Telos Tarot of 777, was on Kickstarter from June 19th 11:11 am thru July 2nd 5:55 pm. The Kickstarter is over now, but you can still learn more about the deck and watch the video. The deck successfully funded well enough for a glorious printing with all the extras. If you missed the Kickstarter, don’t worry, some additional decks will be printed and available this fall on TarotCart.com.
Kickstarter picked it as a #ProjectWeLove !!!
Telos Tarot of 777 is my latest tarot creation. The idea was to magic a tarot deck suited for magical workings and imbued with astrological potency via a ceremonial art process centered around astrological timings and alignments. Telos means end goal or inherent potential. The image ideas in Telos Tarot of 777 come from Crowley’s book of magical correspondences 777; the “magical descriptions of the decans” for the minors (mostly Picatrix based), and the “correct designs of tarot trumps” for the majors.
You can read more about that process here in the Meet the Fool post and preceding posts, and also at Telostarot.com. A four and a half year process of creation is culminating soon!
I’m was hoping to launch it around Solstice, or the day before if possible. It launched Wednesday (Mercury’s day) June 19th 2024, late morning EDT around 11:11 AM. Which is the day before the Summer Solstice here, a fitting time for a celebration. I just got the sample deck yesterday and am taking some pictures and video. Here is a sneak peek – look at all the color!
And here is the project video! With many thanks to my generous and talented friend Sean who filmed it.
Some samples of card back drafts – note none of these are final! I didn’t ask for the white and somehow my printers must have misunderstood! But it shows what is possible. I do like the one with silver. Other colors of foil are possible too. I’m looking at copper now, as many thought the silver looked like copper. That’s because it was filmed in my art studio that has salmon orange walls and ceiling! But copper would be awesome, a reddish copper would be the perfect flashing color against that Scorpionic green!
It’s a journey through the magical images of the decans as listed in 777 (mainly Picatrix based with a few outliers) for the minors. And to finally have a deck that combines and reconciles the images of the decans with the minor cards of tarot, both in art and meaning.
But it also is an attempt to finally have a deck where all majors actually follow the “correct design of the tarot trumps” according to the teachings of the Golden Dawn anyway, also per the descriptions in 777.
You might say, but wait, don’t many Golden Dawn based decks already follow that for the majors? Like the Rider Waite or Thoth? Well no, not exactly, if you read the descriptions not every major aligns. Some majors do, but some do not, and even the ones that do, don’t do every nuance of every part of the description. And some cards not at all, ever anywhere, at least that I have seen. For example, check out the description for the Fool:
A bearded Ancient seen in profile…He laughs; bearing a sphere containing illusion in his left hand, but over his right shoulder, and a staff 463 lines long in his right. A lion and a dragon are at his feet, but he seems unaware of their attacks or caresses.
Wow, have you ever seen a Fool card that checks all those boxes? Bearded! Ancient! Profile! Laughing! With a sphere? Containing “illusion”? And held in left hand, but somehow also over the right shoulder? And a staff 463 lines long? With a lion and a dragon attacking and caressing him?
Nope, I haven’t seen one. Maybe one exists but if so I haven’t seen it, and I’ve been looking at tarots for decades.
Over the years I read and reread that description. If you unpack it, of course it is all about the Tree of Life. But I always wondered why most Fool cards only have him with a staff (but not “463 lines long”) and either a dog (RWS) or a tiger and crocodile (Thoth, at least closer to a lion and dragon). Even some of the “Golden Dawn decks” instead have a Fool as an infant with a wolf, picking a rose off a bush.
So I wondered about that, and came to the conclusion that drawing it was just too hard. Getting that exactly contorted posture right. Getting in that sphere so that it contained “illusion”. Drawing a staff “463 lines long”. I mean really.
Now I guess someone can just feed all that into AI or something and see what they get. But I actually just thought about it. A lot. Over a long period of time. And I finally understood it, and how I actually could draw it, and get all those elements into it. And what each element of the description actually means. It’s the creation of the world.
The Fool. Telos Tarot of 777. copyright 2020 M.M. Meleen
Bearded, Ancient, profile, left hand with sphere over right shoulder, laughing. Animals both attacking and caressing.
Just for fun I did a little homage to Pamela Coleman Smith’s RWS Fool too.
