The Tarot Room – Georgianna

A.E. Waite 1921

Arthur Waite is probably best known for being the ‘Waite’ in the Rider Waite Smith Tarot, one of the most popular decks in the world. But did you know he designed another deck as well?

Between 1917 and 1923, ten years after working with Pamela Colman Smith, Waite commissioned a second set of Tarot illustrations with artist J.B. Trinick as part of The Great Symbols of the Paths.

And though they’re not going to be a deck just yet, these beautiful and rarely seen images are soon to be part of a new book by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin.

The book will include high quality images of the 22 Major Arcana, an additional ‘path’ image, some extra variant designs, sketches and previously unpublished commentary by Waite himself.

It will also feature research into the lives of Trinick and others involved in the creation of this deck, as well as an explanation of how the images fit onto the Tree of Life in Waite’s ‘hidden’ set of correspondences.

Goodwin and Katz hope to get it published by the end of this year, and you can help them make that happen.

To help cover the costs of licensing, photography, and printing, they’ve set up an IndieGoGo page and are offering rewards to people who donate. Check them out.

And you can read the amazing story of how this project got started, and how it’s developing on Goodwin’s Tarot Speak Easy blog.

It’s going to be an exceptional book. I’m really looking forward to it, and to the deck that hopefully will follow.

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Apparently, the Goblin King has ordered the creation of a Tarot deck, and Michael Wenman has been commissioned to make it.

The suits are Bones, Bugs, Cogs, and Tools, and the court cards are made up of the Mob, the Hero, the Avatar, and the Lady.

In the Goblin Tarot, the minor arcana commemorate great goblin heroes of history, while the majors describe the grand concepts guiding the destiny of the goblin hordes.

Wenman has been designing video games and illustrating comic books for years. Now he’s decided to take on the Tarot, and I like what he’s done.

The deck is already drawn, and a companion book written, but Wenmen has an IndieGoGo page to help raise funds to print them.

If you help him out, you’ll get a copy of the deck for yourself, and of course, the appreciation of the Goblin King.

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The Incidental Tarot grew out of a writing project, the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where participants commit to writing a 175 page novel within the 30 days of November.

Having successfully completed a 30 day novel last year, Holly DeFount was so inspired that she decided she wanted to try the same type of thing with her visual art. She challenged herself to create one original piece of art every day in 2011.

She chose to format each piece the size of a 2.5” x 3.5” trading card, and before she knew it, her daily drawings were becoming a Tarot deck. She decided to go with it and The Incidental Tarot was born.

DeFount wants to be clear about the ‘incidental’ nature of the deck. The images, like all art, are a mixture of the intentional and the unconscious, but she meant to draw what she’s drawn.

The deck is incidental only in that it arose from another project, and wasn’t originally intended. But it certainly is a lovely surprise.

She’s decided to publish it herself and like so many Tarot creators, is looking for help, in this case with the printing and promotion of the deck.

She’s got herself an IndieGoGo page and is offering a copy of the deck to people donating $25 or more.

Check it out. It’s pretty, and magical, and I love how it came to be.

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