Tabula Mundi Tarot – Page 17 – an inspired Thoth based tarot deck by M.M. Meleen

Colors Arcus edition 78 card Tabula Mundi in color: the Kickstarter launch

Middle decan of Sagittarius color red

COMING JULY 9th 2016!

Colores Arcus was named for the Bow of Promise, the path between the Moon and Sun given to the Art card. The Kickstarter will launch July 9th 2016 exactly at the moment of Sunrise. Which where I live is at 5:20 AM EDT on that day. I’m no early bird, but this is a fortuitous time so I’ll have to get up along with you to push the magic launch button!

For some of you, maybe that is the middle of the night under the moonlight; I guess it depends on where on the globe you live. It’s a respectable 10:20 am brunch time in London and 7:20 pm after dinner hour in Sydney. In Los Angeles you will have to stay up late partying or get up in the night as that time is 2:20 am! If that is too much to ask, just be sure to get there in the first 24 hours, as there will be free gifts for first day backers. US people, just check in when you get up in the morning and you can check it out with your Saturday morning coffee. Unless you sleep until noon there will still be Wyrms for Early Birds (hopefully!) Lucky Australians can browse over cocktails.

So some of the Early Birds are going to have to live up to their name in order to get in on the Early Bird specials. The date and time are astrologically based of course. Luckily it falls on the weekend so for most it won’t interfere with your work schedules at least.

Why you want to be there for the first day of launch on July 9th:

FREE gifts for first day backers…some of them surprising and rare artistic creations. So even if you cannot get there at that exact time, do be sure to back in the first 24 hours to be eligible!

Wyrms for those Early Birds and limited specials

First 93 limited edition decks have a special gold seal

First 22 to back a limited edition 78 card color deck get a free extra large Majors deck

So mark your calendars for JULY 9th 5:20 AM EDT and set your alarms if needed!

An Abundance of gifts and early bird rewards will make it worth your while to be there for the first day of launch! A preview launch link will be send to newsletter subscribers so subscribe here (and answer the email it generates) and you will get a direct link! I’ll also post one at the top of this page once it is live!

This launch on July 9th falls into the decan of Abundance!

Impossible reinheitsgebot astronaut day

Happy 4.23 in year 2016, or Thelemically stated as of 8:20 Eastern:

Anno Vii Sun in 4° Taurus, Moon in 22° Scorpio

Anno Vii

in 4°

in 22°

April 23 is both the 500 year anniversary of reinheitsgebot, but also Impossible Astronaut Day. That means you get to drink beer and induce time travel in whatever ways you do that, hopefully after over indulging in schnitzel and spaetzle. Don’t forget to make your tallys, of beer, alien, or other encounters.

Which makes yesterday April 22nd. I’m celebrating today because of yesterday.

Yesterday was Earth Day, but also a full moon, during the solar season of Taurus, and there was a Grand Trine in Earth. And it was a Friday, day of Venus. So I figured it was the perfect day to paint the final card of the deck, the Princess of Disks, Earth of Earth, Malkuth of Malkuth, the Throne of the Ace of Disks centered around kerubic sign Taurus.

So that happened. She got painted. The last card. Maybe my favorite card, or at least the court I would choose to be. And today I scanned, cropped, and bordered the rest of the court cards. And overindulged in a bit of time travel and other things, and went back through the memory palace of the courts.

Do you remember the Nox et Lux versions? They look different in color. Here are the parental units of Fire:

Here are the Fire kiddos:

I’m actually feeling rather bereft that all the cards are done, because it was SO MUCH FUN working with the Golden Dawn color scales. Seriously, that may be my favorite part. The minor small cards especially, has such varied and specific colors, as they had the colors of both their zodiacal and planetary majors, plus a color for the sephira of their world. The Majors also were dealing with specific colors, but more limited in number, and the courts are mostly using elemental colors, with some introduction of influences from their minor or sephira occasionally.

So all the cards are painted! Except for redoing the card backs, and making the secret zodiacal cards, and constructing the boxes, and whatnot, it is done.

Rosetta Tarot, as seen on TV!