RWS Fool by Pamela Coleman Smith
The sphere contains maya written in Sanskrit, meaning “illusion” (and magic!). Of course it represents Kether (and the three veils of “nothingness>light” preceding it) on the Tree of Life, where the path of the Fool, and the lightning flash of creation, begins. The “illusions” seen that escape from it descend, creating the entire tree, and eventually, this illusory material world.
The staff of “463 lines” refers to the Middle Pillar on the Tree of Life, the paths of the Priestess (Kether to Tiphareth), Art/Temerance (Tipareth toYesod), and the World/Universe (Yesod to Malkuth). Their respective Hebrew letters Gimel, Samekh, and Tau are numbered 3, 60, and 400. Adding to 463. Rather than trying to draw 463 lines on something that small, if you look closely you will notice the staff is engraved with the letters.
This entire deck started, of course, with the Fool. The original pencil drawing was done in Aquarius season 2020 (Aquarius, Fixed Air sign as the Fool corresponds to the Air element).
The black lines of the drawing were ritually inked in ceremony with a dip pen at the exact conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 0° 0′ 00′ Aquarius on the Winter Solstice of December 21st 2020. It was precisely timed to the astrological “Great Mutation” when Jupiter and Saturn, the creator gods, conjoined at 0 degrees Aquarius ushering in a new cycle of Air sign conjunctions. It’s a big picture thing as it is a 20/200/800 and ultimately 2400 year cycle.
It’s part of a series of interlocking cycles of Jupiter and Saturn – Zeus and his dad Cronos, the two creator gods. They meet in conjunction every 20 years. This happens in the same element for 200 years, then switches to a new element for the next 200 years. It takes 800 years to move through all four elements, and 2400 years to move through the entire zodiac. So on December 21st 2020 (significant as Solstice), there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 0 degrees of Aquarius, which marked what they call a “Great Mutation” as it was one of those 200 year marks where the 20 year conjunctions switch elements – this time from Earth to Air (Fool). And it was on the 0 degree (Fool) and sign Aquarius (also Foolish as Aquarius is the domicile of Uranus – Ouranos, Cronos’ Dad and Jupiter’s Granddad). That won’t happen again for 2400 years. But now we also have Pluto (Zeus’ brother Hades) in the mix, who also moves pretty slowly and has been passing over and then back and forth as he retrogrades over that 0 degree Aquarius point activating that degree a few times.
Every time Pluto hit that zero degree Aquarius point exactly over the last few years, is when I worked on the color painting for the card.
At the moment of posting this, Jupiter has hit 0° Gemini, another Air sign (trining 0° Aquarius), which is why I decided to finally share this Fool with the world.
So that’s the story of the creation of the Fool. But also the creation of Telos, where every card has been similarly created during specific astrological alignments.
Full moons are a time of completions. The last of the art for my new deck, Telos Tarot of 777, is done, and formatted into card form! The above is a graphic that was incorporated into the card back design.
I’ve now completed the 78 cards of my new deck, a project that began in February 2020. It’s a new deck based on the “magical descriptions of the decans” in Crowley’s 777 (for the 36 minors) and the “correct designs of tarot trumps” also per 777 for the Majors. With wordings followed precisely to the letter for all cards, and painted during the related astrological period, something I’ve never seen elsewhere.
Now that the art is completed I’ll be announcing details about an upcoming crowd sourcing campaign to fund this new addition to tarot.
The deck was started early in 2020, but I didn’t get fully going on it until later in the year, and really got going during 2021 thru now. The first thing I did was the Fool but the first thing I posted here was this pencil sketch of The Magus.
mock-up of finished card. copyright 2020 M.M. Meleen
This has been several years of working almost daily, for hours upon hours every day with very few exceptions. The art looks simple, intentionally so as to me that translates well to the small size of a cart. But the process has been long as everything is done by hand with traditional materials: pencil sketch then dip pen and ink for the final lines, and acrylic ink, paint, and colored pencil for the colors.
The card above is the Ten of Cups, the last of the decanic Minors, Pisces III. (With this card, you will be thankful I was using the 777 magical decan descriptions and not the infamous one of the Picatrix!) The 777 description of the decan: A man of grave and thoughtful face, with a bird in his hand, before him a woman and an ass. You’ll have to imagine his grave thoughtful face as you only see him from behind. This was intentional as Pisces is associated with the Hebrew letter Qoph, meaning “back of the head”.
