People often ask me if I’ve designed a tarot deck. The answer is both yes and no. Yes in that I created a very personal set on blank file cards, based on a process by a former professor at the University of Toronto. No in that it’s not something I use for sessions with clients or that I would ever publish. I’ve contributed a couple of card images to a collective deck created by an online group a few years ago (see my Four of Cups below). I’ve drawn and collaged a few individual cards. But as far as making a full 78-card tarot pack that I would use with other people, it hasn’t happened. I’m not sure I have the patience for it.
But if I did create my own deck, it would be round. I LOVE round tarot cards! And I’d do away with the notion of court cards. For me, the journey through the suit has Ace as beginning and King (or its equivalent) as completion. Gail Fairfield got to me early enough in life that I still use this system. I’d probably have Ace through 14 to really emphasise that all 14 cards are part of one process. Any images would be as neutral as possible. I don’t believe in “good” or “bad” cards. Every card is a neutral concept. Only when we apply a question such as “What’s my most helpful resource?”, “What’s my worst personality trait?”, or “How can I best accomplish this goal?” does a card take on nuances of challenge or ease, restriction or freedom, sadness or happiness, fear or love. So I’d want the symbols to be as neutral as possible. For example, the Five of Wands would somehow depict change (five-ness) and selfhood (Wands-ness), a change to one’s identity or an adjustment to the role one is playing. Sometimes that’s hard (a shaky sense of who one is) and sometimes that’s helpful (a personal makeover). Also, the Majors would be numberless. The Greater Mysteries of Life are beyond any one system. Each of us experiences our deeper growth lessons in a unique order.
Perhaps I could collaborate with someone. I could offer the neutral concepts to an artist and s/he could execute the images. It’s been done before. Just think of Arthur Waite and Pixie Smith, of Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris, of Catherine Cook and Dwariko von Sommaruga.
How about YOU? If you designed a tarot deck (or any other tool of insight), what might it look like? What’s the worldview that would birth it into existence? Let us know. There may be a creative project in the works of which we’re not yet conscious.
Hi James! “Why don’t you design your own tarot deck?”, is a question that I get ALL the time. As an artist, I guess people just assume that is something I would do since I am a tarot reader, too… Anyway, after doing that tarot deck collage workshop at the Readers Studio in May ( oh, I think I showed you my proud creation!) I have thought about this…
I LOVE the Motherpeace deck because it is round, so agree with you there. I have a feeling that the images I’d want to create would either be very naive and simple in style, or rather abstract, organic and mysterious, in order to evoke more of a feeling sense to the reading. Probably very painterly, in that case…
My world view takes in all creation, so I would no doubt include animals as major symbols, perhaps as the “suits” themselves… I think that I’d wind up creating cards that very much stimulate the imaginative, intuitive brain, with not a whole lot from the Waite-Smith or Marseilles classic symbolism. Or maybe I would! Color would be extremely important. What I’d like for people to be able to dig up for themselves when they read the cards, would be the very deep emotion around whatever issue they have is, so they can bring that to the “light”, as it were…
At any rate, one of the things I plan on doing when I get back to the East coast is more painting, so we’ll see what develops! I must think about this tarot deck thing some more…
Your imagination and experience with the cards and spiritual outlook could produce something quite wonderful, James!
Peace, chea
Hi Chea,
I love that you’d like to paint your card images if you do a deck. So few people do it nowadays. That said, Julie Cuccia-Watts does stunning paintings and Joanna Powell Colbert works magick with her coloured pencils. Hope to see you soon!
~ James
Hi James. I was going to do up some sample cards for a nice woman who has already published one deck. She sent me some notes and I had several ideas. I think what bogged me down was the sheer amount of work required by an artist to complete the mission.
It is my impression that after all that hard work and creativity, the artist often does not get credit for their work. I don’t know what other people are like but that feels like a rock on my soul. I can’t create when my effort is not appreciated.
I am also tired of collage on decks. I’ve done collage, I love it, but there is such a magic to the “hand of the artist” even if it lacks perfection. For me, a hand drawn and coloured deck would be the primary wish. Abstracts are great–you know, I get some of my best sparks and intuitive messages from abstracts or colours. Some of those odd Lo Scarabeo decks make the best intuitive reads.
