Where the Chariot Goeth, Goeth We
over 1 year ago – Sat, Oct 22, 2022 at 01:31:07 AM

The Triumph

The older name for the cards that developed into tarot was trionfi, meaning "triumph", from the theatrical processions of Rennaisance Italy - from where comes the tarot.

These triumphal processions were carnival events where the floats were similar to chariots, bearing characters embodying the virtues, which we now see in the tarot Major Arcana or "Trump" cards.

The same chariot-like vehicle appears as the 7th Trump, the Chariot, in the Tarot. In the Waite-Smith Tarot, A. E. Waite used Eliphas Levi's design for the card, about which Waite wrote:

"He is above all things triumph in the mind."

This was an allusion to the Golden Dawn Book T description of the card as being the 'understanding of strength (of mind)', literally the meanings of the Sephirah Binah and Geburah (and Hod) on the Tree of Life, between which the Chariot card is positioned.

It is a card of formation, structure, ordering in motion, sorting and focusing, but it does this in response to a tsunami of formless material pouring into it, be it the whole of creation or the formless thoughts in our mind.

Ethel Felkin described the card in a Golden Dawn paper as follows:

"Here we have a symbol of the spirit of man controlling the lower principles, soul and body, and thus passing triumphantly thorough the astral plane, rising above the clouds of illusion and penetrating to the higher spheres."

In an everyday reading, of course, the Chariot is taken to mean variously triumph, success, victory, focus, momentum and forward movement, etc.

The Chariot of the Tarot of Everlasting Day derives from these meanings, and focuses on the forms of the mind being dragged along in the wake of the Chariot.

The Chariot appears to both arise into the higher light of the mind as well as descending from it into the material - the riddle of the Sphinxes shown on the Waite-Smith Tarot but only half-explained in Waite's text.

This card is also a symbol of what the Kabbalists call "arising upon the chariot" into the higher realms of the mind. It is the Chariot that takes us to the temple, where we are met by the High Priestess.

1111 Stretch Goal Unlocked

We have passed through our final stretch goal of 1,111 backers with one day to spare - thank you so very much for your engagement with the deck and the vision!

On this final day and a half of the Kickstarter campaign, I would like to thank every one of you for your support and for assisting build this chariot, this triumph. You have ridden it to the very end, which is the very start of another journey - further into the everlasting day.

There will be a more detailed update tomorrow to all backers only for the general timeline and events that will follow the closing of the campaign, which is on Sunday, October 23rd 2022, 6:44 AM BST.

Please do share this campaign page one final time if you have not yet seen it in a particular social group or platform - subject to their posting guidelines - or on your personal page if you feel it fitting.

More tomorrow, as the Chariot takes us up.

The Worker is Hidden in the Workshop.

Marcus.

Perfected Success & The Ten of Cups
over 1 year ago – Sat, Oct 22, 2022 at 01:27:54 AM

The House of Repose

Thank you again for your support of the Tarot of Everlasting Day, which started off as a comment to me by Charlotte Louise, "those images could be used for our outer deck, couldn't they?" and became a Kickstarter to raise the minimum required for a print run of 100 decks, which was about £7,500.

We felt that a Kickstarter could likely interest at least 100 people from across all our social platforms, friends and colleagues, so I decided to risk the time and effort into designing and running a full-time campaign, whilst Charlotte cleared the ground to re-structure the Magister and Tali Goodwin continued to research the new book we've been working on for the last year or so.

Since 30 days ago, now in the final 22 hours of the campaign, the quick "100 decks which will break even, but at least get the deck out there" has become:

• 130 Card Deck
• Certificate of Authenticity Card
• Pip Deck & Scenic Deck Minors
• Alternate Cards
• 4 x Personages of the Aces
• Customised Double Tin
• Superior Quality Cardstock
• Four Video Classes
• Printed Guide
• Animated Major Arcana
• A Fable From Arkartia
• The Book of Reversals
• Online Card Reading System
• Tarot Speakeasy 4-Day Learning Event
• Two Early Book Reveals as a Personal Thank You

During the campaign, we have reached and then flown past more milestones than we could have imagined just 30 days ago:

• Fully Funded in 6 Hours
• Kickstarter Awarded us a "Project We Love"
• 10 Stretch Goals
• 39 Updates
• 1355% of Goal
• 1,136+ Backers
• 1400+ Decks

And most importantly:

• 136 comments (and numerous private messages and emails, comments in our Facebook group, etc.)