The card has water and more water being poured into it, as well as what I call “The Well at the World’s End” of Pisces III. All that water, and a double rainbow to boot: Satiety. But the card is ruled by Mars – the ten cups are actually traditional Japanese temple fire buckets that really are stored in an upright triangle (fire symbol) – for this is the first of the “doubled Mars” decans in the circle of the zodiac. Fire is incoming, when the zodiac begins again at the first decan of Aries, also Mars ruled. And the male figure was inspired by a sculpture of an Arabic Falconer, which also seemed rather martial.
Work on the cards was purposefully timed to astrological indications. Two separate yearly “decan walks” were used for the 36 minors – one to do the pencil and ink line drawings, and one to do the color paintings. Most briefly, a “decan walk” is a yearly process of astrological contemplation on the 10 day decan periods that each zodiac sign is divided into, mirroring the Sun’s year long journey through each decan. It can also be called a Solar Walk for that reason.
The Majors, Courts, and Aces were also worked on during appropriate astrological timings. The Courts were done during the two decans of their element (they have three in all, but I chose to only work on them during their elementally aligned decans. The zodiacal Majors were done during their sign, and the planetary Majors had work periods commencing on their day and hour. Other significant timings were incorporated as well and will be detailed in the book’s notes, such as the Hanged Man during the very last decan of the zodiac (Pisces III) and during Neptune’s annual conjunction with the Sun, and The Aeon during the Feast of the Book of the Law, April 8th – 10th, which this year coincided with an eclipse at the Sun’s exaltation degree in Aries II.
Aries II, the Three of Wands, Virtue, decan ruled by the Sun, description per 777: A green-clad woman, with one leg bare from the ankle to the knee. The card is called Virtue, and has the goddess Persephone (deity per 36 Airsof the Zodiac), as well as depictions of the three main parts of the soul according to Egyptian theology: the Ka, Ba, and Akh.
There are so many cards to show since the last update way back in early Sagittarius, that I don’t know where to begin! Here are just a few selections. I don’t have the time to explain all the symbolism fully in this post, so I’ll just share the images and 777 descriptions and a few tidbits.
The Nine of Wands, Sagittarius II, Strength, decan is ruled by the Moon: Magical description of the decan per 777: A man leading cows, and before him an ape and a bear
Ten of Wands, Oppression. Magical description of the decan per 777: A man leading another by his hair and slaying him.
The Queen of Disks, according to the description in Book T.
The Devil, Lord of the Gates of Matter and Child of the Forces of Time, per 777: The figure of Pan or Priapus
The Two of Disks, Change, Capricorn I, decan ruled by Jupiter: A man holding in his right hand a javelin and in his left a lapwing
The Five of Swords, Defeat, decan ruled by Venus: A man with bowed head, and a bag in his hand
Six of Swords, Science, decan ruled by Mercury: A man arrayed like a king, looking with pride and conceit all around him
The Princess of Swords, per the Book T description (and inspired by the orisha Ayao, goddess of Air, storms, and tornados)
Princess of Cups, per Book T description, with her dolphin.
The Eight of Cups, Indolence, Pisces I, ruled by Saturn: A man with two bodies, but joining their hands. Figure was inspired by a river god, appropriate for watery Pisces, but doubled per the description, like Pisces symbol of two joined fishes. The lunar references are for The Moon card (Pisces), not the Moon planet, as the card is Saturn ruled. The eight cups used to make the sand castle were based on a discovery of a very ancient Janus cup with two faces, one on each side (doubles again, and Saturnine). This ancient and valuable gold cup was found stored and forgotten under someone’s bed, as when they inherited it they assumed it was worthless (Indolence, sleep, and very Pisces!)
The stories of the inspirations and models/references used for each card will be in the guidebook, at least when they are relevant/interesting to share.
The Hanged Man, done during the last part of the last decan of Pisces and during the annual Sun-Neptune conjunction. Note the gallows “shaped like the letter Dalet” per the 777 description. It also ties in the female form seen in the water spray of the Ace of Cups. Each of the elemental Majors echoes something in the imagery of the respective elemental Ace and vice versa.
