Golden Tarot by Kat Black Study Group

retrokat

hi jst (hope you didn't mind me using your name...)

*grin* A lazy-arse like me would get nowhere without a vehicle! So take the credit, girl - you deserve it :D

Seriously, the drain of trying to get publishers to even LOOK at one's work is too depressing. I'd tried it for years with other projects and it's just too hard to bother. Refection after rejection, and often you just know they didn't even open the envelope.

I would have been happy with just bringing it to the world on the web (version 1) - but then now that I've had the opportunity to develop it into a fully-fledged, real, readable deck, I'm happy as a pig in poo about it. But would it have happened without a certain assertive New Yorker? Nope!
 

retrokat

Three of Coins

Obviously this one's very recognisable to RWS readers. The church interior, the monk, the young stonemason at work.

What I did change: More opulent, warm interior, as I find the RWS church in this one a bit cold and austere for the meaning of the card.

Also, instead of a robed architect holding a plan, I put women doing handicrafts - making the furnishings for this beautiful church. I guess I was hoping to show that even back in an era where women had very defined roles, their hard work and the love they put into it was as vital to society as the work done by men.

The way these three women are working together is as I found them in a fresco. The relationship between them, even though they're working silently together, looked to me like one of mutual support and co-operation. I imagined that they were each doing different stages of some vestment or whatever. Each woman doing the bit she was best at, then passing it on to the woman doing the next task/stage. Making something beautiful together, with love - sort of like the American quilting tradition maybe?

I know the collaborative swing I've put on this card isn't strictly traditional (although the RWS version *does* have the architect and craftsman, so perhaps Smith intended some degree of teamwork to be shown?). Again, I guess that's my own beliefs coming through?

Aside from the main "pride in work done, acknowledgement by an employer" meaning of this card, I also wanted to hint at another possible meaning of the 3 of coins by adding the women - creation, and even pregnancy. They look like a pretty clucky little trio to me ;)

http://www.goldentarot.com/mico03.htm
 

Jewel-ry

All of the threes are great cards IMO. I have just pulled them all out and have them sat in front of me. The three women in 3Coins and 3Cups could almost be the same people but from different era's.

I think its the expressions on the faces that I find so interesting. Just look at that 3 Swords, she has a defiance on her face. Like, she wont be beaten.

I have had to buy myself a magnifying glass so I can really get into the detail of this deck! I love it!

J :)
 

retrokat

Symbols from "The Making of Golden Tarot"

Thanks J!

I like the 3 of Cups too :)

I listen to a lot of Early Music (medieval-baroque) and I can really hear the music when I look at this card. I have one great CD called "Minstrel Songs and Dances for a Medieval Banquet" that's so perfect - I listened to it as I created this card.

Music and audio books were really helpful to me when creating the deck. I was working such long days on Golden, and listening to books and music with an era-appropriate theme really made me feel immersed in the time. I never got tired or bored, despite spending up to 40 hours on a single card (often in 16 hour stretches! Talk about obsessive, eh?)

Music is so important to me, and was such a great tool in creating the deck, so I've slipped in as many musical references as I can.

Same goes for books, I'm a real library-rat. In fact, just about the only time I left the house during that period was to go to the library and pick up tarot & art books I'd ordered in. I was a complete hermit.

Every table in my house was covered with books or decks opened to appropriate references for the card I was currently working on - so it seemed perfectly natural to stick books in all over the place as symbols of knowledge, scholarship and wisdom. Somebody has commented (a librarian fan) that she's so far spotted over a dozen books in Golden. Wouldn't surprise me if there are more!

And animals.... Unfortunately for me, there were so few cats in my source material, so my lovely cat that sat on my lap for much of my pixel-pushing is one big influence that isn't really shown much. I think the only one is in the Hermit. Although there are quite a few Big Cats, rampant lions on shields and the like.

So, if you notice a lot of musical instruments, books and animals that weren't in the RWS, now you know why. That was just about what my life consisted of while I was making the deck.
 

ScarabFlight

I would like to take part in a study group for the Golden Tarot too! How does it start? Does someone just start a thread about a card? I'm quite new to this and would love to enter into discussions about this deck. I think this is one of the most beautiful and engaging decks I've seen.

One of the things that I did to aquaint myself with the deck was to go through each card and come up with a 'before and after' for some and a 'what am I thinking' for the rest. Maybe we could try something like that?

I look forward to discussing all of the cards with you. :D

p.s. Thanks to Kat for all of the wonderful insights on the cards!
 

retrokat

Scarabflight,

Sounds like a great plan, cos it looks like I'm doin' all the work here ;)
 

ScarabFlight

Hmmmm, maybe I'll have to do something about that. :)
 

ribbitcat

Re: Three of Coins

retrokat said:
Obviously this one's very recognisable to RWS readers. The church interior, the monk, the young stonemason at work.

What I did change: More opulent, warm interior, as I find the RWS church in this one a bit cold and austere for the meaning of the card.

Also, instead of a robed architect holding a plan, I put women doing handicrafts - making the furnishings for this beautiful church. I guess I was hoping to show that even back in an era where women had very defined roles, their hard work and the love they put into it was as vital to society as the work done by men.]

Also , Kat - it's interesting that the women here could be regarded as providing the "finishing touches" that makes the whole enterprise complete ; in addition , what they do softens , enriches , beautifies and in a practical sense , makes the environment far more comfortable ( all those loooong sermons :)
 

lark

ribbicat I like you thoughts on the 3 of coins.

I see a whole different story when I look at this card.
The worker is a young man summond to the house of a rich merchant to do some repairs to the house.
The merchant has 3 beautiful daughters.
It just so happens that some of the restoration needs to be done in the young maidens school room.
The maidens have there eyes half on the young craftsman, half on their lessons. The young craftsman has his eye on the 3 pretty maidens and the tutor has his eye on all 4 of them.
Romance is in the air and there is more than school lessons, needle work and restoration to learn, but a little lesson in the ways of love.
 

Emily

I've just had to search for this thread lol

Does anyone know the name of the musical intruments that are being playing by children on The Empress and Ten of Coins?

I thought at first they were lutes or mandolins but i think both of these instruments have long neck pieces and the two shown don't have any, they look like harps but not. :)