Sacred Magic Tarot, Are there limits of traditional card systems that could be improved up Options

What say you to a Tarot deck exclusive to Sacred Magic?

Should there be just 22 major arcana? What about more than four suits? How about cards pertaining to certain paths? Any artists interested? Any ideas?

(I don't want to step on anyone's toes, this is just an idea.) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

What say you to a Tarot deck exclusive to Sacred Magic?

Should there be just 22 major arcana? What about more than four suits? How about cards pertaining to certain paths? Any artists interested? Any ideas?

(I don't want to step on anyone's toes, this is just an idea.) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I honestly am not sure what you mean by this? At least not the “Sacred Magic” part. Do you mean sacred-magick the website community?

I find this post a bit off of your usual form, I am not sure I understood any of it…then again I am running a fever, so excuse me if I seem totally out of it.

The following is a rant based on experience of online collaborations, I have worked on projects that took many years, I have worked on some that only took a few months. In all of them there where collaborators who where not happy with the results, who disagreed and thought it was a waste of time. The best ones I was a part of (in large groups) most of us where happy with the final product, but agree we would never do it again.

Rant follows

As to the 22 majors, 56 minors and 4 suites is Tarot as far as I know it. There are other divinatory Cards…even poker cards can be used in this way, however Tarot follows an archetypal manner that should allow someone familiar with one deck to be able to pick up any other deck and get a feel for it rather quickly.

This is an area I feel Magick is sorely lacking (common standards). If we at least had a common lexicon for experience and procedure (ritual, ceremony, machine, work…) I feel we could communicate a lot better and share more. In this I truly envy eastern traditions greatly. The Eastern mystic traditions truly have a common understanding and vocabulary allowing them to compare and contrast. They use different names, but most correspond exactly with the same state or procedure from another tradition. But I digress.

Another question is would it be worth while to make a new deck, using all the concepts on these boards? That is an open question; I can come up with as many Pros as Cons to that one in some cases them being the same. I’ll list a few.

Pros:
Unique vision
Community sharing
Wider then most perspectives

Cons:
Community arguing over content
Lack of unifying vision
Diverseness detracting so much that only the chaos types will like it

However as a philosophical Discordian, I love the idea…give one or two trumps per path/group. Then allow each of those groups to make one suite. Let people later mix and match at their will.

In the end the only real difficulty in this is finding artists willing to deal with the crap, and actually motivated enough to follow through with the concept.

In general artists have to have some passion behind their creations, and they loose that quickly as they are subject to bureaucracy, infighting, criticism and the like. That is usually offset with some other reward (money is the normal one in the modern western world) but we are offering nearly nothing.

Everything prior to getting an artist to do it is easy. I am sure even finding artists willing to accept the challenge if making 2-3 cards won’t be a problem, finding a few willing to make more is highly probable.

We can argue on designs to our hearts content, or be quick and appoint one or two like minded people who make quick work of it (this depends on the group). Then as things get finalized people complain that their idea was better, or the artist and the designers don’t se eye to eye….and perhaps on that rare possibility one card gets created that is the epitome of that archetype for any of those that see it.

Then all the others look like pale representations in comparison.

But I digress.

In all honesty I do not think a forum as diverse as this one, can produce a publicly vetted (or forum vetted) project such as this in a coherent and rewarding fashion.

In my little Virgo head I am already working out guidelines for success, but I think ultimately there are individuals who could make quality decks on their own or with some assistance. This is a very in depth, intimate and soul wrenching process between designer and artist. If not the ultimate product suffers. But it would be a fun project.

If something different was meant by Sacred Magic then please specify and sorry for the rant.

You must be feverish, that last CON is definitely a PRO. Otherwise, I say it's a great summation of challenges! I have no experience in such a project, but felt compelled to at least put it up here for thought. It might even inspire someone with artist's block.

Anyhow, the idea came from

Why not have each fortune teller build their own deck of cards? Why not have several cards that you can mix and match into different decks? There's pages of literature on what the 9 of Wands implies for your future, but there's nothing to justify why the 9 of Wands at all, for instance.