Ravenswood Tarot Mandala Exercise

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 31 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

darwinia	31 Jul 2004
I got the Ravenswood Tarot and was a bit disappointed in its plainness and the almost complete lack of vitality of the scenes--no action, everybody seems to be standing there expressionless. I got them to use as impetus for drawing mandalas--thought I could use the tiny eastern motifs and such, and I liked the black and white artwork. Today I got all my supplies out and just started with an 8-inch piece of paper. I used Canson Mi-Teintes black paper with Prismacolor pencils. One bad thing--the supposedly non-sticky tape I used on the corners was sticky--rats. But it's only a smidge lifted off the face in each corner, I'll know next time not to use it. After laying down a base of my own and fiddling and colouring a bit, I started *really* looking at these cards and spotting the various motifs, and then incorporating some of them loosely in the mandala. It's gorgeous, I can't believe how well it turned out. I chose to do an asymmetrical design and picked things at random as I prefer random exercises. It took me about three hours but it's a nice way of connecting with a rather plain deck. And I got to use my new 8-inch protractor and 6-inch round protractor and the old French curves I bought back in 1980 for a drafting course. Plus I used a nice professional drafting template for the shapes like circles, ellipses, and triangles. My idea is to draw a different mandala as an exercise with the Minors. Today was Aces, next time I'll pull all the Twos out and have them in front of me for inspiration. I have 14 mandala exercises planned with these Minors to be done whenever I feel like drawing, and I'm quite happy with the entire experience, particularly since I found it hard to relate to the deck at first. Not any more. I can change paper colours or types and use paints or add collage--hundreds of marvelously exciting possibilities with this little Ravenswood deck. And one other good thing. The deck exactly fits into a lovely paper maché box I bought on eBay some time ago. It was originally supposed to be for my Shakespearian Tarot but it was too short. It's dark blue with gold scrollwork and little yellow birds worked into the background. Perfect for the new Ravenswood and the middle eastern theme. I have large scans which show how I've echoed the motifs in the Ravenswood Aces, but they're too large for the board here I can't post in any case because I'm not a member. I just wanted to pass this on because it was a great, great exercise and most satisfying and fulfilling. Another way to connect if you've spent money on a deck and feel nothing for it. Try this--neat stuff. Hmmm.......looking at it, I think it looks better rotated 90 degree to the right rather than the way I drew it.....

firemaiden	01 Aug 2004
Interesting art project, Darwinia. Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a mandala, and what does one get out of doing this?

Aun	03 Aug 2004
As far as I know, a mandala - in this sense - is a spread laid out for meditation, where specific cards are chosen and not randomly picked after shuffling, according to the areas you want to meditate upon. The are some mandala exercises on Mary Greer's Tarot for Yourself, and also Rachel Pollack covers the subject at the end of 78 Degrees of Wisdom.

Imagemaker	03 Aug 2004
I should let Darwinia answer, but since she's not been back yet, I'll just say that a mandala is a circle with an interior design. There are many, many forms and styles, from highly individual to highly stylized. If you put "mandala design" into Google, you'll see a lot of possibilities. She said she was drawing elements of the tarot card into a mandala design. Cool idea!

Imagemaker	03 Aug 2004
Darwinia said she did an asymetrical design, but here's a site of auto-cad-produced ones that are all symmetrical: mandalas They appear in many traditions from India to Native American tribes, often used for meditation focus.

darwinia	04 Aug 2004
[quote]Originally posted by Imagemaker [but here's a site of auto-cad-produced ones that are all symmetrical:[/quote] I sometimes use a program called Gliftic which uses CAD dxf files as forms, and one of the forms is a mandala. The program then generates patterns and colours on top of the base form, and you can tweak it endlessly. What I like about it is the illustrative quality of designs, but as you can see from the URL you cited, you can take 2D styles into Photoshop and give them some dimensional qualities and luminosity. Thanks for posting! I was surprised how interesting it made the cards when I searched for elements to draw. Face it, we are so busy, busy we rarely take the time to look at things, particularly if we perceive them as simplistic in a hurried first glance. What's our first impulse? To trade it, but how about trying something else first? It wasn't an art exercise, it was a meditative one, and what better way to meditate then using cards you've got stored in a box? I was trying to show that even the worst deck can be used (actively!!!) without a lot of trouble. I tend to anthropomorphize decks and feel sorry for the ones that aren't the greatest for readings. I've traded or bought demo decks like this and found ways to have delightful fun with them. So you can't read with them, there must be something they can do. The Feng Shui Tarot black tortoise thinks he might like to scare critters in other decks. Visualize it: The Five of Wands in....let's say The Hudes Tarot, minding their own business bashing each other with wands in the green forest, and in comes an enormous Black Tortoise, lumbering over to. . . OR you could pull all the cards from this Feng Shui suit and make The Black Tortoise Mandala, and maybe draw some scenes he's in (like a 4-seasons retrospect) along with his shell in a mandala form. Certain figures in my Bosch Tarot were keen on eating some Yeis in the Santa Fe Tarot, and the 3 of Lightning was never the same in that deck. Lots of interesting ways to look at it.

The Ravenswood Tarot Mandala Exercise thread was originally posted on 31 Jul 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.