Tabula Mundi Tarot

Last month I posted a poll asking “Which card of my new deck(s) in progress do you most want to see?” The poll allowed everyone to choose up to THREE cards. I thought that might make it easier for the indecisive types to make a choice!

Here are the results of the poll, sorted and graphed:

Unsurprisingly, the Priestess card came in number one. Many tarot readers identify with her as an archetype, the mysterious keeper of wisdom. In the number two slot we have a bit of a surprise. While the Star was expected to be in the top three, the Hermit tied the Star for the runner up position! Another archetype of wisdom! I do think that perhaps many tarot readers, especially male readers, may identify strongly with him too. It is likely that many of us interested in occult pursuits are introverts, exploring the depths on our own. But I would have guessed that the Magus would have been there instead.

Personally, I was shocked to not see the Moon card in the top three. I would have guessed our other lunar archetype to be right near the top. I’m also surprised the Fool didn’t rank just slightly higher, simply because the Fool is said to contain the seed of the entire arcana series, and thus sets the tone of a deck.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the least voted for card, the Emperor. I guess patriarchy and structure are concepts considered pretty staid right now. Also, most Emperor cards are not all that interesting. Tabula Mundi’s Emperor I think is an exception if I do say so myself, but in general you can pretty much picture a red guy on a red throne, some rams and flames. So ok, I get why he isn’t that popular of a choice. The Hanged Man fared low as well. Waiting for wisdom is not what we want to do! One step above those two is a group that fared pretty low as well. What I think they all have in common is that they are cards with very simple images generally speaking.

Maybe you are wondering what I myself voted for. Well actually, I didn’t vote! I wanted the poll results to be untainted by my personal opinion. OK that is a bit of a cop out; I am also one of those indecisive types! Even picking three is hard. For the purposes of evaluating a deck, I’d probably choose the Fool for sure, for the reason already mentioned. I’d probably want a peek at the Devil and/or Death, because how a deck tackles those topics says a lot about it, and unlike a more simple archetype like the Tower, there is a lot of artistic license that can happen there successfully. Plus, I really like the Devil and Death cards; they are favorites! Another one I’d have to choose is the Art/Temperance card. Again, it can be a very complex card with an evocative image – or in the wrong hands it can be boring. As a Sagittarius, and an artist and alchemist, I identify with that card and it is one of my personal favorites.

If the deck purports to be Thoth based, I’d also want to see at least one of the following cards: Lust, Aeon, Adjustment, Hierophant. Especially the Aeon! If a deck doesn’t tackle the Aeon in a Thelemic way, then it is Thoth based in name only.

So by now you are probably wondering, when will I stop talking and show you some cards? And what will I show? I’m not as far along as I’d hoped when I put up the poll. Basically the very day I put up the poll, a situation came up that needed my immediate attention, was fraught with irritation and stress, and had to be dealt with. So zero time has been put into getting the art showing ready since then as all of my energy was pulled elsewhere. It was a situation that took weeks to resolve and lots of effort. Excuses, excuses. I’d thought that by the time the poll was done I’d have stuff ready for you, I really did! I was on a grand roll artistically. Life happens.

But since I said I would show something, I will honor that even though I’m not really ready. I wanted to have at least one of the top three card picks fully complete, not just in sketch form. Some background info: I have more than one deck started. I do have a Priestess card done in one deck, but in the other  she is only a drawing that hasn’t yet been painted. And the deck that she isn’t yet done in is the deck that I’ve decided to focus on. Because doing a deck takes so much time, I was crazy to start more than one at once! So I’m not quite sure what to do here. If I show the completed Priestess from the deck that has been postposed for now, it could get confusing. The other deck, I’m keeping her under wraps until she is painted.

That said, I do want to give you a peek. I have lots of drawings ready to transform into paintings. These are rough sketches though, so I am very hesitant to show them, as the final painted product in full color is always so much better than the pencil sketch hints at. I may pick three sketches to show just as a teaser: one from the top three of the voting results, one from the mid range, and one from the bottom three. Or finish the other Priestess painting, and show you the Priestess from both decks at once. Here is where indecisiveness kicks in.

