Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins loves the Tarot. And of all the cards, the Fool speaks to him the loudest. While talking about his newest release, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Corgan told Albequrque’s Local IQ,
“We are all, in essence, on the fool’s journey. So the inspiration for the [new] album is the story of the fool, which is the story of life as we all struggle towards transcendence.”
Corgan is releasing Teargarden like a Tarot reading, dealing out one card/song at a time. By the time he’s done, the entire work will have 44 songs. The 22 majors and each of their shadows?
The first six songs are available for free download on the band’s website. Corgan plans to release all of them like this, getting constant feedback as he records the rest of the album.
Listen here to the songs available so far. Or download them if you like. He wants you to.
Asked to create a duet for piano, Thomas Oboe Lee was initially inspired by numerology. He was reading Annemarie Schimmel’s, The Mystery of Numbers, when the number 22 especially drew his eye. That led him to the Tarot deck with its 22 Major Arcana and eventually to the creation of a piano opus dedicated to the cards.
Lee wrote The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (22 Salon Pieces for 2 pianos), Op. 66 in 1996. Each piece was inspired by a different card starting with Il Matto. The Fool entertains the gathered guests with a tarantella, and ending with Il Mondo. The World would be a happier place if we all dance together. It’s like a musical Tarot deck.
Lee just posted this short video of a George Rhoads’ sculpture with his own Il Giudizio. On the Day of Judgement, the angels blow their trumpets… as soundtrack. The pianists are Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang.
Tarot traditionalists might gasp, but check out what Kate Albrecht did with some cards, an IKEA cabinet and a glue gun. In 20 short minutes (condensed to just over 4 in this video), she converts a simple cupboard into a magical Tarot pantry.
Albrecht bought four decks for a dollar at a garage sale. And despite the enchanting turban, doesn’t seem to be a reader herself. So purists, please don’t judge her harshly. Be happy that she kept one deck whole and loves the cards enough to want them in her kitchen.
On the other hand, decorators, I welcome your input. Is occult crafting an acceptable design option?
#16, The Tower in the Tarot deck, is one of the more disconcerting of the cards. It means change – sudden, irrevocable and unexpected. And most of us don’t like that much.
When the Tower appears in a reading, it typically suggests that something significant and surprising is going on. Whether this is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depends on the question and what other cards are present. As with all the Major Arcana, in and of itself, the Tower isn’t positive or negative.
What it is though, is a new way of looking at things, a breaking down of old structures that no longer support us. A prison, generally of our own design, is coming down. In it’s grandest sense, the Tower is liberation through revelation. And when the lightening bolt hits, there’s no turning back.
I like this slideshow. A live recording of the Cascade Jazz Ensemble and countless images of Tarot Towers. By the end of it, the card’s not so scary anymore. There might be chaos in awakening, but it’s a lot better than staying stuck in the dark.
This is a deck I drew a few years ago. Clearly based on Pamela Coleman Smith’s images in the Rider Waite Smith, I meant it to be fun, simple and bright. Not to mention, I wanted some cards I could publish without having to ask permission.
I recommend anyone interested in Tarot to draw their own deck based on one they find significant. It doesn’t matter if you know how to draw or not. I love the Stick Figure Tarot and certainly anyone who can print their name can draw a stick Magician.
And if you still don’t think you can draw (or in this case copy someone else’s drawings), get yourself The New Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain. In the first few chapters you’ll wonder that you ever thought you couldn’t.
The benefit of drawing your own Tarot deck is that you really get to know the images. Focusing on all the lines, colours, facial directions, expressions, objects you’ve never noticed before, it’s really quite amazing what you’ll see.
You may or may not include everything in your own pictures. But you’ll know a lot more about the deck you’ve drawn and probably the general system of Tarot than you did before you started.
Try one yourself! And let me know.
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click here to see my Toronto Graffiti Tarot (Ver.1)
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I like the deck. Bright colours, powerful lines and a dreamy melting feeling about the cards. On Langustl’s site you can see all of them, move them around, and even get yourself a one-card reading using the deck.
But what I like about the videos (or really the still pictures with talking) is how Langustl describes the cards. In each short clip, he focuses on the symbols in his own deck, but also tries to explain the overall theme of each archetype. He’s got an interesting take on them.
Every now and then I get the urge to grab my camera and walk around the city looking for a Tarot deck. The magical symbols can be found all over the place.
This time round, I focused on Graffiti. There are so many great paintings in our alleyways it seems a shame how fast they’re replaced. Sometimes by other amazing images. And sometimes with ugly scrawls of nothing. But I think that’s part of what makes Graffiti Art a good match for the Tarot.
Tarot cards represent change, or the transformations we face in our daily lives. Through it’s temporary nature, Graffiti Art does the same. It quickly reflects the world around us, then changes up just as fast to mirror new pictures as they arise.
For now this is a Majors Only deck, but it might grow into a full 78 cards with time. Most of the images are from a long alley just south of Queen Street West. A few of them are from along Spadina Avenue.
This incredible artist passed on in 2002, but the fantastical mosaic garden she created is still there, a wonder for Tarot lovers everywhere. Twenty-two gigantic sculptures, all inspired by the archetypes of the Tarot deck. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Some of the sculptures are little buildings you can walk into, like the mirrored Temperance, and the one bedroom Empress flat.
One bosom is a kitchen, the other a bedroom. You can sit on her back and look out to the Mediterranean. Niki de Saint Phalle lived in it while she was building the garden. What a dream!
You can see it here in this video.
And here’s a slideshow of the whole park. I don’t know the people pictured, but they seem like a lovely family.
What a magical place. Thank you Niki de Saint Phalle!
While floating around the internet, I came across these videos from a Tarot museum in Belgium. It turns out they’re from a place called TarotHaven, created by the designer of the Cosmic Egg Tarot, Guido Gillabel.
Gillabel started the museum in 2001 in a small building by his home near the city of Mechelen, Belgium. He has over 1000 decks on display and all sorts of other incredible Tarot items. Eggs, socks, thimbles. Mannequins dressed as Tarot figures. It’s incredible.
Stacy Engman has curated a gorgeous art Tarot deck featuring original artwork from a diverse mix of the world’s top creative icons. The exhibition includes 78 original works, each representing a different Tarot card and each by a different artist.
The artists were matched with a particular card based on archetypal themes referenced in their work. They then used their own iconography to interpret their card. The results are spectacular.
show runs through November 2010 The National Arts Club
by appointment for non-club members
15 Gramcery Park South
New York, New York, 10003
Phone: (212) 475-3424 Google Map to the show
