Guided by the pull of tarot, Tilda/Pietra draws six cards — intuition, fantasy, release, decision, advice, and breakthrough - each one a doorway into another version of the self.

Monday, 7th June 2025 — 7:16 PM
Tilda draws six question cards for Cecile Believe.

BREAKTHROUGH CARD

Can you describe a time you experienced something magical?

“I fell in love recently. It’s the most unreal, magical thing. When you experience being in love it feels like it’s been designed by something really, really smart, something that knows a lot more than you do and knows a lot more about you than you do. Being in love is like being at your truest self, things feel smooth and simple and you wonder why life was ever not that way. It’s like realising you had all the keys already in your hand. Falling in love feels magical and also completely natural, which is great cuz I think magic is probably a fairly normal occurrence that we overlook…”

ADVICE CARD

How do you keep yourself away from self-sabotage?

“I find I cannot keep myself away from self-sabotage. It’s invisible until it is upon you. It’s kind of inevitable. I think my fears play the biggest role in self-sabotage so I’m trying to manage them by being more open to feeling them…”

DECISION CARD

What has been the boldest move you have made for your career?

“Not stopping. I hear a lot of people say they are gonna quit music if they don’t hit a certain level of success by a certain age. Choosing to stay in an art career becomes a more and more radical decision as time goes on and for good reason! It is an uncertain choice that requires faith.”

[…]

Cecile Believe is an LA-based artist, songwriter and producer creating a unique sonic world that travels between the worlds of pop, sound design and experimental music. Cecile has previously collaborated with musicians such as SOPHIE and Caroline Polachek and has recently released a second solo EP, ‘Tender the Spark’, with Ambient Tweets.

Continue reading the full interview and get Issue Nº01
Buy the issue →schemamagazine.com

Image by Inés Maestre

When I was 12, I asked my mom to buy me The Secret. I’m not really sure what led me, at a time when I seemed to show no interest in reading, to start with that one book specifically. Perhaps it was the faux bright red wax seal stamp on the cover, or a discerning premonition into my quarter-life crisis, or maybe just the fact that it was called The Secret.

As expected, my brain didn’t retain much from those 198 pages, except for this one testimonial of someone who managed to regain their full eyesight in just three days. In this story, they recount visualising themselves seeing as clearly as when they were younger:

“I saw myself in dark restaurants, on planes, and at my computer, reading clearly and effortlessly, and I said over and over, ‘I can see clearly, I can see clearly.’”

A miracle, especially moving to someone like me, who had just found themselves battling the holy trinity of pre-pubescent horrors: acne, braces, and prescription glasses, all at once. “I can see clearly now,” I confidently proclaimed to myself as I took off my new lilac librarian-core glasses.

Today, I dream of things like influence, success, and constant reassurance. Wearing knock-off Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, I hoard questions out of boredom.
Should I get a hand tattoo? Should I go back to school? Should I call my mom?

Watching my five-year-old iPhone battery drain, I mechanically scroll through another TikTok of Sabrina Bahsoon dancing and lip-syncing to “I’m the first lady of Juicy Couture and my lips look just like Amanda Lepore’s,” as she confesses to “being delulu” and acting like she is in a music video whenever she’s on the Tube.

One essential aspect of branding yourself as delusional online is the ability to shield your true desires behind a detachment from material reality and all the uncomfortable feelings that come with owning them.

‘Delusional girls’ are not only one of the latest manifestations of wishful thinking; they are also the new marketing strategy for the upcoming influencer, the rising indie artist, the next internet superstar. Amidst proclaiming to have written the song of the summer, addressing a niche fan base before gaining one, and becoming your own recommendation algorithm — “If you like this, you’ll love my new song” — everyone on the internet is manifesting their long-awaited success, their breakthrough moment, just in case.

This conscious act of self-delusion, of deciding that you should have something and going for it, is the social currency pledging to turn you into whatever you want to be in this world.

Nelya gifted me a copy of Imagining Otherwise by Lola Olufemi. She writes that the future is propelled by the motion of thinking against and beyond. She underlines that we must invent it now and not let go of the “otherwise,” of the collective work towards another realm that is still not here.