Finally, apologies for it taking so long to get this preview out. I hope when it finally debuts it will be worth the wait. It is coming!

UPDATE: The Major Arcana sketches are complete – and the showing will begin this summer so stay tuned!

Tabula Mundi Tarot, Colores Arcus edition, has an optional expansion pack of 14 cards. These cards consist of:

• a Minutum Mundum Tree of Life diagram that shows the corresponding Golden Dawn color scale colors, with the paths (Majors) in the King Scale colors and the sephira (Minors) in the Queen Scale colors, and labeled with the corresponding Tarot numerals
• An alternate Lust (Strength) card In Nomine Babalon
• a set of 12 astrological decan cards

It comes up occasionally that someone will ask what the decan cards in Tabula Mundi’s expansion pack are, what they can be used for, and why they should get them. So I thought I’d post something here. First I’ll answer the what they are and why to get them, and then, some suggested ways to use them.

As for the why part, as the artist I believe that the decan cards belong with the deck and make it complete. They are a unique creation that no other tarot artist to date has attempted. They are optional and you can elect not to get them, but at some point they will be gone. The box that the cards come in is deep enough to accommodate them, and they complete the set and fill that space. William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelite artist and textile designer, said that everything one keeps should be either useful or beautiful. It’s my opinion that these are both.

What they do is combine the designs from all three of the minor arcana cards that share an astrological sign into one image. They were intended to convey the symbols of the sign much like Johfra‘s Zodiac art, but by combining the three tarot cards that the astrological sign corresponds to.

A little basics for those unfamiliar with astrology might help to understand the concept. The Zodiac is a complete circle and thus 360 degrees. It is divided into the 12 signs that almost everyone is familiar with: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Each of these signs is thus 30 degrees of the circle, or roughly 30 days. But the signs themselves are further divided by astrologers into ten astrological degree or roughly ten day segments, called decans. So there are 36 decans in the circle of the zodiac, three for each sign. Each decan of the sign has a planetary ruler, separate from the ruler of the sign itself.

A lesser known thing is that the minor cards 2 thru 10 of the tarot, each correspond to one decan. For example, the 2, 3, and 4 of Wands correspond to the sign of Aries. The 2 of Wands is the first decan of Aries, the 3 is the middle decan of Aries, and the 4 is the last decan of Aries. Aries season runs from approximately March 20th through April 20th. So if you were born in the first ten days of that period, your Sun sign is likely at a degree between 0 Aries and 9 degrees 59 seconds of Aries, or the first 10 degrees of Aries, and thus your personal minor card is the Two of Wands. If your Sun sign is between 10 and 19 degrees 59 seconds of Aries, or roughly the second ten day segment of the period, then your personal minor is the Three of Wands. Or if you were born in the last ten days or so of the sign and your Sun is from 20 degrees to 30 of Aries, then your card is the Four of Wands. Aries itself is ruled by Mars, but each of these decans, or minor cards, also has a decan ruler. The Two is also ruled by Mars, the Three is ruled by the Sun, and the Four is ruled by Venus.

The Tabula Mundi expansion pack includes a card titled “The Decans of Aries”. It includes on the left of the card the symbol for Aries, and on the right side, the three planetary rulers of the three decans of the sign. The image on the card combines the images from the Two, Three, and Four of Wands into one picture. Shown below are the decan cards for the Fire/Wands signs, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, along with the minor cards that make up the image, so you can get an idea of how the images are generated. (click to enlarge the pictures)

So now that you know what they are, and how they were created, you may be wondering how to use them. Many of you will grasp this intuitively, and some of you may use them in other ways than the ones I mention here. But here are a few ideas.

Many tarot spreads suggest choosing a significator card for the querent. This makes it clear who the querent is and gives a focal point to the spread around which all the other cards revolve. Sometimes one of the court cards is chosen, less often it is a minor or major. Usually it is either based on the person’s Sun sign, appearance, or personality. But many readers dislike assigning a card as a significator, and thus removing it from the deck and taking it out of play so it then cannot come up in the reading.

