Telos Tarot of 777 scored a nomination for the “Best Deck Release 2024” in the World Divination Awards! I just found out yesterday (Thursday, Jupiter Day) that it scored a nomination. I don’t know who submitted it, but thank you for thinking to include it!
Voting is at https://www.worlddivinationassociation.com/awards. Votes cast after September 29th 2024will not be counted, so vote soon. It is an honor to be in the running, even if these things are a popularity contest really. But it was such a nice surprise to find out about this. Thank you to whoever nominated it!
There are only a few days left to vote since their website says that “votes cast after September 29th won’t be counted”, so don’t let the September 30th date on the graphic confuse you. Weird that it says that when they won’t count votes on the 30th, so heads up!
Lots of other categories to vote on, all divination related. Check it out!
Today (Friday) I got a delivery of half of the Telos Tarot of 777 decks and books, and am busy embellishing everything and getting ready to ship. Pre-orders at the pre-order price are only available until I get the Kickstarter decks shipped, and will ship directly after those ship, so if you want to get one of the special double foiled numbered first edition, get them at TarotCart.com.
I just received the title cards that I’ll sign and number for this very special first edition. You can see here the gorgeous traditionally embossed foil. This edition is special and will have features that won’t be repeated, as they were only possible due to the success of the Kickstarter campaign and the stretch goals achieved.
It is offset printed with aqueous coating and has embossed foil on both front and back. It is a numbered edition and has a 112 page perfect bound book included in the box.
The card backs are foiled in copper to offset the Scorpionic blue-green. The art on the fronts will have a gunmetal color foiled border.
I expect to receive the decks and books here by Friday September 20th 2024, and then begin shipping the Kickstarter rewards the following week. This will be done in batches, so it may take a few weeks to complete that process. AFTER the Kickstarter rewards ship, the PRE-ORDER decks will ship.
I estimate that the pre-ordered decks will begin shipping in the second half of October, which means they will arrive before the holiday season in most cases.
As this edition was costly to produce and was only possible due to the Kickstarter funding, it won’t be repeated. Get it now at the pre-order price. After the pre-orders are complete, the price for any remaining stock of the first edition will increase.
This was the summer of box making. The end of the summer approaches. By Mabon (the September equinox) the Kickstarter deck shipping process will begin, and the pre-order price for the remaining decks will end on or before Samhain (Nov 1st). Available only at TarotCart.com.
The figs are ripening under a September sunset. Enjoy the sweet fruits of the approaching season!
The decks will arrive to me right at the end of the Virgo season. The corresponding card is the Ten of Disks, for the third decan of Virgo. Per 777: Virgo III.10 of Disks, Wealth: An old man leaning on a staff and wrapped in a mantle. Seems appropriate for the culmination of a years long project resulting finally in the physically produced item; especially one called Telos, meaning end goal. Crowley says of this card “Here is great and final solidification” and “represents the sum total of all the work that has been done since the beginning.”
“It is the holy Hexagram, the symbol of the uniting of the Macrocosm and Microcosm, the accomplishment of the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. Sic sit vobis!” (So be it to you!)
The press man checks for color balance and sets up the color keys
I just spent half a day with the printers I chose for the first edition printing of Telos Tarot of 777. I got to be on site to approve the colors, and suggest small adjustments when necessary, to make them more true to the originals that were painted in the Golden Dawn color scales. It isn’t always possible to get them to match exactly, but these printers went above and beyond to do what is possible with a 4 color process.
This was exciting as it is printed on a traditional old-school 4 color offset printing press. Normally I can’t do this offset process, as in order to make it possible a large run of decks needs to be produced at once. As a small business without a lot of capital I usually have to do short runs of very small quantities at a time, which means my other decks have been printed using a digital process rather than traditional offset.
Digital printing is done on something like an ink jet printer that you might have at home, or maybe like a color copier. Except much more expensive! My other decks were done on a state-of-the-art digital printer that costs something like $350,000 USD!!! These digital presses can be liquid based or dry toner based ink, but the ink goes on top of the paper creating an an enamel like finish.
Because the Kickstarter for Telos Tarot of 777 did very well, I can print enough decks at once to make an offset printing process possible, so this time it is something completely different and more old school. I do hope to also do a different version digitally printed at some point, but this first edition gets to be done on an offset press.
An offset printing is done on an even bigger huge also very expensive machine! But a different type of machine. First, metal plates have to be created for each “sheet” of cards, and each of the four colors of the process: Cyan blue, Yellow, and Magenta red, plus Black. The colors mix on the sheet to create the infinite number of possible colors in the artwork. The inks also sink more into the paper, and are then given a protective clear coating too making them even more durable.
