Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: John Matthews

  • Wildwood Tarot | Wild Magic | Mark Ryan, John Matthews, Caitlín Matthews

    Wildwood Tarot | Wild Magic | Mark Ryan, John Matthews, Caitlín Matthews

    It’s been a long time in the pipeline, but Wild Magic is actually HERE!

    First up, I hold my hands up, I’m biased towards this deck – I work with Mark and administer The Wildwood Tarot’s website. I am an admin on their facebook page and an admin on the Wildwood Tarot study page AND I work for Will Worthington, the deck’s artist.  I’ve tried to keep this review as factual as possible and will only fully focus on the section of the book that involves court cards – but just letting you know, ahead of what you read.

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  • John Matthews | Camelot Oracle

    In the first part of this two-hander, I spoke with Camelot artist, Will Worthington, with the focus on the portraiture and artwork of the new deck.  Today it’s the deck’s author, John Matthews who chats about Camelot.



    You are exceptionally prolific as an author!  It seems only a
    few weeks ago I was talking to you about the Tarot of Nostradamus and
    here we are again, talking about another new publication – The
    Camelot Oracle.  Do you ever sleep?

    Sleep?
    What’s that? I’m just a workhorse; I work all the time. Can’t
    remember the last time I had a holiday. No, wait, I     did
    go
    on holiday to the Orkneys two years ago with some very dear friends.
    I remember I spent the first week trying to get used to not doing
    anything, then I did a bit of work on a children’s novel I was
    writing; then it was time to go home! 

    I work late into the night
    most days, sometime as late a 2 am, then sleep a bit longer in the
    morning, then start again…..In fact, there are three new projects
    just about to come out.     The
    Lost Tarot of Nostradamus,
    which you mentioned, was finished last year, but got held up,

    and it’s only just released. Then there’s the     Camelot
    Oracle,
    which is due any day; then there’s a third deck:     The
    Steampunk Tarot: Gods of the Machine    ,
    which is something I’m sure we’ll be talking about some other
    time. That’s due out in November. But really this is not because
    I’ve written and completed three big jobs in one year (though in
    fact I did do two other things as well as working on a documentary
    film I’m making for my own production company), but because there
    were various problems with the printing, so they all ended up coming
    out of the same time.
    You
    already have the Arthurian Tarot under your belt and many other
    Arthurian-inspired publications – including the Ladies of the Lake –
    what prompted the creation of the Camelot Oracle?
    I’ve
    been using The Camelot Oracle as a teaching device for several years.
    I used to draw a map on a flipchart, and put in the places and what
    was found there; then I’d tell people about the characters – little
    summaries of their lives – and invite participants to select one of
    these characters to journey with. It worked so well, that I started
    thinking: wouldn’t it be great if I could have a permanent map and
    information about the characters that anyone could work with.      That
    was the beginning. I put it together in such a way that we had cards
    with the characters on, and the map of the Lands Adventurous, which
    is where all the magical things from the Arthurian legend take place,
    in a huge forest. The publishers loved the idea, and it didn’t take
    much persuading to get Will Worthington involved, because this is the
    theme and subject that brought us together in the first place. He and
    I have always loved the Arthurian legends, and when I suggested to
    him that we do this project he jumped at the opportunity. The
    results, as you’ll see, are amazing. He’s given us 40 portraits
    of the most familiar and extraordinary characters from the Arthurian
    legend. It’s not hard to think how one great it would be to select
    one of these to be a champion – someone to go along with you on an
    adventure.
    My
    blog is about Court Cards, do the characters in the Camelot Oracle
    operate like Court Cards?  If so, are there any direct
    correlations between the citizens of Camelot and the citizens of the
    Tarot?
    The
    Camelot
    Oracle
    isn’t really a tarot in any sense of the word. The idea is that you
    take one of the archetypes as a champion, a companion on the quest.
    Then you take another one to be your challenger. Then you set out on
    your journey; your champion goes with you, your challenger awaits
    your coming, and has a question for you, a challenge. You answer to
    that, and the direction the path you take, and where it leads to,
    generates the Oracle. So the characters in the Camelot Oracle are a
    little bit like the courtiers in tarot in that they can be interacted
    with, and can help you find answers to issues.

    Can the cards be used as, say, a card of the day…. Or other quick spread (eg whose energies help/hinder me today)?


    Yes you can do that – most assuredly. One of the ideas is that you can take any one of the characters as a companion. Each entry includes a meditational sketch for this. And of course you can extend the reading experience by following several paths with several characters.


