Adapting your favorite book(s) to Tarot?

I hope I'm putting this in the right place. I'm not necessarily planning on creating a deck for publication, indeed, not for anyone else but myself, but, am looking for advice, wondering if anyone else has done this.

The other day I started thinking how certain characters from a series of books I love would make excellent Court Cards. I have a difficult time understanding the Court and thought that applying characters I know well to them it would aid in my understanding of Tarot. Then I went on to try and figure out what I would do with the Majors, pips, etc. Now, although I'm a graphic designer, I'm not any good at drawing, so I didn't really consider actually CREATING the deck. But, the more I thought about it, the more useful I think it would be for me, personally.

I presented the idea to an online aquaintence who is also into the same series of books (FYI I'm talking about the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, about 11 books at the moment). She takes a different perspective from me and thinks the major characters should be Majors, not Court cards, though to ME, they don't really fit as Majors, at least, not the way she envisions it.

Granted, as I said, I'm doing this for my own benefit, so I'll take or leave her suggestions. My question is, has anyone else tried to do this, adapt your favorite book, series of books, or comic books, whatever, to the tarot? I can't help but see the Court cards as actual characters, but I wonder, would the Majors be best as other characters in the books, or perhaps as events, (though, events might better conform to the pips...?), symbols, whatever? Do you think the major characters would be Majors, automatically?

Any imput is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Mar

The Tarot of Amber (I think it's called) is based on the Amber chronicles. And Lo Scarabeo has a super hero tarot out just recently. Plus there's a Wizard of Oz deck and an Alice in Wonderland deck. It's been done before,but not all that often.

Diane Wilkes is working on a Jane Austen Tarot.
Due out in 2005.

OOOOHHHH! a Gone With the Wind tarot!
that would be most interesting!
Queens would have to be swaped with kings? Being the books lead character is female. Maybe change the courts names-
lets' see~ Belles, Beaus.....Ladies & Gentlemen....heehee.
Scarlet would be Queen of Pentacles because of her business sense, then again, her temper- swords, and her on fire passions, wands- maybe set her as queen in each element/season?

I realise that your aim is a particular story- but perhaps my ramblings give ya' something.

I'm not familiar with these vampire books that you speak of, but I think it's a fun mental exercise to think of which characters fit which cards -- and a good way to learn, too.

It's not a well-known book, but John Crowley's novel Little, Big would make an excellent tarot deck... in fact, there's a deck in the book, which I would love to see. But I can also see several of the characters as Majors.

Ariel Hawksquill as the Magician
Smoky would be the Fool for sure
Daily Alice... I think the World fits her best
Auberon and Sylvie as the Emperor and Empress
Great-Aunt Cloud would be the Hierophant
Grandfather Trout as Temperance, maybe...
Sophie, the dreamy one, would be the Moon

Then there's the cast of faery characters. Where would I fit them in? Hmmm...

This is fun. It will be even more fun if someone else has read this great book.

little, big

Laura--

It's been a while since I've read this one. But you're absolutely right. You could probably get a whole deck from it.

I'm going to have to look back over it.

And yes, I would LOVE to see the deck from the book....


fly well
Raven

Re: little, big

Ravenswing said:

You could probably get a whole deck from it.

Click to expand...

OH! I wonder if John Crowley deliberately peopled his novel with characters that fit the tarot? Remember near the end, when Sophie realizes that there are only 56 faeries left, using her minor arcana to count them? And then when the extended family goes... well, I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it, but it fits -- he could actually have mapped out his characters on the tarot deck. Smoky and Daily Alice's daughters as the queens, grandkids as pages, all the minor characters filling in the pips.

I'm stymied when it comes to George Mouse, though -- who would he be? He's one of my favorite characters, but I can't think of what card fits him.

*ponders*

hee hee!

glad to see other people get excited about doing this kind of thing! I wasn't looking for specific advice on adapting the novels I'm interesting in, just general ideas.

for example, pick your favorite book or whatever. if you adapted it to tarot, how would you do it? would you need 22 characters, one for each Major, plus 16 for the court cards? or, would you use situations from the story to illustrated the majors? see, with the series I'm thinking of, it's 11 books long, there's a huge and growing cast, though some characters have been in the books since the beginning. I could easily (okay, maybe not easily, with some effort) come up with enough characters to fill all those spots. But, should I? Should I take a different approach? I have a hard time imagining anyone other than the main characters as the Court, but my friend sees them as majors, which then leaves the Court empty...

I looked at some cards from the Casanova, seems like it takes a mixed approach (though I haven't seen all the cards, so that makes it difficult). Maybe I can find more examples of cards from the Wizard of Oz to give me ideas!

Thanks again!

The Lord of the Rings tarot, is also based on the book...by Tolkien... Works very well....fits like a glove...


But "Gone with the Wind" tarot????
Oh, i can't wait for that one!!!!! incredible idea!

little, big once more

laura--

I think I'm going to have to take some time and re-read it with tarot in mind... It's there from the start, so I'll think I'll have to make notes as I go along.

I'm really deep in some other projects, so I'd only take it at about a chapter a week.

I think I'll start tonight. I'll keep you posted...


fly well
Raven