"How to" create a Tarot deck

RiccardoLS

Many roads may bring to same destination.
Or maybe there are not such things as the "same" destination.
Anyway, I would like to address the idea of "how to" a Tarot deck may come to be.

Obviously I have no experience in the art process.
Nor I think I can reasonably address those decks that are a lifetime achievement, and that express everything (sometimes in a very personal and touching way) their authors know and feel about Tarot.
"A" Tarot deck, then... not "The" Tarot deck.

The first step in Tarot deck creation is usually an idea.
I call it idea and not a concept, because there is a powerful difference.
An idea has no shape, yet, no structure, no order to it... it is - at most - a seed, or a spark.
An idea may be a concept [example: I would like to make a deck about Peace], or it may be a question to explore [example: I would like to make a deck where I use only 7 Major Arcana, seen each in three different aspects, plus the Fool (that would be me, obviously)] and see where it takes me. Or it could just be a card, striking true, and needing a deck around her to come forward [Example: I imagine a deck where Death is seen as an unborn child (creepy!)]
The idea is sometimes a drive powerful enough to bring a deck to be. Alas, an idea only cannot make a good deck. The idea must change to a concept, and a concept needs much more detail and clarity.

To explain it better, I will show you this idea as an example:
http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/la_papessa_b.jpg
The idea of this deck had been to bring to a Tarot deck something like a Silent Hill athmosphere.
Seen a single card out of it, I think it is clear how could, just an idea, take shape and form and become a quite powerful card in her own right.
But this is not enough (imho) to make for a whole deck.
Following the above example one should ask himself: "what is to me, to people, a so called Silent Hill athmosphere?". [remember to write the answer, for added clarity]
What, and why, I want to bring out in the deck?

I have just little experience in the Silent Hill videogames, but I appreciated the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384537/
The movie moves about a few concepts:
- there is evil
- human do evil (sometimes because, and not even despite) their good intention
- the worst evil of all is what destroy innocence, and turns what's good into a new evil
- evil destroys everything it touches
- there are many kind of justice, even the "justice" of the "devil"
- mercy cames from love
- and while love cannot redeem evil, or cancel its consequences, or move mountains... love can touch also the hearth of evil

Just writing down those concepts brings to my immediate attention two words: justice and devil... (oohhh, two Arcana, it seems). It will probably be necessary to have those two Arcana as "keystones" in our deck concept.
But - a very important BUT - we are not making a deck (even in this example) out of a movie. We make a deck that has the potential to touch the experience of us (writers) and of any person who will use it to read, or to be read.

The concept of this horror deck may then be summarized to a different, broader, more universal idea... a question "how can you repair evil?".

As evil happens... (let's imagine, as in the movie, the most loathsome of evils: violence against a child) what can we do? what shall we do?
A mother can tell her child "everything is gonna all right" and it's a lie, because it's not.
We can take the people responsible and lock them away (protection) or lash upon them with final violence (vengeance). We can even believe in enlightment and redeem them, teaching them a new way (redemption), and maybe even forgive them in time... but nothing of this may ever be able to reverse the damage done: the wounds, the scars, the"evil".
The concept of such a Tarot deck is again a journey thorugh our dark side... through the pain we suffered (and inflicted), that shaped us, made us lesser, and hateful, and full of shit (sorry for the language: moderator may edit if they feel it necessary).
[A deck needs to be measured into his universality. Not because it needs to be generic or ageless, or not contextualized, but because it needs to refer to universal concepts, something we ALL met in our lives, probably from both sides: in the case victim and perpetrators]
Look at the Fool from the Gothic Tarot of Vampires:
http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/00_INNOC.jpg
It is the innocence before the reaping.

It is no different to the Eden before eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil [doesn't the Lovers came to mind?]

In any Tarot deck we have a journey.
The most common way to see it is to think a Journey between Fool and World.
In our example we have Innocence in the Fool... and we know that that innocence is about to be broken (it's called life). What would be our World (the end of the journey)?
What do we believe the road end?
In Christianity the end of the journey is salvation by love. Love of God (and our own Faith) is the only thing able to lift the pain of innocence lost... of evil known and felt (and done).
It could be a nice World.
But what if the people using the deck are not Christian?
A deck is not an affirmation of one owns beliefs (even if it cannot be avoided). It is a language, people will be - hopefully - using to ask their questions and look for thier answers, using their beliefs and their experiences.
Maybe the World should just be a question: "can we be saved by love?"
And the Judgement be another question: "can we be saved by justice?"
And somewhere the Stars could be: "can we go further and forget?"

