Doré Bible Tarot

[Moonchild]

Helvetica, thank you for your consideration, but you don't have to worry about derailing me. I am more than happy to discuss this issue. But as a newbie here, I'm uncertain about what discussions go with which forums and threads. So, name the time and place!

OLAL,
Moonchild

 

[Crowqueen]

As CofE, "anything goes" (though try telling that to our new rector...!!).

I like Dore, good for cartoons making fun of his style and imagery, but those pictures are incredible. You are going to need something to distinguish between suits, but I like the way Lo Scarabeo do their decks, with a token and the captions and a very simple border. And I like the colour scheme you've chosen for the website.

These are incredible...!!! Are the doubles (e.g. Hierophant, Queen of Swords etc.) choices you will make later or additional cards to be included for a choice? If the former you should choose Esther for the Queen of Swords . Oh, and Jesus' baptism is THE card for the Ace of Cups!

Also the prophet cards are a good idea and what makes the deck just a little bit special. I will certainly be in the market for a copy if it gets published. Just right for a reading with a certain apocalyptic bent!

 

[Moonchild]

Are the doubles (e.g. Hierophant, Queen of Swords etc.) choices you will make later or additional cards to be included for a choice? If the former you should choose Esther for the Queen of Swords . Oh, and Jesus' baptism is THE card for the Ace of Cups!

The double are choices I'm trying to make *now,* so thanks for your input! I like Ester too. Two angels with Swords are a little much. And I am so glad someone understands (and likes) the idea of Jesus' baptism for Ace of Cups. Thanks so much, Crowqueen!!!

One Love All Love,
Moonchild

 

[Crowqueen]

And I am so glad someone understands (and likes) the idea of Jesus' baptism for Ace of Cups.

The symbolism is already built into most Ace of Cups out there, particularly the Morgan-Greer which for me is the epitome of the card's meaning - "your cup runneth over", with the Dove obviously symbolising the intensity of the Holy Spirit of Christian experience. It is also Pentecost, just the sort of time to be thinking about this card!

 

[Moonchild]

Hierophant

Okay so speaking of the Hierophant, which one do you prefer: Moses on the Mount or Jesus on the Mount? I think Moses is a more traditional "Pope-style" Hierophant, but I know plenty of Tarotists who have a problem with that type of authority. There's a tendency to remake Trump V *away* from the image of papal authority (heck, they even used Jupiter once).
Too bad there's no illustration of Levi.

I'm more inclined toward the Sermon on the Mount picture, and can give plenty of chapter and verse on Jesus as mediator between God and man. The main problem I have is with the quality of the pictures: the Moses one is so Cecil B. DeMille, and the Jesus one seems out of sync with most of the rest of the images. I'll probably use it though, and the likely title will be "Revealer."

Any comments?

One Love All Love,
Moonchild

 

[Moonchild]

It is also Pentecost, just the sort of time to be thinking about this card!

My original idea was to use a Pentecost image for Ace of Wands, but it didn't work out.

 

[Crowqueen]

Okay so speaking of the Hierophant, which one do you prefer: Moses on the Mount or Jesus on the Mount? I think Moses is a more traditional "Pope-style" Hierophant, but I know plenty of Tarotists who have a problem with that type of authority. There's a tendency to remake Trump V *away* from the image of papal authority (heck, they even used Jupiter once).

I'm more inclined toward the Sermon on the Mount picture, and can give plenty of chapter and verse on Jesus as mediator between God and man. The main problem I have is with the quality of the pictures: the Moses one is so Cecil B. DeMille, and the Jesus one seems out of sync with most of the rest of the images. I'll probably use it though, and the likely title will be "Revealer."

The way I personally see the Hierophant is as the rational opponent/complement to the intuitive High Priestess. In this case I would have to say Moses illustrates that better than the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus actually in my book is more illustrative of the High Priestess, with his gentler, more feminine impact on the hard-headed Mosaic laws which had become fossilised into rigid pharisaical doctrine by the time He was born: if there are illustrations of pharisees that would be my instinctual approach to the Hierophant. Many of the vicars I know in the CofE have been Hierophants; during our "inter-regnum" of two years here in our village parish, we High Priestesses - the women of the church - kept it all together while we looked for a new rector and vicar, and out of that came a union of separate local parishes into a new "benefice" or regional circuit. We are therefore finding it difficult to re-adjust to "male"/rational authority (particularly since both newcomers are the type that sees Christianity as a mere set of parables or allegories rather than indulging in what they see as "alien" mysticism); the clergy that left the locality over the two years were more into the meditative worship of communities such as Taize, which owe much to the High Priestess and little to the Hierophant mode of religious practice.

However that's my own personal view. I like the Annunciation as the High Priestess, and if you think Jesus would move the idea of the Hierophant on a notch, then go with your gut feeling.

 

[Moonchild]

Yes, I know what you mean about the Hierophant being the rational, "rule-following" side. So many people have a bad reaction to that, and honestly I think it's an outmoded slant for the card. Pharisees, indeed! What did he call them, "sons of vipers" or some such?

Some Tarot creators have replaced the Hierophant with a female image (i.e. Ancestral Path). But I'm thinking of the HP as the "Keeper of Mysteries" and the Hiero as "Revealer of Mysteries." With the HP, God's Word manifests internally (thus, Annunciation); with the Hiero, God's Word manifests externally (thus Moses or Jesus). Moses gave us the Word, but Jesus told us what it meant. And that's what a Hierophant should do, IMHO.

One Love All Love,
Moonchild

 

[Kiama]

Personally I prefer Sermon on the Mount and the figure of Jesus as the Hierophant than Moses. This is because the term "Hierophant" is from the Greek "hierophany" which means "manifestation of the sacred", and was often used to refer to ways in which the Gods showed their desires/wishes/intentions to man. (Usually lightning from Zeus.) If Jesus isn't this, what is he? He is called the Word made flesh, "Logos" being the 'Word' (and 'Logos' is a term used previously for God used in Genesis - "In the beginning there was the Word...")... Jesus is God's manifestation on earth, and by being that he is also an intermidiary between earth and spirit, man and God. And he is also a revealer, as your version of the card title suggests.

Kiama

 

[catlin]

I am not Christian, but even I like the idea with the Doré Bible Tarot. My Grandmother had a reprint of the Doré Bible, so I am not unfamiliar with it and I am even consider putting this deck on my wish list.

Great work! Very thougthful selection of pictures but I think you either need a book to go with or you have to know the Bible very well to understand all cards.