Archive for the ‘Tarot’ Category

Reaching the Void

BY: Mark

“In the Minor Arcana, in which the Sword is the symbol of intellectual life, the Two of Swords shows us a huge flower (the largest of the series) with eight petals and eight branches filling the entire oval holding it. It is the daydream that sprawls across the mind, a collection of plans, myths, information, and theories. The center of the flower contains a black spot in which the void one attains in the perfection of meditation can be sensed in gestation . . . The swords’ blades are essentially black: the purpose of the mind is to reach the void.”

- Jodorowsky & Costa, The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, p. 280

It really doesn’t surprise me that I have an affinity for the Two of Swords, and it is a fitting card for the day. Reaching the void: stage one.

The Two of Harvesters

BY: Mark

I attended Foolscap, an intimate conversation-driven Science Fiction and Fantasy convention, this weekend. After my panel on Saturday, I took a spin through the art gallery and discovered Egypt Urnash’s Tarot illustrations. Her illustrations are reminiscent of work done by Studio Foglio, but clearly their own style when you examine them more closely. Her tarot deck–the Silicon Dawn Tarot–is both tongue-in-cheek as well as being very modern in its interpretations of the cards.

The one that really caught my eye was her rendition of the Two of Swords.

[image from Egypt Urnash's tarot collection]

Reminds me of Susan Delgado, in a way.

I’m a big fan of the Two of Swords; in fact, she figured heavily in Psychobabel, the unwritten resolution to The Potemkin Mosaic. One of the things that was going to crop up in Psychobabel was pieces of something called The Blackleaf Tarot. And . . . [rummaging around on his hard drive] . . . here is the only extant piece there is . . .

The Two of Harvesters

She sits on a sea-soaked plain. The sky is the color of ash, and the horizon is a weak gash separating the dead heaven from the ruined earth. She is wearing robes of white fur, streaked and matted with blood. Unlike her sisters, her head is not shaved, though her hair is short. Where the sacred geometries are tattooed on her skull, the hair is white. At the open throat of her robes, you can see hints of the other tattoo she has, the octopus that clings to the base of her neck, its tentacles draped across her shoulders and around her throat. 



She has seen the sun of many dreams and her face and arms are dark, and the color of her markings–the whorls and angles–has been bleached away. A band of yellow gauze, stained by the fingerprints of her bloody-handed Queen, is tied across her eyes. She has been captured in this portrait with the hint of a smile, as if she knows you are looking at her. 



Held across her chest–their tips pointing upward, their handles touching over her navel–are her blades. They are triangular, sharp on three edges, and their intent is to cut, not to slice. She is the Two of Harvesters; she is the one who wants to bleed you.

Lost Tarot

BY: Mark

The less said about the Lost finale the better, but Alex Griendling (aka gravitybomb on flickr) has put together a set of tarot cards for the original 14 survivors. Frankly, these cards are a much better way to send off the series than the tailspin that season six never recovered from. Lost Tarot

Locke was one of my favorite characters until they, you know, took his spine away.

Tarot Roundup

BY: Mark

A couple of things I’ve run across this week while attempting to keep up with other projects.

Alternate Thoth Tarot Cards: Lady Frieda Harris was the artist of Crowley’s Thoth Deck. Caduceus Books has a page linking out to images of some alternate versions of the cards which have been in a private collection for many years.

‘Projective Synthetic Geometry in Lady Frieda Harris’ Tarot Paintings and in Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law‘ by Claas Hoffmann: Yes, I know, and no, there isn’t an easier way to describe the article. Except to say “harmonic collage,” which is probably equally a head-scratcher.

Mary K. Greer on Jung and Tarot: Ms. Greer runs through the data articulating Jung’s awareness of the Tarot, and includes his descriptions of the Major Arcana. Plus, Mary K. Greer has a Tarot blog. Bonus!

Bethalynne Bajema’s Sepia Stains Tarot Deck

BY: Mark

Artist Bethalynne Bajema has finished her tarot deck. She freely admits that they’re non-traditional in their symbolism, eschewing the traditional iconography for butterflies, ornate skeletal infrastructures, and steampunk imagery, but such individualization only adds to their charm.

She has a long post about the creative process behind the cards. You may purchase a deck at this link.

Super Punch Tarot Cards

BY: Mark

In celebration of their third anniversary, Super Punch hit on the idea of soliciting a tarot deck. Reaching out to an amazing number of illustrators, they’ve started to collate the Super Punch Tarot Deck. Posts of cards are expected to run through April, and Super Punch curator, John Struan, has enjoyed the process so much he’s started Endless Deck, an on-going blog of nothing but new illustrations of Tarot cards.

Knight of Cups (by Timothy Lam, layout by Jean-Luc Pham, from the Super Punch Tarot Deck)

Anders Sandberg’s Genesis Game

BY: Mark

When Anders Sandberg isn’t busy contemplating the transhumanist future, he’s coming up with clever ways to create role-playing mechanisms. In this case, Genesis: A Game Of History Creation. Using a deck of Crowley Thoth tarot cards, a couple of creatively-minded kids, and a couple of ten-sided dice (because it’s not an RPG system if you don’t have funny-sided dice), you can quickly lay out a series of world-building scenarios based on play interaction with the Thoth cards.

It’s one of those systems that takes about three minutes to explain, and over a lifetime, you’ll probably not work through every thread possible with the cards. Mainly, it starts with a single event and/or individual, and each player proceeds to lay down a card, adding to the “and this happened next!” scenario generation. Each tarot suit is mapped to a specific facet of world-building, and each card has its only spin on that facet based on the card’s own meaning. About the use of the Crowley deck, Anders says: “[The game] can be run using other decks of course, but often the images are less helpful and the meanings more psychological. Knowing the symbolism and meanings of the cards makes the game far more entertaining and flexible, but just looking at the images can give inspiration.”

It’s all about making the world based on autonomic suggestions from the cards.

Anders’ site has a lengthy walkthrough of game play, which demonstrates evocatively the wealth of possibilities available to febrile imaginations.

The Dodal Tarot

BY: Mark

Jean-Claude Florney has recently finished his restorating/re-editing of Jean Dodal’s seminal tarot deck. You can purchase them here. An interview with Enrique Enriquez about the deck and the process of restoring them can be read here.

The Dodal deck (c. 1701) is one of the few complete examples of the Tarot of Marseille that is still extant, and time has not been kind to the colors of the cards. The Marseille design has been traumatized severly over the years (including versions that invert the color schemes and reduce the palette to a few tones). Florney’s passion over the last decade plus has been to recreate these decks in their original glory and to make them available for the tarot enthusiast.

The interview contains some fascinating discussions about the variances between cards in the existing Dodal decks that Florney had access to during his restoration process.

I’m partial to the Noblet myself, but it might be fun to have a copy of the Dodal on hand as well.

Erik Davis and Rider-Waite-Smith

BY: Mark

We have much love for Erik Davis around here, and not just because he introduced us to the idea of being an “occulture critic” (in his 33 1/3 monograph on Led Zeppelin IV). You can look at his work and what Mark Pilkington is doing with Strange Attractor, and pretty much see the model we’re working from.

However, the reason we dig Erik Davis today is the revelation of his new column at Hilobrow.com called “Pop Arcana.” The first entry details the contributions of Pamela Colman Smith to that most iconic of tarot decks, the Rider-Waite. Go, and read about “The Comic Book of Thoth.”

[via our tarot-lovin' pal, El Dragón, who wages the good fight for organics at Fair Food Fight]