Create My Own Tarot Deck? Why Would I Want to Do That?

"Doesn't your version of the card appear in your mind's eye as you look at another version from another deck? When you set out to make your deck weren't you thinking about a product to sell - at least to Ferret owners? Thus, perhaps the deck wasn't really about you? I bet you'll be able to sell every copy you print."

Oh yes! I see my own cards when I look at different suits & such, definately! And breaking down the shorthand meanings (ferret version vs standard version) just jumps out at me now. Limits it in a way, but then if it's a beginner just starting out, maybe that's to the good to start, then they can expand on the meanings later?

I started just to see if I could do some sort of neat sketches, then after getting 15 or so thumbnails (tiny preliminary sketches) it sort of sunk in that 'hey! Make the whole thing!' might be time to get serious & keep on it. I waffled between cats & ferrets, because I used to do mail art & had a character called O.C. Cat who was on most of my mail going out for about 2 years (and 'Fox' Mulder who was doing part of year 4's story line as a fox, which coincided with some Star Trek episodes & a Stargate crossover...let's say the post office knew me as 'THAT one'). Anyway, cat decks numbered about 6, ferret decks numbered 0 so I went with ferrets. As I mentioned on another thread, at the VERY WORST I'll end up with about 80 spot illustrations of ferrets I can maybe sell to pet magazines.

As a former ferret owner - I'm allergic now - I know there was very little ferret merchandise out there so it stood a good chance. After I posted a few cards & started getting feedback, that helped stick with the project. I'm pretty sure the deck isn't about 'me', but I did sift through a lot of books on the meanings of each card & tried to distil things down to something I could show with a ferret in it & still get the concept across. I didn't want it to be something like the Unicorn Tarot where a ferret is stuck in just because it has to be in there (no offense to the Unicorn Tarot, I know people do like that one, but I felt they're not very integral to the cards in that deck, in a lot of cases). Mine had to have a reason for being there & to still cover the meanings that the card stands for.

Umm....I do admit that I'm sort of leery about getting the deck reviewed by readers who have mega experience behind them, but I'll grit my teeth on that one, I did the best I could so I've gotta accept that. Hey, I always hated getting job performance reviews too. At the very least, the deck will make a lot of ferret owners happy! AND if I can subvert them into actually TRYING tarot because of it--that's GOOD! Right? Yeah.

I'm basing the 500 deck printing on response over the past few months, and the number of people who first saw it back in January (and wanted to place upwards of 150 orders in the first two weeks ! ! Jesus ! !)--I just have to learn how to network & get the word out once we do pick things up from the printers. Oh, and I AM making 500 pouches, each one gets a pouch. Sort of to make up for no 'box' outside of the one they'll get shipped in.

baba-prague said:

a "thank-you" for the good advice and directions that I think I got from this city.

I just asked Alex and to quote what he said:

"Most of all because I am interested in symbolism and history. It is exciting to take things you see every day and combine them to make something with a new symbolic meaning"

So - that's the concise answer from both of us!

I love this thread - and hope more deck designers join in.

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Thank you for this. A concise answer indeed.

Now I've been reading the thread on your deck on the Tarot Decks board and people are posting some pretty spooky experiences.

I would submit that your thank you to a city is a very personal thing.

In short my friend, Baba-prague, I think you might have some phenomenon to report.

Ironwing said:

it was very personal right from the beginning

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Wow!

Thank you very much for sharing your experience.

Ironwing said:

I drew whichever card I felt like working on, so the energy of the cards quickly entered my life - I began to "live" each card as I worked on it. Once I recognized this, I sometimes chose cards based what I felt was appropriate at that time.

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Thanks for sharing this, ironwing, and thanks for starting this thread Tom. Yes, the few cards which I have painted have definitely manifested for me, in many ways. it was truly an amazing experience. You are inspiring me to go back and do more cards.

Tom! The deck is not spooky at all.
It is sometimes - like Prague - a bit "other-worldly" but definitely not spooky. That's in my opinion, a few people find Prague very spooky - the book "Magic Prague" by Ripellino is the most famous instance of someone who just feels Prague is thorougly dark and Gothic and weird - but I don't agree - I find this side of the place is only one side - to me the warm humourous side of Prague is the stronger one.

We did feel encouraged to do a deck by the place itself - but that's more about intuition than anything metaphysical I think. Oh I don't know - anyway, by belief is that some of these things ("phenomena") are better not discussed too much. They can sometimes feel very personal.

I didn't think the "Prager Tarot" was really about Prague at all - and it seemed about time that Prague did have its own deck. The place calls out for it - for goodness' sake, you can see a Justice, or a Temperance, or a Devil almost everywhere you look.

Anyway, the deck we are now working on is motivated by something else entirely - the need to build on what we've learnt - but at the same time let our hair down. The Tarot of Prague was incredibly intense (friends kept asking us if we planned ever to emerge from the studio again LOL) and we need to do something more playful now.

Maybe then, we will think about doing something dark (as the nights draw in ) who knows?

ps - I can try to get Alex to say more next time. But he tends to be short on words!

Baba... I think Tom meant... the experiences being spooky, not the cards themselves... the experiences of coincidences from the cards energy manifesting in life, while you are working on the cards,.

(I LOVE the deck bye the way)

Yes, you're right I think. Thanks for the kind words too.

But in a way I am just teasing him - he probably knows me well enough to guess that (I hope )

I got such a rap over the knuckles on another thread for talking about how very odd the experience in Prague can be, that I thought I shouldn't say much more. Partly I honestly don't like talking about some of the things that have happened, but also, I thought people might think I was spinning yarns around the deck.

I don't know, I just think the deck has (thank goodness) worked for Prague - it already seems to be liked here - and some of the oddness (nice oddness) of the city is in the cards. "Coincidences" is actually a nice way to put it.

But - anyway - I don't want to pull this thread off track. It's a good thread I think.

Still Baba, you haven't said if the energy of the cards manifested for you in your life, when you were working on them. I am interested to know! Did they? did you experience odd synchronicities in your life to match the cards as you worked on them?

I have a friend who was trying to do a set of 11"x14" illustrations of Runes back in 1989, trying to work out the whole set with symbols & backgrounds appropriate to each one. She had major troubles with it--said the energy was manifesting & she was having trouble either dealing with it or trying to cope with the ones she WASN'T able to deal with by putting it on the back burner.

I think she got into the 4th picture then gave up. She had too much trouble with energies and with runes she didn't want to get to yet that were calling to her to do 'them'. (She was a magazine illustrator at the time).

So it wouldn't just be tarot decks, I think if you work with any sort of divination system you're likely to go through some of the same things as you do it.

HudsonGray said:

So it wouldn't just be tarot decks, I think if you work with any sort of divination system you're likely to go through some of the same things as you do it.

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I suspect this is correct - very astute.

Thank you Karen. I keep hearing stories about two Death cards. I can see the humour in it, but it's pretty spooky too.

I'd love to hear other people's stories too.