One use for these decan cards is as the significator for the querent being read for. Most people know their own Sun sign, even if they are not familiar with anything else astrological. Without being familiar with their chart degrees, you can’t be sure which minor card they are if they are close to the edge of a decan. Anyway many people would find it cumbersome to memorize the dates, and no one likes taking a card out of play. With these, if the querent is an Aries, the “Decans of Aries” card can be used.

But a significator card does not have to be limited to the Sun sign of the querent. It can also be used to signify the question itself. For example, if the question is about getting ahead at work, the Capricorn card would be a good choice. If the question is about romantic partnership, the Libra card might be chosen, and so on.

So, what if you just don’t use significators at all? These cards are not limited to that! There are some other uses to consider.

Practical magick layouts as in Donald Tyson’s book, Portable Magic: Tarot is the Only Tool You Need.

One is simply for study and meditation. Taking the decan card and laying out the related minors as shown in the images, plus the related Majors, and studying the related symbols, can yield new insights. For Aries one would lay out the decan card with the Two, Three, and Four of Wands, and the Emperor card, to get insights about things Aries in nature.

Another use is for timing. Although timing questions are tricky with tarot, some do draw from the separate stack of decan cards for questions of timing. Things like, “When would be a good time to do X?”. Since each card corresponds to a 30 day period of the year, they can serve that purpose.

Some use them as a perpetual calendar. Since these cards each correspond to a sign and thus a season, many people will place the appropriate card on their altar, for example from March 20th thru April 20th, the decans of Aries card serves to remind you that it is Aries season, with all the themes that entails. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it serves to remind one that Spring has arrived and the Earth is awakening, and the days are getting longer, and it is time to awaken from Winter’s sluggishness.

This perpetual calendar idea can be as simple as displaying the one card during the season. But some also will include the other cards as well, so having the decan card of Aries displayed with the Emperor card for the season, and swapping out the minor cards every ten days as the decans change. And some take it further, by adding the Major for the planetary ruler of the decan. So for Aries season, the Aries decan card and Emperor card would be displayed for the whole month, being joined by the Tower for Mars in the first ten days, the Sun for the Sun for the second ten days, and the Empress for Venus in the last ten days. And some take it even further, making note of the moon phase and adding study material to their calendar. A magnetic board is great for this purpose. For an excellent example of someone doing this using the Tabula Mundi decan cards, there is a thread on the Cartomancy forum by a dedicated practitioner, titled Nemia’s Tarot Calendar.

Doing this as a practice really aligns one to the energy of both the cards and the seasons, and the sense of time as it passes. Too often nowadays we get busy and distracted by tasks and technology and forget to slow down and remember where we are in space and time. We forget what season it is and what the Sun and Moon are doing, and become disconnected. This keeping of a meditative calendar helps remind us to be present.

There are lots of creative people in the world, probably using these in different ways. Let us know if you are one of them!

I hope to show you some new work, both finished and in progress. But since I might not want to show them ALL, let me know what you would most like to see. You can only vote once but you can pick up to three – because I know choosing one is too hard! This is for a new deck I’m working on. I’m working on more than one! But this one is the farthest along and so I am focusing on it to finish at least the Majors first.

Poll is open until June 22, 2018. After it closes, there will be a showing.

Update: More about that, and some results analysis, now shown here.