Slowly, our deck concept has been taking shape (and a few cards have already been brought forward in the meanwhile).
The WHY of the deck, is a deck to be used when people feel "wronged", or feels "guilty". There is a road out... one not of negation (a sugar sweety deck: everything's gonna be all right. Sometimes useful, sometimes truly dangerous), but we don't know each one...
Maybe, just maybe, the way out is just the hope that there is a way out.

While we delve on a concept, one thing should have become apparent: the cards in a deck cannot be seen one by one, but they are connected.
I'll show you one of these connection (again between Fool and World) on a much lighter deck... the Pagan Cats.
http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/00_Matto_GattiP.jpg
http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/21_Mondo_GattiP.jpg
The Fool imagines himself in a better condition.
The World imagines himself exactly as it is.
The real self long to be like the ideal self. And in the World, the real self IS like the ideals self. It's called happiness.

These connections are called structure.
In the Golden Dawn (and our beloved RWS), structure was based on Cabbalah and Astrology.
Other decks have different structures and (sorry) many decks, most decks, are just random, or copy from other decks.

Sturcture is the passage that follows the concept.
It translates the vague and textual expression of the concept into a precise Tarot frame.

The Golden Dawn structure, for instance, assume that the Fool walks himself in two paths (male and female) between the Magician and the High Priestess (it cames from Cabbalah).
Most decks, however, prefer a linear (easier) evolution from card to card. Others choose different routes.
However, if you plan to create a deck, you must seek each Arcana and give him/her a place in this structure, working around your concept, and your needs.
No Arcana is going to be changed (or at least, very few), but they will mute and transform to a specific aspect of them.

What will you do of the Fool, for instance?
Above, I have shown two beautiful different Fools, both (imho) powerful and interesting, and yet they show different worlds.
I personally think that THE Fool is greater than any single Fool.
There are decks that do not choose what to bring forward of the Fool and rely on an archetypical (let's say generic) image. Maybe just an artistical rendering of a copy of the RWS.
These deck are very powerful, because their Fool (or any other cards) becames a clean slate where the reader/querient may project his own version of the Arcana. It can dive in, like on a sponge, with all his intellectual knowledge of the Fool, and have the Fool returned to her like on a mirror.
But (imho) these decks, while they are probably the best reading decks, have little potential to enrich you, as they do speak ONLY with the voices of their readers. Other decks (lesser as reading decks) have the ability to enlarge, nurture and grow your understanding of the Arcana.
And each Arcana to seed the understanding of more Arcana.

To make an example of a non conventional structure, I would take the Tarot of Legends (provisionary title, as the deck is bound for 2013)
In that deck the Majors are organized in triplets (seven of them), each expressing the same concept in the material, intellectual and spiritual plane. The concepts are: "balance/unbalance", magic, knowledge, receptive, creative, love, war.
And that brought to choices. The High Priestess (traditionally firm aligned with the keyword knowledge was called by magic, while material knowledge is represented by the hierophant, etc...)
[exercise: try to place the 21+Fool Arcana is seven triplets. You will see how the decision is not easy, but also as the exercise will really shake your understanding of the Arcana - hopefully for a big fun!]
Anyway... in the Tarot of Legend, the structure says that the concept of Knowledge is Hierophant (the Saint without Guilt), Hermit (the Holy Beggar) and Judgement (the Angel of Destiny/Endings).
Such a structure will force to express the "knowledge" aspects of those Arcana. In the Hierophant, for instance it's the teaching, in the hermit is the research, and in the Judgement is the responsibility.
http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/05_Papa_leggende.jpg

A similar work should be done weaving a structure between the Suit, the Numbers, the Courts.

Last part of the deck creation process is to give a visual description to each card.
I always say to myself: keep the cards as questions, never as answers.
I believe this is necessary for a deck to be universal.
Each card NEEDS to be able to be interpreted in MANY ways, not just one.
Not a keyword made image, not a collection of meaning to choose, not a visual cue to the Tarot disctionary in our mind. A card needs to be a window on the infinite that each Archetipe is.
More than everything a cards needs to be a window on the infinite complexity of the human being. Not any human being, but that very specific human being (each of them) that will be read to.

