I am aware I am supposed to put this in a discussion thread and I'm sorry as I can't find one and I'm very new to this reddit page. But if I may ask how could I also start folklore in my own town irl instead of just writing stories to paper which I love doing too. Sorry if this was a dumb question.

Hi everyone!

I'm an illustrator from Mexico City, and for the past couple of years I've been fascinated by a question: How do we bring mythology into contemporary life without reducing it to decoration?

It started when I began exploring Mesoamerican cosmology, particularly the imagery preserved in ancient codices and the rich mythological traditions of the Nahua and Mexica peoples.

One thing that fascinated me was how interconnected everything seemed to be. Time wasn't simply a sequence of days. Directions weren't just points on a compass. Calendrical signs, deities, natural forces, and mythological narratives formed parts of much larger systems of meaning.

The more I studied, the more I wondered whether I could translate some of those ideas into an object people might actually interact with.

So I did something a little strange: I started designing a deck of playing cards. 😅

I called it El Quinto Sol (The Fifth Sun).

Instead of simply illustrating cards with mythological characters, I tried to build a small cosmological structure into the deck itself. Each suit corresponds to one of the four cosmic directions in my interpretation, the court cards feature mythological beings, and the numbered cards incorporate elements inspired by the 260-day ritual calendar.

The artwork draws on historical sources, including the Codex Borgia, alongside scholarly works by researchers such as Miguel León-Portilla and Margarita Martínez del Sobral.

Of course, this is a contemporary artistic reinterpretation, not a reconstruction of an ancient Mesoamerican game. The playing-card correspondences are my own creative decisions.

But that's precisely what interests me.

Mythology has survived, in part, because people have continued telling, interpreting, and engaging with its stories. And I keep wondering what role contemporary artists might play in that process.

I'd love to hear your thoughts: When folklore or mythology is translated into a modern medium, where do you draw the line between meaningful reinterpretation and losing something essential about the original tradition?

Are there any contemporary artworks, games, or stories you feel have managed that balance particularly well?

I'd genuinely love to discover more examples from other cultures, too!