Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • Page of Swords | The Tarot of Mr Punch | Doug Thornsjo

    Sometimes you see a project and it’s just such a perfect storm that you wonder why it was never done before! That’s how I felt when Doug Thornsjo (Tarot of the Zirkus Magis, Tarot Lombardi Dannegiatto etc) began sharing images from his Tarot of Mr Punch: The rambunctious personality of Mr Punch will make a great ‘no punches pulled’ *groan – sorry, that was awful!* tarot deck.


    I asked Doug if he could answer some questions about his new deck and woohoo!!!! HE SAID YES!!

    Me: So, tell me how you got interested in creating Tarot decks?
    Doug: This is going to sound like a flip answer, but I don’t mean it that way: it’s just human nature that you’re going to want to do whatever it is you like. If you like reading books, you’re going to want to write a novel. If you like watching sports (although personally I can’t imagine a worse waste of a person’s life), you’re going to want to play. Tarot is one of the things that I’ve always liked, so from the beginning I always wanted to make my own. The cosmic axis simply did not come into alignment for this to happen until a couple of years ago.

    Me: You’ve created a few decks so far, The Tarot of Mr Punch is the deck that we are looking at specifically today.  

    I am intrigued to learn that the roots of Mr Punch stretch back to the 16th century Italian Commedia del Arte figures – Pulcinella. 

    Doug: Yes, Mister Punch and the Tarot go back a long way together! I’m just lucky no one thought of the connection before!

    Me: This Pulcinella figure was a comic figure who could say quite outrageous things – like the court jester …. but by the time the puppet shows that we are more familiar with came along, he had morphed into a modern day Homer Simpson character – a bit of a buffoon who can do quite violent things?
    Doug: I wouldn’t compare him to Homer Simpson (who is a dolt) and I wouldn’t call him a buffoon. Mister Punch is very, very smart. Not a nice man, it must be said, but smart. Smarter than you or me or anyone. The court jester can get away with telling the truth because he’s clever about it. Mister Punch out-smarts everyone: the police, the judges, the hangman, even Death and The Devil themselves. He always wins — always — because he is the smartest one in the room. He’s also Quite a Mean Old Bastard, who makes no distinction between hitting you with a club (or wand!) and hitting you with words.
    *** just as an aside – why does Mr Punch always look the same – hooked nose and chin? ***
    Doug: Also a hump back. Don’t forget that! He’s a very well-established character and when something works you don’t mess with it. When Punch appears on the stage he needs to be instantly recognisable. Again, it sounds like a flip answer, but if you changed his appearance he simply wouldn’t be Punch. 
    Maybe this has something to do with it and maybe this has nothing to do with it, but in profile, his head and face look exactly like a lobster’s claw. It’s a great design for a mean old bastard, because it’s harsh and pinchy and bitey. 
    Me: What was it about Mr Punch that made you think – this would make a great Tarot deck?
    Doug: See above: they both go way back, have similar origins, and have evolved together over the years. More than that, both Punch & Judy shows and the Tarot deal with the Big Issues of life in a compressed and even detached form. Relationships, family, legal issues, emotions, Life and even Death itself. All the Big Issues of Life that we struggle with, he’s been there and done that. The fact that, as we know him now, he is essentially a Victorian figure — that didn’t hurt, either. His age gives him weight and authority and style, too. 
    The creator/editors of PUNCH magazine realized that he would make a good mascot because a) he’s a snarky little fellow and b) he’s seen and done it all, and is capable of giving any kind of authority figure a damn good spanking. And that includes Supernatural Beings and Deities of all sorts.

    Me:  The Page of Swords is the card that we are taking a look at specifically today. Tell me about the image – what was your source material, how did you transform it into the Tarot card?
    Doug: The figure is taken from what they call a “spot illustration” — not a full cartoon — from the pages of PUNCH magazine, circa 1880s-90s. I coloured him, put an especially twisty sword into his hand, and then because the suit of swords needs air and clouds, I set him on the battlements of a model castle that I “artified.” The first version I did had him inside a castle setting, and that didn’t work for me. With swords you have to have air, sky and clouds. 
    Me: Tell me about the structure of the deck itself – are we talking RWSy, Thothy, Marseille-y influences?
    Doug: Not so much Thoth this time, except for maybe two or three cards. I will say that with any deck I work on, I do not confine myself to one (or any) particular school of symbolism. This appears to annoy some people who want their decks to be ALL RWS or ALL Thoth or Marseilles. I may start with a certain school of symbolism, but I like to mix it up and I’m always working towards doing things my own way. I haven’t completely succeeded at that with any tarot deck I’ve done so far. The closest I’ve come to succeeding is with my Marvelous Oracle of Oz.
    Me: Are there any surprises in your Majors? Anything renamed?
    Doug: Not really. I do have “Art” in place of Temperance, with symbolism that’s neither particularly Thoth or RWS, and I do have “The Aeon” in place of Judgement Day, featuring a cartoon from Punch magazine that just practically reeks of Thoth symbolism. I probably will never create a Tarot deck with a conventional Judgement Day card in it, since it’s a specific kind of Christian symbol that I don’t agree with and can’t abide. No, Ladies and Gentlemen, when you die you are NOT going to grow wings and fly up and sit in the clouds with the angels, thank you very much.
    Me: In the Minors, is the structure traditional – Ace to 10 and four courts? 
    Doug: Yes; although personally, I tend to stack the Court Cards all together, separate from all the pips. I stack all my decks up with the courts following the majors King to Page in each suit, and then the pips one to ten in each suit, so that the ten of pentacles is always the last card in the deck. That’s the way the deck comes packaged. I think — although I won’t swear to it — that this reflects a Thoth bias. 
    Me: That’s interesting – Why do you put them there? Do you see the Courts as filters or an interface for all that Major Arcana energy by putting them between the Majors (archetypal energy) and the Minors (individual effort)?

