Thanks for all the comments folks - Nic and I read them with joy and excitement. It's wonderful to finally be able to get feedback from other Tarotists (instead of just our friends and family!)
We'll be putting up 5 more cards in the near future - The final two Aces and a few Minors.
Also coming up soon is some writing, and short blurbs to go with the cards.
truelighth: we are hoping to send a proposal to several publishing companies (including Llewellyn) to see if they would like to publish the deck.
Lee: I love small details, and I love symbolism, so I've tried to include that in the deck. It's been fun trying to express the card meanings in a different way, whilst making them recognizable to the user, and symbolism has been our main route through that problem. The little details are often also the most important in the cards - such as the
tiny stick figure in the background of the Sun card. From him we'll get copious amounts of meaning, because he relates to Plato's analogy of the Cave.
(This'll all be in the book btw.) Some of the details are there less for Tarot symbolism and more because they seemed to go hand-in-hand with the God we were using. For instance, Inner Wisdom (HPS) has Odin - and of course we had to inlude his two ravens! The red dragon flag behind King Arthur in Alchemy (Temperance) is also just to distinguish the figure as King Arthur (though we also know this will appeal to the Welsh users of the deck.
) A lot of the details also find links between cards (particularly in the Majors). For instance, The Underworld (Devil) has chains, whilst The New Aeon (Judgement) has broken chains; the dove descending in the Magician is the opposite of the dove ascending in the New Aeon, etc etc. Where possible we've tried to give the individual Gods/heroes/figures the appearance they've been asribed in history, or the accompanying symbols they have, because we want this deck to be used also for those who wish to explore these deities, instead of just use a Tarot deck.
Sulis: The Lovers was actually posed for by myself and Simon.
(I don't have black hair, but Osiris looks exactly like Simon in this card!) So it means that bit extra to me, personally. In fact, quite a few of our closest friends posed for the cards - Simon can also been seen as Beowulf in the 6 of Wands, Odin in Inner Wisdom, and Gilgamesh in Strength; Nic has posed for Percivale (Fool), Galahad (Chariot), and Hermes (Awakening of Swords.) It been interesting to find out that the people who have posed for the cards based on appearance have also had personalities to fit those cards! Oh, and I'm glad you like the 10 of Swords - it is my favourite card in the deck so far.
blue_fusion: it's been difficult trying to get a good mix of eastern and western mythology in this deck, because Nic and I are so interested in Arthurian, Celtic, and Norse mythology! It's been a steep learning curve for us, exploring some pantheons we'd never even heard of before, and talking to devotees of particular deities and practitioners of various Pagan paths to get an impression of these Gods. Recently we've been exploring Vodou and Yoruba deities, and have found Agwe for 6 of Swords, and Baron Samedi for Nurturer (Queen) of Wands.
Aborigine mythology is also coming into the deck now.
Strange2: your comment made me grin from ear to ear, and almost bought tears to my eyes. Diversity whilst at the same time having unity has been one of the primary goals of this deck - and a personal goal of my own. Studying for this deck, exploring the world's vast plethora of mythologies, has really made me think that even though there is such a diverse range of Gods and stories out there, they all fall back to the same, unified needs and desires and feelings of humans. For me, mythology has become the real spokesperson for human unity. We also want to get this across in the accompanying book of the deck, and many of the essays I've written on the cards have drawn from various pantheons to show that - whilst this particular God represents the concept found in this card - we find similar concepts expressed all over the world, in all cultures.
Lemurian: thanks for the comments on The Fool (Percivale). We've often found that we have one image in our heads for the cards, and another image entirely appears on the paper. We decided to leave this image how it was. For this Fool, we got the feeling that this was the final, held breath before that all-important leap - and we wanted a feeling of pausing, anticipation, before throwing oneself into the adventure.
Chronata: Glad you like Master of Swords and Wands. I must admit, Casanova is a personal favourite of mine (and I hope you noticed the rather large bulge we gave him
). I'm currently reading his "History of My Life" ready for writing the essay on the card, and I think I'm falling in love with this remarkable man...
And of course, Socrates. I'm a philosopher, so he had to be in there somewhere!
Anyway folks, enough of my rambling - watch this space for nudges when new cards go up!
Blessings,
Kiama