Per book t the Ace of Cups: “a cup, resembling that of the Stolistes. From it rises a fountain of clear and glistening water: and sprays falling on all sides into clear calm water below, in which grow Lotuses and Water-lilies. The great Letter of the Supernal Mother is traced in the spray of the Fountain.
Yes, the 78 cards are all done! I just finished the card back too. It’s a pet peeve of mine when a deck with lots of effort put into the art has a boring dialed in card back, like they ran out of steam! The card back is important – it’s on every single card! But the art is done.
Unless I decide to go back and redo anything. It’s always a temptation as after being so close to a work for so long like this, all you see are things that could be better or changed or improved. Trying not to go there!
There is still work to do, even over four and a half years into this project. There is a little booklet and the full guidebook to finish. It’s started already! It will have a lot of the inspirations for each card, often drawn from interesting sources.
Nine of Swords, Cruelty and Despair, Gemini II, decan ruled by Mars. Magical description of the decan per 777: An eagle-headed man with a bow and arrow. Wears crowned steel helmet. It’s hard to see in the scan above, but I painted his helmet with paint containing shavings of actual stainless steel.
And one more for now, The Universe. Per 777 it “should contain an example of the Quadrature of the Circle. An ellipse, composed of 400 lesser circles…” (yep, 400, really! The number of letter Tau). It goes on very specifically about the “naked shining figure” and its exact posture, hand and leg placements, and concealing scarf shaped like a letter Kaph, even though the card itself corresponds to Tau. I’ll spare you the details for now!
The Universe, the last card, a card of Saturn and Earth…I have to say is it’sA Day in the Life of an esotericartist: “and though the holes were rather small, I had to count them all“. (and place and paint all 400 of them! Whew; I don’t ever want to do that again! It involved math. 32 of them are little Malkuths.)
I’ve posted cards for you to get an idea of what this deck is about but not all of them at this point, though all are complete. More posts will follow when I figure out the timeline for a crowdfunding to raise money for a great printing, probably via Kickstarter.
One of my favorite cards in this deck to work on was the Seven of Cups, Illusionary Success or Debauch, with a 777 description merely reading “a horse and a wolf“. Probably because it is the only card of the deck without a human face or figure in it, well except for the skull I guess, so it was a break of sorts. The 7 cups contain symbols combining Death (Scorpio) and the Empress (Venus/life); a potent combination for art if one can harvest it.
What would you like to hear about on the blog, and in the book? Let me know, and if you want to be updated for when this launches sign up for the newsletter.
Hello, and happy Sagittarius season to all fellow Sag. Work continues! Just wanted to share a few of the latest cards on my new deck (in progress since 2020!)
The 777 description for the Two of Swords, Peace. First decan face of Libra “A dark man, in his right hand a spear and laurel branch and in his left a book“. The decan is ruled by the Moon.
You can’t really tell in the scan, but in the original I had fun painting the sandy beach – I mixed coarse iridescent stainless steel paint with a buff colored paint, and it really looks like glittering gritty sand in the original.
Major Arcana for Libra. Description per 777: “A conventional figure of Justice with scales and balances“. My favorite part of this one is how the floor deign extends and is seen behind the curtain, sort of as it it is extending out into the air – echoes of the Fool, Adjustment’s esoteric partner.
The 777 description for the Four of Swords, Truce. Third decan face of Libra “A man riding on an ass, preceded by a wolf“. The decan and the 4th sephira are both ruled by Jupiter – double Jupiter, thus the two wheels, one of which is a gyroscope for the balance of Libra. Coloring that background was time consuming, getting that gradation of purples with colored pencil.
I think I’ve already shared the other Libra cards in a previous post.
Major Arcana for Scorpio. Description per 777: “A skeleton with a scythe mowing men. The scythe handle is a Tau.” Scorpio is ruled by Mars, thus the action of cutting. The Tau is a reference to the Universe card (Saturn, who also wields a scythe) and the idea of an end point in a cycle. Mars shines in the sky above (note the reddish tint).
Five of Cups, first decan of Scorpio
Five of Cups, Disappointment. First face of Scorpio description per 777: “A man with a lance in his right hand, in his left a human head“. The decan is ruled by Mars, as is the sign – and the 5th sephira! Triple Mars! This is one of the five rivers of Hell.
all right…time to skip one Scorpio card, for the sake of not posting all of them…so moving on to the Seven.