Update to this post: I did not see the show but by all accounts it was pretty terrible! A lot less tarot than was described and pretty bad TV as well. Oh well. Some shots of the cards and some shuffling. Not very exciting.

regarding this post:

My first deck, the Rosetta Tarot will be on TV next week.

It is the premiere of the show and that episode is heavily tarot based. The cards are used in a reading that is part of the story, and also in other ways throughout the show. I don’t get paid for this in case you are wondering, but they are supposed to run a credit at the end, for what that is worth!

The final episode of the show will also show the deck but very briefly at the end and I don’t want to reveal how. I honestly don’t know much about how it is used but will let it be a surprise if you watch it so won’t say what little I have been told.

Fool Me Once

Happy April Fools Day! If you are here for the “Two Truths and a lie game, you are in luck!” To recap, your job is to guess which of the following three statements isn’t true:

1) I only have ten more cards to paint, and the date of the Kickstarter for the Tabula Mundi Colores Arcus edition will be announced this month.
2) The Rosetta Tarot will be shown in two episodes of a new true crime TV show called “Deadly Intent” this month.
3) I’ve just completed the manuscript for an esoteric Seuss-style children’s picture book, a bedtime story with an occult theme, which will be available this month.

April Fools! They are all true! Well, with a few adjustments; and one is only partially true.

I just finished the color version of the Queen of Cups, and have ten more court cards to paint. But I also have some “extra” special cards to make, and a redesigned color card back, but only ten are left of the 78. I’ll be posting the date of the Kickstarter launch this month, so keep in touch. You will want to get in on the early bird specials as there will be some limited edition goodies, and some deals.
Yes, it is true that the Rosetta Tarot is going to be on TV, in a true crime series starting this month. It will be featured in one episode and also shown briefly in another. It will be on the Discovery Channel and I believe the show starts April 19th, though I’m not sure yet if the episode with the cards will be the first episode. I think so, but will post the exact date and time when I know. (edited to add the show starts 4/19 at 10pm on InvestigationDiscovery channel and is called “Murder Among Friends”, with the episode titled “Murder Circle”)
You probably thought the “esoteric Seuss-style children’s book” was a lie, but it is also true. The text is written, and I’m in process of formatting and illustrating it. I’ll be making some special hand bound hardcovers. I guess it is only a half truth though because it isn’t a children’s bedtime story, it is a wake-time story for your inner child. And while I hope to have the prototype done this month, well, I should be painting the cards, shouldn’t I?

Magazine article: field guide to the animals in Tabula Mundi

The current issue of Tarosophy Magazine Vol II Issue 7 has an article I wrote as a “Field Guide” to the creatures of Tabula Mundi. There is a glossary of divinatory meanings for animals both real and mythological.

Digital copies are free to all Tarot Professionals members, and anyone can buy a hard copy.

The digital copies are here for members (login and go to members only section, then down to latest magazine issues tab)

http://www.tarotassociation.net/login/

The hard copies will be available to purchase at Lulu in about two weeks. I will post a link when I have one.

Updated exactly 5 years later to add that I never did get a link! So am publishing as a March 2021 post.

Lust: Leader of the Lion

Lust is the zodiacal trump of Leo, a very powerful sign in the zodiac as it is ruled by the Sun, and the central or fixed of the fire sign trinity. The sign of the Sun in its glory. The Sun is Heru-Ra-Ha, lord of the new Aeon.

This is the woman and the beast, the lady and the lion or union of Babalon and Therion in the Thelemic pantheon. Now Babalon and Therion are major deities in Thelemic magick, pairs in the West and East in the same sense that Nuit and Hadit are paired on the North-South axis. Babalon and Therion are not portrayed on the Stele of Revealing as Nuit and Hadit are. But that is because Nuit and Hadit are Thelemic partners on a cosmic scale, while Babalon and Therion represent more earthly and lusty forces.

Babalon is often referred to as the Great Harlot, or Virgin Whore. It actually is a beautiful thing, as she is said to refuse no one. As Virgin she retains her purity and as Whore she holds and contains all with complete acceptance. As proof that her nature is Love, she lifts the Holy Graal, said to contain the “blood of the saints” and the Thelemic current, the magick from which all can draw. This Holy vessel is also symbolic of the Ace of Cups, and seen protected and carried by the Charioteer.

