Create My Own Tarot Deck? Why Would I Want to Do That?

Well, the reason for two Death cards is that one is (in my opinion - not in everyone's) very upfront "Memento Mori" - in other words, it is very much about acknowledging that death is around us all the time and comes to all of us. Personally, I like this attititude and don't find it morbid - the whole medieval "Memento Mori" thing is about reminding people to live and use their lives well - because life is short.
However, we put in the other (much more RWS) card for those who would rather see things in other terms. The second card, I think, is quite Gothic and a bit tongue in cheek (although interestingly some other people think it is MORE not less scary!)
They are both cards that in terms of symbolism and imagery we like very much - so both went in.

You see, not spooky at all

So - did things happen when we were designing the deck? Yes, but I don't think they really corresponded to the cards as and when we were designing them. We did feel that we fell over the right images just as we needed them at times. This felt odd sometimes - like Prague itself taking part and showing us what to use. But these experiences felt good - like we were being helped and even as if what we were doing was approved of - not at all spooky. I think it was all to do with becoming very tuned in to the city as we worked.

But, if you want spooky, we also had our (to me) very weird experience about seeing a monk on the balcony near us. I was so shaken by this that in fact I posted an account of it here on AT, but no-one responded (honestly, I think people thought I was joking or something). That was really strange. It made me think a lot about Heirophant, Hermit and (so some extent) the Devil. It was such an archetypal image to see - and in bright sunlight and for a good ten minutes. By the way, the rational explanation is that it was just a monk - in fact the experience felt quite different - like slipping through time or something. He looked and behaved very strangely - and appeared on the balcony of a house that is supposed to be the most haunted in Prague.

That's certainly an image that will stick in my mind.

I've been following this thread but feeling rather grumpy, since I lost the few cards I'd created for myself in a hard disk crash a year ago. But on Friday I found copies of all the cards on one of the computers at work! I'd backed up the files and forgotten about it! I was so happy I almost cried. I've finally had a chance to resize a couple to show here. I'll be putting them up on my own website shortly, as soon as I get copies of them back home.

To answer Tom's initial question (hopefully ), I think cards one has created often affect the creator more subconsciously than consciously. When I look at one of my cards, the first gut reaction that I have comes from the feelings or thoughts I was trying to communicate within the card's design. It's like my heart or soul knows the card before my brain can wrap itself around the image. Does that make sense?

Now, when I talk to someone about their artwork, I get the general sense that they would really like to gush about it but that such expressions of pleasure might seem too self-congratulatory or immodest. I think this desire by an artist is the subconscious 'communication' or connection going on between the work and the one who imbued it with meaning and/or feeling.

So, I feel kind of silly saying it to other people, but I just LOVE some of my cards. I mean, I really think they're brilliant and they speak volumes of meaning, and they're simply beautiful...I could go on and on! BUT...I made them, so I am most aware of the messages within them. I don't expect anyone else to get them quite as strongly as I do. Does anyone else get this feeling? It's almost parental in nature.

I think that's also why we have such strong emotional reations when we find a deck that just 'clicks' with us. We're basically surprised that the work of another person can communicate something that we know at the level of our soul.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. So, here's one of my cards, the Nine of Swords.

Peace,

Melvis


P.S. Since the quote on the sides is rather hard to read at this size, here it is:

Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! Shelley

It's from his "Ode to the West Wind," which I found rather appropriate for an "Air" suit card!

Melvis said:

I think cards one has created often affect the creator more subconsciously than consciously. When I look at one of my cards, the first gut reaction that I have comes from the feelings or thoughts I was trying to communicate within the card's design. It's like my heart or soul knows the card before my brain can wrap itself around the image. Does that make sense?

Click to expand...

Thanks for this Melvis. It makes sense.

I've split the rest of the posts about your tarot deck out into their own thread. I think your deck deserves it's own thread rather than getting lost here.

The Ironwing Star - a story

My cards have become intertwined with my life in many small ways. But I did not expect this connection to extend to other people!

My husband asked me when I was going to draw a card with snails on it - he felt strongly that such a design would be appropriate for the deck. I had just sketched the 10 of Coils (a chain of snails) so the finished drawing became "his" card.

One of my non-tarot friends gave me a haunting interpretation that correctly identified the Shaman of Coils (=King of Cups) as the "Healer" card - without reading a description.

The strangest example is the Star. The original design showed a meteor falling into a pool of water, with no people in the picture. I added a sea star below the meteor: a wonder of the earth to mirror the miracle from the sky. When I took out the design to finish the card, the two figures "appeared" out of nowhere. Of course they changed the meaning, but they wouldn't go away. The day after I finished the card, I visited two friends that I hadn't seen in a couple of months. They work together but had just had a very stressful fight, and were struggling to find a reconciliation. Each asked (separately) to see my Tarot deck, since they'd heard that I was drawing one...and I realized that they had already become part of it without any of us realizing it. We were all spooked and intrigued at the same time.
Here's the Star card, with its own spread:
http://www.mineralarts.com/artwork/spreads.html

Lorena/Ironwing

Re: The Ironwing Star - a story

Ironwing said:

Each asked (separately) to see my Tarot deck, since they'd heard that I was drawing one...and I realized that they had already become part of it without any of us realizing it. We were all spooked and intrigued at the same time.

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This is a great story Lorena.

I've been thinking about it and I guess everything we do is connected to others, so I think it's completely natural to expect things like this to happen.

I'd still be interested in hearing other's experiences.

Hi Tom,

I wholeheartedly agree. When I would look at any tarot card, I would see my own reflection in it (I still do this even now). I'd imagine how I would create a particular card out of the deck. What it would look like, what symbols I'd use and why, what it means to me, etc.. It took me awhile to actually start making my own decks though.