It was truly the discussions we have been having that have encouraged, inspired and shaped this deck. It may be trite or cliche to say "I couldn't have done this without you," but I couldn't have done this without you.

For today, I chose the Ten of Cups to share, as a card of the Malkuth (10) of Briah (Cups), literally meaning "kingdom of creation". This is how the Golden Dawn derived its meaning as 'settlement of matter', and it became 'contentment and repose of the entire heart' in Waite - and then, more simply, in most books and websites over the last century, "happiness".

I hope in this 30-day journey we have come to see how the accepted 'meanings' of the cards are all derived from these original sources, that I have then attempted to re-cast into this deck for beginners.

It is an important part of our teaching in Tarosophy that we refer back to the original sources, and present them front and centre all the way from the beginning of learning. I hope I have done that during the campaign and in the deck.

And that the Ten of Cups also shows that the Tens are never the end of the journey, just a prelude to a new one - that house looks homely, but there is plenty of work to be done on it.

In that light, I will be sending a final general update tomorrow, as the campaign closes and we draw this phase of the work to its conclusion. I will then send a detailed message to all backers with a timeline and next stages, such as purchasing add-on decks, getting the 50% discounted Tarot Association membership and/or selected courses, etc. 

More on that tomorrow!

Any questions at this point, please do drop them into the comments on this update.

For now, then, thank you. In these remaining 22 hours, one more share of the project to your socials would be muchly appreciated, so we can gather in any stragglers!

And thank you.

The Worker is Hidden in the Workshop.

Marcus.

When They Look Like the Real Ones
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 11:48:18 PM

A Dream of Pamela Colman Smith

As we enter the final 48 hours of the campaign, I wanted to re-share something that happpened back in 2009 which has been a cornerstone of the Tarot of Everlasting Day.  I first published this in Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (Marcus Katz & Tali Goodwin, Llewellyn: 2015).

Before I do, here is a draft version of the High Priestess, which I have re-done since initial feedback way back at the start of this campaign. She is unfinished (as we all always remain) but she really wanted to stand here at the closing of the campaign as she had done at the beginning.

And now for the story.

---

It was two nights before the opening of our first TarotCon tarot convention in 2009. The cottage was alive with tarot; with author Rachel Pollack staying over with us, every moment was dancing with discussion, insight, and exploration of the subject. Rachel had gifted me a title for a short story, one she felt I might consider writing at some point; “The Scholar and the Pixie,” she said, “a fictionalised account of the creation of the Waite-Smith Tarot”. It was such a wonderful idea, and a perfect title, I was still turning it over when I fell asleep that night.

And this was exactly what I dreamt, and relayed to everybody the following morning.

In my dream I had entered a sitting room in which classical music was playing from an old gramophone. I could see several easels stood up in the room, maybe three or four, on two of which were small canvases. I saw that painting or sketching had commenced on at least one of them. In the room was a small woman I immediately recognised as Pamela Colman Smith. She was very distracted and moving around; picking up various objects and placing them back down again in a slightly agitated but not manic manner.

I turned my head and saw that there was also a man in the room, who looked uncomfortable, as if he would rather not be there. It was Arthur Edward Waite. I looked at his feet – there were several rugs in the room – and saw that he was just in his socks; his shoes were removed. It was about this, I sensed, that he felt most uncomfortable. I immediately received the impression Pixie had mischievously insisted on this act in part to put Arthur in an awkward position.

She turned to face him, and said, “Shall we begin?”

…

A while later, I became aware that I was now in another place, sat outside this time, in a sunny but cool courtyard, upon stone stairs abutting the wall of a farmhouse or barn. Sat with me was Pamela. I saw with some surprise and amusement she was smoking a cigarette, as if we were on a short work break. As I looked at her, she smiled, and I became very aware that I was dreaming.

I told her I was distracted a little because “my head is full of Kabbalah” due to a project I was working on at the time. She tilted her head in an almost bird-like fashion and murmured, “Oh, you poor dear”, as if I was afflicted by some mental condition.

I began to think, quite consciously and deliberately, “this is such a rare opportunity, I have Pamela here herself, I can ask her anything, this is really important”. I marshalled my thoughts as quickly as I could, and let a question arise. It was this; “when you were painting, I guess it is like writing. You can create anything, but how do you know when it is right? How did you decide when each card image was right for you?”

She looked at me with some bemusement, as if she hardly understood the question.

