A Queerer Tarot Kickstarter

From the creator:

“I wanted to create A Queerer Tarot because I always had a hard time relating to some of the Rider-Waite’s imagery – The Lovers especially; I just didn’t see myself in the cis, thin, straight bodies. I also knew I would never successfully pin down a universal experience, which is why the deck is “a queerer tarot” rather than “the queer tarot.” A Queerer Tarot reimagines the major arcana as symbolic of life’s journey, with new cards such as “The Closet” and more than one kind of Strength. The hierarchy of the minor arcana is also restructured, with Child, Student, Teacher, and Master instead of the traditional Page, Knight, Queen, and King, and I like to think that none of them is above the others – just in a different, but necessary, stage of being. I hope that newcomers to tarot will find my deck accessible, and more experienced readers will find insight in the reimagined cards.”

Wallace Crehan

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wallacecrehan/a-queerer-tarot?ref=nav_search

More card images:
http://littleredtarot.com/new-tarot-decks-on-kickstarter/

While I always appreciate a queer take on tarot, I find the skimpy description and lack of more pictures of the cards a hard sell. The image on Little Red Tarot shows a Hearts suit and nontraditional majors - but there's no explanation of what the other 3 suits and majors have been changed to, or why. If I didn't see the the LRT post I wouldn't even know the suits were changed!

Clearly some people disagree - they have a couple dozen backers. But with such a minimalist deck that relies on concept instead of stunning art (not that it's bad art - it's just very simple), I feel kind of iffy about it.

I found an image of the major cards on the Updates tab: http://i.imgur.com/puRGyFJ.jpg

Also found out this was part of the creator's senior show, and there are very very small images of all the cards here: https://twitter.com/WallaceCrehan/status/868301551814807552

After some squinting it seems like the other suits are the same, because I see coins and swords and something that's probably wands. Can't read any of the suit names, though. Also, it seems like the majors had some shuffling. Devil/Injustice is 13 and Death is 15, for instance.

Eh. I like the idea, but I'm not sold on the deck itself. There's so much to queerness and so much variety to the queer community that I feel like marketing it as a queer deck instead of a simplified symbolic deck is putting it up against amazing projects like the Slow Holler that really sought to embody parts of the queer experience, or even just decks that take the humans out and emphasize the meanings of the cards in other ways. (Plus, making the only visible hand in your sample cards white, thin, and clearly female isn't really exemplifying the thing.) It's not a bad deck, I just don't see how it's queering the tarot, honestly. Wear that pride, or something.

/picky queer

I have to agree, personally. (Though as a non-binary femme I love when queer decks are full of manicured hands- see the Slow Holler) I think I would have appreciated it more if the title was something more personal. Even the most popular queer decks like the Collective Tarot or the Numious Tarot don't have "queer" in the title, so if you were doing to do that you'd really need to go the extra mile. But I do like that some of the cards seem more geared toward the lived gay and trans experience, like the Closet or the Activist.

A lot of queer decks are more on the maximimalist side when it comes to art, so I can't say I don't see the appeal. Just not for me, but I would like to see more decks like this in the future.

lantana said:

I have to agree, personally. (Though as a non-binary femme I love when queer decks are full of manicured hands- see the Slow Holler) I think I would have appreciated it more if the title was something more personal. Even the most popular queer decks like the Collective Tarot or the Numious Tarot don't have "queer" in the title, so if you were doing to do that you'd really need to go the extra mile. But I do like that some of the cards seem more geared toward the lived gay and trans experience, like the Closet or the Activist.

A lot of queer decks are more on the maximimalist side when it comes to art, so I can't say I don't see the appeal. Just not for me, but I would like to see more decks like this in the future.

Click to expand...

I want all the queer decks, yes! And I agree with the creator that it's hard to see myself in the RWS. And I agree with you about the renamed cards, those are pretty cool. But when you brand yourself as something, you'd better be pretty damn that thing, and when you put the specific label 'queer' on something you're representing it as something...er, representational, of a whole lot of really varied intersectional experiences. I think Slow Holler and the Numinous do more to capture that.

Which isn't saying that people who love the deck are wrong, because...varied intersectional experiences. It's just not doing it for me personally. It would be very cool to have a minimalist queer deck, since a lot of minimalist decks I can think of off the top of my head are more femme-tilted or don't involve humans at all.

I agree with the general consensus on the deck. I really like the renamed major arcana but I find the deck lacking, more than a bit vague and skimpy, as opposed to the more vibrant and coherent minimalist depictions in decks like the Mesquite tarot.

One thing that stood out to me: the court cards are child, student, teacher, and master. Master? It's a little jarring in a queer deck. That would be deal breaker for me had I felt a more personal connection to the deck.

I think this should have been a Lenormand. Its sparseness would have more appeal in that format. Isn't emanating tarot to me...