Tarot with Gabriel
From a WhatsApp chat to a table anyone can book, in Tulum or on a call.
tarotwithgabriel.com, captured in October 2026.
The client
(The client)
Gabriel has read the Tarot de Marseille since 1992. He reads at his table in La Veleta, Tulum, and by video call for anyone who cannot come, and he offers full readings, single questions, readings for couples and malocchio clearing, the Italian work against the evil eye.
He came to the cards from a kitchen. He was working as a chef in Paris when an economic crisis ended that chapter, and he went back to a deck a medium had given him six years earlier. He is also a visual artist, and in April 2026 The Tulum Times published a long interview about his practice.
Where we found them
There was no website. Every reading was arranged in a WhatsApp chat with Gabriel himself, and the readings and their prices were written by hand on signs where he reads.
For someone already in Tulum, that worked. For someone abroad, in another time zone, it meant a message, a wait and a back and forth about hours before anything was booked. Apart from the newspaper interview, there was nowhere to read how he works.
What we saw
Every booking was a conversation
Readings, days and hours were settled message by message, and Gabriel answered each one himself.
Two kinds of visitor, two clocks
Some people sit at his table in Tulum. Others can only meet him on a video call from another country, so every time had to make sense in both places.
His tradition is easy to get wrong
Most tarot imagery shows the Rider-Waite deck. Gabriel reads the Tarot de Marseille, and the portrait we started from had cards from the other deck painted around him.
Malocchio needed his words
The evil eye sounds like theatre. Gabriel describes it as the ordinary weight people pick up from others, and the site had to explain it the way he does.
The plan
We started from his own words. The interview and his signs became the only sources of fact: his quotes stay in his own English, and anything not on record, from how long a session lasts to what clients say about him, stays off the site until he confirms it.
The brief asked for suspense, smoke and cards a visitor can actually play with, set between tarot and the night sky, without slowing down the one thing that has to be easy. Booking a reading had to take a couple of minutes. So the motion lives around the booking and never in its way, and with reduced motion the whole site stays complete and still.
(What we built)
What we built
We drew Gabriel a mark, built a bilingual site that feels like sitting down at his table, and gave him a booking system with a panel he runs himself.
A table set in three dimensions
The home page opens on a small 3D stage. Gabriel stands at its center, cut out of his portrait with the painted cards taken away, and real cards from the Marseille deck Nicolas Conver printed in 1760 fly in on a spiral, settle into a ring around him and follow the pointer. As the page scrolls, the ring turns and fog rises from the next section.
His five readings are dealt onto the table one card at a time, the way a reader throws them. Gabriel is always a real photograph: his face is never animated or regenerated, and anything made with AI is only atmosphere, like the smoke and the table.
A card for today
Visitors pick one card from a fan and get a short reflection for their day, in English or in Spanish. Each device gets one card a day, and a fresh fan appears after local midnight.
The reflections were written for the site from the traditional meaning of each card, and they say plainly that they are something to think with, not one of Gabriel’s readings. Death and the Devil are left out of the draw, so nobody starts the day with a frightening card.
Booking that takes a couple of minutes
A visitor chooses a reading, a day and a time, then leaves their details. Times appear in Tulum time and in the visitor’s own time zone, and the database itself refuses a second booking for an hour that is already taken, so two people can never hold the same seat.
The price is read on the server at the moment of booking, and a confirmation email in the site’s style goes out in the visitor’s language with a booking code. Nothing is charged online, and WhatsApp stays one tap away for anyone who would rather talk to him first.
A panel Gabriel runs himself
Gabriel signs in with his email and password and sees his readings day by day. Each booking opens with buttons to message the client on WhatsApp or call them, a status he can change and notes only he can read.
From the calendar he closes or reopens any hour. From the prices page he sets what each reading costs, and the site, the booking form and the confirmation email use the new price as soon as he saves, while bookings already made keep the price they were booked at.
A mark held like a hand of cards
The mark is three cards fanned as if held in a hand, with a star on the one in front. The name is set in spaced Bodoni capitals with an italic “with” between Tarot and Gabriel, in gold and bone on near-black ink.
Found in two languages
Every page exists in English and in Spanish at its own address, tells search engines which language it is in and where its other version lives, and carries its own title, description and share card. Structured data describes the practice with documented facts only: the neighborhood, the hours, the readings and how to reach him.
- A mark and logotype drawn for Gabriel.
- A bilingual site with a 3D opening built from his portrait and the 1760 Marseille deck.
- A card of the day, with twenty reflections in each language.
- Online booking with live availability, shown in Tulum time and the visitor’s own time.
- Confirmation emails in English and Spanish, in the site’s style.
- A private panel with his agenda, his calendar, a way to reach each client and prices he sets himself.
- Titles, share cards and structured data for every page in both languages.
(The result)
Result
Anyone can now read how Gabriel works and book an hour at his table, from Tulum or from another time zone.
The text and the booking button on the first screen are there before any script runs, and with reduced motion every animation gives way to a still, complete page.
- Readings you can book online
- 0→5
- Accessibility
- 100/100
- SEO
- 100/100
- Best practices
- 100/100
Before, every reading was arranged on WhatsApp. Live booking form, 2 October 2026
Lighthouse, mobile, home page in English and in Spanish, 2 October 2026
Lighthouse, mobile, home page in English and in Spanish, 2 October 2026
Lighthouse, mobile, home page in English and in Spanish, 2 October 2026
- Every reading arranged in a chat became a booking that takes a couple of minutes, with WhatsApp still there for anyone who prefers it.
- Prices written by hand on a sign became prices Gabriel sets himself from his panel.
- Hours worked out by message became times shown in Tulum and in the visitor’s own time zone.
- A portrait surrounded by the wrong deck became Gabriel among his own cards, the Tarot de Marseille.
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