Seven of Cups, third decan of Scorpio
Seven of Cups, Debauch. Third face of Scorpio description per 777: “A horse and a wolf” (one of the few without people!) The decan is ruled by Venus, as is the 7th sephira (double Venus): note each of the Cups contains something Venusian as well as Scorpionic.
The Prince of Cups is the Air of Water card. I followed the Book T/Liber Theta description – to the T.
Onward to Sagittarius! The only one done so far is the Eight of Wands:
Eight of Wands, first decan of Sagittarius
Eight of Wands, Swiftness. First face of Sagittarius description per 777: “A man with three bodies: one black, one red, and one white” The decan is ruled by Mercury, as is the 8th sephira (double Mercury), while the sign is ruled by Jupiter. A very strange description that could be interpreted many ways. Since the card combines Sagittarius (Art) with Mercury (Magus), I went with the alchemical.
Whats on my work bench now? Right now, three cards. The Nine of Wands, for this current time of the middle decan of Sagittarius. Also, the Knight of Wands, the court card for Sagittarius. And of course the Art/Temperance card, the major arcana for Sagittarius.
Still a lot of work to do on this one! One of my favorites, Art/Temperance!
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future…
I am definitely going to take a course on time management … just as soon as I can work it into my schedule. All kidding aside, I realized I’ve not posted any progress pictures on the new deck since Cancer season, and here we are in Libra season already. All right one more time joke: Time flies like an arrow…fruit flies like a banana.
Time. It seems to be all I can do to finish the painting within each roughly ten day decan period, even working daily with few exceptions. The cards have each and every one been finished in the correct decan, come hell or high water – I’ve made sure of that. But the writing bits – both in the book for this deck I’m working on, and of course the updates here and in the newsletter, keep being woefully behind. Seems to be all I can do for now is complete the art on time. But winter is coming and there will be fewer chores related to the harvest and garden, so maybe I’ll catch up then. I need to pray to Saturn – the lord of time and the management thereof. Appropriate for the most recently finished card, involving Saturn (time) and Libra (balance).
Since the last post, the remaining Cancer cards, the Leo cards, the Virgo cards, and the cards of the first two faces of Libra – and the Queen of Swords, have been completed. So here is a look at the most recently completed card for the second or middle decan of Libra. The second face of Libra corresponds to the Three of Swords, Lord of Sorrow.
The decan ended this morning. Last night on Crowleymas, Crowley’s birthday, (after a meal involving curry as a nod to the Beast), I finished the Three of Swords, Lord of Sorrow, with a bit of late night painting. This card took the entirety of the decan period to finish painting the line art that was completed in the same decan of 2021 (and I do work hours daily), probably because of the magical description of the decan in 777: A man, dark, yet delicious of countenance.
The focus on his delicious countenance led me to do a more close-up portrait-style rendering than other cards, so I took a lot of time getting the face and hands shaded in, as well as testing color combinations of the decan’s colors and a wet-in-wet paint technique for the robe. I did the testing on the back of the image before committing to it on the front, something I do often.
The main color for the card (Binah in Yetzirah) is Dark Brown, and I also had the colors of Libra as the sign and Saturn as ruler of the second face of Libra. Which gives the greens and blues of Libra, and for Saturn we have the darker colors Indigo, Black, Blue-Black, and Black, rayed blue.
Though I’m not Catholic, the artistic inspiration for the card is pretty obviously somewhat influenced by those renditions of Jesus with the flaming heart, symbolizing his sorrow and suffering due to his compassion for humanity. Except this heart is flying. Swords for me are a suit of Air – not Fire, and the flying heart theme is something I painted before years ago, so I guess some of the inspiration was from my own previous pre-tarot-creation-era art. Here’s picture of one called “Wings spread wide into the Sun”. Not the best picture and the center of the heart is incomplete, but it gives you some idea of the gestation of this theme. I did this for my solar return in 2006, about a year or two before starting the creation of my first tarot the Rosetta:
You can see how this may have been a seed for my latest Three of Cups card:
Saturn is exalted in Libra, so this card, though called Sorrow, is associated with wisdom gained through experience, however painful it may be.