What we risk (imho, it's a risk... and it's what I - personally - see as the mark of a mediocre deck) when creating a deck is to create a bunch of 78 cards, all separate and distinct, done one by one without any common thread expect in the very shallow and obvious.
We have too many decks like that... decks that work because most book (as well) teach to read cards one by one. This card means this, that card mean that.
But if we have clear the concept, and we have clear the structure, when we finally face the cards, they will go deeper.
It's not a rational process... but the same way, it works.

This was not really an "how to", but I hope it could be useful anyway.

Ric
 

GryffinSong

Thanks for this, Ric. Very thought provoking and interesting. I hope that more deck creators will put this kind of thought into their decks. :)
 

AJ

excellent post Ric, it should be required reading for aspiring deck artists
and probably explains why so often we hear "I can't read with it but I keep it for the art"
 

ekb

... or the opposite approach could be taken. Instead of focusing on a specific visual theme in the artwork, the designer instead focuses on creating a mood through how the structure of the deck is presented.

I like playing games and the decks I've created have had game play as a focus as a result. In addition to simple design structures such as corner numbering and very minimalist artwork, I chose to color code the artwork so that play could be as simple as matching colors. I also wanted to make sure that someone could read with the deck as well, so I created some subtle asymmetries in the artwork so that reverses would be clear as well... but not noticeable or distracting while playing.

Good post - pleasantly provocative. ;)
 

merissa_88

Thanks for sharing this. I usually visit this subforum to be inspired by other artists and see their process, but it's also interesting to see to see how decks hang together as a concept.

I've always thought tarot decks were either based on the RWS or the Thoth - and the creators were either conscious or unconscious of that foundation (especially the Kabbalah stuff). So your discussion is a really interesting way to go outside of that and still have "universal" appeal. I don't know why, but it reminds me of writing a book or movie script.
 

RiccardoLS

Many decks are created by "artists" and not by "writers+artists".
The art, whatever the medium, has many other (and wonderful) ways to give unicity and substance on a deck.

As my experience is only on writing, I have focused on that aspect, and yes, it's very similar to creating a book or a movie script. In the chaos and emotion of it all, there is a lot of technique, I guess.
And then, there is the step to convey all of your intruction to an artist... and let her do her magic.
I find myself (I think it's a job quirk) to "reverse engineering" decks.
Looking at each card and asking myself "why" it is in that way. And sometimes I find answers that are breathtaking. :)
 

Pen

Thanks for this Riccardo - I've struggled with creating some sort of guide in the past, and never come up with anything so deep, logical and detailed. I shall print it out even though I'm half way through a new deck. Maybe next time...

Pen
 

Alta

I added this thread's url to the Creation Forum Index.
 

Storm82

thank you for sharing, very interesting :)
 

HOLMES

hello there

i know one is not allowed to make requests of public figures. so i dont' know if this question would be allowed.

can you add onto this riccardo what it is that you are looking for when you publish your decks besides beauty?
to me this is a general concept in your post that can inspire others,, but i wouldn't want people to get inspired to go work on a whole deck and find it isnt' what you are looking for (unless the person wasn't doing it for commerical release but for yourself ).

there is a marked difference in my view between lo scarabo, lellweyln and universal games deck publications and how they look i must say.

i would give an example of when i watched true blood last night i was thinking of how i wished i had the wizard tarot,, and how there was the vampire theme, and why did no one ever make the tarot of the werewolf ??
so after thinking there in my chair thinking of the werewolf theme went through my mind,, i realized or thought i realized for i could be wrong that tarot publishers follow the trend of the times.
do you think you noticed, or follow any trends, and if so do you try to predict trends like the beautiful wizards tarot was an excellent release just before the ending of the harry potter eh ?

i think it was said at one time robin wood said she wasnt' allowed to release any tarot work that would complete with the robin wood tarot, which we disussed among ourselves did that mean a sequal to her first deck even if it was released by the same company ?

riccardo perhaps you can try particpating in the artist process for your own personal deck, as a personal challenge and could help you in your understanding of the create tarot process at a deeper level ?