Tabula Mundi Tarot – Page 18 – an inspired Thoth based tarot deck by M.M. Meleen

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.

The decan cards of Pisces from Tabula Mundi Tarot: the Eight, Nine and Ten of Cups © M.M. Meleen 2014-2016

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!

Success and Failure

Success, it is satisfying. The Six of Disks turned out way better than I thought it would. Color made so much difference! Once again too, the color scales were perfect for the card. The Six of Disks is the only decanic Disk that does not have a flecked color for the sephira, as that color is Golden Amber, for solar Tiphareth. It combines with the fertile colors of Taurus – mainly olive and brown and red-orange; as well as the lunar blues and silvers of the Moon.

Success also was very uplifting to paint.

Then comes Failure. It was not that the artwork faltered, in fact it was not a bad card to paint. But the thoughts in mind occasionally reflected themes of the type of failure that the Seven of Disks can represent. That is, thoughts of abandoning the Great Work. I don’t mean stopping the project, but perhaps stopping thinking creation was going anywhere. Nihilism. None of these thoughts were serious as I am too far in to go back. But they fleeted by.

But hey, the card came out good and the colors once again were perfect for the subject matter I took a few “in progress” pictures that show how and where I placed the colors according to the Golden Dawn color scale.

I started with the color for Netzach of Assiah, which is Olive, flecked gold. This is an early stage, where a transparent olive color was laid over the scales a couple of times, and then, each scale was touched with a highlight of opaque golden color.

Next I decided to add some colors of Taurus in the form of Red-Orange and Rich Brown. These colors paint the four Kerubic heads of the beasts of YHVH and the fixed signs.

Ugly stage – an under painting for the Supernals and for the waters issuing out of Daath which ultimately will be Black, rayed Blue. The ten horns of the beast are in Red-Orange.

Some more in-between stages. You can see the first layer of rich brown on the vertical arm of the cross is splotchy. That is just how these inks behave on top of plastic; some colors worse than others. To get it like the final artwork I probably painted over it six times. Maybe more; I did not count but it was a lot.

This is what I call an “almost done” shot. But I had to work on it a lot even after it was this stage, adding highlights and low lights and touch ups and fixing colors and brushstrokes…this was probably a day or a couple of days before it was finished. But at least here most of the surface is covered.

The finished card. Good enough (almost typed God enough, ha); not a Failure. And the Work continues. I’m glad to have Failure behind me. I really want to keep going, in spite of the toil.

Color Scales in Action

Sometimes, color makes all the difference. Especially when the Gooden Dawn color scales fit the subject matter so perfectly. It just makes an impact. I was not going to post about this card because I did not photo document the painting process. But I wish I did because this one has been pretty fun to paint. What was fun about it was the interplay and balance of transparent and opaque colors. When there is mostly one or the other, it feels flat and takes a lot of work to create dimension. When there is a good balance of transparent and opaque it is such a joy to create that dimension. Such was the case in this one.

This is one card that really benefits from color.

The color of the six of Disks is Golden Amber, and it is the only of the numbered Disk cards that isn’t a flecked color. As the six in central and balanced Tiphareth, it is a sunny, solar, and unflecked color.

The other colors of the Six of Disks are those of Taurus, the Hierophant; and as it is the middle decan of Taurus, ruled by the Moon, the Priestess.

So the colors are:

Tiphareth of Assiah: Golden Amber

Colors of Taurus: Red-Orange, Deep Indigo, Deep Warm Olive, Rich Brown

Colors of the Moon: Blue; Silver; Cold Pale Blue; Silver, rayed Sky Blue

This is a picture that shows the card about 95% done. I love Thursdays; this is my day off so I was able to do almost all of the card today. It took most of the day and evening but by the time you read this I will have finished painting it – so, the sweet taste of Success!

Which means next up is Failure. Gotta go back to work tomorrow…rah roh Reorge. I will scan and post the completed six, and finish the Seven next if all goes well.

Here is the black and white Six of Disks card for comparison. You can see how in this case color is potent!

We have the pomegranates of the Priestess stacked in the fertile valley of Taurus, under the crossed keys of silver and gold, the lyre-bow, and the Moon aligned with solar Tiphareth:

New Moon in Aquarius: Science

February 8th at 9:38:53 EST

This new moon is within the middle decan of Aquarius (at 19 degrees 16 seconds, it is the last degree of the middle decan). The Sabian symbol for this degree of Aquarius is “A large white dove, bearing a message.” Now this degree is very personal to me, as it is the same as my Moon in the first house. I can get all serious and say I bear a message, a Uranian message. I think of it as a last gasp of Aquarian reason. It is universal. I love this card!

