Having grown up in east London’s Walthamstow, De Angelis is now based in Bali, where he lives "a fruitarian lifestyle" (yup, that means he only eats fruit), and as well as his art and design work spends "a lot of time working with energy and movement practices". The 18th Path is called the House of Influence (by greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased) and from the midst of the investigation the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, form the cause of all causes." Davide is an award-winning Designer, Art Director and Visionary Artist. He is also a Spiritual Teacher, Energy Master, and Explorer of Human Potential. In his personal life he is a skilled percussionist, master didgeridoo player, jump rope fanatic and ultra-runner.

He worked with David Bowie on artwork for the albums Outside and Earthling, as well as collaborating on an installation for the Venice Biennale (where do we come from, where do we go?) and an exhibition in London’s Cork Street. A lot of artists and designers seem to be drawing their own Tarot at the moment, why do you think that is? Are we looking for guidance in troubled times? As The Path of Aleph, THE FOOL connects Kether (Crown) with Chokmah (Wisdom). To the Qabalist, Kether is known as the Source of All, and Chokmah is known as Father God. The Path of Aleph, (The Fool) meaning OX, is about the "flowing of Life Force and creative power", showing that the SPIRIT had a beginning aim to be that of Earth and/or Sensual Being. Sometimes down is up! The ox head is also shown in the Starman Sacred Clown card, as a white light shape above the Sacred Clowns head gear.

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He is the creator of the global bestselling Starman Tarot and produced art, designs and campaigns for some of the most innovative companies and leaders in the world, including Apple, Virgin and Sony. When I was 15 I became fascinated with Shamanism, and in particular, the realm of hallucinogenic shamanic plant medicines was rich in symbolism. I did my first peyote journey at seventeen and this profoundly changed how I viewed life. Ultimately for me it is about 'revelation'; to reveal something that makes people go 'oh wow, that’s a new way of seeing this'. For me beauty is an inherent quality of our reality; it is this quality that helps us to travel through life, to feel connected to something vaster than our own small story. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust was recorded at Trident Studios in Soho, so Bowie and people working with him would often end up in my dad’s restaurant after a late session.My dad was also a musician and he really liked Bowie and always found him very polite and respectful. In those days Bowie liked a few glasses of red wine and he would often hang out with Tony Visconti, his producer, chewing over ideas. Bowie looked at the young boy’s art and said to him: "I can see clearly you are an artist. Can we draw something together?" De Angelis explains: "Bowie and I are now sitting together in an off-world realm, far from the illusion of Soho. We are drawing together. We find a conclusion in the drawing and I hear myself asking Bowie if I can one day create something for his record sleeves."

You are the inventor of your Self-Awareness and therefore, not the fear and desire you are reflecting on. You are the mirror upon which all imagined-self appears and disappears.

So going back to 1973, did you know Bowie’s music when you were ten? What were your impressions of him when you were a kid?

For me, Bowie’s music literally ignited an energy in the world that had never before been experienced. With him, it was a complete immersion experience – the art and the sounds united in a transcendental wave through our minds and bodies. The night after I learned about the death of David Bowie, I had a dream about him. In the dream, he appeared with a guitar in his hand, eager to teach me how to play it. That same night, my youngest daughter had also had a dream about David. The sense of loss and disbelief for both of us (as for so many) was immense. The obvious meaning of my dream ties in with the most obvious theme of the Starman Tarot by Davide and Ester de Angelis. In the companion guide book Davide says:

He has been fascinated and actively involved in the fields of consciousness, magic and physical movement and energy practices for more than 35 years. In his early life he spent over a decade training with Shamans and Energy Masters from both East and West, ultimately developing his own methods of teaching and sharing ideas to enhance the human experience. While some of the images on the cards clearly depict a man or a woman, some of the characters are ambiguous as far as which sex they are. I love this because it reflects David Bowie’s gender-bending persona. Just as importantly, for me anyway, this is in line with my own personal philosophy that it doesn’t matter whether you are a woman or a man, you have both masculine and feminine qualities that you can tap into.We are being invited [by the Starman] to see the inherent nature of the human condition and look at what has been fashioned by culture through the ages, the belief and value systems we have simply adopted. His glorious presence awakens us to see another realm entirely and, in that resonance, seemingly irrefutable facts are seen as fictions’ (p.24). The ‘alien messiah’ and his tarot is a medium we can use to explore ourselves and to bring us into a higher level of consciousness and bring in a New Aeon for humanity. This obviously draws on from other magical currents including Thelema and the work of Crowley, although not really mentioned in the book were obviously influential to Bowie.

For one example, the Lovers card is simply gorgeous to look at. Around the lovers’ midsection, there is a swarm of bees. In the guidebook, the artist notes that the bees are dripping with honey, and that honey is an ancient symbol of love and fertility and was thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac. There are dozens of bees in that image. Yet, how many bees were needed to convey the symbolism: Would one bigger bee, or even a few bees, be enough? The Starman Tarot is an emergent phenomena seeded and inspired by the artistic collaborations of Davide De Angelis with the iconic David Bowie. The Starman Tarot is an emergent phenomena seeded and inspired by my artistic collaborations with the iconic David Bowie. This combined with my deep desire to explore and visualize the nature of reality, has given birth to rich and complex forms of graphic art-'potent visual alchemy' as Bowie described it." As I mentioned up top, the drawings on the cards are spectacular. The palette is rather dark but with bursts of bright color. The imagery is dense and the emotional intensity is off the charts. The essence of a new understanding and evolution of human consciousness that is guided/instructed/inspired by a facet of the Divine we can all the Starman. You can think of him/her.When I work on a piece of art I want to surprise myself, to challenge my own ideas and beliefs about what is true, what design or what art needs to be. If I’m working on an identity project for example, I look to question what 'identity' is in each project, how can I answer this question and find a way to really bring a new feeling to life for my client and their audience, to help them see hidden possibilities within their business and their ideas. It is appropriate to follow one's heart, and true calling, but it is immature to run away from one's obligations.