The Compass of Fate

I enjoyed createing "The Compass of Fate" (aka tcof) oracle deck.
I wanted to share it with everyone and for a while I held back on posting the card deck online.

The complete deck is now available for download online.
No registration, no signup, nothing. Just download and go.

Please check it out here on Aeclectic Tarot at
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/compass-of-fate/
Please give it a full review. I would deeply apreciate it.

A few small points to keep in mind.

A. The card deck was meant to be entirely in B&W.

B. It was originally designed as a visual disguise for an existing game.

C. The fortune telling aspect was originally a part of the disguise. However the disguise is too good. The suites, card names, etc are VERRY reminescent of various oracle decks. Therefore I decided it would be nice to create an auctual use for the deck aside from its original game.

D. Fortune telling 'definitions' and 'Methods' for this deck have not been explored or defined.

Please visit my home page where the cards can be downloaded from. (url listed on the link above)
I greatly invite anyone to experiment in the use of these cards as an oracle deck. This means potential card definitions and possible method of forunte telling. At this time its all verry up in the air and experimental. With 140+ cards it can become quite a task. Feel free to visit my page and comment on the deck. There you can find a text list of the cards rangeing from simple cast and card names to full visual descriptions. Enjoy the deck!

Thank you.
Robert kalin.

wow, i really like the simplicity of the artwork in these decks...very appealing. I dont know if you intended it, but the user could colour the deck themselves, making it theirs.

great job!

what a fun deck! thank you for sharing it with us robert feels a bit like morgans tarot.

black and white serves the drawings really well. in fact, i think it would lose something in color, although it might look great on a sepia colored paper....

Such a kind and generous gesture to share with us.....thanks

Replies 1: Color and stuff

To Vilyariel:
I auctually thought about the use of color in these. However The use of B&W line was intended to be somewhat reminescent of the original B&W Raider-Waite tarot cards. Also I intended it to be in B&W. When the set was original created color ink was (and still is) Quite expensive. The use of B&W was to help save on the pockets of those who printed out the deck. It also allows those who might not have color printers to print them out. (such as on a server-based laser printer. There is also the aspect of image rescaleing. In B&W rescaleing an image only blurs the edges of a few of the lines. In color it can blend shading horribly.

With 140+ unique cards the use of color also tended to make the task of createing the deck alone by myself to be somewhat difficult. Working alone it was quite a task and the added problems of colors and the like were not welcome at the time of creation.

At this point I consider the deck to be done; with the few excpetions of a card or two which seems somewhat out of place. If anyone would like to TRY to color the deck I would preffer the use of solid colors. No shading. This is due to the concern that shadeing of colors would bring unwanted attention to the relatively thick line quality.

To Zorya:
Yes, brown ink (instead of black) and sepia paper was an intentional aspect of keeping the set in B&W. Many copy stores has a sepia 'card stock' that printouts can be copied onto.

To Yve:
Lots of cards! Take note of how each suite has a theme. Then each set of 4 cards (identicle in the original game of mahjongg) has a subtheme. There's a lot of word association going on in this deck. The only problem in useing it as a fortune telling deck is that it DIRECTLY reffers to many aspects of life. something that lots of tarot/oracle decks often tend to skirt around as to be somewhat generic and vauge. Here it's presented straight forward. Almost like one of those refrigerator word magnet sets).

What an intriguing deck of cards! If someone could help you to work out a clear game to use them with, and/or some clear divination rules, I wonder if you could get them published? They really are very interesting cards.

Look out for new changes!

on the horizon!

darn. No longer available to download.

New Adjustments to the deck

Hello Again!

This is just a hanging notecard to those who like my deck.
I have recently reworked the border for the "lands" suite and corrected those few cards I felt stuck out like a sore thumb.

I also re-drew the borders for the 'items suite'. Nothing major just a detail level change.

In addition I completely reworked the border for the 'cast suite'. It's still a shield but it looks verry differnt. It really fits in with the rest of the suite better now.

I'm currently reworking the 'elements' border and need to make a few adjustments to the 'virtues' border.

None of this is uploaded yet but will be verry soon. I've also created at least 5 differnt spreads for use with this deck. The primary spread "The compass of fate" Is still being reworked. Not for the spread itself but for its secondary spreads. Each card in "the compass of fate" spread is capable of being moved away from the main layout and having a seperate spread for that cards primary element. like an indepth spread for the past and a seperate indepth spread for the future. Whereas in "The compass of fate" spread you only have single cards representing the past, present, & future.

I do hope youll check into it.

Download Site needs new home

I've discovered quite by accident that my home page has severe limitations.

Often I've found that friends can not access the download file for "the compass of fate" due to limitations placed on it by the hosting service.

Many times this can occur long before the end of the month.

Thus I am in need of a new home for this card deck.

I also have several other card decks (though not fortune telling) also on my home page that I may switch over as well.

If anyone knows of a FREE web hosting service that I can place my files and pages on, Ild be much apreciative.

Bob.