While thus Babalon is the Great Whore, Therion her counterpart is the Great Beast. Whether riding him, gently clasping his jaws, or entwined with his (err, most phallic) tail, she and he are united. Through the joy of union she merges with and thus controls or channels him. This is the rapture of vigor and the joy of Strength exercised. The Lion is a most powerful and regal symbol. Crowley took on the name the Master Therion as he identified with the power of this archetype of which he was the avatar (and because his ascendant was in Leo). Therion as the beast represents the force of the lower nature, the king of beasts or master of the wild kingdom within. Because after all an aspect of the Great Work is about self mastery. In the Thoth deck the lion is many headed, showing the myriad ways this force can manifest.

The Hebrew letter for the Lust card is Teth, meaning Serpent, or sometimes seen as Lion-Serpent. If you look closely, the tail that she so gently but firmly holds is actually serpentine. What is a serpent but a living spine? (Also note that spine is an anagram of penis haha) The card Lust has much to do with not only sexuality but the forces of kundalini that are said to rise from the base of the spine to the top of the head in the pineal gland. This rise of kundalini to the pineal gland is actually depicted in the Tabula Mundi Sun card, but you will have to own a deck to see that as it is not posted here. (I hold back a few cards because of those who steal deck images when you post them all, and so you get some surprises to explore. The Sun is one of the most important to me, and is one of a few cards I won’t post.) The Sun, ruler of Leo and thus the Lust card, shows this as the Hebrew letter of the Sun is Resh, meaning the front and central head, or the pineal grand.

Speaking of the Sun, Heru-Ra-Ha, it ties in to this most magickal symbol:

Here is a picture of the deck sent to me by someone who has the Tabula Mundi Nox et Lux deck going by the nom de plume Violet Aura. I had to share it here because it shows the symbol we are speaking of on the deck box, plus the card for the central decan of Leo and the Fire of Fire court card. Even though the Knight of Wands is actually of the sign Sagittarius, not Leo, still Fire of Fire seems very solar.

Her website is the same as her name and is watermarked on the picture. (You will see, she takes a way better picture than I do!)

Now this symbol means so many things, I should write a book or at least a story, just about it. But one of it’s myriad meanings has to do with the Sun and Heru-Ra-Ha.

Not only is this called a “Sun Wheel” in some cultures as well as an Earth symbol, but if you look at it closely, you will see that it contains four of the letter “L”, each rotated in a different orientation or direction. For yes, this is the four worlds and four directions, the light of the Sun expanding in every direction.

What comes to mind when you think of four letter L’s? (If you are not a Crowley student or a Thelemite, maybe only Sesame Street, haha)

But the four L’s are for Liberty, Love, Life, Light.

It is a symbol of the four elemental powers of the Magus as it is formed of the synthesis of the Kerubic forms in one vehicle. This is Man on the quest to perfect and balance the four elemental powers (To Will, To Dare, To Know, and To Keep Silent) thereby awakening the fifth (To Go) which I think is the connection to Kether, the point within the circle where the four arms meet. “Establish thyself firmly in the equilibrium of forces, in the centre of the Cross of the Elements, that Cross from whose centre the Creative Word issued in the birth of the dawning Universe” (Liber Librae).

Liberty, Love, Life, Light; transmuted to Law. If you mirror and rotate them, these four L’s combine to form the quartered circle: the sun cross or the earth symbol of Malkuth. The four powers of the Sphinx gradually build the four sides of the Pyramid of Initiation, in ever higher and subtler manifestations until reaching the apex. These powers are developed on the material plane (Malkuth). Which is why this is a symbol of Earth. And Heaven on Earth.

And on that note, while I am not religious, I appreciate the message painted on this rock, near where I live. (Excuse the picture. My phone is so old, as far as cell phones go it is vintage, and while the camera was at one time state of the art, it takes “abstract” pictures. I went to a concert recently, and the person searching me looked at it and said “Is that a phone? Oh yeah, I wanted one of those in third grade.” hahaha makes one feel old. But I have my reasons.)

X marks the spot. You are here.

