Sheridan-Douglas Tarot: new printing

Thanks for the interesting and nice pictures
I tried to compare my original deck with the picture nr. 4 to see if I could notice any difference in the colors and it seems as if the 8 of pentacles has white socks!
I also wonder what will be on the 2 blank cards.

Where will the deck be available for european country?
Will you directly sell some signed decks?

some questions for mr. Douglas

hello mr. Douglas,

I am not active member of this forum, but I am a regular visitor on the aeclectic forum. The moment I noticed that you were on the forum, I could not resist the opportunity to approach you with some questions that have been on my mind ever since I read your wonderful book on the Tarot. The answers to the questions that I referred to cannot be found on the internet or in any other way. Believe me, I have tried.
the individuation proces, in which the major Arcana is split in two halves (lemniscate), is a way of looking at the Tarot that I first came across in a book by Barbara Walker. I was under the impression that she introduced this approach.
But after reading her book I found out that you were referred to by her.
My question is: " Did you develop this approach yourself or were you influenced by someone else?? Could Madeline Montalban have been the one who has taught you?? Somehow it is very hard to obtain any info. at all about her.
I hope you will find the time to reply. I would be much obliged,

Best regards, Patrick

My daughter and I had our noses pressed against the computer screen ...it was so fun to see the beginnings of a deck.
I'd like one of those big sheets to frame...now that would be amazing!

coredil how in the world can you see the 8 of pents?!
Did you blow the picture up in Photo Shop?

lark said:

coredil how in the world can you see the 8 of pents?!
Did you blow the picture up in Photo Shop?

Click to expand...

No, eyes only
But I realise that I can recognise the card because I do have the original deck, so I can recognise the pictures and the colors but surely not the numbers on the cards

The 8 of pentacles is just the third last picture on the sheet and though my eyes are really not very good I really mean to see that the feet are white. On my card they have a flesh color

I find it really so nice to look at this big sheet!
How I would like to have such a "signed proof"!
I have seen such sheets some weeks ago in the belgian card museum in Turnhout (the city where Carta Mundi is), but they were printed from very old machines.

Answers to a few questions

No, Coredil, the character on Eight of Coins (or Pentacles) is not wearing white socks - his legs and feet are still flesh-coloured. You can't judge the colours accurately by looking at the photograph, which was taken with a little pocket camera using indoor lighting. I'm attaching another photo scanned at a higher resolution which should show more detail, but is still not very clear. You'll just have to wait till you get your cards!

Actually, we've kept the colours as close as possible to the originals, with the border ivory instead of white (you can just see the difference at the edges of the proof), and minor changes where we felt we could get closer to our original intention, or correct defects in the original printing, or make subtle improvements. For instance, the boy on the Six of Swords now has copper-coloured hair.

Also Coredil, you mentioned Carta Mundi of Belgium. They now own playing card manufacturers around the world, including AG Muller of Switzerland, and their UK branch is printing our Tarot deck.

Your comment (and also Lark's) that you would like one of those big sheets to frame, has set me thinking. The card the proofs are printed on is too thick to roll without creasing, and would be difficult to post flat, but next week I'll explore the possibility of printing from the plate on to the glossy art paper used for posters suitable for framing. These prints could be rolled and posted in a tube safely. Would anyone be interested in acquiring a signed copy of one of these?

As soon as we have the decks from the printers we will load our new website onto the server (it's not there yet so don't bother searching), and there you will find details of where you can obtain the cards. I'll post the URL here as soon as it is live.

Thanks a lot for these answers and details
Though I would rather like these big sheets on the original cardstock I understand your point.
But if I can afford it I would also love it on a glossy art paper as you propose.

