The Chrono Tarot

The figures in The Devil can be squarely blamed on my trip to Italy and all that Renaissance being stuffed in my head.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sa...

Dear Future Self: Sorry I keep offering you images of fluid dynamics to etch. I know they're a massive pain, but that's how the world is.

As the Hanged Man seeks to cheat death, he wears mystic sigils on his person. Did he get them from the High Priestess? Sources point to yes.

Each of the minor arcana relates to a major arcana parent card. And I think I figured out who is the Queen of Swords' parent (it's Justice).

Note to future self: make the cups the Two of Cups bell-shaped absinthe goblets. Potent & intoxicating in ways that mere wine cannot match.

Relatedly: …maybe I solved The Chariot this week.

I wish there was a way to show you how the first nine Major Arcana are lining up to form a visual progression. Square pictures don't cut it.

Payment completes a contract, be it Coins for the the Tooth Fairy or Charon, or clothing for house spirits (which also falls under the umbrella of Coins’ tangible, earthly goods). If that isn’t transformative, I don’t know what is.

So we need to turn to the other two minor arcana tool sets that transform, that can neutralize bad situations: coins/earth, wands/fire.

There are many ways to use those tools to change things, but the upshot is that, when done properly, retail therapy can absolutely work.

People struggle w/resolving toxic emotions and situations, and a lot of them try a tool set of fluids (air/swords, water/cups) for removal.

Those tool sets are dynamic & appealing, but only serve to divide the toxins into smaller pieces. Corrosives must be neutralized, titrated.

Time to revisit the minor arcana! Here follows some deep thoughts, useful in practical & mental exercises. Remember—conservation of energy…

So, um. Yeah. Luc Besson borrowed heavily from traditional The World card for The Fifth Element. …I still don't know how I feel about that.

Supernatural female surrounded by the four classical elements, symbolizing spirituality, corporeal reality, and completeness?

…yep.

So then… how do you draw mirrors? And why can't I get away from tiles in dramatic perspective?

(Of course The World is a stage. And of course it is also a mirror. I'm just baffled by the danged black & white tiles again.)

One rewatch of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus later and I can confirm that there is at least one card in there plus a few other archetypes.

See, the thing about "joke" decks is that they're still a system for organizing ideas—the makers underestimate the scope of human thought.

Parody and nonsensical forms of divination will still work in the right hands because humanity has depths & depths of nonsense hardwired in.

Things I would like to avoid drawing in the next card:
• tiny, intricate hands
• geometric tiles
• anything in forced perspective

Uncertain which card to develop next, which is probably also why I am depressed about finishing 13: Death.

Caveat: So do remember that objects in the mirror may be larger and/or closer than they appear.

Divide the Major Arcana in half. 0-9 are an interior journey, 10-21 are how to relate to exterior forces. Therefore the Fool & Hermit bookend internal growth, the Rota Fortunae & the World bracket everything outside of one's self. Mirroring exists between these cards.

I don't want to shoot anyone's dreams down, but seriously. Know the terms and conditions for making your own tarot. It's not done on a whim.

Sometimes I get panicky when people look at what I'm doing and think it's a good idea. Like, CONSIDER THE COMMITMENT & TIMESINK ALONE.

There are 78 cards, dudes! They all have opinions and will not let you rest until you finish ALLLL OF THEM. For however long that takes.

Protecting baby teeth from anyone else getting ahold of them to control us is a superstition so old it's to the point of hind-brain memory.

Instinctively we recoil from teeth that have been cut loose from their owners—who knows where they've been, what power they hold?

Revisiting creepy disembodied teeth as an element in 15: The Devil—the day I drew v1.0, I also rescued my baby teeth which had been lost.

D.W. Even solid air is a phosphorescent body. [First photograph ever taken by phosphorescent light. The face is that of Mr. Tesla, and the source of light is one of his phosphorescent bulbs. Time of...

Cautiously feeling this idea out, but— Nicola Tesla as The Hermit?

Tesla, Hermit. Hermit, Tesla. Hmmmm…
blackmountainmass.tumblr.com/post/8154629...

The beginnings of an idea for 6: The Lovers - youtube.com/watch?v=Gsk__F…

(No idea how to break that down into 2D art, but something to ponder.)

I was going to do a then & now shot of the only card to survive the very first version of this deck—the one I made just prior to a nervous breakdown in college—but they don't want to be found. To the point where they're in witness protection program, I suspect.

In further defense of etching: it produces things that are terribly Real, to the point where they make pencil drawings look like phantoms.

I was going to do a yearly assessment of the State of the Tarot, all 'look on my works ye mighty and despair!'
But mostly it's just despair.

Etching is a ridiculously humbling process, and no I would not trade it for anything more expedient.

It's difficult to engage with other tarot decks while knee-deep in creating your own (chance of corrupting the database during the build) but the glimpses I've seen of Penny Dreadful's deck are intriguing.

Then again, I'm a sucker for vertebrae.

(Is the Page of Cups not, in fact, taking a bubble bath in an overly large sippy cup?)