Coloring the BOTA Tarot

LRichard said:

It is said that Moina Mathers expelled Case from the A.O., because she thought he was preoccupied with sex.

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Moina asked Case to resign from his position as Chief of the A.O. after she received various complaints from prudish outer order members concerning Case's open (and one might add, healthy) attitude on sexual matters. Case responded by criticizing the order's Enochian and Tattwa teachings claiming, quite rightly, that they were "lifted" from other sources. That really angered Moina and she promptly expelled Case and Lillie Guise from the A.O.

LRichard said:

They have square corners, but that can be fixed. (Gregory has gotten everyone curious about her "ugly" deck. ) OMG! BOTA's shipping charge to AU via UPS is around $15 (probably USD)!

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When I get around to it I will post a card then. OH the SHAME.....

This was a VERY LONG TIME AGO, please note....

Hierophant

The artist who did the line drawings was a tad too generous with the hash marks (indicating shading) in the Hierophant's vestments.

Case has a much higher opinion of the Hierophant than Waite. Instead of merely an exoteric authority figure, he considers him more in the role of a prophet than a priest. He receives occult knowledge and communicates it to those who are in his care.

I seriously believe that Case himself may have been the model for the Hierophant, at least for the face.

Thank you Gregory and Little Richard.

I think I will try the actual cards. From memory there was once an RWS kit with blank major arcana. It's probably not available now.

US postal rates are terrible, probably a Republican strategy to wind back the deficit.

Your colouring is excellent, LR. I wonder why US Games hasn't followed through with BOTA shaded deck? I have a Centennial, a Radiant and a truly awful 2001 version, all by US Games (I think) and none of them appeal quite as much as yours .

momentarylight said:

Thank you Gregory and Little Richard.

I think I will try the actual cards. From memory there was once an RWS kit with blank major arcana. It's probably not available now.

US postal rates are terrible, probably a Republican strategy to wind back the deficit.

Your colouring is excellent, LR. I wonder why US Games hasn't followed through with BOTA shaded deck? I have a Centennial, a Radiant and a truly awful 2001 version, all by US Games (I think) and none of them appeal quite as much as yours .

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Republicans raise the cost of living; Democrats raise taxes. You can't win.

I think BOTA has the copyright for all their publications, inluding their Tarot. US Games can't use the designs. The closest thing they have is the Albano-Waite, which was colored similarly to the BOTA. If USG could get Mary Hanson-Roberts to redo the Albano (like she did with the Universal Waite), I think they would have a winner.

The Lovers

This is very near the top of my favorite cards. Symbolically, it is almost the same as the Rider-Waite, except that here there are 5 fruits on the Tree of Knowledge (behind Eve) instead of 4.

The similarity between the BOTA and the Rider-Waite is no surprise. The RWS was P.F. Case's favorite deck (and the one which he instructed students to get) before he created his own deck, in which he included a few "corrections" which he felt were important from his perspective. However, anyone who is interested in the BOTA should know that Minors 2-10 are unillustrated pips. This is not really a disadvantage, since it is perfectly legitimate to use the Rider-Waite (or Golden Dawn) meanings for these pips.

I have never been a member of BOTA, but I think P.F. Case was a brilliant Tarot scholar, along with A. E. Waite and A. Crowley.

The Chariot

It's customary to color the borders of the BOTA Trumps with the background color of the images. I'm leaving that until last because it's fast and easy to do when you mask off the part of the image adjacent to the border.

Woah that chariot looks incredible.

akirafist said:

Woah that chariot looks incredible.

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Thanks. The Chariot was fun to do.

ETA. It didn't have too many of those ghastly hatch (shading) lines, and the colors are nicely distributed. It has a pleasant (but not excessive) balance/symmetry.

Agree with all of the above, but my main comment is the sheer power of the coloured image. Somewhat stark and very 'strong' when complete.