Tarot

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January 20, 2004

Roll Your Own

For quite some time I have had the Inspiration Tarot by Patti Provo. If you've never seen it, I still haven't either. It's blank. The whole idea of this deck is to put your own illustrations on the cards to create your own deck.

I've always considered this a daunting task. There are 78 cards to illustrate. It seems like a lot of work. I've considered it many times and talked myself out of it just as many times. Perhaps I just wasn't ready.

The cards themselves are nice enough. They're just like the Rider-Waite deck on the back and are numbered with a large blank space on the front. One of the other obstacles that I've encountered is that the numbering is just like the RW deck. I'm sure this must be a great deck for beginners who want to copy their own version of the deck. But, I'm not sure that the numbering works for me. I would think that if I were to put forth the effort to create 78 cards, I would want to work with the set in my own Metaphysical/World view. The King, Queen, Knight and Page don't work for me. Crowley's Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess are closer, but still not quite there.

Perhaps that is where I need to start? And what about the Major Arcana? Some of those images and ideas are not exactly what I would want in my own personal deck, either. I think it may be more fruitful for my purposes if I switch the court cards to Straight Male, Straight Female, Butch and Femme. These are the people that are in my life and the lives of those who ask for readings. It's harder to interpret when a King, Knight or Prince card comes up and you can't tell if it's talking about a guy or a butch. Perhaps distinguishing the cards would make it more clear?

The number cards and the suits make sense and should probably stay the same. I'm sure there are other illustrations that would be more appropriate to my interpretation if I created them, but the idea and progression are probably worth keeping.

The Major Arcana will have to be worked with. I suppose the best place to start for that would be the Tree of Life itself and the field of Numerology. I can tell that this is going to take deep research and lots of soul searching. Perhaps that is the whole purpose?

Looking at the face of the card, it's not practical to draw directly on the card itself. It may take a number of attempts to get the illustration to a comfortable point. And the waxed surface does not lend itself to many methods. Perhaps I could use the cards as a backing... and completely cover the face? I could create the illustrations on regular paper and scan the drawing. Then I could manipulate it to the size I need and use the printer to print it on label sheets. Then I could peel and stick the drawing onto the card face. I think that would probably work best.

I'll post more as this progresses. It may take a long time to finish. But, the seed has been planted.

The results of an online search to give a link to the deck (so you can make your own) were surprising. The only place I could find that still sells it is the Mystical Dragon. The page displays "Companion Books," so I'm not sure that they actually sell the deck. The deck I have originally cost $12 (US), so the first listing appears to be the deck itself. You may be able to find an old pack in the Tarot Case at your local bookstore. The US Games Systems' web site did not list this deck. And Amazon only listed one used deck (like new) for $30 (US).

Posted by BlueWolf on January 20, 2004 10:38 PM