The card that represents the middle decan of Aquarius is the Six of Swords. Since the last time I posted anything it was about the Cups suit, I figured this new moon was a good time to introduce you to the suit of Swords in this deck. What easier way to do it than to start at one of the most positive Swords, the Six.

The Six of Swords, Science. Since it is the sign of Aquarius, it is of the Star card; since it is the middle decan which is ruled by Mercury, we get the Magus.

The Magus Tabula Mundi Tarot color version — Tabula Mundi tarot copyright 2011-2014 The Magus – M.M. Meleen

So the Six of Swords gets the colors of Mercury (Yellow, Purple, Grey, and Indigo, flecked Violet) along with those of the Star (Violet, Sky Blue, Bluish Mauve, and White, faintly tinged purple) plus the color of the sixth sephira of Yetzirah, Rich Salmon.

This new moon is being spoken of as a chance for a boost, a reboot. Most new moons are to some degree but this one has a square from Mars. Now conventionally squares are friction, and so is Mars, But friction is necessary for motion, and other things. So we have that added to the decan of Science, where one sets their course for the stars.

For your own course-setting, an appropriate action for the new moon, please enjoy this brief excerpt from Book M: Liber Mundi, on the Six of Swords. It shows how the card meanings of this six integrate with some other decks you may be familiar with.

The Six of Swords, Lord of Science, is the middle decan of the fixed sign of Aquarius, ruled by Mercury. It is here placed in the sephira of Tiphareth of Yetzirah, the station of Beauty in the Astral World with the element of Air. Everyone is happy here in solar central Tiphareth, and Mercury is well matched with the air sign Aquarius. The balance of this harmonious sephira combines well with the sign Aquarius’ detached mental processes, and the mental strength and flexibility of Mercury.

The trump of Aquarius is the Star, and the trump of Mercury is the Magus. From the Star card, we have the stars themselves, and from the Magus card the swirling galaxy from his hand and some new implements. Both cards share the symbolism of the spiral galaxy. Here we have instruments of celestial navigation. Above we have the sextant, from the Latin word sextus, meaning six, or sextāns, meaning one-sixth. This refers to the frame of the sextant which is in the shape of a sector which is approximately ¹⁄₆ of a circle (60°).

Sextants are used both for navigation and astronomy. The astronomical device is used for measuring the distant stars and determining stellar positions and equinoxes. The navigator’s sextant is used to “take a sight” meaning to determine the distance between any two visible objects to calculate a position on a nautical or aeronautical chart. The sun can be sighted at solar noon or the North Star Polaris at night can be used in the Northern hemisphere to determine latitude. To determine longitude and mean time, the sextant measures the distance between the Moon and another celestial object like a star or planet. This association with navigation also fits with one traditional meaning of the card having to do with long distance travel. This can be literal travel or a journey of the mind.

At the bottom of the card, the six swords form the arms of an orrery. An orrery is a form of planetarium. It is a mechanical model of our solar system, usually heliocentric, used to predict and illustrate the positions of the planets. It is sort of a mechanical clock with the planets as the hands. Here the hands of the clock are the six swords, each sword propelling one of the six planets around the central sun of Tiphareth. In this card is all the beauty of the intellect in its highest form of consciousness. According to Crowley, it is intelligence which has won to the goal. The general rulers of the sign Aquarius are Saturn and Uranus. Saturn gives discipline and Uranus gives innovation and genius. The majesty of the balanced and disciplined human mind results in the brilliant discoveries of Science. The success inherent in this card is earned and comes after effort.

The Augur: The sextant, the orrery, the spiral galaxy. Set your course for the stars and through the journey discover the beauty of the inventive intellect.

Deck comparisons:

The Rider Waite Smith Six of Swords shows a ferryman poling a boat across a river, pushing out as if setting off on a journey. The boat carries six upright swords and a cloaked figure, probably female, sits next to a child. The Thoth Six of Swords has six swords arranged in a hexagram, pointing towards a rose cross made of six golden squares. In the background is a fencing diagram and Harris’ stylized pinwheel shapes. The six swords of the Rosetta have the zodiacal glyphs and are arranged in an elongated hexagram. The central rose is surrounded by a unicursal hexagram, a circle squared within a diamond shaped vesica pisces, and lightning-like dendrites of the mind. Tabula Mundi shows the sextant and the orrery, instruments used to navigate the spiral galaxy. The card is the middle decan of Aquarius, Tiphareth of Air, and the decan is ruled by Mercury. Mental brilliance in balanced form takes one to new places one step at a time.

