I wrote about this Kickstarter Project back in early June, but I guess Mercury retrograde is giving us an opportunity to revisit the story …
The Symbolist Tarot is a project by Richard Fox, an art historian and Tarot enthusiast.
He’s curated what looks to be a really nice deck of masterpieces from the Symbolism Art movement.
It includes works from artists like Franz Von Stuck, Gustav Klimt, John William Waterhouse, Edward Burne-Jones, and many more. It’s beautiful.
But it’s not yet in print, and that’s what Fox is hoping to change by giving his project a second go at Kickstarter.
Though he was unable to raise the funds he hoped for the first time around, with some changes to the Backer Rewards and some other streamlining, he’s trying again.
And I hope he succeeds.
In the video below you can see the cards. Or go to Fox’s blog, he has many of them posted there.
And of course, if you’re interested in supporting the project and getting a copy of the deck yourself, visit The Symbolist Tarot project page to donate.
In the interview, de St. Croix specifically looks at her King and Queen of Pentacles cards, and in the process tells us a little about King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, the Tarot, and life in general.
The Tarot de St. Croix looks like it’s going to be beautiful. I hope it gets published. I already want one.
I wrote about this Kickstarter project last year, but unfortunately, the artist wasn’t able to reach her goal at the time and it was put on hold for a moment.
But the Stolen Child Tarot has made a reappearance, and this time Monica Knighton, creator of the Tarot of the Dead, has already raised the funds she needs to print her new 24 card deck.
Though she’s met her goal, I’m writing about her project again anyway, just in case you missed it before and/or didn’t know that there was a new opportunity to get yourself a copy.
The Stolen Child Tarot is inspired by the poem of the same name by William Butler Yeats. It features changeling children and magical creatures of the natural world.
In it, the mystic meets the adorable, and no adult humans are allowed.
I posted about the book a while back while it was still in production. It explores the story behind the 23 Tarot images Waite commissioned stained-glass artist J.B. Trinick to create.
There are over 80 colour and black and white plates in the book, commentary on the images, biographies of the main players, and a peek into Waite’s mystical system for spiritual development.
Only 250 copies of this first edition will be made, so it’s kind of special. I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and ordered one. I can barely wait to see it.
Hopefully it’ll be published in a mass-market form soon as well. And what I’m really hoping for is a printing of the deck itself.
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.
The designers describe it as ‘a creative science communication project that combines science, art and mythology into a Tarot deck…”
It’s the Science Tarot, a group project engaging the skills of artists, Tarot readers, and of course scientists. Various scientific theories or stories are identified with particular cards. The results are really interesting.
The 2 of Swords, for instance, looks at gravity, and how every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. The Empress is the story of Mendel’s Peas, and the 7 of Wands describes the process of expansion.
It’s a brilliant way to look at the cards. Not to mention, a chance to expand our rational side a little, while engaging the unconscious.
The website lists Logan Austeja Daniel, Martin Azevedo, and Raven Hanna as the creators.
While the artists involved are Suzanne Forbes, Shari Arai DeBoer, Kristian Johnson Michiels, Kristy Whitehouse, Janelle Schneider, and John Daniel.
I hear someone from the project will be presenting at BATS this weekend. I look forward to their talk, and a chance to get a copy of the deck.
Take a look at the videos below to see animated versions of the Hanged Man and Sun cards. And to see more, visit Horgworm’s YouTube channel.