    Tell
    me about the Path cards?  
    The
    Path cards are intended to act as either randomly chosen or selected
    pathways to a particular place. So you might take one path leading to
    the castle of the Grail, or another to Lancelot’s Castle of joyous
    guard, and in each case this represents a different reality and helps
    you find an answer to your question.
    What
    does the Camelot Oracle bring to the divinatory table that other
    decks do not?  
    I
    think what makes     The
    Camelot Oracle
    original is the opportunity gives all those who use it to actually
    interact directly with extraordinary archetypal characters from the
    Arthurian legend. Who can imagine not wanting to go with Arthur
    himself, or Guinevere, or Galahad, or Boars – or any of them, on an
    adventure. Not just any adventure, but one that will actually help
    you discover truths you did not know, answers to issues that may be
    troubling you, actual advice from the great heroes and heroines of
    the Arthurian world?

    Which
    is your favorite illustration?

    JM:
    Really
    I love them all. I think inevitably my favorites have to be Arthur
    and Guinevere; but I also have a special affection for Palomides, the
    Saracen knight – there’s something about that amazing face, the
    hawk on his wrist, his costume, that really inspires me. Plus of
    course he’s a great character anyway, though not so well known are
    some of them.
    Who
    is your favorite character in the deck and why?
    Again
    I have to say really it’s all of them. But if I answered the
    question in a different way by saying who my favorite character is in
    the Arthurian legend, then I would have to say Merlin. He just has
    everything. He’s a magician, a seer, a poet, and a warrior. What’s
    not to like?
    What
    are you currently working on and what is your next publication?
    I’m
    afraid the list is quite long! Partly this is again because of delays
    between books getting finished and actually getting into print. Right
    now I have just finished working on the     Oracle
    of Dr John Dee    ,
    which has amazing art by Will Kinghan, who did the Steampunk Tarot
    and a couple of other decks that I’ve created. This is going to be
    again quite different from a tarot, but involves all of the many
    disciplines that the amazing Dr Dee practiced. Then I have a couple
    of children’s novels, featuring a character called Henry Hunter,
    who’s a kind of young Sherlock Holmes crossed with the Young
    Indiana Jones. He solves mysteries using his intelligence and
    knowledge of books! It’s a departure for me, but I’m looking
    forward to seeing how they go, because if they go well I have a whole
    series worked out. I’m also just working on a short book about the
    history of shamanism. And if I survive all of those, there are a
    whole bunch of other projects in the wind – including a couple more
    with the amazing Mark Ryan. So plenty to look out for.

  • Will Worthington | The Camelot Oracle

    OK, I hold my hands up – technically this is nothing to do with Court Cards REALLY, but ooooh the gorgeousness of the characters in these paintings simply BEGS me to tell you about them!

    The other thing that I want to point out is that I do some work for Will Worthington and John Matthews on an ongoing basis, but neither of them has asked me to blog about this – but I think you can see from the images just why I HAD to tell you about them!

    I put some questions to the artist, Will Worthington:

    You’ve worked with John Matthews before – are you given free license to create the image that you want or are you given a brief?


    “I’m given a short brief explaining what John’s idea of the character is.

    “As both of us have been very imersed in the Arthuriad for most of our lives we seemed to have the same vision as to the appearance of each character.

    ‘There were some characters that I hadn’t heard of so I just did my interpretation from John’s brief.”

    I know that some of these faces in the Camelot Oracle are portraits – are you willing to divulge which portraits belong to whom?!

    “The first one was Gawain…we had a photo of [Will’s wife] Wendy’s son Paul looking grumpy and it struck me that he would be perfect.  Once I’d done that I felt that I should do my own son Nolan as well, so he turned out to be Gareth. As they worked well I then did Wendy’s daughter Jenny as Igraine.”

    What about the other faces – do you just make them up or do you have source material that you refer to?


    “As with all my previous decks I just make up the faces, just drawing and drawing until I get something that I feel connects.”

    Which portrait in this deck are you most pleased with?

    “That’s a toughie!…discounting the three portraits of our children, I’m particularly fond of Merlin….I’ve not seen any representation of him in any medium that I feel is right to the archetype so that’s my version.

    “I’m also quite happy with Elaine, but I have to say I was disapointed it wasn’t the other Elaine…the lily maid of Astolat…who died of love for Lancelot and whose body was barged down to Camelot and was painted numerous times by many victorian artists. The publishers felt it unwise to have a dead character in the deck! However I put in the barge in the background as a hint.”