    Doug: I’m smiling as I type this, but I don’t see all those Kings and Queens and Princesses and Knights and Princes consorting with the peasantry or the riff-raff. They want to hang out with their own kind. 
    And I do see them as being separate — they’re read differently than either the majors or minors. They do act as a filter between the two. When I bought my Thoth deck, it came stacked up like this, and I thought “if it’s good enough for crazy Uncle Aleister, it’s good enough for me…” In TAROT FOR YOURSELF, Mary Smith (if I remember correctly), stacks them separately but puts them at the end. 

    What are your Court card ranks in the deck?
    King, Queen, Knight, Page.
    Me:  For those who are not very familiar with the Thoth deck, In the Thoth, the Court Cards are Princess, Prince, Queen and Knight … with the Princess associated with traditional Page energies, The Prince with Knightly energies, The Queen with, erm, the Queen and the dashing Knight replacing the old King.   So the Knight in the Thoth is the Young King.  

    Doug: Ally’s Knights are more virile aspects of the King, it seems. This raises another issue for me: why is the pagan female deity represented at all stages of her development (maiden, maturity and crone), but the pagan male god is ONLY ever represented as being young and virile and full of himself? Mister Horney God. I personally can’t respect that image and wonder why he’s never presented as being older and wiser and someone who thinks with the head on his shoulders, not the one between his legs. But I digress… 🙂

    Me: How do you see your Knights’ role in the Tarot of Mr Punch – is he more Kingly (like in the Thoth) or is he the young explorer of the RWS? 

    So, yeah, my court cards are more RWS than Thoth. My Kings are accomplished, older men and the Knights are dashing young squires. In the Punch deck the Knight of Wands is so young that he’s riding on a wooden hobby-horse!
    Me: What are your suits in the deck? 
    Doug: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles — although the latter are represented visually as coins.
    Me: Are the pips fully-illustrated or pips? 
    Doug:  Now, this is interesting! When I started out, this was just going to be a Marseilles-style deck with plain ol’ pip cards. As I got into it, I found for several reasons that I wanted and needed to create illustrated minors. I did the Cups first, in my first mind-set, and so they are the most pip-ish cards in the deck. But I kept sticking Punch into them in ways that were illustrative. So by the time I started the next suit, which was wands, it suddenly turned into full-on illustrated minors. So the end result is a little bit schizophrenic.
    Me: Which is the last card in the deck, for you?  10 Pentacles? 

    Doug: Yes, the ten. It makes sense to me that Legacy, Fulfillment, Promise for the future should be the last card, and as most decks arrange their ten coins in a Tree of Life pattern, that’s a perfect symbol to end on. From a writer’s point of view, if there’s a single card in the deck that says “The End,” it’s the ten of pents.

    Me: Which card in the deck was the most fun to make?
    Doug: I can’t really think of any one card that stands out: a LOT of them were fun to make — but the thing that makes a design fun is when everything — your ideas and your base materials and the execution — just all slide together and dovetail as if the final design was simply meant to be. There were a number of cards in the deck like that, and it’s always a delight when you get that pleasant surprise of everything coming together just naturally and perfectly.
    Me: Which card did you struggle most with to get just perfect?
    Doug: In the Majors — “The Lovers” was Quite a Bastard. In the Minors, the two of Pentacles went out of its way to annoy me. As a rule, though, the hardest part is finding the right base image, the one that says what you want it to say the way it ought to be said. That was easily the most time-consuming part of this deck’s process. 
    Me: Are there any particular colour themes in your suits – are your Wands particularly orange or red, for example? 
    Doug:  Nnnnnn-ot really. The wands are more woody than fiery. The swords are appropriately airy. But the cards all have a puppet-theatre proscenium surrounding them, so colour-wise they’re really more brown than anything else. That ought to make them popular with the Steampunk crowd….
    Me: Have you incorporated any other system into your deck – for example, astrology?




    Doug: Astrology and numerology are beyond me. However…





    … if the language of theatre is a system, then yes: the whole conceit behind the deck is theatrical. There’s a precedent for this, Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin have their book out now exploring theatrical connections in Pamela Colman Smith’s work, and I think he’s got another project coming that takes another step in that direction, stemming from Pamela’s personal use of toy theatres. 

    Being specifically derived from puppet plays, this deck takes several steps in that direction, and I have another project in mind that will push it still further. So — The Language of Theatre: not abstract symbology but staged Drama, “All the World’s a Play” — Enter The Devil Stage Right. The Emperor comes downstage and speaks sotto voce directly to the audience, breaking through the Fourth Wall. I’m deeply steeped in theatre myself, my first novel Persephone’s Torch has a theatrical setting and is itself theatrical in structure. if encouraging people to think outside of themselves and objectify their lives and issues (and the cards) as players on a stage… if that can be considered a system, than that’s the system I used….
    If you would like to see a bit more of The Tarot of Mr Punch or buy a copy please visit Doug’s site for the deck.

