positive spin to the fortune-telling card deck in use since the 15th century. This version, beautifully illustrated and bilingual in Spanish and English, is designed both for adults and youth.

The project is conducted in both English and Spanish, emphasizing the Southwestern borderlands, where Anglo and Latino cultures meet, ignoring government-designed borders. The deck contains 78 cards and Baxter Ryce developed most of the content. She and Cámara were co-illustrators.

“I was interested in tarot since I was a child,” Baxter Ryce says. Her idea was to use nature for images and make a bright, beautiful and fun version of tarot. She invited Cámara, her colleague of 15 years from CSU Monterey Bay’s Department of Cinematic Arts & Technology, to join her.

“Hearing that she wanted to put nature in the center of the project, I was immediately in,” says Cámara, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Mexico.

Tarot can be used to play card games. Yet there is a tradition of using the cards to foretell a person’s future. If, for example, you draw the Ten of Cups (Diez de Copas), it will offer you happiness in relationships and home. The image shows verdant fields under the night sky, lit up by the moon. Beware, though: If you draw the same card upside-down, expect trouble at home and relationships. “Pay attention to the language you use to describe your family members,” the book advises.

How about The Fool (El Loco), surrounded by California poppies? It means you are silly, wise and will experience emerging luck. If reversed, it warns that risky behavior and recklessness don’t lead to personal growth.

It’s up to the bookstore where the $30 box set will be placed on shelves. The Borderlands Tarot easily belongs to both the young adult or adults section, Baxter Ryce says. “It’s a great visual tool,” she adds. “It helps people to connect with themselves and nature through the mystery of images and myth.”

BOOK SIGNING and CARD READING take place at 2pm Saturday, Aug. 24. Marina branch library, 90 Seaside Circle, Marina. Free. 883-7507, bit.ly/BorderlandsTarot