This picture is to give you some idea of the size of the press, which has to be at least 30 feet long and massively heavy. It has to be on the basement floor of the old mill building it is in, due the weight. It’s so big all of it didn’t even fit in the picture.
This is a side view of the part of the press that applies the ink to each metal plate inside of those “boxes”. The plates were marked with the images of the cards in specific colors. Don’t ask me how! The metal plate puts the ink onto a rubber blanket, and then that blanket puts the ink onto the large sheet of silk card stock. See the metal cans on top? Those were the inks loaded into the machine. It is a four color process, so one of those stations is for each color, plus one for the clear aqueous UV coating at the end to protect the cards.
A top view of the press and the rollers loaded with ink. Every pressman or presswoman and every print shop might do things differently, but this shop prints the colors on dark to light as shown. First on is Black, then Cyan Blue, then Magenta, then Yellow. They mentioned keeping yellow as far away from black as possible in the process is a good idea, for reasons I can well comprehend as an artist.
After that, there is a separate tank not shown in the picture that does the clear UV coating that protects the cards and makes them more durable. I chose a Satin finish as I didn’t want glossy cards.
And a printed sheet of cards comes out the other end!
The pressman then scans the sheet to check and ensure that the color levels are all printing as they should be, before running all of the sheets.
I have an up close look under a sun lamp and in natural light, to check them out. I approve! They look great! Now, be aware that these don’t yet have the foil border that is going around the card art yet. For that I chose a gunmetal color for the fronts, closest to Saturn’s lead as that was the Saturn stretch goal! This will be done in a separate process as it is a traditional metal foil, not a printed foil. The printers will make a die for that, and also another for the foiled design (in a different color) on the card backs, and use it to embed the metal foil with heat onto the cards.
These stacks of cards will have to cure for at least a day before the foiling is done. You can’t see it, but the card backs are printed too, on the other side of the sheet. Those were done first, for the entire run, then the fronts get printed in the other side. I made sure the color was a deep Scorpionic green!
I got them to tweak the color a little to ensure it was more of the blue toned green I wanted. Not sure if this photo was the first version or final version, but the difference is subtle. Also, the card backs are here shown with just the printed part, and not the part that will be foiled.
Those big printed sheets will get cut into quarters, each with 8 cards. Then the foil will be done on both front and back before they are cut. I don’t have a picture of the foiling dies as they weren’t made yet when I was there. But above is a die they will put into a different big machine used to cut the cards out of the sheet perfectly after the foil is done. In the pictures of the card sheets, the borders look larger than they will be after they are cut, because there is extra printed border (bleed) that gets cut off.
After the cards are cut, they get collated. I gave them the order I wanted them in. would you believe they do that by hand? I was surprised to hear that! With digital printing the cards can print in whatever order you want; you just put the files in a pdf. But with offset press printing they have to put the cards in order, by hand, after they are cut.
Then they shrink wrap the cards, which is also a hands on process.
The 80th card isn’t shrink wrapped, as it is a title card that I’ll sign, and for this first edition, will also number.
I’m really happy to have been able to print these locally, and support our local economy, keeping nice people in business and employed. I do all of my printing for everything in the USA, even though I am not exaggerating when I say I could choose to print overseas for about 20-25% of the cost. But I believe in supporting the local economy whenever possible, as if we don’t, we will lose places like this!
This job was done even more locally to me than my prior decks, which means not only can I be on site but it is better for the environment too as they don’t have to travel far to reach me.
This company is in an old mill building located on a river. I think it was originally a paper making factory. What is cool is that because of the riverside location they get 50% of the electricity to run the presses from hydro-electric!
So, as of right now, the sheets are printed. But it will be 5-6 weeks until I have them all here, as they still need to be foiled on front, foiled on back, cut, collated, and shrink wrapped. They tell me I should have at least some of them if not all by mid September.
Then I can start shipping the Kickstarter rewards to all those who have paid for shipping and completed the address survey. Some of you have still not done this crucial step! Those who have not by the end of August will be sent their decks in a later shipment and get later deck numbers, so please get on it, as I will be assigning deck numbers after August 31st and figuring out what and who ships first. It involves a big complicated spreadsheet, so I can’t delay assigning numbers any longer than that.
What are you waiting for?
Remind you of anyone?
Once the Kickstarter decks ship (meaning those with address survey and shipping payments completed), and any already previously invoiced decks ship, the remaining decks will be put on TarotCart for purchase. The first Kickstarter rewards will ship as soon as I get some of these decks, estimated in mid September.
This post was brought to you by the current Jupiter in Gemini: big (Jupiter) printing presses (Gemini) and today’s Mars-Saturn square: Mars (machines, machine shops, metal plate and dies) and Saturn (traditional processes).
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!
