Alamaris
After getting the Lazy Afternoon into the shop, finishing the Mathematics Tarot book, and sending the Sapphist Lenormand off to proof, I felt I deserved a break. Something relaxing.
So, clearly, I started making a new tarot deck!
I've been calling this one the Lazy Afternoon's Big Sister in my head, since it's also done in markers on cardstock, but with a few more years of artistic improvement under my belt. It's also a little more personally symbolic than the Lazy Afternoon, a compilation of the things I've studied over the last few years that make my brain happy.
The Fool is based on an obscure Christian myth about St. Christopher that states he was of the race of dog-headed men, the Cynocephali; he was said to have long flowing hair and great boarlike fangs, and that after considering God for many years, he was granted the gift of human speech by an angel. The standard St. Christopher legend portrays him as a very tall, very strong man who often carried people across a fierce river. When one day a child asked Christopher to carry him to the other side, Christopher found that the child seemed to double in weight with each step he took, until he could barely make it across, whereupon the child revealed that he was Christ, and that Christopher had been carrying the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. He was later martyred after several hilariously failed attempts at murder by a Roman king, and was sometimes considered the patron saint of fools.
The others are a little less obscure, though no less symbolic (I just don't have time to write out paragraphs for all of them, as I must rush to the post office!): Loki, shapeshifting trickster and god of fire is the Magician. The Priestess is an owl-headed woman before an Afghan mosque. The Empress is a dryadic woman with a horn of plenty.
I'm hoping to do at least one of these per day. I hope y'all enjoy them!
So, clearly, I started making a new tarot deck!
I've been calling this one the Lazy Afternoon's Big Sister in my head, since it's also done in markers on cardstock, but with a few more years of artistic improvement under my belt. It's also a little more personally symbolic than the Lazy Afternoon, a compilation of the things I've studied over the last few years that make my brain happy.
The Fool is based on an obscure Christian myth about St. Christopher that states he was of the race of dog-headed men, the Cynocephali; he was said to have long flowing hair and great boarlike fangs, and that after considering God for many years, he was granted the gift of human speech by an angel. The standard St. Christopher legend portrays him as a very tall, very strong man who often carried people across a fierce river. When one day a child asked Christopher to carry him to the other side, Christopher found that the child seemed to double in weight with each step he took, until he could barely make it across, whereupon the child revealed that he was Christ, and that Christopher had been carrying the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. He was later martyred after several hilariously failed attempts at murder by a Roman king, and was sometimes considered the patron saint of fools.
The others are a little less obscure, though no less symbolic (I just don't have time to write out paragraphs for all of them, as I must rush to the post office!): Loki, shapeshifting trickster and god of fire is the Magician. The Priestess is an owl-headed woman before an Afghan mosque. The Empress is a dryadic woman with a horn of plenty.
I'm hoping to do at least one of these per day. I hope y'all enjoy them!
Good for you, Alamaris!