A review of Book M: Liber Mundi – and books 50% off

Review of Book M: Liber Mundi by Djamila Zon www.thequeenssword.com

I hope the linked review by Djamila gives you some idea of whether the book is for you.

The text from the back cover of the book reads: Follow the Fool on a visionary journey through a wormhole in the fabric of space-time, and on the way, discover Tabula Mundi, a different picture of the world. Take a ride on the wheel of life, the point in the circle, with the Aces at the center of a wheel of the zodiacal decans. Explore the Memory Palace of the court cards, the microcosm of Man where the world unfolds and comes back together and the ever expanding Tau cross leads to the unification of the four powers of the Sphinx. The Tabula Mundi Tarot is a new and unique Thoth-based deck created using a traditional Golden Dawn framework, but with an inventive and singular point of view.
When you read Book M: Liber Mundi, you will encounter a new perspective as the artist and author discusses symbolism covering a wide range of topics encompassing mythology, religion, history, alchemy, Qabalah, Thelema and astrology.

Also, I have some books where the covers have damage. The inside pages and binding are perfect but the covers have flaws in the printing or coating, scratches and the like. I’ve been culling them as I go. They are going for 50% off, which is a great deal considering the inside is what counts!

http://www.tarotcart.com/50-DISCOUNT-on-Book-M-with-cover-flaws-m25.htm

The Ten of Disks: Adam Kadmon and the Vault

The last of the decanic minors, the Ten of Disks, was the most recent card finished.

This card, as the last decan of Virgo which is ruled by Mercury, combines the energies of the Hermit with the Magus, in the sephira of Malkuth.

The following is from Book M: Liber Mundi, the guidebook to Tabula Mundi tarot:

The Lord of Wealth is the last decan of earth sign Virgo. This decan is ruled by Mercury, which also rules and is the exaltation of Virgo itself. The sephira is Malkuth of Assiah, the material world of manifestation. Malkuth is the last sephira, and this is the Malkuth of Earth, the final world. Thus this card is considered the final card of the minor arcana, much as the Universe is the final trump and the Princess of Disks is the final court. What was begun with the Ace of Wands here reaches its climax and culmination, or in other words, the Pure Will inherent in Kether (represented by the Ace of Wands) and expressed in the Magus (card of Mercury and the path from Kether to Binah) is now brought to material form. This is the sum total of the Great Work, and the point at which the cycle can regenerate and begin again.

Crowley says of the card that “Therefore, in it is drawn the very figure of the Tree of Life itself.” Tabula Mundi demonstrates this with a rendition of the Tree as Adam Kadmon, the “Primordial Man”. Adam Kadmon is said to exist in Kether. From Adam Kadmon and the divine will of Kether, the Four Worlds descend and emerge, each as a letter of the divine name, from the very tip of the thorn of the Yod.
The related trumps of the card are the Hermit and the Magus. From the Hermit card, we have the symbolism of the Yod, shown here at the forehead of the winged helm at Kether. Also from the Hermit, the ten sephiroth are seen as descending into the stone stairwell in the ground. This is symbolically earth and the descent into matter. But also in the more mundane sense, this can be seen as a vault, with the sephiroth as coins of wealth and prosperity either descending and accumulating in the vault, or rising in order to be used. For wealth can only accumulate for so long until it becomes dormant and inert; it requires the intelligence of Mercury to give it purpose beyond pure material aggregation.

