Collectable Cards Portraying the Forgotten Women of History

This summer, the Sisters of the Valley are launching something they have wanted to do for years: turn forgotten women’s history into something people can hold in their hands.

The result is the Matriarchy Cards, a collectible educational card series available exclusively through participating California dispensaries carrying Sisters of the Valley products.

Every four months, the Sisters will release a new thirteen-card deck.

Each deck contains:

• Eight Matriarch Cards featuring influential women who led communities, preserved knowledge, challenged authority, advanced healing traditions, or shaped spiritual life.
• Two Enclave Cards highlighting societies where women held unusual levels of leadership and influence.
• Two Goddess Cards honoring ancient female spiritual archetypes whose stories survived thousands of years.
• One Sesh Card, a uniquely Californian addition featuring the naturally cast shadow of one or more Sisters sharing a joint beneath the sun.

  

Collect all thirteen cards and you complete the deck.

The first Matriarchy Deck includes women such as Brigid of Kildare, Hildegard of Bingen, Hilda of Whitby, Gertrude of Nivelles, Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Agnes Blannbekin, and Hadewijch of Brabant.

The Enclave Cards feature the Women of Çatalhöyük, one of the earliest known settlements where women appear to have shared leadership with men, and the Sibyls, the female seers whose influence stretched across the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Goddess Cards feature Isis and Hekate, two powerful female figures whose worship survived for centuries and whose influence can still be found in modern spiritual traditions.

The Sesh Card serves a different purpose.

While the other cards honor women and traditions from history, the Sesh Card honors community itself. The image is always a shadow cast by the California sun—never a posed portrait—capturing a moment of fellowship among the Sisters. It is a nod to cannabis culture, to conversation, and to the simple act of gathering together.

Customers receive one card for every Sisters of the Valley product purchased. Purchase three products, receive three cards.

The cards will be distributed through participating Catalyst, Traditional, and partner dispensaries throughout California. Because budtenders will be helping with distribution, collectors have a strong chance of completing a full deck during the approximately eighteen-week collection period.

Collectors who complete a deck may request a protective sleeve from participating dispensaries. Customers who receive duplicate cards may contact the Sisters directly to exchange duplicates for missing cards while supplies last.

For the Sisters, the cards are about much more than a collector’s hobby.

“We realized that most people can name kings, generals, presidents, and conquerors,” she said. “But many cannot name the women who built communities, preserved learning, advised rulers, founded schools, challenged corruption, cared for the sick, or kept knowledge alive through difficult centuries.”

The Sisters have spent years studying female-led societies, women mystics, healers, saints, and community leaders. Again and again, they encountered remarkable women whose stories had been reduced to footnotes or forgotten altogether.

The Matriarchy Cards were created as a response to that discovery.

Every card includes artwork on the front and a concise biography on the back, giving collectors an introduction to women, cultures, and traditions that are rarely discussed in modern classrooms.

The Sisters hope the cards inspire curiosity.

A customer might come into a dispensary looking for flower, pre-rolls or gummies. And they will leave with something unexpected: the story of a medieval woman who challenged church authority, a female-led settlement from seven thousand years ago, or an ancient goddess whose influence survived the rise and fall of empires.

History belongs to all of us.

The Sisters believe it is time to remember more of the women who helped create it.

The first Matriarchy Deck is expected to arrive in participating California dispensaries during the second half of June, with new decks following every four months thereafter.