Gilded Tarot - element colors wrong ?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 15 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Rhiannon SW	15 Mar 2005
I may be wrong but I noticed that the artist has used blue on the sword cards and yellow on the cups. Does anyone else see this in the deck and was it an error or he trying to show that swords involve emotions and involve thought processes. In elements and directions North is earth and Pentacles green is color, South is fire and Wands that is action red for color, Now I was taught West was water which for emotions & cups and blue is its color, & last was East, air, thoughts, communication, swords and color was yellow. Anyone see what I'm getting at ?

WolfyJames	15 Mar 2005
The colors of the elements and suits are not set in stone. The artist who creates a deck can do whatever he/she wants, and he did. As for the system you mention, I think it's the Golden Dawn system which is one system among others. Personaly, I cringe seeing yellow being the colors of swords, blue would fit better in my mind, air is a cold element and blue is a cold color, what is the warm color yellow doing there? I have the Tarot of the Old Path which follows the GD colors system and I have difficulties handling the swords suit because of the yellow color. As for the North/West/East/South, that too is a personal matter, it's not set in stone. I view better water as east then west.

Rhiannon SW	15 Mar 2005
Yes it is subjective and I certainly see what you mean. It just struck me as odd regarding the color thats all. Thanks for the reply

similia	15 Mar 2005
Lee wrote: I was curious about the choice of the suit-identifying gemstone colors, and since this subject isn’t mentioned in the accompanying book, I decided to ask the artist. Ciro informed me that he specifically wanted to avoid color associations which may have been influenced in the past by pragmatic considerations such as printing limitations, and instead approached the choice from an artist’s perspective. The gemstone colors are derived from the Aces of each suit. Thus, the orange-gold color of the gemstones on the Cups cards stems from the golden color of the cups as reflected in the water; the blue for the Swords is taken from the blue sky behind the sword; the red for Wands comes from the fire topping that suit’s Ace; and the grass on the Ace of Pentacles leads to the green gemstone for that suit’s symbol, which itself contains green gemstones. This is from Lee's review of the deck at Tarot Passages. http://www.tarotpassages.com/gilded-lb.htm

RedMaple	15 Mar 2005
I like the idea that the golden orange is from the reflection of the cup in the water -- so it is not even the container, but the reflection of the container. It reminds me of the story of Li Po falling into the reflection of the moon. Li Po was a poet in ancient China, who liked his wine, and wrote many poems that he then threw over his shoulder (art is not eternal). His companion supposedly snatched as many of them up as possible, which is why we still have some of them today. Li Po went out in a boat one night, and drunk as usual, tried to kiss the reflection of the moon, and toppled out of the boat to his death. The extra layer of illusion that reflection adds to the cups is interesting and compelling, I think. And the blue air of swords makes that intellectual suit cold, but also bracing depending on the situation. I love that this deck makes me reconsider these things, and does so with imagery rather than an esoteric "system".

Scout987a	16 Mar 2005
Hello, I'm working on my own deck and have also pondered the "elements" issue. What I am doing, basically, is allowing my intuition to guide me. For a while, I played with the "rules" of having each suit correspond via color/season/element to the accepted elemental themes. But I found that this limited my creativity, so I gave up on it! In my suit of swords, I am trying to portray both the emotion and/or meaning of the cards as well as things related to the suit. For example, to me, the three of swords is card that portrays pain and sadness. So, in my deck, the background color for this card is black with a red sun, as that is how I relate to it; but the background itself is a night sky. This way, I think, that I've dramatized the meaning of the card (as I interpret it) while also finding a connection to the element of "air." Maybe the "Gilded Tarot" artist/author was working from a similar point of view? Or maybe he just went with his gut? Anyway, Thanks for listening!

Rhiannon SW	19 Mar 2005
I understand about the added layer of the reflection of the cups cause they are gold. Now I can interpret the cards without that nagging at me. It was very helpful in my understanding of the artists point of veiw.

The Gilded Tarot - element colors wrong ? thread was originally posted on 15 Mar 2005 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.