Best regards

Reply to Patrick

Dear Patrick,

My book on the Tarot was first published in 1972. I began to research the book in 1968, when not many recent studies of the subject were available and I thought there would be room for a fresh assessment. I had read books by Jung and his pupils and was struck by the apparent parallels between the stages of Jung's theory of individuation and the images on the Tarot Major Trumps. Jung draws a clear distinction between the first and second halves of life, each having its own characteristics and challenges. I found that by arranging the 22 Major Trumps in a figure-of-eight pattern (the symbol of eternity suggested in the hats worn by traditional depictions of The Magician and other Tarot figures), the first 11 cards pointed outwards and the second 11 pointed inwards, with the reversal at the noon of life represented by the crossing of The Wheel of Fortune and The World. Jung said, "At the stroke of noon the descent begins".

Encouraged by this, I wrote my analysis of each Major Arcana card with Jungian theory in mind. A book that I found most useful at this time was "The Way of Individuation" by Jolande Jacobi.

I wasn't influenced by anyone when writing my book. Madeline Montalban, who wrote a monthly article on the Tarot for 'Prediction' magazine from the '50s to the 80's, inspired my interest in the subject, but she had no particular interest in Jung and didn't interpret the cards from a Jungian perspective.

I am not familiar with the book by Barbara Walker that you mention, but now I will look out for it. Of course, a number of authors have linked the Tarot symbolism with Jung since 1972. Obvious, really - I just got in early.

Barbara Walker's book

Hello mr. Douglas

Thank you for your clarifying reply. The book I mentioned is titled: 'the Secrets of the Tarot, Origins, History and Symbolism'. Written by Barbara Walker in 1984. ISBN 0-06-250927-6
This was the!! book that had the 'figure of eight-insight' as it's main theme.
This was the first time I came across your name because Ms. Walker mentioned it.

greetings,

Patrick

Alfred Douglas said:

...next week I'll explore the possibility of printing from the plate on to the glossy art paper used for posters suitable for framing. These prints could be rolled and posted in a tube safely. Would anyone be interested in acquiring a signed copy of one of these?

Click to expand...

I couldn't read this without smiling! "Yes!" I'd be interested!

Also it seems I now have two 1st editions of your 1972 book...
the Great Britain and the USA printings. More importantly, they
are significantly readable and I recommend it whatever printing.

Clearly your many contributions to Tarot's art and scholarship
have stood the test of time and grown over the years as well.

---

Re: References

From a reference in "The Painted Caravan" by Basil Ivan Rákóczi
I've also begun reading "Lavengro* & The Romany Rye" written
by George Borrow. (*The Scholar, The Gypsy and The Priest.)

Thanks again!

Variant cards

You might be interested in the process by which David Sheridan and I arrived at the Tarot designs that appeared first as drawings in my book, and then as a coloured deck of cards.

I would begin by writing the text describing the significance of a particular card, then discuss with David how I would like the illustration to look. In the case of the Major Arcana this was straightforward; I wanted each card to follow the traditional pattern quite closely. The Minor Arcana left more room for artistic licence, but the drawings should illustrate some of the exoteric and esoteric aspects of each card. We followed AE Waite's lead in attributing the cards to the Golden Dawn's Tree of Life scheme, and deducing the appearance of each Minor Arcana card from its position on the Tree. Sometimes the results resembled Pamela Coleman Smith's imagery, but often they didn't. I think the Thomson/Leng deck, an early infliuence, also crept in subconsciously.

Sometimes David would produce several drawings of one card before we could agree on which one was right - there are five quite different versions of the High Priestess (Papess), for instance. But at least with the Major Arcana he couldn't stray too far from the traditional pattern. The Minor Arcana was a different story. Often he would come up with a drawing that bore little resemblance to my description. He would say, "I've thought about it, and I think this is what the card should look like". I would take a deep breath and say something like, "but we've been at this for two years already and if I keep having to rewrite my book to match your cards we'll never be finished. Just try to draw what I've asked for. When we're done, you can then design your own personal Tarot deck and it can look like whatever you want".

So we agreed on that, and finally the deck was finished. Sadly, David never got round to completing his own Tarot deck, but I kept the designs that never made it into the book because some of them were beautiful.

Here are a few drafts for the Tarot deck that got away...