Revolutionary movements require a teleological pool from which to draw. The imagination is that pool.

On the phone, Nelya and I joke about unionising all delusional girls, about bringing our craft together for long-lasting prosperity. We would hold each other in affirmation:

WE ARE A TENDERNESS MAGNET.
WE ARE WITFUL AND SEXY AND RESPONSIBLE FOR EACH OTHER.
WE ARE PERFECT AGAINST DISAFFECTION.
WE ARE RIPPING OURSELVES OPEN AND FIGURING THIS OUT.

Continue reading the full essay and get Issue Nº01
Buy the issue → schemamagazine.com

-

As the story unfolds, we’re about to learn what it holds—a future woven, not carved in stone. Built with fragile threads, more like the work—art is a better word—of a spider-lady.

Every thread intertwined; a swarm of paths. A constellation of pearls—drops stuck to the silk—you’ll pluck with your fingers, gentle as rain sometimes, thunder otherwise. The drops make riddles; they open doors. You’ll run in circles, maybe, or go deep down the web.

Oh little girl, there’s so much you don’t know: your freedom, all the kisses you’ll give and the one you’ll lose and forget; the wet newness of first times; fear of the mirror; the changing body; eyes piercing your guts and you staring back.

You will learn faith in your intuition, your decisions; the conviction that—despite the horrors—the world is your rightful home. You’ll befriend heartbreak. She’ll love you back—restless, ruthless, and a teacher.

You’ll hustle your way up, but this isn’t a paean to hustle. I hate work; I don’t dream of labour. I weave and tell.

You’ll learn the price of ascent, the nature of obstacles. Crushes, first times, hookups; each bringing you closer to who you are. The more paths you take, the fewer remain.

[…]

Through joy you’ll learn your body completely—as an architecture of love. You will be multiple, relying less on unity than on togetherness.

You will fail, my dear. Do your best. Fall again and again—and go on. Rebel. Make a riot. Be loud and kind (you won’t always be). Hurt and be hurt. Life is ripe; taste it all.

Apple of my eye, drop of dew on a daffodil, river pearl — you will be lost, but you will find.

-
Enter the full prophecy and the first chapter of Tilda’s Tale in SCHEMA Nº01
Buy the issue → schemamagazine.com

Visual by Area of Work

Visuals
Boris Camaca • Kévin Drelon x Yulya Zalesskaya • Area of Work • Gabriel Hafner • Carina Kehlet • Inés Maestre • Bettina Nuwendam • Renée Paule • Margaux Piette • Jan Philipzen • Carla Rossi • Haotian Wang

Writers
Luca Frati • Andrea Bocca • Jo Rosenthal • Hugo Hectus • Lorenzo Benzoni • Mafalda Araújo • Pietra Galli • Mattia Guarnerio • Paloma Moniz

Interviews
Urte Katiliute • Marina Melentieva • Nihura Montiel • Emma Alvin • Cecile Believe • Antje Peters

Collaborations
Mafalda Costa x Emma Bedos • Manil x Cecilia Poupon • Predilection

Ads
Mainline:RUS/Fr.CA/DE • Urte Kat • MANIL • Constança Entrudo • TYT • Aurembiax • Heliot Emil


A story about dreaming, and daring to rewrite your fate.

Limited copies of Issue Nº01 are available → schemamagazine.com

Like an exquisite corpse, one voice continues where another leaves off. Together, these fragments form a collective narrative between art, fashion, and culture.

SCHEMA was born from the desire to reflect our generation’s complexities in a way that felt more layered than a traditional magazine. Each edition is structured as a modern tale, weaving together visuals and words, exploring themes that touch on feminism, identity, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and digital culture, alongside fashion, pop culture, and creative practices.

Independent, biannual, and self-published, SCHEMA sits somewhere between a magazine and a book — a cultural artefact, a modern archive, and an object to keep.

This Substack is our way of keeping the thread alive between editions — a space for fragments, previews, and expansions. Here, we’ll share early glimpses of essays, interviews, behind-the-scenes details, upcoming projects, launches, and thoughts.

This is where our story begins.
Discover SCHEMA → schemamagazine.com @schemamagazine

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