Tarot Spread Project Summary

This morning I used the random.org list randomizer to pick a Three-Card Situation Spread to summarize my project.

The first card -- what worked well -- is the 10 of pentacles. This is a lucky card that shows a sucessful older man. I took this as a reminder that I have all the materials and other resources necessary to be successful doing an art journal.

The second card -- what didn't work well -- is the 4 of swords. This was a reminder that I'd thought of this project as something fun and relaxing and not very structured or well-planned. Well I did have a lot of fun doing online research and reading books but the idea was too vague to lead to a completed 30-day art journal where I got into someone else's mindset every day.

The last card -- key learnings -- is the 9 of pentacles. This card shows a successful woman holding a falcon in her gloved hand. This card reminds me of the instigator of IFJM because of her love of birds and the outdoors. So one learning is that if I want to succeed at an IFJM project in particular, I need to heed the advice of the infiltrator. A standard interpretation of this card is that the woman is at peace within and can enjoy the good things in life alone which is true of me. So I can choose to do IFJM or not next year but if I do choose to do it, I should do it as suggested in order to achieve the benefits.

Maneki-neko Tarot Card

The image on the Ms. Fortune card shows a female neko with a medal containing a five-pointed star hanging from a red ribbon around her neck. She is standing in the door of a cardboard house which has crossed muntins on its side window. She holds one hand up pointing to the heavens and the other down to the earth, providing a link. Just outside her house is a small garden of white lilies and red roses; a yellow butterfly floats above it. She has a charismatic personality. This card represents good fortune and, possibly, wealth.

Pamela and Georgia at 291

Pamela Colman Smith was the first painter to show at Alfred Stieglitz' 291 Gallery. (Previously he'd shown photographers.) She had three displays there from 1907 to 1909 which was around the same time she'd started working on the Rider-Waite Tarot cards. Georgia O'Keeffe's first show at 291 was in April 1916.

The left side of the above picture is a cropped black and white copy of Pamela's Tower card and the right side is a black and white copy of one of Georgia's charcoal drawings from her first 291 show. (I realize the cropping and the conversion to black and white gives a somewhat misleading impression of similarity!)

This post was inspired by information in the 2007 book Modernism and the Feminine Voice: O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle by Kathleen Pyne. I was surprised to learn that Stieglitz had groomed four other woman artists, photographers Gertrude Käsebier and Anne Brigman and painters Pamela Colman Smith and Katherine Nash Rhoades, before he had ever heard of O'Keeffe.

Abstract Tarots

Here is a selection of abstract Tarot decks. And this interesting interview with Peter Rotin includes several of his cards.

Supernatural

I couldn't resist doing a scrapbook page when I found this in Sunday's T Magazine. Apparently this is the year for Tarot everywhere. Even the staid Economist used bespoke Tarot cards on the cover of its issue predicting what to expect in 2017.

Tattwa Cards

Members of the Golden Dawn, including W. B. Yeats, were supposed to make their own Tattwa cards. They were about the size of Tarot cards and appear to have been painted. (I've read that the Golden Dawn used Winsor & Newton gouache for painting cards.)

The user of a Tattwa card is supposed to stare at the card (without blinking) and then close his or her eyes after staring long enough to see the color-reversed afterimage. Then with eyes still closed the user meditates and attempts to astral project through the afterimage.

Main page for W. B. Yeats exhibit. Clicking the "interactives" link leads to a variety of information including some of the Tattwa cards Yeats made.

Mandala