The various elements of the Magus card give the emblematic forms to the sephiroth and body of Adam Kadmon. In the place of Kether, is the Magus’ winged hem accented by a central Yod. Anthropomorphically, there is correspondence between the Tree of Life and the human body. The sephiroth form the body of Adam Kadmon, and Kether is the crown and the head, while Chokmah and Binah are the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, here shown as the left and right sides of the helm. The Supernals in this sense are the mind of the figure. Chesed and Geburah correspond to the right and left arms, Tiphareth to the heart, Yesod to the genitals, and Netzach and Hod to the right and left legs. Note that depictions of the figure face into or are seen as if stepping into the Tree – when viewed from the front the sephiroth have to be flipped around the middle pillar. In this card all of the depictions on each of the coins or emanations take the appropriate parts from the Magus, with the exception of Tiphareth at the position of the heart, which takes the Yod-like flame from inside the Hermit’s lantern. Thus the Supernals show the front and sides of the Magus’ winged helm. Chesed and Geburah as the arms of the figure are marked with the disk and the galaxy the Magus holds. Yesod is marked with the Mercury symbol from the “wand” on his table at the level of his genitals. Netzach and Hod have the combined and interchanged depictions of the sun and solar lemniscate from the front of the mix table. This echoes the Thoth deck’s depiction of a solar symbol at the level of Hod, of which Crowley comments “These disks are inscribed with various symbols of mercurial character except that the coin in the place of Hod (Mercury) on the Tree is marked with the cipher of the Sun. This indicates the only possibility of issue from the impasse produced by the exhaustion of all the elemental forces.” Malkuth appropriately then shows the four worlds from the bottom of the Magus’ table, here in circular form joined at the sphere of Malkuth . Symbolically they form the quartered circle, a symbol of Malkuth. This is in total a glyph of the Great Work, the Summum Bonum and realization of True Will.

The Augur: Adam Kadmon, the descent and ascent, the Vault. This is the pinnacle of success and the culmination of will in the material world – give your wealth inner and outer purpose beyond mere accumulation.

Deck comparisons:

The Rider Waite Smith Ten of Pentacles shows an old man seated at the arched gate of a village, surrounded by family and dogs, with ten pentacles in a Tree of Life formation. The Thoth Ten of Disks shows ten golden coins in a Tree of Life formation on a background of violet coins. The golden coins are marked with various Mercurial symbols except for Hod which has a solar symbol. Malkuth is shown as the largest and heaviest coin. The Rosetta Ten of Disks is pictorially much like the Thoth, except the golden coins have other Mercurial elements and are looped together in the manner of Chinese coin clusters given out to symbolize and increase wealth. The tenth coin is larger than the rest and dangles free from the string in the position of Malkuth, ready to drop down out of the picture and into the new cycle.

Leap Year: A Unicorn sighting

February 29th. Leap Day. Here we go, at midnight, or thereabouts. This post is as rare as a unicorn. As it should be.

Warning: this post is brought to you by Neptune on the day-out-of-time. Yes it is out there, and that is the point. Happy Leap Day!

One would think, with the name “Leap Day” that there was an association with the Fool, taking the cosmic leap into the void. And there is, but it isn’t what you normally would associate time of the year wise with the Fool as the Zero. But leap day is a day out of time, and a zero, or a portal, it is. And also an eleven. (Can’t help but think 0=2)

Speaking of zero, the null, here you go for Leap Day:

What a great name. Leap Day. How evocative. Once every four years, take a leap to catch up. Or get back behind, I forget which. But it is in a weird way a form of time travel, if you consider time as a concept and that concepts are elastic.

So here we are.

Where is that exactly? It is a valid question. What can we say about Leap Day, from another perspective?

It falls on February 29th. Within the first decan of the sign of Pisces. But wait a minute – it falls in the last degree of the first decan of the last sign. Wait what? You heard it, the last of the first of the last. That leads to the first of the next which leads to the one after. Which is the very last. Say that four times fast. Wait what? Yes. Leap Day, the hidden door within Pisces; it must be a gate.

Years divisible by four. Years divisible by 100 but not 400 will not contain a leap day. Koph (100) the Universe (400). Daleth (4) the Door. The Door – the portal.

Don’t underestimate the four.

Leap day transitions us from the first decan of Pisces to the middle decan. In tarot terms that is from Indolence to Happiness.

As an aside, based on a limited data sample and the law of averages, under current conditions, I can create a tarot deck roughly every four years. The Rosetta took around three-and-a-half years while the full color edition of Tabula Mundi will be around four-and-a-half. Thus an average four year creation cycle. And another fun factoid: I finished the last of the decanic cards, the day before leap day. Make of it what you will.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program.

Where were we? Oh yeah, from Indolence to Happiness. I’ll take it – nevermind what is behind the curtain.

But what else are we dealing with on this year’s particular Leap Day. I’m glad you asked – someone had to. The Sun will also conjunct Neptune, the nebulous one, ruler of Pisces.