    Which overall image are you most pleased with?

    “I guess it must be Arthur…John reckons it’s the best picture of him ever, and coming from him that’s one hell of a compliment.”

    [Dear Reader, you’ll be able to see Arthur on Friday’s post with John Matthews! – Ali]

    How long did it take you to complete all the paintings?

    “I was given six months to the deadline by the publisher which was tight, but I managed to finish before time.”

    Will there be prints available at some stage?

    “Hopefully…if enough people buy Wildwood ones* then I can afford the large cost of printing them.”

    What are you working on now?


    “I’m just starting on a Lenormand deck for Chloe McCracken which is very exciting and a pleasure to work with such a lovely gentle person.

    “Previous to that I was half-way through a painting of Edgar Alan Poe with his Raven….but that’s on hold for six months or so!’

    * Will has 10 fine art prints of the 7 most popular Wildwood Tarot Majors available to purchase via his own website and the Wildwood Tarot website.

    You can follow Will’s facebook page (not run by Will) here

    -o0o-
    Here’s a slideshow of all the images in the Camelot Oracle – I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it.  Part 2 of this session, where John Matthews helps us understand the Camelot deck’s uses as an Oracle will be up on Friday.  Hope you enjoy!

  • The Wild Ones!

    This week my blog posts have focussed on animal court cards – the Rabbit Tarot, the Ferret Tarot and now, the daddy of them all, the Wildwood Tarot Courts – every one of them a stunningly represented animal native to Northern Europe.

    The deck, created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, is a reimagining of Ryan’s earlier and (these days!) hugely sought-after Greenwood Tarot, with Chesca Potter.  In this new deck, the artwork is by Will Worthington (Druidcraft Tarot, Greenman Tree Oracle, Druid Plant Oracle, Druid Animal Oracle).

    We have the standard ranks of Page, Knight, Queen and King – but the suits themselves have been renamed – Bows for Wands, Arrows for Swords, Vessels for Cups and Stones for Pentacles.  That ‘Bows’ association may stump you for a moment until you remember that bows are not just for firing arrows, but also used for making fire and turning wood.

    Having your entire court comprised of animals can be wonderfully freeing – you are not limited by those old associations for physical attributes, but, on the other hand, you need to do a certain amount of anthropomorphising to help you to apply them to living, breathing people.

    The entire Wildwood fits into a complex Wheel of The Year layout (which you can see in the accompanying LWB and the watermark image on the Wildwood Tarot website (www.thewildwoodtarot.com).  All we need to know about it here is that, unlike the Thoth family, even the little Pages have their place in the grand scheme of things.  Which is nice because they tend to miss out on all the fun, yet they’re allllll about the fun!

    Lets look at the Arrows (Swords) first – each of the courts is represented by a bird – which ties in nicely with the element of Air.  But don’t go fooling yourself that all birds = Arrows.  Birds appear in other suits too.  The accompanying book attributes these cards to the season of Spring

    As you can see, the Page is a tiny close-to-the-ground bird, the Hawk represents the fast-moving Knight, the regal Swan represents the Queen and the vibrant fisherman Kingfisher represents the King.

    Bows, or Wands as they are traditionally known, are represented by land creatures.  This suit is associated with Summer and the element of Fire. The Page is represented by the close-to-the-ground Stoat, the wily Fox as Knight, the fertile Hare for Queen and the fast-moving adder for King.

    Here we have the Vessels family and as you can see they are all associated with water – which is handy because that’s the element associated with them too!  We have the playful Otter as Page, the speedy, slippery Eel as Knight, the instinct-driven Salmon as Queen and the patient Heron as King.  The Vessels are associated with the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Autumn.

    Stones, representing Pentacles, has land creatures – and is associated with Earth and these characters occupy the Wheel of the Year around Winter.  The shy Lynx is our Page, the wild Horse is our Knight, the protective Bear is our Queen and the leader of the Stones pack is the Wolf.

    For some excellent information on how to work with the Court Cards of the Wildwood, please visit their Wildblog where Caitlin Matthews has created some unique exercises and insights to these fascinating, but tricky courts.

    You can keep up to date with what’s happening in the Wildwood by visiting their blog or their website – www.thewildwoodtarot.com .

    What do you think of the Wildwood Courts – like ’em? Love ’em? Loathe ’em?!

    This deck is published by Eddison Sadd (Connections publishing).  Created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, artwork by Will Worthington

    ** EDIT** Eddison Sadd is now known as Eddison Books 20/4/17