A new type of Tarot...by Gum!
TERRY MCCOMBS
it you can ether buy one of the decks on the market, of which there are
many many very good ones, or you can buy or make yourself some blank
ones and draw your own, how well that works depends on you artistic
ability AND you knowlegde of Tarot, And while what you turn out more
than likely will not be up to the level of what can be found for sale
the fact that you have done it your self will perhaps more then make up
for that. But still with all the decks that are around today if you
look it's not all that hard to find at least one deck that meets your
wants....but still...still what about something else? Something more,
what about a way to perhaps combine the above two options? A way to
have both a deck more in alignment with your unique vision, as well
well as having well make cards drawn by professional artists.
I had a idea along those line a short while back and have been
experamenting with it....lets see what you think.
before just about two weeks ago I had really never have any
expearence with trading card, yes trading cards, the newer versions
that have come up of late like the old sports/gum/trading cards but now
they come in packs of from 6 to 10 and are found showing pictures of a
lot of diffrent subjects.
But as I said I really had not payed them any mind at all, untill I
happen to come across one of the new ones out today, I looked at the
picture and thought `you know this looks sort of like a lost Tarot card
or something.' And that's when the idea hit me, COULD you make a new
type of Tarot deck using trading cards? Not sport cards, but from some
of the other ones that are floting around? (but hey. If you can figure
out a way to make Joe Montana reversed mean something to you go for
it!) I thought that maybe, just maybe you could and so I set out to
give it a try.
First off I knew that there was no way that you could come up with a
"regular" Tarot deck with a Hermit and an Ace of Cups and a Four of
Swords etc...etc...etc... But with all the decks on the market who
needs to, what I saw was something else altogether, in a way a deck
made up in whole of shall I say `Lost Major Arcana Cards'. The idea
would be that each of the images would be something that said something
to me, that each of the cards had been picked by me, and given meaning
by me. So that in the end I would have both a deck that was made up of
images that I have found, and pondered, and given meaning to, while
also...well...looking neat.
So I gave it a try, I went to a store that sold trading card packs
and got a bunch of them, most were (relatively) quite cheep, ranging
from .99 cents for a pack of 10 to as much as $2.00 something for 6 at
most. I got a good number of the packs at random and just started
opening them to see what I could see. And I was suprised at how useful
I found the ones I looked at. I swiftly found 34 that I thought would
work quite well in a Unique Private Tarot, and 22 others that I am
thinking about including, there was not one pack that I opened up that
did not have at least 2 cards that had something that spoke to me, and
this was just my first try, I am sure that a few more trys and some
paring and triming and rethinking and I will have a most interesting
and compleatly one of a kind deck.
One in which every card in it is one that I have placed in there
because I felt it should be there, and have thought about it and given
it a meaning of my own. Yes I think this might be interesting indeed.
In my next message I will give a little more detail about how I
picked my deck (which I am still building) As well as some other
thoughts on the subject.
Terry McCombs