Leap Day, the last day of the first decan of the last sign, which is Pisces, the Sun who determines the decans, is exactly conjunct the ruler of the sign Pisces.

Leap Day, the day-out-of-time, is last-first-last (and what comes next but first?)

So let us look at the last sign, its beginning and ending and the all elusive between times.

The last sign of the zodiac in this case is Pisces, the fishes.

In the tarot, the Moon card corresponds to Pisces.

What are the decans of Pisces? The Eight, Nine and Ten of Cups. Indolence. Happiness. Satiety. The Sun’s journey through Pisces. The passage through the gates of horn and ivory.

On Leap Day, we move from Indolence to Happiness. From Hod to Yesod. Hod to Yesod is the Path of the Sun, in this case it is in the world of Briah. Because the Sun card of Tabula Mundi is one I have refrained from posting, here below is a picture of the Sun card from the Rosetta:

So we move from Indolence to Happiness via the path of the Sun. Or vice versa.

As mentioned, the decans of Pisces are the Eight, Nine, and Ten of Cups.

So back to the astrology of 2016 Leap Day. We have the Sun moving out of the first decan of the last sign. And this year, conjunct the ruler of the last sign, the nebulous one of glamour.

What is perfect for Leap Day? Sigil magic. Which is just defining the Will and setting it forth in a null environment. An Adjustment to the infinite. 8/11 is the lemniscate.

How many snakes are in Tabula Mundi? Tell me the number with explanation and win a prize. It will be a good prize. But you have to show your work and mention one thing from this post, or wherever you first saw the question. You can probably guess what number the current total is divisible by. But maybe you will find more snakes than I have, who knows?

You may indeed be wondering what I’m talking about. Lets step back to the lemniscate.

The lemniscate is a symbol that combines 8 and 11, yes. Adjustment and Lust. The alphabet of desire. Or sigils. And all you need is 8 and 11 – or zero and one, two zeros and two ones actually but…they cancel each other out.

In the variety of the One fourfold and infinite, there is beauty.

T’IS MY WILL

This covers everything. But One can still make more complex sigils, just because.

Latest review of Tabula Mundi Nox et Lux

A review of the Tabula Mundi Tarot’s Nox et Lux edition was recently written by Djamila Zon, of the website “The Queen’s Sword” (www.thequeenssword.com).

This is a link to Djamila’s review of the Nox et Lux on her website. It is very thoughtfully done and thorough. She reviewed the deck as a stand alone, with only the little white book to see how it performs on its own, and is in the process of reviewing the full guidebook Book M: Liber Mundi. Links to that will be posted when available.

To my knowledge hers is the second formal review of the full deck, though I’m sure there are others I’m not aware of as the reviewers didn’t send me a link. The first reviews I know of were done by Mozes Ashkenzi, a moderator of AT (whose current nom de plume on the site is now “Zephyros”). Here is his review of the Majors edition for AT and his review of the 78 card Nox et Lux edition for AT which includes a review of Book M: Liber Mundi.

There was also an interview of yours truly in the December issue of Tarosophy Magazine, Volume 2 Issue 6, written jointly by T. Susan Chang and Peter Stuart, called “Picture of the Word: M.M. Meleen and the Tabula Mundi”. Members of the Tarot Professionals organization can get digital copies of all issues free. Hard copies are also available for purchase on lulu, for both members and non members. Info on how to get both can be found at this link: http://www.tarotassociation.net/magazines/

Also if the Nox et Lux review inspires you to get the deck, please note that it was made in an edition of only 418 copies, and I fully expect it to sell out eventually as the remaining number of copies continues to shrink even if slowly. It is unlikely to be reprinted as there is less demand for black and white decks. It is odd, I love color, and am really enjoying painting the Colores Arcus edition now in progress, and am in awe of the Golden Dawn color scales and their magic. But, I also am very drawn to black and white art. Hey, black and white are colors too – and grey, let us not forget since these are drawings in marker there are shades of black that head towards grey. The have something all their own going on, and kind of remind me of etchings or wood block prints, or even artistic graffiti.

If anyone has a proposal for an interview or review, feel free to contact me. Or if you have done a review already, send me a link!