Steampunk Tarot

vee said:

Re: The 5 of Swords. Looks to me like the woman and the man are a con-artist duo. The woman is distracting the vendor by feigning interest in the sword while her partner sneaks to the side and steals a different one. It could be that the woman is genuinely interested and the man is working alone--but the first version is more romantic so I like it.

Click to expand...

Oh, NOW I understand these sneaky characters... And the gentleman in a top hat is a victim, not a villain... Thank you for the explanation!

I have liked this deck ever since I saw it and it was really easy to connect with it. I find King and Queen of Pentacles saying: " Yes, we are old money. We have wealth and we dont need to flaunt it." which I love and still get the sence of wealth and abundance. I cant wait to get to know all the cards!

Perhaps he is a villain and victim! Maybe he's been using his influence to raise rents to line his pockets, not caring it will throw the poor out on the streets. Our daring young couple, without the political clout to stop him, resort to stealing his goods. They will sell the sword and like robin hood, take from the rich and give to the poor. There are so many different stories on that card, I think.

I love the narrative possibilities in this deck!

Well, I'm pleased to say that my Steampunk arrived today and... first impressions;

A very beautiful and richly coloured deck with minimal borders and undistracting titles. There are some gorgeous cards. I had a flick through and was very impressed with some of the cards, intricate details, and the machinery theme - whether you consider yourself seriously Steampunk or not - is very thought provoking and gives a very distinct angle to old tarot stereotypes. I took the book out with me when I went to lunch and had a read of about the first quarter and thought it was a very readable and useful book. All that talk a few years ago of how fabulous the Vampyres companion book was with its Kabbalah and astrology references (a book I thought was over-rated) and this one doesnt get drawn into any of these things in any detail and yet still manages to be a very useful and substantial book, really bringing out the poetry in the cards and the themes. I was a bit annoyed that the last 5 cards - from the 10 of Pents to the King of Pents were stuck together in a clump. I gently tied to prise them apart but it was no good; each card ripped the surface off the other card next to it. I've never had that with a deck before. I shall have to write to Llewellyn and ask for replacement cards, which is a bit of a pain.

There is something very attractive about the imagery, artwork and atmosphere

However, I have to say there is one thing that is such a killer for me and all afternoon I have been getting the deck out and trying to overlook it and find that I cannot; the imbalanced courts. Think about it; each tarot suit has 4 courts; we have two genders. Not a difficult division to make. But we have three female courts and one male court in 3 of the suits. It completely invalidates what I think of as court cards and the dynamism of opposing energies. Too much Yin and only a quarter of Yang. I can't get my head round this. Only the Pentacles suits has a male Knight, the other three suits have female Knights. And they don't look like Knights (as in, none of the thrusting dynamism of the suit). All static. So basically female Knights (along with female Pages and female Queens) imbalances the suits of Wands, Cups and swords. Why would one do that? Also, the Knights are indistinguishable from the Pages; you only know because of the title. They could be interchangeable. There's just something not right about the courts and I have been trying to think how I can overcome this because I really rather like the rest of the deck. Furthermore, you see in the Pentacles courts that it is the only set of courts that feels "right" and balanced (fabulous Queen of Pentacles too). The man has a beard and - even though he doesn't have a horse - it feels like the right kind of energy to balance things out. You can tell that the artist - who says in the foreward that he "particularly enjoys creating strong female characters" - just doesn't really like painting men, so they are very much in the background for this deck; lots of women dressed up in male clothing and it feels most acute in the courts (which are hard enough at the best of times).

Haha! That's funny that you have a problem with the opposite gender balance. Now that you mention it, I understand it, although it doesn't bother me like the lack of variety in women.

I guess this painter just really likes painting young, beautiful women and that's it. I still like the deck a lot, but it's amazing how little things like that can knock it off the top tier.

I am OK with the female pages (and Pages of Cups and Wands are just gorgeous! they have more than enough strength and energy and will never allow treat them as "fair sex"). But it's different with Knights... it's hard to distinguish them from Pages, and I have feeling they were randomly chosen for the promotion.
And all praises to the Kings! They are fabulous... same as Queen of Cups. Her image is adopted from Aly Fell's original work "Judith and Holofernes", and she really stands out from other Their Majesties.

Le Fanu - if you got your deck from BD (which I think you did) contact them for a replacement. I did this with my Silicon dawn which had the same problem, offered to send the damaged deck back but they basically said not to worry about it and sent another. Very good service.

Now, back on topic and back to those courts. You're right - there is an imbalance. I'm sort of looking at it like the way Shakespeare must have been when performed back in the day; boys playing all the female parts. Not perfect though I agree!

In a sense, it's what women must have felt for centuries at seeing male/female representation where it should have felt more balanced. I mean, I know that the RWS has a gender imbalance there from the opposite angle (3 X male + one female) but in my mind I have always thought of the pages as feminine or even effeminate anyway. One of the reasons I like the Thoth so much is the Princess & Queens + Princes & Knights equation. It feels so right like that. Plus the idea of Knights in movement is so fundamental for me, not sultry and static! But they really are very similar to the Pages. I'm sure the artist doesn't have an aversion to painting "strong female characters" on horses, which is why I'm inclined to agree with dana 2012.

Plus if you look at the enclosd scans; Page of Cups and Knight of Cups. Which is the dynamic one? Which is the one which screams "action"? Ironically, the one which has the most evidence of movement is the Page which has movement of planes in the background. Wouldn't they have been better switched? When I start questioning like this, it's not a good sign...

It's a shame as his few male characters are good; I particularly like the Hanged Man with his big 'tache and rolled up sleeves. Plus, as said above, the Kings are good too. But why, on the 7 of Pentacles a woman obviously in drag with obviously fake beard? Why not either a woman or a man? is there a point I'm missing?

I just have to close my eyes and repeat "think how women felt for centuries."

But some wonderful cards here. Love The Moon...( it has a cat!) 8 of Wands, Hermit, Queen of Pents, 4 of Swords...

Odd about the knights. I don't see Steampunk in these images though. I guess I'd have to see the whole deck.

I am actually fine with the Knights being women, if anything, I'd prefer the Pages be male. But I like androgyny/women in drag a lot, and I like the reversal that would present. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think the artist dropped the ball on doing something interesting there. And in other area too.

Yeah, Greg the rest of the deck is more Steampunky than those cards would suggest. Here's the Chariot, for example.