The Taurus cards: the Five of Worry

These cards all have the colors of Taurus, or the Hierophant. All earthy tones Red Orange; Deep Indigo; Deep Warm Olive; and Rich Brown. Plus the colors of the sephira in Assiah and the colors of the decan’s planetary ruler. In the Five of Disks the ruler is Mercury which has the more ethereal colors of Yellow, Purple, Grey, and Indigo rayed Violet; plus the sephira color Red, flecked Black.

These are not very harmonious colors, but why should they be? Mercurial Mercury isn’t exactly thrilled to be in fixed earth Taurus, and to top it off it is a Five so there is the disruption of Geburah to deal with. Some cards are more fun to paint than others, and it isn’t always the happy ones. But in this case, this card was a Worry to paint. I spent a lot of time not happy with the progress and wondering if it would be ok in the end. All of those colors are in there too – the only one not really obvious is the Deep Warm Olive, but it is there as the underpainting and deeper shadows on the grey columns and elephant, and it is in fourth tree of lights on the turntable. I guess there isn’t much need for green in the card anyway – Geburah burned it away. The scene is a locked up and smoking turntable. No soothing woods of earth here.

I always start with yellow if there is any in a card so here is a picture of some yellow layers of Mercury accented with some red orange layers of Taurus, This is the very first stage; more to follow…

Here are some ugly layers, getting some violet grey to build on.

That violet needs more layer and some grey for the look of solidity and texture. Stay tuned for more in progress pictures.

Ok back with more. I did experience Worry with this one; worry that it would not come out good. Cards with a lot of grey and violet but also lots of detail are difficult, as it takes lots of time to get it not to be blotchy, and every layer obscures more of the ink lines. Painting around lots of tiny stuff like the table controls is a pain. Here it is again after lots more layers…

and some more layers and colors:

Still pretty fugly. But with these inharmonious colors, it would be. Mercury is not too happy in Taurus.

At some point, once about ten layers were on the red background, I had to add the flecking, because the color of the Five in Assiah is Red, flecked Black. The smoking table is going to throw up a cloud of ash. So I had to block off anything I didn’t want flecked. I cut out a paper mask for this by printing a black and white copy on cheap copy paper and carefully cutting out the flecked area with an Xacto knife.

This covers everything but where the cloud of ash will be, the red, flecked black.

Then the fun (and a little worrisome) part: flinging black ink at it. It looks like it was supposed to, I guess.

After this just had to fix up the painting and then redraw a lot of the ink lines that got messed up by the opaque areas.

Behold, the end of Worry! I think the “Red, flecked Black” gave the right vibe for the electronics burning up.

Makes me think of the Soundgarden song “Rusty Cage”:

“You wired me awake
And hit me with a hand of broken nails
You tied my lead and pulled my chain
To watch my blood begin to boil

But I’m gonna break, I’m gonna break my
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run
Yeah, I’m gonna break, I’m gonna break my
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run”

The Princess Scale: all those flecked colors

I’ve finally gotten to painting the decans of the Disk cards. This is where we most start to see the flecked colors which show the mixed and shattered colors inherent in the suit of earth. Tiphareth is the only sephira that does not have a flecked (or rayed) color in the Princess, or Empress, scale. I guess as the middle sephira at the heart of the Tree, the colors can still be pure. Tiphareth of Assiah is a solar golden amber. The other colors are all flecked through the Nine of Disks (Yesod) then at the Ten, Malkuth, the color is quartered into four colors which are rayed: the circle quartered, connecting to Kether with rays.

Most recently I’ve been working on the three decans of Capricorn, the Two, Three, and Four of Disks; the Cardinal decans of Earth. They each have a different flecked color for the Princess Scale, but they all have the colors of the Devil (Capricorn): Indigo, Black, Blue-black, and cold, very dark Grey.

For the Two of Disks, the Chokmah of Assiah, or the Two on the Princess scale, the color is White, flecked Red, Blue, and Yellow.