In this face, relationships (Libra) may be bound (Saturn); two things joined by a third: the pierced heart. 36 Airs of the Zodiac gives the deity as Kairos, a god associated with time management and perfect timing; as in the right or critical time; as time is a function of Saturn. This god was said to have a front forelock of hair, but no hair on the back of it’s head, the implication being that the right moment had to be seized or it would be too late to grasp it. Often the knowing of this moment involves pain and knowledge (Saturn) of the heart (Venus) – as well as formal contracts or bindings (Saturn) connecting people (Venus).
Yet this card also more often involves self-knowledge earned in a possibly heavy way: the mind influenced by the heart having been cracked open. Crowley refers to the wisdom of the Buddha, who discovered that there is suffering that leads to the end of suffering: the sorrow of Buddha led to his enlightenment.
“If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.” – Aleister Crowley, Book of the Law, Ch. 2, v. 30
Happy Birthday Uncle Al.
Since it has been a long while, here are a couple more cards completed since the last post. A selection from the last quarter of a year and the months of Leo, Virgo, and Libra. A minor arcana, a major arcana, and a court card.
I’ll just post the images here and the 777 descriptions rather than a write up of the artistic influences, symbolism depicted, and meanings. Time being what it is lately, you may have to wait for the book for that!
The Queen of Swords, another for Libra as she holds the first two faces of Libra (and the third face of Virgo). Per Book T: A graceful woman with wavy, curling hair, like a Queen seated upon a Throne and crowned. Beneath the Throne are grey cumulus clouds. Her general attire is as that of the Queen of Wands, but she wears as a crest a winged child’s head. A drawn sword in one hand, and in the other a large, bearded, newly severed head of a man.
That’s all for the moment, but if there is a particular card you are interested in seeing, and you have the time, drop me a line and if there are requests for a certain card or cards I’ll try to work some into the next newsletter (subscribe here), as soon as it’s time comes.
More about timing: All of the decan cards as well as their zodiacal majors and courts will be done at the end of this decan walk (the March 2024 Solstice). The Aces are done, Princess of Disks is done, and The Fool is just about done except for a finishing flourish I’m waiting to add at a certain astrologically appropriate time. Then there will still be the seven planetary majors, the other two elemental cards, and the remaining three of the Princess cards to do the color versions of – unless I work some of them in during this decan walk – if I get windows of time opening up. I estimate that the cards should be completed by the June 2024 Solstice.
Next up on my work bench, and needing to be done before Scorpio season gets here are the Four of Swords, Truce, and the Libra major, Adjustment/Justice. Enough words from me, for the time being anyway.
“Having to talk destroys the symphony of silence.” – Aleister Crowley
So, weirdly, recently two different people emailed me asking some version of the question “where can I get the “book” 36 Airs of the Zodiac, that I have referenced in posts about the new deck. So I wanted to clarify.
It’s not a book but a fragment of a Hellenistic text, only known through being mentioned or referenced by other ancient authors after the fact.
You can find the list of the gods for each decan in the Wiki article about decans though, under the column labeled as attributed to “Cosmas” and it is listed as an appendix table in the modern work 36 Faces (great book by Austin Coppock) as well. Unfortunately, though he has a bibliography he doesn’t footnote or endnote his sources so you have to guess.
The Wiki Cosmas reference (aka Kosmas, an ancient hymnographer) attribution comes from a German text on the decans and after doing my own research I found that Coppock’s reference comes from ancient text translations from Robert Schmidt’s Project Hindsight – which by the way is an amazing astrology resource.
Fortunately, the Project Hindsight texts Coppock references can be found freely on the internet. Search them out if you have a few hours to lose reading them. LOL seriously I spent many hours combing all this stuff and found it all which I will share more when I have time to drill down but I found it so you can too! I’ve already given you enough hints if you are motivated to find this stuff too. It’s not going to all pop up on an internet search of “36 Airs of the Decans”, you have to work for it.
If you can read German, the German text the Wiki article references DEKANE UND DEKANSTERNBILDER by Wilhelm Gundel is also freely available on the internet. Though it is in German it has some awesome tables in it. I wish there was an English translation but have not found it.
Update: It appears that the Project Hindsight domain was stolen, and the real site owners have moved the information. Please see https://www.robertschmidtastrology.com/ for more info.
Forgive the not-so-great picture here – we are having yet another thunderstorm and the lighting in my house isn’t good. But I wanted to share a tarot deck created by Benebell Wen – the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, in it’s latest (and greatest!) edition, the second printing of the Revelation edition which I think is the third iteration of the deck.
