The Orbifold Tarot - Elements

Maveriker

This deck is more about relationships between cards and elements, so I think this study group might do well to start on the basic elemental associations and then move on to the Majors and Courts, which represent combinations of elements and relate to the various combinations Minors come up in.

So up first, the Elements:

Air: Thinking. Thought processes, the mind, communication and movement. The region in the body from the throat up. Prana, and the inward reception of sensory input, which also connects to the nervous system. Air is the least restricted of the Four Elements, being able to jump quickly from one place to the next — often in seemingly random order — in the same way that the mind can jump from one thing to a completely unrelated thing and then to something else entirely. Air is freedom and freshness, and does not like to be constrained… but it has a tendency to disconnect from the more tangible elements. Soft Yang.

Fire: Doing. Action and reaction. From thinking, we move to action. The movement here is less subtle than that of air, it has force behind it. Fire is also the element of transformation; it changes gasses into liquids and solids, and changes liquids and solids back into gas. Liquids, solids, and gasses are the fuel for Fire, and change its behaviour. The movement of fire is expansive, but not as jumpy as air — it spreads only as far as it can touch, or as far as its heat can touch. Light, sight, illumination, inspiration, passion. Hard Yang.

Water: Feeling. Sensations, emotions, sexuality and sensuality. Intuition, the subconscious and the unconscious. Fluids in the body as the vehicle for nourishment and digestion. Alone, water's movement is slow, but steady. Powerful, heavy, and forceful… but often under appreciated and unacknowledged. The dissolver, the blender, the merger. Internal knowing, internal study. The bridge from the mind to the body, and from thinking to being. Soft Yin.

Earth: Being. Rest, solidity, stability. Experience and wisdom. Practicality, pragmatism, and earthly concerns of existence — the basic needs of the tangible realm. Earth is the slowest of the elements, and that lack of speed can reduce its force when acting alone. Density and clarity, organization. At its best, earth also represents crystalline structure, and the clarity of crystals is a result of that organized density. The real, the tangible, the manifest — bringing things into being. The illusion of permanence. Creation and the womb. Hard Yin.
 

hazelliewong

Elements

I tend to be somewhat of an elemental reader, probably why I like the concept of the Orbifold Tarot so much. It's interesting what you wrote about Air and Fire though. You said Air is the least restricted and able to jump quickly from one place to the next, and that Fire is expansive but still only limited to what it can touch. Do you believe that Air is "faster" than Fire in terms of movement?

I've always looked at it as Fire being quick to burn, and burn itself out, compared to air movements, but then again, there are tornadoes and pretty scary winds as well. What do you think, does Air move faster than Fire or the other way around?

As I mentioned, I do read the tarot based on the elements and numerology, but I also read based on their traditional meanings and the images on the cards. The Orbifold Tarot seems to be very element-focused, with no other images except the colorful orbs according to their numbered Majors and Minors. Did you create it thinking that bringing tarot down to its most basic elements will eliminate all other distractions and allow for a more intuitive experience, or is it more a deck for studying the elements and not meant to be more than that?

I'd love to hear more about your experience reading with it, and perhaps how it can help students of tarot grow. I also teach tarot, so it would be interesting to see how I can use it for teaching. Thanks in advance! =)
 

Maveriker

What great questions!!

I tend to be somewhat of an elemental reader, probably why I like the concept of the Orbifold Tarot so much. It's interesting what you wrote about Air and Fire though. You said Air is the least restricted and able to jump quickly from one place to the next, and that Fire is expansive but still only limited to what it can touch. Do you believe that Air is "faster" than Fire in terms of movement?

I've always looked at it as Fire being quick to burn, and burn itself out, compared to air movements, but then again, there are tornadoes and pretty scary winds as well. What do you think, does Air move faster than Fire or the other way around?

As I mentioned, I do read the tarot based on the elements and numerology, but I also read based on their traditional meanings and the images on the cards. The Orbifold Tarot seems to be very element-focused, with no other images except the colorful orbs according to their numbered Majors and Minors. Did you create it thinking that bringing tarot down to its most basic elements will eliminate all other distractions and allow for a more intuitive experience, or is it more a deck for studying the elements and not meant to be more than that?

I'd love to hear more about your experience reading with it, and perhaps how it can help students of tarot grow. I also teach tarot, so it would be interesting to see how I can use it for teaching. Thanks in advance! =)


I do think that Air is quicker than Fire… but Fire is more powerful, and it gains momentum quickly (especially when aided by Air). So together, they are a very powerful combination… although too much Air can also blow out Fire, so that can be important to see in a reading as well, for instance a 10 of Air with a 3 of Fire may overpower the Fire, whereas a 3 or 4 of Air might feed a 6 of Fire to quickly become a 10…

But I think there isn't a rule about it either. For me, yes, Air is faster than Fire, but for others it can be the other way round, and provided that makes sense to them, it's totally fine. This is not only true of reading tarot on the table, but also when incorporating it into magickal workings, which I'm finding works really well with this deck! It's important for us to figure out our own elemental associations and traits for ourselves, but also find the essence of the element, which usually leads to some kind of general agreement :)

These relationships between elements are really easy to see in readings with the Orbifold though, because you can see the elements grow or recede along the spread, even without necessarily knowing the card meanings. This makes it more of an intuitive process, and one of recognizing patterns and flow that are sometimes not as easily seen with other decks.

