I thought I’d both show some progress on the secret zodiacal cards coming with the Babalon edition of Tabula Mundi, but also show something about the creation process, and how actually instead of 12 secret zodiacal cards that are obtained by combining the three minors of each sign, there are actually a much larger number of cards. How many? I don’t know. There could even be an infinite number of them, but of the ones that are keepers, it is greater than 12 by far but probably not infinite unless one started combining different signs instead of just the three decans of each sign. Even sticking to one sign, there are far more than 12 cards in there. I sure don’t have time to find out how many, so I am just picking them as I go.

But here is an example of how it worked out for the sign of Gemini. Gemini has some of the roughest three decans in the deck:

The Eight, Nine, and Ten of Swords, otherwise known as the Lords of Interference, Cruelty, and Ruin. Yikes!

The Gemini readers are probably wondering how their particular secret zodiacal card is going to look, given such choices. And there were multiple ways it could have come out, depending on what card elements were chosen, and which were emphasized. It had myriad ways it could have been combined into one, by leaving out or including elements. After trying many different combos, all of which looked pretty good, I finally settled on this one:

Yet it could have used the Vajra as a sword hilt in place of the Winged Lion, or left out the beasts. I liked the combination of the Lion battling the Eagle, combined with the Lion/Eagle sword hilt though, for it’s message of synthesis of opposites, a message of Gemini, the Twins.   So not so negative. But another combination could have been to include the raging boar inside the egg:

To me it is a message to Gemini about speech, which is both their strength and their weakness. Words have power, use them wisely. This is hidden in a card combo that wasn’t selected but was equally valid.

Speaking of Power, after Gemini was done I moved on to working on the earth signs, or the zodiacal cards for the Disks. I started with the 2, 3, and 4 of Disks: Change, Work(s), Power. But once again it is so interesting to see some of the different ways to do the  card combinations and what comes up.

So let’s first take a look at the 2 of Disks, Change alongside the 3 of Disks, Work, next to the 4 of Disks, Power. As you look at them, start to imagine what the final card might look like. See the symmetries and geometries. Take note of the different parts of each card and imagine how they might combine overlaid with each other.

 

 

Ah sacred geometry. It was so much fun making the minors of this deck. All of the minor cards for Capricorn take elements from the Devil card. The Two of Disks, brings in the influence of Jupiter ruling the first decan of Capricorn. The card has two wheels from the Fortune card for Jupiter, and the hourglass for Capricorn from the Devil card. Similarly we see the 3 with its lightning and bricks from the Tower for Mars ruling the middle decan, and DNA from the Devil card for Capricorn. The 4 has elements from the Sun card, combined with the green man from the Devil, as the Sun rules the last decan of Capricorn. So, as you can probably see if you compare these cards, every element in each card lines up with the other two cards of the sign in a certain way. Which means you can combine them in an endless variety of ways in order to generate the secret Zodiacal Card of the Three Decans of Capricorn. Here are four of the ways:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So these are only four of the ways – there are many more – to obtain the secret Zodiacal Card of the Three Decans of Capricorn. Do any of them look like the one you imagined? Which one do you think I selected as the final?

You do realize, that while I planned these to be combinable from Day 1, on the basis of sacred geometry and symmetry, I didn’t really have any plan in mind as to how they would combine. I just thought they would, and relied on faith. Hell at times I wasn’t going to even offer them, as I didn’t think I had time to figure it out and didn’t know if it would actually work. But it did, and the only problem is, it works too well. With every one I have to make decisions.

So onward I go with these. Once I am sure which combination card will be for Capricorn, out of the 12 signs, only the fixed sign of Taurus (5,6,7 of Disks) and the mutable sign of Virgo (8,9,10 of Disks) remain. These 12 extra cards will be one of the features of the special Babalon edition of Tabula Mundi, a smaller edition limited to only 156 copies and having many extra touches over and above the Tabula Mundi Colores Arcus edition which is a limited edition of probably between 777 and 2000 decks. Both editions will have the same card backs with holographic foil flashes! The Babalon edition will also have silver foil on the front titles, thin borders, and attribution symbols – and these extra cards, among other things.

After that, I will be finalizing the files for all the cards including the original 78 cards of the deck, the all new color card back, and the all new and improved signature cards, and sending them off for print!

 

 

Click below if you want to return to Kickstarter to like the update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2084719384/tabula-mundi-tarot-colores-arcus-esoteric-thelemic/posts/1649745?ref=email