    See Doug Thornjo’s entire creative oeuvre  at www.ducksoup.me
    You can also find Doug on facebook:  

  • Queen and Kings of of Tarot! | TABI Conference | 25 July | Birmingham, UK

     This is me (well my HEAD at any rate), cunningly photoshopped onto a slender body, and a throne that comprises entirely of court cards – isn’t it clever?

    Caroline Blackler did all the high tech jiggery-pokery for this.

    And you might wonder just WHY I have included it here on m’blog.

    Well …… pull your chair a bit closer to the screen because I want to whisper something in your ear ….. But not THAT close …. edge back just a smigeon *drops voice to conspiratorial whisper*

    I’m one of the Tarot workshop Queens at TABI’s 2015 Tarot Conference in sunny Birmingham!

    Yes, on Saturday 25 July at Conference Aston, I kick off the whole day’s Tarot mischief with a session on techniques for reading reversed Court cards.

    From there we go straight into our next session – Tarot and Love – with the lovely author Queen Jane Struthers.

    From there we break for lunch (and lunch is included in the day attendee ticket price, folks!)

    And then we dive headlong into our next session, all about the Lenormand Oracle with Lenny expert, King Andy Boroshevengra.  If you’re coming along and you are a bit panicked about not having a Lenormand deck, worry not – there will be enough to go around!

    A 30 minute coffee-injection break and then our final session for the day, my fellow Italian Tarot Tour traveller Queen Caitlin Matthews explains how to get to grips with those pesky unillustrated pips of the Marseille deck.

    I *know*!! It’s going to be a splendid day of Tarot shenanigans!

    And TABI has a few places still available – so if you can get to sunny Brum on the last Saturday in July, I’d absolutely LOVE to see you there! Or even if you can come down the night before, there’s a package available that includes overnight accommodation, a group dinner, the quiz AND attendance at the Conference.

    www.tabiconference.co.uk

  • The Visconti Sforza Tarot

    Academia Carrara, Bergamo

    Milan was just as shimmeringly hot and magnificent as it was when we arrived a fortnight earlier.  My God, how had two weeks passed so quickly?! We rendez-voused (is that even a word?!) together outside the jaw-droppingly OUTSTANDING Cathedral (these Italians, they never knowingly-under statue anything).

    It was time for our close encounter with the Visconti Sforza!

    Just to the right of the Cathedral, in the former palace that is the Palazzo Reale, an exhibition detailing the life and times of the Lombardy Viscontis and Sforzas was running – and deep within the bowels of this exhibition were the Visconti Sforza cards!

    We paid our money – E12.00.

    Reader, I would like to tell you that I spent a relaxed and happy couple of hours in the exhibition, but I strode straight through the exhibit halls – the portraits, the madonnas, the landscapes, the precious artefacts, the jewellery and went STRAIGHT to the dimly lit case that held the Visconti Sforza cards.

    I gingerly brought out my camera and popped the buttons so that the flash would not discharge.  Out of nowhere a young man with a very hip beard materialised: ‘NO CAMERAS!!!” he said, sternly.

    “Not even with the flash off?” I wheedled, giving my best ‘FOR GOD’S SAKES, I’M ONLY A TOURIST’ expression.

    He looked at me with his ‘I see your Only A Tourist Expression and I raise you my Just Try Switching On Your Camera Again’ expression.

    I admitted defeat and simply stood with my nose pressed against the glass, desperately trying to burn the images and their glory onto my retinas.

    There weren’t too many cards – 12 I think.  They were utterly glorious, and a lot bigger than I had anticipated.  The paintings were set off beautifully by their gold (for Majors and Courts) and silver backgrounds (for the Minors).  I could have wept at not being permitted to photograph them.

    Another tour member arrived and she too brought out her camera. Moustache Man sprung out and waggled his finger “NO CAMERAS” She too rested her head against the glass and whined in frustration.

    One of our number DID manage to take some snaps on her ipad, but I figured that since I’d been expressly forbidden to take a photo, deliberately countermanding his warning and taking photos regardless might result in me being banished from Lombardy.  And who wants that?!

    Then we hit the gift shop and I bought ‘Il segreto dei segreti’ about the Sola Busca Exhbition of 2012 and ANOTHER copy of the Visconti Sfoza Tarot (I already HAVE a copy!), but neither of them do justice to the glowing golden backgrounds.  But hey, you can’t have everything in life…

    …or can you?!

    Il Meneghello has JUST (actually, for our final evening of the Tour!) produced a version of the Visconti Sforza deck that is, by all accounts, very beautiful – you can explore it here, if you fancy a copy!)  The deck is 67 cards and is based on the Modrone (aka Cary Yale Visconti)

    But for those of us who couldn’t afford the divine Meneghello deck, all was not lost!  For we had one more trip out of the city to take – back to beautiful Bergamo to the newly refurbished Academia Carrara and THEIR collection of Visconti Sforza tarot cards!

    The Academia had been closed for refurb for eight long years and had only opened at the beginning of that week.  We hopped off the coach and joined the end of the very long queue.

    Actually, it wasn’t too long before we were at the front of the queue – having 30+ people to chat with makes time fairly whizz by.  Also, the delightful Juliette Sharman Burke went exploring to a bakery and brought me back a little snackeral.  Which also makes life better 🙂

    We made our way, respectfully, but hurridly, through the magnificent treasures of the Academia and found ourselves, once again, standing before the cards of the Visconti Sforza.