“Why, silly,” said she, “when they looked exactly like the real ones”.

On this I awoke, with that cool summer evening of 1909 still gathered about me, and an intense and aching nostalgia. I could still taste the air, smell the roughness of the cigarette smoke, and hear the distant church bells of an English twilight. In my memory now, I could see Pamela’s smile as it began to rapidly fade as fast as I could write down notes by my bedside. 

---

I had this dream again in mind as I worked on the Tarot of Everlasting Day. In using A.I. I have been having a conversation with it - and many of you during the campaign - about the "real" cards. At least, those in my head - and yours. In this, there is an enduring mystery to the tarot in that they always represent an ideal, a truth that is not in but through their illustration.

And this is the truth we reach for at our table.

And this is what we call divination.

I am thankful for your sharing and encouragements, and in this penultimate update, wish you a very full deck of all possibilities.

The Worker is Hidden in the Workshop.

Marcus.

That which is Done
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 06:15:02 PM

The Final of Days

By our Work we are Changed.

As we enter the final three days of the Kickstarter Campaign, and the ticker changes to hours rather than days, I wanted to share some of the many sources I have drawn on for the card designs.

The Final Judgement card of the Tarot of Everlasting Day is our version of the card sometimes called the Last Judgement or more simply, Judgement.

"That which is old will be made anew. And that which is past will arise. And surely that which is done will be gathered up and determined. That which is below will become as to that which is above. Those who are judged will be those who step forwards. One by one we will take them out of the world."

I wanted to focus on the finality of this card, and as A. E. Waite wrote:

“I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character.”

The character of this card design for me started with Ethel Felkin’s writing on the Tarot in the Golden Dawn “additional” manuscripts, particularly the powerful statement that Judgement is one of three cards which “represent the action of forces exterior to the experience of humanity.”

Waite gives an indication of the central question posed by this exterior action:

“What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response?”

So, in thinking about this card, I wanted to concentrate both the finality of its judgement and the word ‘calling’ or ‘summoning’, as if some exterior force was summoning us to some ultimate recognition.

I have always been a fan of the rock singer Dio, and his track, “Last in Line” was part of the soundtrack of my late youth, particularly:

“We’ll know for the first time,

If we’re evil or divine,

We’re the last in line …

See how we shine.”

This gave the idea of a crowd or even a queue in the image, also drawing on Waite again:

“… in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worthwhile to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations.”

So that the image could also capture the “wonder, adoration and ecstasy” of the figures, rather than have that expressed by posture or expression, I re-scaled the design elements to make those summoned appear made inconsequential by the scene to which they were witness.

I then set the scene in a contemporary situation because I wanted the card to be immediate – an instantly recognisable setting that conveys the nature of the interpretation to even an absolute beginner.

In this, I was informed by the boardgame and computer game – more a simulation – called “This War of Mine.” It is not so much a game but rather a lesson dressed up as a pastime.

It is “played” in the war-torn streets of an unnamed city and simulates the impossible decisions those under such circumstances are forced to make.

The war-torn buildings in this scene I thought are more ‘realistic’ for the end of days than the figures rising out of coffins, which can appear somewhat surreal.

Also, the crowd element gives a design connection to the same - or perhaps a different - crowd we see on the Blasted Tower, connecting the different meanings of these two cards of initiatory and dramatic change.

The wings I wanted not as actual angels but as clouds in order to resonate with the Temperance card design, as there is a Kabbalistic connection made with the Golden Dawn work.

It is a fairly common thing to see photos of clouds that look like wings, so in this easily recognisible symbol I could hide the Kabbalah it is referencing in the deck.

Within and above the wings, I aimed to depict a heavenly version or reflection of the lower city, symbolising the new life - which may on the surface look much like the old - following the 'resurrection' of the spirit, or simply by taking a new path or decision in life, which re-writes reality.

Finally, there was an element I wanted to include in this card for what is essentially our “outer” deck of teaching, that would convey the inner meaning of the word ‘rapture’.

This is something carried by our ‘union’ deck in more esoteric symbolism, and by the ‘inner’ deck will be conveyed by a unique scene of spiritual resurrection.

As we come to the closing three days of our Kickstarter campaign, I would again like to thank you for supporting the production of this deck, and in these final hours, thank you for coming together and answering our calling.

The Worker is Hidden in the Workshop.

Marcus.

The Final Judgement
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 05:45:30 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.