One would think that this color might be difficult to incorporate into any old illustration without planning for it’s placement. But the Tabula Mundi Two of Disks has the hourglass of the Devil, with sand being churned by two wheels from Fortune. The sand in the card is painted white, with tiny flecks of red, blue and yellow. This provides an optical effect, especially when seeing the painting in person.

Besides the white with red, blue, and yellow flecks of the Chokmah of Assiah scale, the card has the colors of Capricorn (those of The Devil) combined with the colors of Jupiter (those of Fortune).

The Three of Disks has the DNA of the Devil card paired with the lightening flash of the Tower. For the Three of Disks, the Binah of Assiah, or the Three on the Princess scale, the color is Grey, flecked Pink. If you look closely at the three alchemical spheres within the three twists of the DNA strand, you will see that they are grey with small flecks of pink. Like a speckled egg. It is hard to see on a backlit monitor, but it will show in the printed cards. Besides the grey with pink flecks of the Binah of Assiah scale, the card has the colors of Capricorn (those of The Devil) combined with the colors of Mars (those of the Tower).

For the Four of Disks, the Chesed of Assiah, or the Four on the Princess scale, the color is Dark Azure, flecked yellow. You’ll see it on the horizon behind the pylons on the card. Guarding the pylons is the Green-man face on the Devil’s belly, with four coins with emblems from the Sun card and the cult of Sol Invictus. Besides the azure with yellow flecks of the Chesed of Assiah scale, the card has the colors of Capricorn (those of The Devil) combined with the colors of Sol (those of the Sun).

So those are the decans of Capricorn. Since my last post on December 2, which featured the Eight of Cups, I’ve made it to here. I haven’t had time to both post and work on the cards, but to make it up I should post something about the Swords as I can’t believe I did not post anything at all about the decans of Air! Counterintuitive, as that is the suit of communication.

So for now I’ll at least show you the last card of the Swords suit, the Ten of Swords or Yetzirah. It actually was the first decanic card to have anything flecked, as it is the last card or Malkuth of Swords and so gives us a glimpse of the pass into the next suit of Disks. The Malkuth of Swords is quartered into the four colors Citrine, Olive, Russet, and Black, and they are flecked with Gold. Not sure how well the flecking shows up at this size, but it is there. Besides the Olive, Russet, and Black, flecked with Gold, of the Malkuth of Assiah scale, the card has the colors of Gemini (those of The Lovers) combined with the colors of Sol (those of the Sun).

Next up maybe I’ll post about more of the Swords suit that you missed, because I was painting instead of posting. Or maybe just continue on with the card-of-the-moment.

How to paint a tarot card…it’s all about the color scales

As I continue the process of painting the Minor Arcana I am constantly amazed by the genius of the Golden Dawn Color Scales. (The chart is from Lelandra.com, and I find it a good one barring monitor differences as colors can be hard to accurately portray online) In this post I’ll walk you through the process of painting the card I’m currently working on, which happens to be the Eight of Cups, Indolence. In a future post I’ll share with you my explanations of the scales; what the different scales are and what they mean, and some personal thoughts. It is a big, worthy and fascinating topic, and very illuminating. This post goes into the steps I personally use both to choose and place the colors and some technicalities of color mixing for artists. But also towards the end I mention an interesting peculiarity of the Golden Dawn color scales that involves the sign of Pisces in particular, and what it means for us as we move from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.

What has been so amazing about this process, to me anyway, is that as I set forth to paint each decanic minor card, the color of the sephira for that world, combined with the colors of the astrological sign and the planet ruling that card’s particular decan, are perfectly fitting and appropriate for the subject matter and imagery of the card. This confirms for me the validity of the received imagery, as it wasn’t consciously planned.

So far, every card has been thus. The colors, even the odder flecked and rayed colors of the Princess Scale, each have found a congruous location on an element of the card. What is more, they work together to produce some interesting psychological, or maybe more appropriately physiological, effects and the feeling tone of the card is immediate and apparent.

Here I’ll just run through a bit of how I approach the process of painting the cards in the color scales.

First I sit down with the original black and white drawing, the two related Major cards, and a list of the colors. For the decan cards, these colors always include one color for the number of the sephira in the world, or suit. Added to that are the zodiacal and planetary colors, that correspond to the two related Majors.

At this point, it looks like this, a tabula rasa:

You maybe can’t see the writing but that paper lists the colors.

