I plan to write an essay on a recommended reading method and a some thoughts about tarot in general soon.
“Occultism is a regression of consciousness” – Theodor Adorno.
I made a pdf to print at home to get your own deck here.
You can buy one directly here.
Rider Waite copy.
Rider Waite copy.
Rider Waite copy.
Slay me at this beach. I shall take my own head and not watch! But lovely memories of a kind child overwhelm me with tears. Let me follow the sticks and my destiny. Now is not my time.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001.
Rider Waite copy.
Rider Waite copy
Nightmare strikes the west. All certainties are turned upside down. History has begun again. So bring the farce. Bring the infinite binary. Then let me die on my sword. What three are against me?
Bruce Lee with a stick
Nietzsche and the Turin Horse.
The Sigillum Dei Aemeth or the Circle of Fifths.
Violence. Phallus. Your manhood brings first ecstasy then misery. “I know how you suffer”. There is a chance to escape!
Cut this snake into eight pieces!
The French Revolution brought down the most mighty.
My hand! My hand!
A snake is in my dreams. I must wake up. A vision of a naked woman. My hand is cursed!
A sweet young boy with a coin in his pocket.
Sorrow is the beginning of wisdom – Alastair Crowley.
Misery follows sadness
The boy is not ready for tragedy. Sorrow stalks its prey like a leopard. Crawling in the undergrowth. When it has you there is no escape.
A woman kills herself by jumping off a building and falling on a car. An iconic photograph. Rest in peace Evelyn McHale.
Ophelia dead by drowing suicide.
The top of the Brandenberg gate depicts the bringing of peace into Berlin
A woman is dead. A second is dead. Both suicides. War is coming to Europe and the whole world quakes.
Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters. Lear’s three daughters. A tragic grouping.
King Henry the Eigth
Historically associated with howling wolves and the sexuality of the lobster.
Why do the three sisters quarrel? The father and patriarch has caused it through avoiding it. Dark sexual forces shall bring tragedy this night.
No explanation needed.
I liked them to face each other since they were drawn as a pair.
Rider Waite plus milk emerging from the nipples.
A fight! How can one take a coin to a sword fight? He will be killed surely. He holds up the coin and as the swordsman approaches merely says ‘buy me this life’. He is cut down viciously. The dead body looks up at the sky as it takes a last breath. A single star burns into his eye.
Very similar to Rider Waite. Great design.
Teletubbies
Reference to the devil’s smiley face.
Guilt reeks. Lying in bed after a night of debauchery. The sun shines through the window. Checking my wallet I find just seven coins. I had two hundred last night.
A man labours over the coins. Each coin represents one coin time.
The Sword decapitates the king and takes his crown.
When we look upon the world rationally it looks rationally back.
A man is hard at work making horseshoes. There are eight. Can we assume they are for two horses? A masked assassin bursts in and cuts off his head. His cloth cap falls to the floor and reveals a golden coin. The assassin takes the coin but doesn’t realise that it will bring him great misery.
He has gold but lives in a world of golden senses.
Bill Gates.
Jeff Bezos.
The poor wise hermit searching with his lamp. Searching for an honest man in daylight like Diogenes before him. He is not looking for an honest man but a rich man. The excel spreadsheet and the shopping basket full and resplendent with wealth and beauty. I won’t be so trite as to say these are worth nothing. The masters of capital have made fountains of gold.
Fifteen blackbirds sitting on a telephone line.
Keeping it simple.
I knew I would do something pornographic but decided to keep it relatively traditional with a ‘reverse cowgirl’ position taken from a French erotic illustrator.
Lacan’s graph of desire overlaid on US president Donald Trump.
An overflowing of emotion wells within me. Where is my lover? What cruelty that we are separated. And in this lustful anxiety a dark master has taken the reigns and put them upon us.
Money is the order of the day. A fortnight of deals!
I had wanted to include Queen Elizabeth II and pentacles seemed a good choice as I wanted to put her on a fifty p coin. Unfortunately i drew her too big so that idea went down the drain.