    “Erm, can we…. take pictures.” we asked gingerly.

    “Yes, but no flash.” smiled the guide.  Oh I could have kissed that lady! Hollywood red-carpet goddesses could not have been snapped any harder than we papped those cards!

    Sadly, my battery gave up the ghost after a couple of shots.  Yeah, bloody sod’s law, isn’t it.  But here are a couple of images, taken by some of my merry band of travellers.  I would love to credit them for their photos, so if these are YOURS, sing out!!

    Feast your eyes on the gorgeousness and WEEP!

    The Emperor
    The Moon
    Knight of Swords

    Page of Swords – attitude and a MASSIVE hat

    So, in the end we DID manage to photograph the Visconti Sforza.

    And with that accomplished ….. it was just about time to go home 🙂

    What do you think of the cards? And if they are your photos, let me know so that I can add your details!

  • The Sola Busca (or Giordano in the Giardino)

    Earwigging on academic chit chat
    Giordano Berti and Caitlin Matthews
    ©someone on the tour

    Another reason that I was desperate to take part in the Tarot Tour of Italy was the thought of perhaps linking up with Giordano Berti.  This gregarious author, historian and deck creator has been a charming facebook friend for AGES and we have bonded over our mutual love of toasted hazelnuts from Cavanzana 🙂

    One of his many talents is as custodian* of the most marvellous Wolfgang Mayer 78-card Sola Busca Tarot.  If you have been keeping up with my posts on the Tarot Tour of Italy (*looks wounded* You haven’t?!) you will know that on Day One I basically died and went to heaven after seeing the Sola Busca Tarot in the FLESH.

    I already own a Lo Scarabeo copy, which is fine …. but I really, REALLY wanted a full copy with BIG cards and CLARITY.  Truthfully, I wanted to steal the original from the Brera!  The Mayer deck is the very next best thing, I promise you…

    Queen of Cups – Polisena
    depicted her slightly larger than card life-size

    So, before I departed for Italy, I purchased a copy of the Mayer Sola Busca from Giordano (copies still available folks!) and arranged to pick it up from him in person in Italy!

    Would this be tricky to organise?!

    I floated the idea of meeting up with Giordano to Arnell Ando, our Tour Leader.  Our days were too packed to the gunwales to be pencilling in detours for one person….. but maybe there was something that could be done, she reassured me.

    Good as her word, I was delighted to spot, a short time later,  amongst the lists of authors and artists that we would meet up with in the Tarot Museum Garden Party, the magical name …. Giordano Berti!

    Of course, I expected to spend even less time chatting with Giordano (who has excellent English and many projects to discuss!) than with deck creator Alexander Daniloff but I had a whisky glass and miniature bottle to give him, so I knew that I was guaranteed at least a little while with him!  Booze.  Opens many doors.  Also irritates many Heathrow Security men …..

    We meet – there is the kissing and hugging.  I was introduced to the lovely Letizia Rivetti of Art Studio Letizia who accompanied Giordano. He produced a large brown package that contained a beautiful blue book-shaped box and a book called ‘Il Monte dei Folletti’ or ‘Goblin Mountain’ (It’s in Italian, so I REALLY am going to have to get to grips with the language!).

    I offer the shot glass and whisky in exchange for the package which he is delighted to receive (as am I!) and we set off for some photos to the crowded interior of the Tarot Museum.

    Now, dear Reader, I am not a fan of getting my photo taken but Signor Berti is a consummate expert.  As you can tell.  He looks great in every shot and I look…. well, you can see for yourself.  Photos by Letizia!

    Yes, I haz blinked.
    What am I trying to do with my arms?

    EYES ARE OPEN!! TOO OPEN!
    oh God, check out that rictus grin – I’m too nervous….
    Does this pose help?…
    Aha! Looking a bit more natural, yes?
    At last! We get the perfect shot!
    And ignore my money belt under my t-shirt, it’s adding POUNDS to me 🙂

    I very much look forward to meeting up with Giordano on my NEXT visit to Italy – perhaps further exchanges of toasted hazelnuts for whisky? Hopefully I’ll be able to make good on that promise of ‘due birre’ that I have spent months practising on him!

    *I say ‘custodian’ because the deck was actually printed in 1998 by the late Wolfgang Meyer.  You can buy copies of Mayer’s deck from Giordano in the most gorgeous boxes from Giordano’s website, with a limited edition card (one of 700) signed by Mayer and includes a booklet (English and Italian) about the deck, written by Giordano.

    How many more posts about the Italy holiday can you stand, I wonder? 😀

  • Queen of Swords | Alexander Daniloff

    I have purchased a companion for the beautiful Queen of Hearts that was gifted to me by Alexander Daniloff: the Queen of Swords.
    Isn’t she pretty and sweet-natured? A far cry from the unhappy profile and bolt-upright sword that we associate with the Rider Waite Smith Queen of Swords, below.

    Often this lady is interpreted flatly as a woman alone/lonely with a harsh tongue as sharp as her sword:  Brainy, but not very nice.  This is certainly PART of the picture, but she is soooo much more than that!

    Add Alexander’s lovely Queen to your mental ‘Queen of Swords’ repertoire! Think of the word play of Dorothy Parker (‘if all the women in this room were laid end to end….I wouldn’t be at all surprised’).