Ode to the Parsnip, aka I Dig A Parsnip

How doth the humble parsnip root

Improve our Spring morale

How sweet to eat a thawed out fruit

Dug from one’s own locale

How patiently he seems to wait

How silent, bides his time

He passes twice thru Nick’s own gate

Before he makes the climb

In works of butter and of salt,

most things will taste good, true

It tastes of dirt and sweetest malt

and goes with any brew

Don’t be afraid though it looks lewd

it makes a decent fuel

It tastes good roasted, raw, or stewed

so eat, don’t be a Fool

Matter and Spirit: Deconstructing the Court cards and our Solar Year

Part VII of XVI, the Prince of Disks 

April 10-19 last decan of Aries: Four of Wands Completion (Perfected Work)
April 20-29 first decan of Taurus: Five of Disks Worry (Material Trouble)
April 30-May 9 middle decan of Taurus : Six of Disks Success (Material Success)

The season of the Prince of Disks begins around April 10th in the last decan of Aries. The decan ruler is Venus, and while she is not well placed in Aries itself, she does make a good match with her trump the Empress and Aries’ trump the Emperor. Around April 20th, we pass into Taurus season, the main sign we think of when we encounter the Prince of Earth. Taurus the sign is ruled by Venus. The first two decans of Taurus in the Prince’s domain are ruled by Mercury and the Moon, respectively. The Prince of Disks is shown with his bull driven chariot, looking more like a farmer plowing the fields. Yet there is a bit of the accountant about him as well, with that shield in the Tabula Mundi card looking a lot like a copper coin (copper is the metal of Venus). He may have times of Material Trouble but watches his pennies and plants them well, and in time, they bear fruit, turning to gold at the end of the season (gold is the metal of the Sun, a reference to the Six of Disks, a card of the solar sephira Tiphareth).

Mercury rules the first decan of Taurus: he uses his mental faculties to balance the books, one slow step at a time. He has  Worry; and questions if there will be enough to go around. With the second decan of Taurus he is much more fortunate. This decan is ruled by the Moon, which is very happy in Taurus, and is also a Six card in the beauty and harmony of the center of the Tree of Life. The Moon, that changeable orb of phases, gives him the ability to adapt to his circumstances and eventually he reaps the benefit of the fullness; the sweet taste of Success.

But what of Completion, and the fact that his shadow decan is a fairly positive card of work perfected? The idea of achieving perfection gets him to make a move, to keep up with the debits and credits in all his interactions, rather than stand like a stubborn bull in the fields. If he yields to the idea that all is indeed well enough as is, inertia would take over. We want him moving, where he can apply his talents for fecundity, increase, and steady multiplication. We can’t forget also that though the Empress and Emperor pairing of this card (Venus/Empress ruling the decan of Aries/Emperor) is a match, that part of every relationship is a bit of friction. Love and War, and all that entails.

His crest is of a winged bull’s head. The bull is a symbol of Taurus, but also of wealth, strength, and fertility. Though he can be a bit practical, plodding, and dull, we mustn’t forget that he is a creature of Venus, sensual Venus who loves her fine materials, her comfort, her lovers, foods, and pleasures. After all, the motto of Taurus is “I have”.

As a Prince, he is given one of the four Royal stars. His is the Watcher of the East, Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull. Seems fitting to have him paired with the East, the direction of Spring and the place of the Hierophant, since the Hierophant card is the trump of Taurus. The Princes all have a common goal: to find and awaken their sleeping Princess, and remind them of the powers they have and their royal status as children of the supernals. This Prince bears one of the most potent powers, Tacere or To Keep Silent. Which really means, to take Action, and put Will, Love, and Reason into play in the real world. Only then go we Go, or evolve, reaping the gold of our inborn potential.

The Prince of Disks has a pleasant time of year in his sector. Here in the northern hemisphere the Earth is finally warming up, April’s showers bringing May flowers as the saying goes. My guess is that it is also a pretty nice time in the southern hemisphere, as heat gives way to golden fall. He has both “Earth Day” a holiday where we go out and do Earth clean up and trash pick up (or we should) and the fertility festival Beltane or May Day. Right around the start of Taurus, around here at least, it really is time to plow the fields, or at least for the early cool weather crops. And we dig our parsnips, that have wintered over underground, the roots becoming sweeter. Finally after the long winter, the earth is thawed and soft and ready for us. We can plant our little coppers, our seeds of potential whether literal or figurative, and anticipate the golden harvest to come, when our bounty can be shared.