Before now I only had the original, first edition, black and white line drawing version, that Benebell somehow miraculously created in like, a few days – don’t ask me how she could do that. That edition is impressive for that alone, but also for how well thought out the system and the names of the cards are.
But now I have this latest edition, all I can say is wow! How it has evolved is nothing short of amazing. She took those black and white hand done line drawings and went digital on them, transforming them completely . I’m totally impressed. And I like, am the most pickiest of customers when it comes to tarot. No, I’m not at all one who nitpicks card stock or dents or minor production flaws and such as if I like it, I’m going to use the hell out of it anyway – but I hate shallow tarots where someone just copies RWS and calls it a day. This is not that. At all! And the art has really gotten a huge upgrade with the digital work she has done.
Everything and I mean everything, in this deck shows Benebell’s most thorough contemplation and consideration. It has her signature and sharp mind all over it. Do I agree with every single cards interpretation? Not totally in all cases, but they do all speak eloquently from a place of profound understanding of tarot. I’m really happy to see someone elevate tarot somehow when they create a deck, by including something to it that actually adds to a system and an understanding of tarot, instead of just changing stuff in a more personal way that is too specific to the creator.
The cards shown above in the top row are the three Fool cards the deck comes with, that you choose from as a significator based on your needs for the reading. The bottom row are just three cards I drew at random: Ace of Swords, the Golden Shield (Queen of Wands), and the Two of Chalices.
I love that it has three Fools, that the courts have their own unique system, and that the cards have the numbering system in the corner for doing the Opening of the Key (even though I only rarely in times of great need resort to that particular whole deal!)
The production values are awesome too. The “little white book” is actually a perfect bound book, and has tons of great information. Very well done. The cards are pleasingly matte printed, with really nice gilded edges – the mirror-like kind that doesn’t seem to flake. I wish I could do those but my printers don’t do that – I only print in US and that seems to be an overseas thing. The box is sturdy and attractive with a great quote from the Book of the Dead on back.
Plus it smells good – she personally anoints every outer deck wrapper with hand crafted herbal oil and a magnet to hold the magical charge. Lots of love there. Gotta love it!
So I think you can still order Spirit Keeper’s Tarot here, but probably not for long. Benebell sells more decks in a year than I can sell in 5 years, LOL seriously, so don’t wait as they are numbered and I’m sure they will sell out fast!
My friends at Stone Cow Brewery are hosting a music festival event to raise money to preserve 1000 acres of local fields and forest into conservation status. That’s something I can really get behind! And at like the 11th hour, they asked me if I could design art for a music poster. They only gave me only a week to come up with the idea and create the art – which isn’t much time! and I’m in the middle of doing this new tarot deck wherein all of the cards must be painted in their appropriate decan, so it was a stretch!
But both the reason for the festival, and the folks at the brewery, are dear to my heart, so I just had to drop everything and make it happen! Plus, hey, I’ve always wanted to do a music poster – it’s totally what I was made to do!
They said they wanted “a beer goddess, pouring out music, with the theme of fields and forests, and oh yeah can you put a baby raccoon in there?” LOL check, check, check, and check! all in 🙂
They added the words; I just did the art.
Can you believe that when the brewery posted it on social media to raise interest both Farcebook and Instagroan banned it??!! One because they said it was “sexually provocative” (LOL I guess as my friend’s Dad commented, she is “horney” as in she literally has horns) and the other because the poster had the word “beer” on it as they serve food and beer in the field where the music is. But because it’s an “illustration” they say it is “marketing beer to children”. Gah – this is one of many reasons I am not on socials. You know if they had paid them the money for advertising instead of just posting it those problems likely would have magically gone away.
But they brewery people were cool they didn’t care – they love the art! It’s going on a can of “Fields and Forests IPA” too!
If you are in Central Mass, come to the fest, eat some food, drink some beer, listen to some jams with the Midnight Riders and Town Meeting, and help put land into conservation!
The Queen of Cups was painted during her two Cancer decans, (the first two) and I did the scan on the Cancer new moon which fell on Monday/Moon Day but technically fell in the third decan (that isn’t hers) but given her lunar nature felt appropriate.