    Alexander’s Queen is the woman at the party who can engage everyone in delightful conversation – chatting as easily with the children as she does with the Lords and Ladies of the land.

    She is a social butterfly – popular and witty.

    Her conversation can be as light as the clouds and as sweet as angels.

    But …

    Irritate her with your clumsy bumbling or try to impress her by embroidering on the truth (or out and out lying!) and you will be smacked down by the barb in her waspish comment.

    Be careful or it will be YOU who finds yourself frozen out of the party scene 🙂

    Fancy one of these paintings for yourself? Check out what Alexander has available here on his facebook page  or on his website

  • Pholarchos Tarot | Carmen Sorrenti |

    Queen of Swords
    You can never have too many owls!

    Amongst the presentations at the Tarot Museum’s garden parties was a display of four Tarot Queen paintings by Carmen Sorrenti.  


    There was so much going on and loads of people interested in talking with Carmen, I waited until I got home and then dropped her an e-mail to see whether she was up for being interrogated interviewed for m’blog.


    Fortunately for you, dear reader – she is!
    Me:  Fantastic images you’ve got going here, Carmen – you need to tell me aaaaallll about your self and your deck! 


    First of all – how did you get involved in creating Tarot art – Did your background in acting attract you to the Tarot? 

    Carmen:  “Yes, I was an actress, trained at The Guildhall in London. The theatre is a great place for exploring different worlds. I want each image to be first and foremost an inner feeling.

    Carmen!

    “Where possible, by Grace, I want to recreate the atmospheres of potent dreams where colours are more vibrant, the air has a numinosity about it – the inner experience of the archetype, a full on immersion rather than an illustration – like becoming, for a moment, the inner workings of the card. Perhaps it is tied to that famous God of Theatre, Dionysus, and his ecstatic abandon.

    “Later I did some work with the Jodorowskys and their magic acts which are tied to tarot readings with the Marseille deck. So it is the first deck I got to know in more detail.
    “This led me into an intense year of Grof’s holotropic breathwork. I had a remarkable dream during that time to do with tarot, just as I was setting up my first painting exhibit:
    ” ‘I am drawing horse dragons and a potent teacher who uses tarot shows me a thick esoteric manual they all use in the school, their reference manuscript, so I can see how they depict these creatures. A gold object the size of a die falls out and 3 mystery women comment.’

    “So it would seem simultaneous seeds were being planted.
    “Shortly after I started studying astrology at the CPA and got very caught up in the Mythic Tarot. Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene recorded a fabulous audio course on it, which I listened to rather obsessively.”

    Me: You have an amazing link with the Tarot!

    Carmen: I was born shall we say, ‘under its auspices’.  My mother saw her card reader when she was barely a month pregnant. Pina [the reader] saw the pregnancy and warned mum the baby risked dying, but would survive – to remember this.

    Sure enough in the 70s in Positano without a phone, no doctors in town, living alone, she woke in the night in a pool of blood and ran down 300 steps to find help. It was only the tarot reader that kept her focus firm and her spirits up when the doctor finally arrived. 


    Thirty years later I met my partner at the cafe in which Pina’s apartment had been.

    Me:  That’s really spooky!  Is this your first deck or have you been involved in the creation of other decks? 

    Carmen:  I’ve only been involved in the creation of one other deck, for Oltreconfine 13. The book was published last year with the images of 22 different artists and several related articles. I painted The Moon, which was later chosen as one of the winners of the Premio Giorgione, an alchemical art prize in Vicenza.


    Me:  Is there an over-arching theme to your deck? 

    Carmen: “Alchemical symbolism is one of the threads that runs thru the deck – the nigredos/blackenings where some precious thing is found/transformed and integrated into an always greater whole. In fact the Aces are all blindfolded heads where the suit rises out of the top of the cranium. Beginnings where the potential is there, not yet visible to us but fully present.

    Me:  Will your deck be 78 cards?  Is the structure of it entirely your own making or is it related to the RWS, Thoth or Marseille decks? 

    Carmen:  “Pholarchos will be a full 78 card deck which will follow the RWS pretty much… as far as I know! The cards do come in with some surprises… I played with the idea of a deck for ages and every time I put it down, thinking I wouldn’t be up to it, I was metaphorically grabbed by the hair and made to sit up and listen; one of them would be there sat cross-legged, foot swinging impatiently. Okay, I’m being a bit silly, but feelings along those lines 🙂


    “Pholarchos, I should say something about the name of my deck. A pholarchos basically a dream incubator in a cave. Perhaps we’re talking about  the precursors to the dreamers in the temples of Asclepius. There’s some mystery around the use of the word, I go with the version of ‘lord of the lair’… lair as in animal den. And like an animal they would lie there in suspended animation waiting for healing/prophetic dreams. There’s a beautiful book that goes into detail: Peter Kingsley ‘s “In the Dark Places of Wisdom”.

    “This ties in with the theme of my deck. I have a detailed presentation on my website:
     http://www.carmensorrenti.com/Home-PHOLARCHOS_TAROT-2-37.html 

    “It’s to do with us remembering the power of Direct Experience.

    “We’re so used to relying on what we are told, seeking information out in the world, all very valid – and with my gemini ascendant I’m a culprit of info gathering!

    “But we so often forget our other channels of knowledge which are deep and timeless. We think wisdom gets lost, it is always there, often dormant – another reason for the blindfolded Aces.