I love a round deck–absolutely love the idea. Songs for the Journey Home and the LS Circle of Life are two round decks I think are priceless. I love black and white decks and illustrations. Depends on the artist!!
And after the Nth Rider-Waite clone I would be relieved to see a new fresh, system awaken from the depths of people’s hearts and minds. Who wants yet another same old, same old you can read out of the box? Not me, I like new things, new challenges, new concepts.
(If I see another heart being stabbed by 3 swords I’m going to scream–I swear.)
Judy
(To clarify–I post as I’m signed in–sometimes under my card blog as “woley” sometimes under this blog name, but it’s always me, I just don’t want to sign in and out twice.)
Hi Judy,
My card images would be simple line drawings, black and white. Perhaps a thin line of colour around the edge of each round card to delineate deck sections — purple line for majors, red for wands, blue for cups, yellow for swords, and green for pentacles.
I’m with you on the RWS clone thing. The original one is exquisite as it is.
Heck, it sounds like I have a lot of ideas already, doesn’t it?
Cheers,
James
I want it already. Black and white rules as does illustration! I know black and white decks supposedly don’t sell as well, but there are some dedicated collectors who really go for black and white. I noticed you using the New Tarot on this blog a while ago–love it, wish it were still in-print.
I recently bought another round deck and used it today on my blog–Creature Teacher Cards by Scott Alexander King.
LOVE those round cards.
Perhaps this will pop out of your mind one day James? I would buy one as long as there is no stabbed heart on the 3 of swords. [cringe]
Judy
I don’t particularly care if my deck would be mass-produced or not. It would primarily be for my own use and perhaps that of a handful of people who want to work with it. So many people get caught up in the “I want everyone to see me” game that they end up cranking out some dreadful set of cards just for the sake of getting it “out there”. The New Tarot (Hurley et al) is stunning! One can still get copies of it in stores in Montréal. In fact, I’m thinking of buying another copy of it when I’m there in October, just in case I lose a card from my original.
I must ponder these things in my heart now. The seed of something good has been planted.
I did some preliminary drawings last year after look at Tarot of the New Vision. If you don’t kow it they talk about a view from the character in the card, but its more like looking from behind.
I got very excited about what the cards see. What does the world look like to the Fool or to the Tower? I hope to finsih them and maybe share them over the next year. Personally as an artist I am not interested in the small cards at least not yet anyways!
A
my home-made deck calls me from far far away………
i only feel it now as a sort of wildflower garden or an assorted heap of tshirts
And once you sort through the energetic tshirts or get a stronger whiff of the garden’s scent, the cards will become clearer to you.
I often think about making another deck, but too often I find that someone else has already made it!
I had started on a deck using old clip art and then Victoria Regina Tarot came out. Then I started musing on using Old Masters paintings and two or three other decks came out along the same lines (and beautiful they are, too). I have another one in mind now, Majors only at present, that is so odd I can’t imagine anyone else would do it! So to answer your questions, the main thing for me is to have a unique vision. NOT another RWS clone, however clever. I don’t see how simply redrawing Pixie’s art could ever satisfy an artist, but they seem to keep on doing it, for some reason!
My partner and I are embarking on the journey of creating our own deck. It has 100 cards total and contains many different ideas. It is not a “traditional” tarot deck by any means. Though we incorporate many of the same archetypes, they are represented in a different manner, as a natural or evolutionary process with reflections or refractions of their traditional face.
We intend on publishing when done. We are currently working on spreads and looking for artists, etc. It will take years to complete since we hope to include different magical systems, intelligences, and systems with the influence of science, technology, math and quantum entanglement.
Wish us “luck”
Wow! 100 cards. I’m sure that you possess skill, so I won’t wish you luck, but I will send supportive energy that your skills will shine forth clearly. Please keep us all in the loop!
J
Thanks!
As the images and circuits take shape, we’ll be sure to share more when the time feels right.
And surely, whenever we are finished, I will let you know.