This one is a good example of something I’ve been doing with these cards in that I paint on the BACK side of the paper. It’s translucent, so the colors show through the front but lighter and less intense. So I paint the backs really intense, then move to the front and work on the front with either more paint or colored pencil. It’s like working on toned paper or toned canvas then, as there is a base color to work with. And it preserves the line work better. But it only works well for lighter colors – darks get too lightened and muted.
But in her case not a lot had to be done to the front as I really liked the way it looked as is. Because she is a mirror – literally behind her is a magic mirror with the magic seal of the moon on it, and the water is also a mirror reflecting what is above her. The Queen of Cups is reflective and dreamy, so somehow I liked the muted translucence coming through the paper – it felt very lunar. So I barely worked on the front at all. Only the dark blue background was painted on the front, and a few touches of detail here and there with colored pencil.
The Book T description, which I tried to follow to the letter, reads:
A VERY beautiful fair woman like a crowned Queen, seated upon a throne, beneath which is flowing water wherein Lotuses are seen. Her general dress is similar to that of the Queen of Wands, but upon her crown, cuirass and buskins is seen an Ibis with opened wings, and beside her is the same bird, whereon her hand rests. She holds a cup, wherefrom a crayfish issues. Her face is dreamy. She holds a lotus in the hand upon the Ibis. She is imaginative, poetic, kind, yet not willing to take much trouble for another. Coquettish, good-natured and underneath a dreamy appearance. Imagination stronger than feeling. Very much affected by other influences, and therefore more dependent upon dignity than most symbols. She rules from 20 Degree Gemini to 20 Degree Cancer. Water of Water Queen of Nymphs or Undines.
Here is one of her decans or faces, the Three of Cups, Abundance, second face of Cancer. The color of the card per the Golden Dawn color scales is Black – plus the colors of her related majors for Cancer (The Chariot) and Mercury (The Magus).
The magical description of the decan in 777 reads “A beautiful woman wreathed with myrtle. She holds a lyre and sings of love and gladness.“
Here she is pictured with her lyre, singing and swaying to the music as she proffers a toast with three beautiful cups. You can see the original line art and read more about her at the original post here.
The Two of Cups, her other Cancer decan, has the line art posted but the color version is in this month’s newsletter for subscribers. Subscribe here if you wish to be updated with my tarot newsletter.
First, a “bed” of spinach. Just because. This was one half of the spinach harvest, washed and laid out on a cot to dry.
According to Rex E. Bill’s The Rulership Book spinach falls under the auspices of Saturn, Venus, and yes, Taurus, which is the sign associated to the Hierophant card. Beds are also Venus, Taurus’ ruler, because of course they are. When posting the last update on the new deck with some of the cards of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, I meant to include The Hierophant, but forgot, so here it is now, with the bonus of a side of spinach.
But first, the description of the card from 777: “Between the Pillars sits an Ancient. He is crowned, sceptred, and blessing all in a threefold manner. Four living creatures adore him, the whole suggesting a pentagram by its shape.”
Oh boy, that’s a lot to get into the image isn’t it? Pillars, an Ancient, with crown, sceptre, threefold blessing, four “adoring” creatures, arranged as a pentagram.
The crowned and sceptred Ancient “blessing all in a threefold manner” was inspired by St Patrick, who used a shamrock to teach the Christian doctrine of “three persons in one God” – except here in this more Thelemic take the three Gods are Nuit, Hadit, and Horus, and the three Aeons of Isis, Osiris, and Horus. Only Horus for this the New Aeon appears directly in the image as the dancing child, though Nuit can be inferred by the starry canopy and Hadit as the central point of focus, unseen and hidden behind the child.
The “four adoring creatures” that so lovingly accompany him are of course the Kerubic creatures of the four fixed astrological signs, elementally all accounted for. The interlocking pentagrams and hexagram suggest the uniting of macro and microcosms, divine and earthly consciousness, via the Hierophant as the connecting “nail” of Vav, the Son and the Holy Guardian Angel.
The Golden Dawn color scale colors are Red Orange, Deep Indigo, Deep Warm Olive*, and Rich Brown.
Work continues on the new deck. I’ve just finished all the Cancer cards: the Two, Three, and Four of Cups with their decan imagery, and done in their respective decan periods. Simultaneously also worked on and completed the other Cancer cards: the Chariot and the Queen of Cups. More to follow…
