Roots and shuffles

The design of the PRA.X.IS card deck explores the creative process through play, transformation, and uncertainty, drawing inspiration from the myth of Mayahuel. Replacing traditional suits with a new visual vocabulary of symbols, it treats ideas as fluid elements rather than fixed outcomes. By transforming abstract concepts into a tangible deck, the project invites us to step away from rigid permanence and navigate the ever-shifting nature of uncertainty.

The Undefined

Deep in Aztec mythology, there is a story of the agave. It is a tale of passion, of the goddess Mayahuel and an ill-fated love affair. Yet the story does not end with death. From Mayahuel’s remains grows the agave, carrying her essence into a new form.

Her transformation suggests that endurance is not found in remaining unchanged, but in becoming something else. The agave becomes a symbol of beauty found not in permanence, but in metamorphosis.

Mayahuel teaches that form is fluid. What seems lost is simply waiting to be redefined. The act of creating is no longer about reaching a finality, but about seeing, thinking, and forming. Perhaps even living in uncertainty. It is about embracing the ever-changing nature of life.

What then happens to our own ideas when we stop trying to lock them into a final shape. How do we keep them alive, shifting, and open?

The Play

The remedy for the static lies in play. Creation is not a monument to be completed, but a game to be played.

The deck of cards is this conversation made tactile. It is a collection of fragments waiting to be shuffled, drawn, and re-contextualized. Here, uncertainty is not a flaw; it is the fundamental rule. It is a way to explore the unknown without the need to tame it.

The New Language

Every language is built from symbols.

Traditional playing cards speak through aces, kings, queens, jacks and suits—symbols inherited through centuries of card-playing tradition.

This project proposes a different vocabulary. One rooted not in hierarchy, but in curiosity, transformation and the fundamental forces that shape both nature and human experience.

The Figures

Instead of royalty, the deck introduces symbolic figures that reflect the stages of human experience – from the unknown and observation to transformation, embodiment and identity.

The Becoming

The game concludes not when the cards are put away, but when the ideas take root.

Creation is a transformation, much like the myth of Mayahuel. It is the act of refining abstract ideas into a physical, living process—a space that is not just built, but continues to breathe, adapt, and persist through time.

This is the radical act of becoming. To move beyond the diagram and into the realm of the living. The cycle is complete, yet the field remains open, waiting for the next shuffle, the next season, and the next transformation.