spiral scans

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Apr 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

cricket	18 Apr 2003
I forgot who it was, but somebody was wanting to see scans of the Spiral deck. I finally got around to getting the whole thing done and uploaded. You can see it here: Spiral Tarot There are two pages of thumbnails (because I couldn't figure out how to put them all on one page), and each actual image is fairly large. The majors all have 6 card images per jpg, including the 'cover' card and card back. The minors are separated into suits. The first jpg of each suit is of the first six cards, the second the remaining eight cards.

Cascade_Jon	18 Apr 2003
How... interesting. The first thing that strikes me is the Judgment card - that is one scary scene! Death and the Devil are also pretty dark. The Major Arcana seem to have strong Christian and astrological influences, but the Minor Arcana seem quite different. The deck is kind of unique like that... the figures in the Major Arcana seem to be living in medieval times, and much of the Minor Arcana seems to be done of people in the 19th century. The Six of Cups in particular reminds me of American Gothic. I don't know, does anyone else get the sense that the Minor Arcana for this deck don't belong with the Major Arcana? If the illustrator wanted to update the medieval Minor Arcana scenes from RWS, why update them only to the 19th century, and then also leave the Major Arcana in their medieval fantasyland? Well, the artwork in general is quite good, though.

magpie9	18 Apr 2003
I have this deck, and the book by the creator. The minors are set in the 19th Century as a tribute to her Irish grandmother, who taught her to read cards. It was the era of her grandmother's birth. I don't find the majors dark, only deep--and more classicaly mythic than Medieval. If you try it, you might like it. :)

Silverlotus	19 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Cascade_Jon I don't know, does anyone else get the sense that the Minor Arcana for this deck don't belong with the Major Arcana? If the illustrator wanted to update the medieval Minor Arcana scenes from RWS, why update them only to the 19th century, and then also leave the Major Arcana in their medieval fantasyland? Well, the artwork in general is quite good, though. Actually, that is part of what turned me off of this deck. I didn't like the fact that the Majors and Minors didn't seem to match. To me, the Majors seemed very much based in myth, while the Minors reminded me of Civil War America. Even knowing the artist intentions, I still feel that way. But it is a beautiful deck. I love the colours, although I find some of the faces a little odd.

Diana	19 Apr 2003
Hey cricket! 'Twas me in the Chat Room who was curious to see these cards. Thanks so much for doing this! :) Everyone is always talking about this deck, and I was getting very curious about it. You are so sweet to have taken your time to scan all these cards. Now, I don't have to give my personal opinion on the deck, do I? }) (The Hanged Man and Temperance are nice.....)

cricket	19 Apr 2003
Hi Diana! I remember it was you, now... couldn't for the life of me when I posted this. Imagine that. :rolleyes: No, you don't have to post exactly what you think of them. *laughs* You wouldn't be the first person I've shown them to that doesn't like them. Many people don't. I personally found that, after getting used to the fact that the arcanum don't match, it's actually a very deep deck. It's the one I turn to the most when in need of an answer that cuts to the bone. This deck is always straightforward and often hurts with the amount of truth it reveals. That's why it's very rarely used. (Well, that and the fact that the Queen of Cups reminds me of faunabay for some reason.) ;) There's still plenty of room on that site if there's another deck I happen to have that somebody might want posted. If I can find them all. The kids got into my shelf-o-stuff the other day and they're all over the house.

KelarSkye	22 Apr 2003
The major arcana are no one mythic/legend system. They have snippets of astrology, Kaballah, celtic, greek, Arthurian, pagan amongst more. All of those influence were prevelant in 19th century life. A life where, even though everything was "modern" everyone still lived with myths, legends and superstitions. Particularly if she based them off her Irish grandmother's teaching. Myths and legends were prevelant in Irish culture at that point in time (well, I would argue probably still are in comparison to other cultures who discourage legends and myths). Hmmm, I jsut never even considered they didn't "match." I saw a connection right away. Kelar

Cascade_Jon	23 Apr 2003
Kelar, I think you're confusing philosphy with artistry. Certainly the Major Arcana has been influenced by a variety of philosophies, so yes, in that sense you're correct that they're not one single "system." The artist has a broad license to reinterpret the symbolism of each and every card, and as long as certain basic rules were fulfilled most would still say that the system would still be Tarot. Clearly the Spiral Tarot here is a valid interpretation of the traditions of Tarot. However, the artist still has a responsibility to make their deck follow some sort of artistic logic. This can be anything from inkblots to multicultural expression, to ancient symbolism to traditional RWS styling. I think what many find disconcerting is the lack of artistic unity in this deck - the progression from the Major Arcana (in its mythic, medieval depiction) to the Minor Arcana (in its 19th century folk feel) lends a disjointed impression to the deck. You're arguing the wrong point: it's not that the Irish culture isn't a fine choice from which to derive important Tarot symbolism. Instead, what we're saying is that the artwork should be consistent, that it's better to reinterpret the entire deck from a particular perspective than to cause this sort of artistic fracture.

The spiral scans thread was originally posted on 18 Apr 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.