    “For 2 years I dreamed constantly of plants giving me messages. Each had its own specific presence, showing me, amongst other things, that plant intelligence is not generic.They reminded me of this original way of knowing, thru dreams and thru tuning in.   I woke from several of them knowing that something at the origins, something essential had been lost along the way. And I had to remember this kind of communication.

    “Now if I want to know, for example, about the properties of a plant, I listen first to the plant, then check with other sources. And so with everything else.”

    Me:  These four Queens, tell me about your Royal families – what is the structure of them – Page, Knight, Queen, King…. or something different?!
    Carmen: “I’m using the classical court names except for the Pages who become Ladies for a simple gender reason. We get 2 pairs, the brothers and sisters of alchemy. 

    “Even the Magician is a mercurial hermaphrodite with a female head and a male head who is performing alchemical unions of opposites. Below his male head is an alembic-cup alchemizing the wolf/moon femininity, while below the female head we get the cup with the dragon and the sun.

    “I’m also keeping cups/swords/wands/pentacles. I interchange them with air/water/fire/earth when I work as my take on them is linked to the elements and astrology.

    Me:  What medium do you work in – oils, acrylics etc?  
    Carmen:  I use mainly acrylics – some of the faster images get coffee and candle burns on the canvas. I did some portraits on loose canvas for a theatre production of Don Giovanni’s lovers. It was set in an underground ancient space in the centre of Rome, cavernous and damp. They needed to blend in, raw and lived in. I want some of the images to show more of the unconfined energy involved, rather than the form fully manifest in it’s pristine and presentable skin, its ‘mask’. It got me thinking. The strokes are much faster and less precise, they bump into each other and the life around them.
    Me:  How do you decide what elements to include in your paintings – the more I look into them, the more I can see.  The Queen of Wands, for example, has a fire triangle present, also a slash of cool blue at her forehead which (for me!) works perfectly with this idea that she is both water and fire – two elements that constantly war, one threatening to cancel out the other.  Well, that’s what I see anyway, but you’re the artist! Explain the card to me *grin* 
    Queen of Wands

    Carmen:  “The spray of blue water in the Queen of Wands!  Of course with any layered image there are several levels of meaning, as with dreams – it’s partly what interests me about a symbol.

    “So I’ll pull out one strand I’m keen on. The elements are never pure within us, luckily! Fire by itself can consume you right through. I have an amusing anecdote about my father.

    “He has a major astrological conjunction in aries and fittingly, he competes in professional marches in which he pushes himself so hard you find him screaming on the track as he goes, refusing to stop no matter what. He’s been known to collapse at the finishing line where they’ve had to scoop him up and carry him into a hot bath (water element) to soothe the general cramping paralysing his body.
    This kind of vulcanic outpouring can take you far, can create empires even, but it can also burn you to a crisp unless it is touched by the rhythms of water, the ebb and flow, the dark lunar moisture, the emotional needs and deep undercurrents.
    Water and fire fight, but they need each other.

    “All these Queens have some hybrid nuance.  I see them as those who can manage their element, keep its balance, know it deeply – alchemical containers. So this involves bringing in the other elements where necessary.
    “Each one has at least one animal friend that she dialogues with.
    Queen of Cups

    “The animals represent the element as much as the Queens do.

    “Cups has coral spawning; it seems that, led by the full moon at the end of summer, all coral across the world spawns in unison. She also has the wild cat, the feral, dangerous emotions she knows how to navigate.

    “Wands has the snakes/dragon of regeneration.

    “Swords has the far sighted owls.

    “Pentacles has the Venusian bull sumptuously munching. Well, that’s me messing around, humour is my sanity check in all this.

    “Each painting is like a mini production with its characters, stories, struggles, hopes – where I can tell the whole story as opposed to just my part. I guess I was always more of a storyteller than an actress, one role is too confining.
    Queen of Pentacles
    you need a comb for that fringe!

    Me:  What’s your favourite card so far?

    Carmen:  “My favourite is probably the Delphic High Priestess, her head cracked open to the voices she hears. It reminds me of the Pythia’s words at the beginning of Aeschylus’ Eumenides:
    “First, in this prayer, of all the Gods I name 
    The prophet-mother Earth; and Themis next, 
    Second who sat – for so with truth is said – 
    On this her mother’s shrine oracular.”
    (Morshead’s translation)
    Me:  What card are you least looking forward to creating?
    Carmen:  “The hardest card might be the Devil but not for the content. It’s the fixity of the image in the collective imagination – the horns, leering eyes and eternal flames, the opposite of God with the long white beard. Like fossils. I want to get away from how we expect to see the Devil.
    “The Tens are hard too, as they have a lot to do with having arrived somewhere, a completness. Painting is high adventure for me, with horse and armour. A Ten is like someone saying;  ‘we’ve arrived at the castle gates, journey over, get down now’.  I don’t think so…
    Me:  How long will it take you to complete the deck?   And after completion – what next?! 
    Carmen:  “I’m hoping I’ll be done this time next year. Might be a bit ambitious, I’ll have to check in with the cross-legged lady! Publishing has a few options open so we’ll see how it pans out.
    “I would also like for the exhibit of the original paintings to tour and for it to be an event with music, poetry and performance celebrating the Tarot. This could even combine seminars with people creating their own cards in different mediums.
    Me:  That sounds like a fantastic event – you can count me in on a return to Riola to celebrate this!
    “Carmen:  Good! I’d like to thank Arnell Ando and Michael McAteer for inviting me to the Tarot Museum in Riola during your Tarot tour. They are really inspiring people.