Since it is the Eight of Cups, the first color is Orange, which is the color of Hod (Eight) in the Queen Scale (Cups). What I’ve personally found so far is that in the majority of cases (but not always as there are a few exceptions) this color ends up being perfectly placed as a backdrop element of the card rather than an object.

I sit with the card’s canvas and the related Majors and the list of colors, and like magic, I see the card in my mind’s eye and know where each color belongs. In this case, the Orange of Hod in the Queen Scale will end up as the beach sand that the ship is grounded upon. It fits, as the scene will be dark, and this is a perfectly acceptable dark tone of a sandy beach at night

The Eight of Cups is the first decan of the sign of Pisces, and this decan is ruled by Saturn. Thus the related Majors are The Moon (Pisces) and The Universe (Saturn). (Note the Universe also does double duty and so has the colors of Earth, but for the 8 of Cups, only the Saturnine colors apply.)

The colors of Pisces, listed in YHVH order, are: Crimson (ultra violet)*, Buff flecked Silver White*, Light Translucent Pinkish Brown, and Stone. (*more on these two colors to follow, as the color scale of Pisces is an anomaly as compared to all the rest for interesting reasons)

The colors of Saturn, listed in YHVH order, are: Indigo, Black, Blue-black; and Black, rayed Blue.

Perfect for my purposes! Three of the colors of Pisces (Buff flecked Silver White, Light Translucent Pinking Brown, and Stone) layered and variegated together, will be just right to convey the sense of the weathered, bleached wood of the abandoned ship and the eight wooden spiraled cups. (The King Scale color of Pisces, Crimson (Ultra Violet), will be a surprise added at the end to complete the work.)

The colors of Saturn (Indigo, Black, Blue-black; and Black, rayed Blue) are ideal for the sky and water of the card. The water seems as if tailor made for that “Black rayed Blue”.

And as mentioned, the Orange of Hod in the Queen Scale will end up as the beach sand that the ship is grounded upon.

Due to the nature of the way I like to work with these inks, in layers, for the first color and layer of color I always apply the most transparent color first. In this case, the “Light Translucent Pinkish Brown” of the Prince Scale of Pisces. This is a color I have to mix myself, and to make it, I’ve taken a color called “Transparent Raw Umber” and mixed it with a little crimson to pink it up. Applied with a light touch, it is very translucent! And the fact that a little crimson was used to mix it, will harmonize it with the touch of crimson applied at the end.

Here is a layer or two of the “Light Translucent Pinkish Brown” and what it looks like so far. You can see I apply the ink thinner and lighter in some spots than others in order to mold the forms of things and add depth. You can also see what the mixed color looks like before it is applied:

On top of these first layers of the translucent colors, I will add accents and highlights of the other two colors for the wood. I start by next mixing the Stone color of the Princess Scale of Pisces, because 1) it isn’t the lightest of the three colors but the mid-tone and 2) because it was easy to mix using the color already mixed above, and adding to that some neutral grey. The result is perfectly the color shown on the chart as Stone. You can see in the palette the mixed color. I put this over the first color in spots and start molding the forms.

Next I mix up the next lightest color, Buff, for the next layer and add it over that, here and there on the highlights of the form. The Buff is mixed from the transparent raw umber and white. On top of the Buff, I will add the flecks of Silver White mixed from white and neutral grey. After that I add more layers of the first transparent color with the opaque colors over, the shadows being transparent and the highlights opaque. I won’t post all the stages as they look similar but you will see the final result.

After the boat and cups are done, I begin to put layers of orange, 2-3 transparent layers underneath followed by an opaque layer dotted on top, to form the sand. I also put layers of Indigo and Blue in the water, making it blue-black towards the horizon and more transparent by the shore. The interspersion of the black “brainwaves of sleep” make the color a nice black-rayed-blue overall. (The Indigo is mixed by blending Prussian Blue with some Burnt Sienna, and the Blue is the Prussian Blue alone)

The next step is to paint the sky in shades of Indigo, Blue and Blue-black. (Note I at this point I am not looking forward to painting around all that shite! All those crevasses between the ribs of the ship and cups…)

But here it is, after several layers of the blues and the blacks and a lot of patience. To get the colors that flat and opaque with these inks takes a lot of time. At this point, the black *may* need one more perfecting layer and the indigo/blue-blackish cloud bank isn’t finished, but almost!

Last I’ll add the one remaining color, the Crimson (ultra-violet). Can you guess where it will go?