The Rider Waite has a hand so I drew my own hand with a coin in it.
Elon Miusk occurred to me and only later did I realise it was probably because the roman numeral X looks like logo for X.
Coin rules us all. Queens and thieves both. Take this coin and do what thou wilt!
A dangerous number. An unholy number
Simplicity and balance. A happy marriage.
Another beautiful boy! Strong but nimble. Running! Jumping! Loving!
Meditating on the three a fourth appears!
In the ideal life we begin with balance. A leaving ceremony. The boy sets off sword in hand. Finally he finds no adventure so sits under a tree and ponders his past, his present, and his future. In pondering these three a fourth is suggested. A fourth tense?
Thee times four. These three are ruled by the master of hell! They must serve him.
A mere boy full of hope. Simply drawn with a magic hat.
Taking a boat across a sea to three volcanoes. This boat is not built for seafaring. Will the swords make it.
The biggest card!? I decided to free draw without reference and use the classic design of a naked man and woman chained to him. I think this is an interesting opposite to love as the divine. Do we taste both heaven and hell in sex?
Hail a beautiful boy has been born. AS he grows he takes his stick with pride and ventures to the woods. Discovering a stream? A pond! A lake! A sea! An ocean! Out of his depth and now a man he spies a beautiful woman. Love blossoms but a great danger is afoot in in this ecstasy.
The twin towers. Not the end of history but the beginning!
I had long ago decided to use the Metallica And Justice for All cover for this.
The Magician is a great and major arcana. My first thought was a popular magician but I couldn’t think of any apart from Paul Daniels who doesn’t interest me. I decided to just free draw and for some reason Pamela Anderson came to mind. I original drew her with a large erect penis but it looked a little odd so I painted over it in gold.
The Rider Waite is a pretty woman in a gown. Diana’s wedding came to mind so I used her and put the pentacles in her train.
Guilt rules your dreams. The sword of justice comes for you. But you are saved by wakefulness. The magician offers you a deal. Your wedding day and nine million dollars. But you must also be made immortal. Why tricks are hidden in this offer?
Ten fingers of course! Two hands with which to commit acts glorious or evil!
All minor arcana today. The two of cups users the motif of lovers and I have been itching for a pornographic card so here we are. Lesbian lovers perhaps.
A male fighter. I may simply use a boxer here against all seven wands.
Majestic sky. Warrior with three swords and two enemies vanquished.
Lovers at night. Drinking from the cups of life. The cups of love and hate. But there is a masculine violence repressed. The lover failed. Take these seven sticks! Render them in steel. There are five now. I have three so take them off me. But how I wish I could return to that eden of pure loveliness. The vision of two woman that set me on my path.
The sideways infinite
A dandy. A pretty young man. I could have thought of something better than the Rider Waite deck that I lazily copied in hindsight. Like my copy the very thing was decadent and unimaginative.
Again a straight copy but I enjoy the intrigue of the three figures in a religious building. A fool. A monk. A spy.
Again a straight copy but the body with ten swords is a great card.
The decadent youth spends hi father’s money on fine clothes and ridiculous cocktails. After getting drunk on a fish blood mix he gambles away the last of his inheritance. Forced to a criminal investment he makes enemies with the wrong people. Three thieves meet to plot his murder. When they find him drunk they pin him to the ground with ten swords. One fore every thousand he owes. They stab him with four and three and three. The body is left outside the town for weeks before being found.
A week’s worth of draws.
Five coins in a stained glass window. Warm yellow light spills out into the snow and onto beggar in the street. Those warm inside know nothing of the scene.
Ten fingers. Wooden fingers. Not the bundle but ten fingers pointing upward. Counting and numbers. Digits and hands.
Queen Elizabeth the first. Not the second who can go on a pentacle!
Cold. Winter. Snow falls on my broken leg. Plans are brewing. Take the hands and gather wood. Without a fire we are ruined. The ten fingers are burnt and a lady arrives. She rides a grand horse through the snow. She sees the fire of fingers and is struck by the terrible scene.