I think one's own tarot deck certainly can reflect the creator or what's going on in their life at the time of creation. My first deck, The Lady Eclipse Tarot http://www.geocities.com/ladyeclipseweb/
was something I'd originally made just for me. I was feeling really aggressive, outspoken and independent but still very much in touch with my feminine side. I thought it would be interesting to bring this POV into a tarot deck. It's a Majors only because I didn't have the time to create a full 78 card deck when I began the project years ago.

My second deck, The Soul Reflections Tarot http://www.geocities.com/soulreflectionstarot/Tarot1.html came to me in dreams and visions. I think I created this deck more to help others get in touch with themselves. Creating the deck was almost effortless. The most difficult thing about this deck is the accompanying book. It's a lot longer than I ever wanted (and probably longer than most anyone else would want too) and going back through it to decide what to keep, what to eliminate, and what needs to be changed outright is a very time consuming process. It's taken me a lot longer to do this book than it did to create the entire deck!

My third deck, The Catch a Falling Star Tarot http://www.geocities.com/catchafallingstartarot/DeckInfo.html turned out a little differently than I expected. It's nearly half completed and the direction it took was much more personal than I'd originally planned. It's actually turned into a family deck more than anything else which kind of took me by surprise. Out of all the decks, this one is the most personal, in my opinion. I had to stop work on this deck though. The fourth deck wants to be brought to life NOW and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do anything else until I finish it.

The new deck (which shall remain unnamed at this time since revealing the name will give away what it's about), isn't what I'd exactly call personal. It's more about something that effects everyone. I feel that there is a definite need for this deck now. The concept is something that hasn't been addressed but I've been hearing about for years. This deck is going to follow a very different format for creation since I have to outline the book before I go any further with the deck design.

Well, I think I've rambled on long enough. What an excellent discussion!

Joy to you,
Maralee

Thanks lady eclipse for digging this thread alive... I don't know how i missed it...!

When it comes to the Tarot, I couldn't agree more with Astra that wrote:...this theory about spiritual journeys, that effectively says if you decide to go on one, you're going to be on the wrong path."

I believe that whether you decide to "do a deck" or you just find yourself doing it, is a fateful happening...

i "just" found myself doing one, and I must say that I never realised how it will change my life...
Not only the learning and connection with each card, then putting it together with pieces of life experience...

More that half my way through the deck, when i knew the end will come, but seemed still so far away, i felt that when it will be finished, i will feel empty, since it took so much out of me... I lived Tarot for all this time!

Now it's done, and I'm not empty, and I think that i may or may not ever do another one...
The reason is, that there are so many things that changed my life because of that deck, that it's effect will be there for a looooong loooong time...

In fact, this forum alone, has become the first and still only connection to this world of tarot...
I was in this alone, for years, when one day....pa-pam! AT was sent as a link to me and since, i had to seriously re-construct my lifestyle to have time for it!

Then I read how other people are with it, i look at me again, and i learn and grow each day, just from this plain interaction... isn't this Tarot?

I'm thinking, Major Tom, of what exactly you mean by "Is it about you?"
I feel that the artist, first has to please himself. Then, he's a good artist, and then his fans will follow, because the art will have some authentic quality about it, and things like that show...

Regarding whether to try and please a market (or fit to a format or size...), I think it's all about how used one is to be professional.
I'm a designer, and I see a format as a template for my work. It doesn't limit me anymore, in anyway. It's just like choosing a pen or a marker to do it. It's just a parameter to follow. if it needs to "talk" to a certain target market, the same...
Does it mean then that i don't do it for me?

When i look at movies, for example, the ones that really touched me, that i think of them years after i watched them, are those which are so very personal and specific.
If they fall under my personal taste, then they become "made just for me"!
There are decks like that, too...

just some late night thoughts...

Hi M-Press,

You're most welcome! I couldn't believe how I'd been missing this gem of a thread either. I was skimming through the threads and all of a sudden, BAM, there it was. Just goes to show how one can look at something and find new things each time one looks.

Joy to you,
Maralee

Lady Eclipse said:

Hi Tom,

I wholeheartedly agree. When I would look at any tarot card, I would see my own reflection in it (I still do this even now).

I think one's own tarot deck certainly can reflect the creator or what's going on in their life at the time of creation. What an excellent discussion!

Joy to you,
Maralee

Click to expand...

Hiya Maralee, I sorta lost sight of this discussion too.

Yes, tarot when it is tarot is precisely like a mirror.

Reflecting the creator is certainly what I have in mind.

This does beg the question: Do you reckon where the creator starts (that is, RWS, Thoth or Marseilles or indeed, elsewhere) has anything to do with what's reflected?

M-Press said:

When it comes to the Tarot, I couldn't agree more with Astra that wrote:...this theory about spiritual journeys, that effectively says if you decide to go on one, you're going to be on the wrong path

Click to expand...

You are certainly welcome to think this way, but I will never agree with you on it. Can we agree to disagree? We've found ourselves on the same path, after all.

You see, I would want encourage anyone interested in tarot to create their own tarot deck. Whether they thought they could draw or not.

I will certainly be holding a talk/seminar about this at The Framlingham, Aeclectic Tarot Get-Together.

Edited to expand my quote of M-Press to the full paragraph.

Oups-Boups!

Hm... There is a bit of mix up here...I think...

Tom, you quoted me on something that Astra wrote, but the quote itself was out of context-quoted alone, so neither Astra nor me, really meant that going on a spiritual journey is a wrong path....!!!

Maybe next time i should be better at quoting, and using the "quote" mode...

Anyone that is here, is definitely on a spiritual journey, and this is definitely the right path... So dear Major, I'm "afraid" we completely agree here...