    You can find Carmen’s work at:

  • The Queen of Hearts | When Ali met Alexander

    Another sweltering hot Italian day. Another day where I whine pathetically about having a dodgy inner thermostat and bringing all the wrong clothes on holiday.  Honestly, Scottish people should really never go abroad…..

    Our Merry Band of 31 souls hopped onto our coach, drove out of the baking piazzas of the gorgeous city of Bologna and up into the blue and hazy hills of Riola to visit the Tarot Museum.

    The 400 year-old property that was once a shop has been magicked into a Tarot Museum by the hard work and arty touches of Ernesto Fazioli and Morena Poltronieri – two of our guides on our 14-day Tarot Tour.

    The view from the Museum garden is breathtaking. My God, if I had those mountains to look at every morning, you would never find me on facebook again!

    We had an action-packed afternoon ahead of us – not only were we going to meet and listen to some presentations by some of the inspiring artists and authors who had contributed towards decks published by the Museum, but also meet Tarot luminaries such as Andrea Vitelli, Giordano Berti and my own favourite, of course, Alexander Daniloff.

    And there would be GENUINE home-cooked Italian food!!!

    I was practically hyperventilating by the time we arrived (not just down to the heat and anticipation of the fab food!) but also nerves.  They say that you should never meet your heroes, right?

    The place was soon buzzing with Italian and English chatter and photo opportunities abounded.  There was some wine. Of which I partook. Of course.

    Our merry band of travelling Tarot dudes!
    Me and Alexander
    Those horizontal stripes are not helping me, are they?
    The Mitsubishi cap, it’s not helping either, right?

    I proudly handed out some of our rare TABI lapel pins.  I told the baffled recipients that I was the ‘Capo di TABI’.  See? Watching all those Godfather films HAS come in handy after all.  Although I don’t suppose I’ll ever have to do anything terribly interesting with a horse’s head. Stew perhaps 😀

    Every nook and cranny of the Tarot Museum is crammed with Tarot art, decks and books.  Every place that your gaze alights there is something intriguing going on – little doors to be opened, piles of books to be rifled through!

    Alexander Daniloff and his wife soon appeared and a fair old amount of hugging and kissing took place.  I presented him with a small glass for whisky (decorated with thistles) and also a small bottle of whisky (you cannot give a glass without whisky to put in it!) He looked happy and I was very glad that I had managed to smuggle the bottles through security at Heathrow (don’t ask, but I won’t be taking bottles of booze as presents anywhere abroad again!) **

    At this point Alexander reached into his knapsack and produced the original artwork for his Tarot decks….. Yes, THE artwork for the very deck that I have droned on and on and on about for YONKS was in my sweaty little paw, AT LAST!

    Just a handy size for stealing….. *looks innocent*

    With shaking hands, I – and my new American friends, Jessica and Roz – poured over the images.  We had no Italian and Alexander had very little English, but fluttery ‘we love your work’ noises are the same in any language!  Ah, but sadly these paintings were not for sale!!!

    Another folder deftly appeared and Alexander assured me that these images were for sale.  Ohmygollygosh.  My Euros started to burn a hole in my money belt……

    Eventually I decided on the lady whose image is right at the top of this blog post, the Queen of Hearts.  She was about E80.   I started fiddling about in my money belt and Mrs Daniloff and Alexander both mentioned the word ‘regalo’.  Regalo?! My Duolingo app had only got as far as: Dov’e la stazione? Dov’e la ristorante? Due Birre etc

    Gorgeous Andrea, our coach driver, was drafted in to clarify – a regalo is a gift.

    ‘Does Alexander really mean a discount?’ I venture, not wishing to embarrass myself or the Daniloffs.  ‘It’s a gift,’ confirmed Andrea.

    Yes, a GIFT!

    Well, there were TEARS, dear Reader.  What a kind and generous gesture – something that I can never hope to repay!

    There was even more hugging.  There was a LOT of kissing.  More snottering into my sleeves from me.

    Yes, you absolutely SHOULD meet your heroes!

    We are standing on a slope!!

    Could the day get any better? Indeed it could!!


    Stand by for another update that involves Giordano Berti (more kissing!) and a fantastic Tarot artist called Carmen Sorrenti!

    ** The embarrassment of having to ask esteemed author Caitlin Matthews whether she’d help me drink a couple of the small bottles of whisky rather than leave them behind in Heathrow Security will have my cheeks burning with shame for months! To her eternal credit though, she said that she was up for it if necessary.  It was 6.30am.  That woman is GAME!

  • Princess Charlotte | Court Card

    Princess Charlotte | King of Pentacles
    Also, looks like her brother, George!

    I was so caught up in Naked Gardening Day on 2 May that I almost completely over-looked a new arrival in the Windsor stable.

    Yes! A Spare has been born to keep young George (the heir) on his toes.

    Both parents looked relaxed as they emerged from hospital clutching a tiny well-wrapped bundle.  Who knitted that wee hat? that’s what we all want to know….

    So what lies ahead Court Card wise for Princess Charlotte (as she has just been named)?

    Being born on 2 May puts her firmly in the camp of Taurus – none of this ‘cusp’ stuff that Boy George has to cope with.

    No, for Princess Charlotte, the King of Pentacles is going to be her guiding light.

