How a Tarot Campaign Sparked My Mystical Art Journey, and Revealed the Spiritual Genius Behind a Fashion Empire
My mystical art journey didn’t begin in a temple. It began with a dress. Or more precisely, with a deck of cards wrapped in silk.
When I stumbled upon Dior’s Spring/Summer 2021 Haute Couture campaign, it felt like I had just opened a portal. The atmosphere was heavy with meaning. Symbols danced in low light. The Major Arcana walked like priestesses through marble halls. It wasn’t just fashion, it was an initiation.
I remember feeling it in my chest: this is what I want to create.
Visual storytelling that channels ancient knowledge. Mystical imagery. Art that whispers to the spirit before it speaks to the eye.
That campaign didn’t just inspire me, it activated me.
It elevated my photography and film passions to another level. It became my driving force, to translate spiritual and esoteric wisdom into visual form.
And then I recently discovered something that changed my perception on the brand, in the most positive way: It wasn’t just a concept.
Christian Dior himself was a mystic.
He Didn’t Follow Trends — He Followed Signs
Christian Dior didn’t build his empire on trends.
He built it on omens. He trusted symbols. Tarot. Astrology. Numerology. Superstitions.
He surrounded himself with charms, not for show, but for alignment.
At a charity fair in his youth, a palm reader told him:
“You will suffer poverty, but women will bring you luck. Through them you will achieve success. You will make a great deal of money and travel widely.”
And so he did.
Metal Star
Years later, in 1946, while walking through Paris in a moment of uncertainty, he stumbled, quite literally, on a metal star lying on the pavement. He took it as a divine message. That star led him to the address where he would open his Maison, even though it was in a quiet, residential part of Paris, far from where couture houses usually stood.
The building wasn’t ideal.
The rooms were small. His office had to be shared with his models. But the energy was right. And Dior knew: when the universe speaks, you listen.
From that moment on, the star became his talisman. It would reappear across decades, in embroidery, design motifs, and even scent bottles. It wasn’t branding.
It was superstition at its core.
The Numerology of Dior
Born on January 21, 1905, Christian Dior embodied a soul contract that revealed itself in layers.
His Life Path Number was 1 — the Pioneer. Bold, visionary, born to lead.
A number of creation. Of charting the unseen road and walking it with conviction.
His Birth Day Number, 3, gave him charm, creativity, and artistic magnetism. The number of the performer, the storyteller, the star — those who don’t just create, but captivate.
And through the full birth date, we find a Lifestyle and Environment Number 4 — the Architect. A number of form, structure, and mastery. It’s what grounded his ethereal visions into physical houses, garments, and rituals.
Dior didn’t just dream.
He built the temple the dream could live in..
Rituals in Thread and Scent
His mother, Madeleine, was a Belle Époque beauty with a garden full of roses, a woman whose wardrobe, scents, and presence would echo through Dior’s collections forever.
As a child, he watched her float through the house like a vision. As a man, he dressed women to reflect that grace. But it wasn’t just elegance. It was energetic intention.
Every collection carried symbolism. Every show began with ritual. He never launched without consulting his tarot reader. He kept a four-leaf clover, two hearts, a piece of wood, and a gold coin in his pocket. And lily of the valley, his favorite flower, was sewn into the hems of his garments — a fragrant invocation for luck and purity.
This flower became his signature scent. In 1956, he commissioned Diorissimo, a perfume built entirely around the scent of lily of the valley, to bottle the sacred and make it wearable.
To Dior, fragrance wasn’t an accessory. It was pure magic.
Perfume as Portal
His very first fragrance, Miss Dior, launched in 1947, was named in honor of his sister Catherine, a resistance fighter who survived the horrors of Ravensbrück concentration camp.
The perfume smelled of lightness — but held the weight of survival, resilience, and rebirth.
Later came:
J’adore — love, exalted and golden.
Poison — feminine power cloaked in danger and sweetness.
Sauvage — wildness, primal and unclaimed.
Dune — the mystic’s exile, the horizon of solitude.
Each scent read like a tarot card. Each bottle carried a frequency. Because Dior understood what mystics have always known: scent travels where words cannot.
The Power of Eight
One number appeared over and over again in Dior’s life: 8.
His atelier stood at 8 Rue Jean-Goujon.
He launched his house on October 8.
His iconic Bar Jacket mirrored the hourglass of the figure 8 — the loop of infinity, karma, and sacred balance.
In esoteric numerology, 8 is the number of return and abundance: what you give, you receive. And Dior gave beauty with devotion, and received timeless influence in return.
From Resurrection to Revolution
When Dior debuted his first collection in 1947 — what we now call the New Look — it wasn’t just a fashion moment.
It was resurrection.
In a world worn out by war, where women were dressed in austerity and function, he offered fullness, softness, shape. He brought back the feminine form. He turned women into flowers again.
Some critics called it reductive. Others called it regressive. But for many women, it was a return to sensuality, elegance, and reverence.
As one fashion historian said:
“Dior didn’t just dress women. He put them back on pedestals.”
The Spell Still Speaks
Even now, Dior’s magic lingers.
Under Maria Grazia Chiuri, the House returned to its mystical roots — quite literally — in the Spring/Summer 2021 Haute Couture collection, where the Major Arcana was brought to life in silk and gold.
The Empress. The Star. The High Priestess.
Each gown a card.
Each look a message.
Each step on the runway — a ritual.
Dior didn’t just create a fashion house, he created a universe. A world where fabric, fragrance, and form became vessels for emotion, memory, and meaning.
That’s what stays with me now, as a visual storyteller and creative. The reminder to follow the signs, to treat beauty as something sacred, and to trust that the most powerful messages are often the ones we can’t see, only feel.
Dior reminds us: True inspiration doesn’t follow trends.
It comes from within. It’s timeless. It’s intuitive. And it’s always waiting, just beneath the surface,
to be seen, felt, and brought to life.
Love, Mara
