Tabula Mundi Tarot: formerly Tarot "M"

Babalon Jones

re: the Chariot

Hi Frac_ture!

Well your psychic powers are nothing to sneeze at based on your comments :)

Because the odd thind was, I had several reference photos for the water that I was looking at, and to me, in one of them (but not the one I used most) it looked like the wave was a sea serpent or dragon. Not a doctored photo or anything, I just saw that with my imagination in the wave. And I really wanted to include it in the picture. But consciously I figured it would be too much to pull off with all of the other detail of the wave that I was worried about getting to look right, so I put it in the back of my mind and forgot about it.

But apparently my subconscious really wanted it there, because I see it too, even though I was not aware of putting it in!

Also you are correct about the horses. Originally I wanted them to be hippocampi, and I think they still are, but I was not able to include the tails and have it look right proportionally in the space I had so I eliminated the tails. So good call on that too!

Third thing is that the liquid in the chalice is swirling red blood & white gluten, but also a forming galaxy. (a recurring theme that I carried forward from Rosetta, as it insisted on being there). So you are three for three! :)

One thing that I was unsure of about the wave was just that as water, it has a lot of blue color. For the most part I am sticking with the color scales, and blue was not really in the scheme for this card, but I still managed to work in all of the colors that are: amber, maroon, rich russet, and brownish green, so I was satisfied with that.

I had a good day today too, alternating between moving the sprinkler around the garden and painting one of the minors. Wish every day was like this, but work calls tomorrow...

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and I mean it! Even Tibor, who worries for the horses drowning, lol! I assure you that while the surf is rough (I had Jim Morrison's poetry in my head while drawing them: "legs furiously pumping their stiff, green gallop; poised, delicate...in mute nostril agony") that since they are hippocampi that they are equipped ;-)
 

frac_ture

Hi Frac_ture!

Well your psychic powers are nothing to sneeze at based on your comments :)

What an awesome post to find greeting me this morning -- thanks so much for sharing from your creator's perspective! I'm thrilled to hear that my psychic radar was so on with this (I shoulda picked some lottery numbers while I was at it...). I've looked at the image multiple times, and I have to say that I never fail to see that cresting wave as being pretty suggestive (to me) of the sea serpent/sea dragon we're discussing. Maybe your subconscious really did need for it to be there!

Cool about the "horses" being hippocampi! When I discovered mythical monsters as a kid, I had a huge soft spot for what I sometimes think of as "fusion-beasts" -- that is, creatures that are magical mergings of two or more of our world's otherwise "mundane" animals...this category would include beasts like the griffin (lion + eagle), the hippogriff (horse + eagle), the chimera (lion + goat + serpent), and our friend, the hippocampus (horse + fish). I still kind of get a charge out of them, and it's great that you included a couple in this card, even if their true nature isn't on totally obvious display (I'll proceed with the knowledge that you're kind of validating my inclination to see them as hippocampi even without having hard evidence in the image to back me up ;)).

I never, ever, ever would have come up with red blood and white gluten, but the galaxy part jumped out at me in the first two or three milliseconds of looking at the card. A red galaxy is a really striking image, and one I don't really recall seeing too often before, if at all, actually.

I love your musical references in your posts, too: "When the still sea conspires an armor..."

The deck-buying frenzy that had claimed me for much of the back half of 2011 has subsided greatly for the most part, but based on what you've posted of Tarot M so far, I think it'll be the one that gets me to break my non-purchasing streak!
 

starlightexp

B.J. I just soooo love your work and the more I see this deck the more I learn about tarot
 

Babalon Jones

starlightexp, that is a very kind thing to say. I am honored, thank you so much!
 

sapienza

Fabulous!!! I absolutely love what you are doing with this deck. It is so clear you have a great depth of knowledge about tarot and symbolism, and when combined with wonderful artwork the results are stunning. What an exciting deck in progress!
 

Mallah

Lovin' it! I love the connections to Maat; and is that morse code in the very background? What messages could be encoded there?
 

daphne

That is very original!
Never saw Adjustment like this. Excellent!
 

Cassandra022

such an awesome take, again. really love what you are doing with this deck.
 

Alta

Lovin' it! I love the connections to Maat; and is that morse code in the very background? What messages could be encoded there?
huh! I had taken them to be musical notes, but I guess they aren't now I see your comments.

I like the modern shift from Harris' image of balancing on an upright sword to this more modern image of a skater balanced on the blade. Looks less potentially painful than the Harris image also looks to me. :)

So much there, the snake swirls into the wings which also seem a part of her green mask.