    As Fire of Earth, the King of Pentacles tells us that little Charlotte is going to be a hugely practical little gal – think of the practically creative power of Fire and Earth together.  She will be very hands-on in her approach.

    Does this mean that she’s not going to be terribly well-developed in the Smarts department? Well, it could mean that she’s not particularly attracted to book-learning, but there are many different kinds of Smarts and to be a King of Pentacles, you’ve got to be good with money and a practical problem-solver to become a success.  Will she be generous? Let’s hope so.

    I think that she might take after Princess Anne and her daughter, Zara Philips – fantastic horse-women and down to earth characters.

    I’m hoping that she doesn’t have Princess Anne hair though.  *high fives fellow fluffy hair-sufferers* May she have her mother’s tumbling dark mane!

    The King of Pentacles walks confidently through the world, attracting wealth and material success as he goes.  Will the little Princess exhibit the stubborn wilfulness inherent in Taurus? I hope not or tantrums could make her parents’ life difficult.  Or the nanny’s life difficult.  Take your pick.

    Although she’ll be dressed in all manner of pretty things, I’m confident that Princess Charlotte will lose no time in making it crystal clear that if she WANTS to attend a parade dressed in a Celtic away strip and a Barbie cape, she jolly well WILL ….

    Stand by for rows about tattoos, piercings and yoga!  The last word on anything will have to be hers!

  • Full Moon | May | Scorpio | The King of Cups

    Today the full moon lights up the astrological sign of Scorpio.  This means that the Court Card energy we are looking at belongs to the King of Cups.

    This chap is regarded as the most diplomatic of the Kings.  In touch with his emotional centre, but not governed by it, the King of Cups understands other people’s points of view but (if he’s at the top of his game!) is not caught up in the drama of it all.

    He is compassionate and empathetic and so his challenge is to hold those feelings and still be able to take action.

    For example:  The King of Cups loathes cruelty.  His challenge is to see it and not be rendered immobile by it.  He must still take action.  This is what makes him such an excellent social worker or counsellor.

    The King of Cups calls you to:

    Listen to the other person’s point of view, with the intention of truly understanding them.

    If there is any sort of crisis or upset today, you are called to respond with empathy and consideration… and ACTION.

    How is he showing up in your life today?

  • Face to Face | The Sola Busca Tarot

    Our first full day in Italy was kicking off in grand style!  Half of our merry band would spend the morning at Il Meneghello, Milan’s marvellous Tarot shop, and half would visit the Sola Busca Tarot at the Brera.  Then a bite of lunch and the groups swapped over.

    To say that I was excited doesn’t even touch the ankle-socks of how I was feeling.  It was like a first date – what should I wear? Not such a barkingly mad question because we were going into a temperature-controlled room to meet the cards.

    I opted to take my fleece.  Good decision.

    We got to the Brera early and stood in the tiny back courtyard as groups of Italian students and staff milled backwards and forwards like casually fabulous film stars.

    Eventually we were given the go-ahead to enter.

    Just hand over your passport and get a visitor’s badge.

    Total silence please.

    Half a dozen at a time, we silently trouped into the tiny elevator and slooooooowly climbed to the top of the Brera.  There we were ushered (again, in silence) past various offices and into a tiny, chilly room where the Director (more effortless Italian chic – black trousers and blouse) carefully lifted a ‘page’ of cards up for us to see.

    The 78 cards are nested in shallow trays, each one protected by a piece of acid-free paper, keeping the colours of these ancient cards absolutely PRISTINE.

    The cards date from the late 15th century (predating Shakespeare, for those of us with a hazy grasp of what happens where on a timeline!) and were purchased for E800,000 by the Italian government in 2009 and maintained at the Pinocateca di Brera.

    Although there ARE feminine figures within the deck, the cards comprise mostly of male figures – military men.  The Minor Arcana are fully illustrated and there are clearly similarities in imagery between this ancient deck and the Rider Waite Smith.

    This is not surprising because black and white photographs of the deck were donated to the British Musuem in 1907 by the Busca-Serbelloni family (who owned the cards) and were most likely seen by the artist of the RWS, Pamela Colman-Smith.

    I was terribly excited at seeing these cards ‘in the flesh’ so to speak! Could we take photos? Yes we could – but no flash.  This ‘no flash’ thing became the bane of my life on our Tour as it meant too many of my photos suffered from camera shake thanks to lengthy shutter speeds :-/

    Shoulda brought my ipad …. *sigh*

    The Sola Busca at the Brera, Milan.
    Look at the brightness of the colours!

    The Sola Buaca Tarot, the Brera, Milan - Tarot Thrones blog
    The charming and knowledgeable Director

    The Sola Busca Tarot, the Brera, Milan
    In close up – see how the paper folds over to protect them?

    The back of the cards – check out that quivering finger! 
    The names of the characters on the Sola Busca are largely a mystery to me, so I have bought books to help explain it all.
    Some are in Italian.  I don’t speak Italian.  But I guess I’ll have to learn!

    Bright colour! Look at that vibrant purple!

    Quite honestly, after I’d seen these cards, I was ready to get a flight back home.  Nothing could possibly top them….. now I was as high as a kite thinking about the Mayer version of the deck that I was picking up from Giordano Berti later on in our holiday!

    Could the Visconti Sforza cards that we would see at the end of the tour take my breath away?!

    Keep tuning in to find out!