Speaking of that Crimson (ultra-violet), I find it interesting that it is a color of Pisces, the last sign. Red is a color of Aries the beginning of the signs and of the rainbow, and Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Violet, comes a form of red again in the form of ultra-violet, the invisible ray at the end of the spectrum.

I’ll also mention another interesting thing about the colors of Pisces. If you study the color scales, you will notice that normally, the flecked and rayed versions of colors are of the Princess scale. But Pisces is the only one that instead has a flecked color in the Queen Scale (the Buff, flecked silver white). The Daughter has been put on the Throne of the Mother. This was the Golden Dawn way of calling attention to the fact that humanity was in the Age of Pisces.

We are now considered to be in or on the cusp of, the Age of Aquarius. Whether we are there or not is often debated, but surely the New Aeon heralds this move from the Pisces/Virgo (fishes and loaves) axis to the Aquarius/Leo (woman and beast) axis. Which would mean perhaps that the colors of Aquarius may need to be adjusted to reflect this. While surely I do not feel qualified to be the arbiter of that change, I’ve recently looked at my coloring of the Star card, and for sure, in Tabula Mundi’s version of our lady of the Star, the Queen scale color of the sky (Sky Blue) is flecked with a darker blue veering towards violet. Hmmm…well, it wasn’t consciously done but it sure is something to contemplate.

It is similarly done in the Thoth Star as well!

OK that was a digression, as after all we are still working on a card of Pisces, and only the first decan at that.

So back to the present card the Eight of Cups, the final step was to add the Crimson ultra-violet as the thin red line of the horizon, and to finish up the sky, and to bring back the outlines of the foreground objects.

Though it took a lot of work and I certainly could not be lazy about it, there was a point where I totally slacked off and procrastinated slothfully in between the stage above, and finalizing the card below. I *almost* slipped into an emotional state of lethargy and abandoned ship for a bit. (Luckily the prospect of painting the next card, Happiness, in time for my birthday this week, pulled me through!)

Behold, the end of Indolence!

Next up, I make a wish…this weekend is my birthday, and leading up to that I’ll be painting the Nine of Cups, Happiness. Plus, more to follow about the Golden Dawn Color Scales.

A review of the Nox et Lux edition

Mozes Ashkenazi, who did Aeclectic’s review of the Majors edition, has posted a review of the Tabula Mundi Nox et Lux edition on Aeclectic Tarot. He also posted it as a thread here, so please thank him there for taking the time to put down his thoughts for public consumption! He is very knowledgeable esoteric scholar and I am grateful that he shared his opinions. Thanks Mozes!

Disappointment, Pleasure, Debauch…the decans of Scorpio

Well the Thanksgiving holidays had some of each…

I did take a few days off making it an extra long weekend and got a lot of painting time. I also rescanned all of the color minors to date with a different scanner. They came out a lot better, and I’ve updated most of the pictures already up so check them out. For example on the Five of Wands now you can see the detail in the sky, the texture where I’d added salt to the ink. If you compare it to the composite image above it, you can see how much better the new scan is.

But it took a lot of time, all day today really: rescan, recrop, resize, redo all the borders…glad I did it now anyway before all of them were done. I wish I could have gotten started painting the next card instead, though. Tomorrow is a new day.

Anyway rather than go into much detail of the process this time I think I’ll just let the images speak for themselves.

The Five of Cups color scales:

Queen Scale for Geburah: Scarlet Red

Four Scales for Scorpio: Green-Blue, Dull Brown, Very Dark Brown, Livid Indigo Brown

Four Scales for Mars: Scarlet, Red, Venetian Red, Bright Red, rayed Azure or Emerald

The Six of Cups color scales:

Queen Scale for Tiphareth: Yellow-gold

Four Scales for Scorpio: Green-Blue, Dull Brown, Very Dark Brown, Livid Indigo Brown

Four Scales for the Sun: Orange, Gold Yellow, Rich Amber, Amber rayed Red

The Seven of Cups color scales:

Queen Scale for Netzach: Emerald

Four Scales for Scorpio: Green-Blue, Dull Brown, Very Dark Brown, Livid Indigo Brown

Four Scales for Venus: Emerald Green, Sky Blue, Early Spring Green, Bright Rose rayed Pale Green

I’ll add the composite images with the Majors later…for now, I hope you have enjoyed a tour of the heart of the world of Briah