My intent certainly was to eliminate distractions so that the reader can unfold the meanings based on the essences of the cards, the numbers and elements… but it's not in my opinion just an elemental study. I think for people who are more accustomed to scenic decks, a way to start with the Orbifold is to use it in some ways as a study tool, to see if you can recall the images associated with each card, and they can by all means read the cards as though they are the scenes they are familiar with… but to do that would be a little bit limiting, I think, and not fully taking advantage of the tool that the Orbifold is. Nonetheless, it's a way in :)

Without those distractions, though, and with the elements so prevalent, it's possible to see the interactive aspects of the elements more clearly, and so readings can become more integrative of the entire spread, or the entire message a little more easily, because we don't get bogged down in the details. The details still come up, but it's a bit easier to see the overall picture I think.

For students, I think it is a really excellent tool to learn the basics of number plus element, and it's also a way to "test" their knowledge of their working decks. I like to memorize as many cards as I can from whichever decks I work with regularly, so that when someone says "6 of Wands/Fire" for instance, I can immediately call the images from various decks to mind. The Orbifold can be used in that way, I guess, as an exercise deck, connecting the 6 of Fire to the other images you already have stored in memory.

Again, I think this is a bit limiting in the scope of what the Orbifold does, but it can be a really useful tool for that technique :)
 

sairystar

It is really interesting the two additional cards that the Orbifold includes: the Void and th Manifestation. The Void and the Manifastation usually are terms wihtin other Major Arcanas. Now they are availiable both in a reading and as meditational focuses. But what do they really mean for each and every one of us?
 

Maveriker

It is really interesting the two additional cards that the Orbifold includes: the Void and th Manifestation. The Void and the Manifastation usually are terms wihtin other Major Arcanas. Now they are availiable both in a reading and as meditational focuses. But what do they really mean for each and every one of us?

These two cards are both the congruence and absence of the Four Elements.

In The Void, we either have the absence of all elements, or we have the culmination of them to the extent that they are no longer recognizably separate — there's a unity there, and there's pure potential. The Void as "emptiness" is not necessarily the kind of emptiness when we feel we are lacking something, but the kind of emptiness we feel when we are at total peace, at total ease and in need of nothing. In this state, a space opens up within us, that has no need to be filled — this is The Void. Of course, we often quickly destroy that lack of want for anything, lack of need and turn it into "I want to fill this space" because the space is scary, it is not comfortable for most of us to step out of want and perceived need, to not fill our time and our minds and our bodies and all the empty spaces in our lives with stuff. The Void is suggesting we find comfort in that emptiness, that lack of need — not because it is insufficient, but in fact because it is whole.

Manifestation is that same potential turning into something. It is the other side of The Void where they are kind of both the same indescribable experience — both fullness and emptiness — but where the Void is the fullness of emptiness, Manifestation is the emptiness of fullness… or the description of that experience as fullness rather than emptiness. Manifestation is the whole, everything, in its potential, but seeing that potential. The elements have formed, but are in flux. Nothing can be taken away from it, and nothing can be added to it, it is complete… but at the same time differentiated.

The two cards together are really showing the struggle we have in describing basically the same thing, but there is a shift from having everything completely unformed, and having everything's form being revealed, even if still in potential.

In readings, I'd suggest that The Void is asking the querent to wait. To observe their completeness in and of themselves, with nothing to add, nothing to fill. Can they find that quiet space within them that is just space, nothing more? It may be a time of deep self-reflection, or simply of patience — everything is coming, the querent just can't see it yet. There is nothing they can do to make it happen, they just need to sit and wait. In a way it's also a card of giving up, like the moment that the Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree because he had given up on the idea of being enlightened — but in that moment when he truly abandoned the idea of enlightenment, it happened, and he was enlightened. The Void is that moment.

Manifestation is the moment immediately after, when he saw everything as it is, when he saw all his past lives, all the suffering of the world, and all the joy too — everything flooded into that space created in The Void, in Nirvana (which means "emptiness" or "voidness"). So in readings, Manifestation is the result of that wait, of letting things reach their potential. This is different from the Magician, who uses conscious will to make things happen.
 

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sairystar

to me the Void has to do with the emptiness and the things inside use that we try to a-void and place them in an empty space. Moreovere, I believe that it has to do with the the ''tabula rasa'' that we need when we start something new! The manifestation is all about the brainstorming and the ideas over our situation and yes the combination of all the elements in our life that we use when we fully exist or rather fully experience our lives!
 

Pixna

Maveriker, your associations and interpretations are brilliant and shed a bright, fresh light on the tarot and how the elements represented in it are interconnected. This post (and your other study-group threads) are fantastic. (I'm thrilled there's a study group for the deck here)! Will you also be posting on the numerological associations in the Orbifold Tarot?
 

Maveriker

Hi Pixna :)

Thank you!

Yes, I do plan on posting/discussing more soon, and have a fair bit of content planned fro both my blog and my site.

So great to see such enthusiasm, and wonderful that you find my posts useful!