Cedar Wolf
Hey, everyone. I’m more of an observer than a poster on this site, but I wanted to show you my deck that’s in the works – hopefully, coming out soon.
The Primal Tarot is a 78-card, hand-drawn black and white deck. Its underlying principle is to take the core meanings of the symbols from the traditional cards, and re-imagine them through the eyes of hunter-gatherers, the way human beings have lived for more than 95% of our time on Earth. How would they have seen their primary symbols? And what sort of lessons might they have taken from them? At the same time, this tarot doesn’t try to pretend that the modern world doesn’t exist, and juxtaposes those questions, and teaching from them, on to our own trials and quandaries.
It’s the usual tarot structure – Major and minor arcana, 4 suits, “court” cards. The suits are Bones (earth), Resin (water), Feathers (air) and Seeds (fire). I don’t follow the Rider-Waite template, though, nor any other common system, especially in the minors. (If this matters to you, consider yourselves warned!)
The deck draws its inspiration from indigenous people – historical and current – the world over, from the natural world as understood by people who lived in it all their lives, from their ways of connecting to the realm of spirit, and from the singular time in history we now inhabit, with the planet in unthinkable jeopardy from the actions of our culture.
I’m fortunate to be working with a wonderful artist on the deck. She’s about two-thirds through with the art, and the ultra-comprehensive book I’m writing as a companion is over half completed. I’m going to be showing some of the art here, and more as it gets finished.
I’d love to get your feedback! (Good or bad – I can take it.) The artist isn’t on this forum, but I’m happy to tell her what y’all think. Some of the art will be redone, but I can’t guarantee that we’ll get to incorporate all of your thoughts. With any luck, we’ll be self-publishing the deck and book in the coming months. (I’m praying it’s before too much of 2013 has drifted by.)
Here are some of the Major cards that are unchanged from the classic tarot:
The Primal Tarot is a 78-card, hand-drawn black and white deck. Its underlying principle is to take the core meanings of the symbols from the traditional cards, and re-imagine them through the eyes of hunter-gatherers, the way human beings have lived for more than 95% of our time on Earth. How would they have seen their primary symbols? And what sort of lessons might they have taken from them? At the same time, this tarot doesn’t try to pretend that the modern world doesn’t exist, and juxtaposes those questions, and teaching from them, on to our own trials and quandaries.
It’s the usual tarot structure – Major and minor arcana, 4 suits, “court” cards. The suits are Bones (earth), Resin (water), Feathers (air) and Seeds (fire). I don’t follow the Rider-Waite template, though, nor any other common system, especially in the minors. (If this matters to you, consider yourselves warned!)
The deck draws its inspiration from indigenous people – historical and current – the world over, from the natural world as understood by people who lived in it all their lives, from their ways of connecting to the realm of spirit, and from the singular time in history we now inhabit, with the planet in unthinkable jeopardy from the actions of our culture.
I’m fortunate to be working with a wonderful artist on the deck. She’s about two-thirds through with the art, and the ultra-comprehensive book I’m writing as a companion is over half completed. I’m going to be showing some of the art here, and more as it gets finished.
I’d love to get your feedback! (Good or bad – I can take it.) The artist isn’t on this forum, but I’m happy to tell her what y’all think. Some of the art will be redone, but I can’t guarantee that we’ll get to incorporate all of your thoughts. With any luck, we’ll be self-publishing the deck and book in the coming months. (I’m praying it’s before too much of 2013 has drifted by.)
Here are some of the Major cards that are unchanged from the classic tarot: