the urnash tarot
cloudswinger
Egypt Urnash said:
You know, the Japanese view of the elements has 5, the fifth being void. There aren't a lot of decks with 5 suits. The Chinese also had 5 elements, but they were slightly different. It bugs me that the Feng Shui Tarot deck only has 4 suits, when the basis of Feng Shui is the 5 elements. What a mismash that is.
Anyway, I like your deck a lot, and whether you choose to do a 5th suit or not, it looks great. I can't wait to get a copy.
Egypt Urnash
9 of Cups
I go back and forth on the fiveness of suits. The pragmatic truth is that coming up with the meanings of a whole new suit and doing evocative drawings is a lot of work; if I was seriously going to do a deck with five whole suits I'd have gone with some other ideas lying around for the size of the suits - 1/2/4/8/16/32 of each suit, or some other patterns like the first few primes. (Powers of two come naturally to me sometimes, what with the time spent fooling with assembly language back in the early 90s.)
A court of Void is something I'm still debating. I think the real decision on that will be after I've settled on roughs for the 'normal' courts, because I'll have made enough sense of them to decide if they merit the addition of something between an absence and a raw potentiality. I will, however, certainly resist the temptation to make them Amber fan art.
I go back and forth on the fiveness of suits. The pragmatic truth is that coming up with the meanings of a whole new suit and doing evocative drawings is a lot of work; if I was seriously going to do a deck with five whole suits I'd have gone with some other ideas lying around for the size of the suits - 1/2/4/8/16/32 of each suit, or some other patterns like the first few primes. (Powers of two come naturally to me sometimes, what with the time spent fooling with assembly language back in the early 90s.)
A court of Void is something I'm still debating. I think the real decision on that will be after I've settled on roughs for the 'normal' courts, because I'll have made enough sense of them to decide if they merit the addition of something between an absence and a raw potentiality. I will, however, certainly resist the temptation to make them Amber fan art.
Little Hare
I really really love your work, there is something so cheeky and refreshing about this deck... its seems so utterly unique
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phoenixblu
now this is a deck i would buy.. i love unique quirky decks but havent seen one that clicked... this.. has... 
Egypt Urnash
4 of Wands
Thanks, folks!
I suspect that the cheekiness and uniqueness stem from the same source: I'm refusing to base my images on existing imagery; I'm working exclusively from text references and trying to carry the intended meanings in my art. That, and the fact that I'm still a bit of a smart-ass sometimes, with little to no respect for "tradition"!
Thanks, folks!
I suspect that the cheekiness and uniqueness stem from the same source: I'm refusing to base my images on existing imagery; I'm working exclusively from text references and trying to carry the intended meanings in my art. That, and the fact that I'm still a bit of a smart-ass sometimes, with little to no respect for "tradition"!
cloudswinger
Yes, a fifth suite deck would require a bit more thought than just adding a bunch more cards. I've done some assembly code too, so that binary thing would be interesting. Could also be interesting to do sets with hexadecimal suites. Square numbers could also be interesting.
5 is a very common number in nature, as in number of fingers and toes and petals and starfish arms. The book of five rings has a book of void. Maybe it can help with the court of void.
I've been mulling this idea, although I'm nowhere near the artist you are.
Are you doing a fool, or does the 0 of void replace that?
5 is a very common number in nature, as in number of fingers and toes and petals and starfish arms. The book of five rings has a book of void. Maybe it can help with the court of void.
I've been mulling this idea, although I'm nowhere near the artist you are.
Are you doing a fool, or does the 0 of void replace that?
Alta
I also enjoy looking at these cards. They have a sly humour about them that appeals greatly. One thing about adding a fifth suit, it will cut down those who accept the deck. And no, they won't simply set it aside, as a good tarot reader respects their deck and its integrity.
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Egypt Urnash
Cloudswinger, I'm not just planning to do a Fool; I'm planning to do three Fools. I got the idea from the way some Thoth decks include three Magicians, but I have my own sets of resonances that made the joke into something serious. The 0 of VOID is a different flavor of nullity than the nullity of the Fool - rawer, not personified.
I've got sketches for all three Fools but I haven't touched 'em in Illustrator; partially because the first one is just not working as an image, partially because it seems like those are going to end up being some of the last cards I do. The journey may start with the Fool walking off a cliff, but it looks like it's where my random walk through the Tarot ends.
Alta, the issue of people possibly deciding to give this deck a miss due to a fifth suit is a good one. I'm already worrying about stretching people's acceptance by adding the 0 and the 99s, and with my casual disregard for a lot of conventions about what a Tarot card "should" look like. Still, I had to play with it for a bit, as people in a couple different places suddenly asked if I was considering a 5th suit. When it starts to look like the universe making a suggestion it needs serious consideration!
Anyway, as always, thanks for the kind words. Back to work on the 9P...
I've got sketches for all three Fools but I haven't touched 'em in Illustrator; partially because the first one is just not working as an image, partially because it seems like those are going to end up being some of the last cards I do. The journey may start with the Fool walking off a cliff, but it looks like it's where my random walk through the Tarot ends.
Alta, the issue of people possibly deciding to give this deck a miss due to a fifth suit is a good one. I'm already worrying about stretching people's acceptance by adding the 0 and the 99s, and with my casual disregard for a lot of conventions about what a Tarot card "should" look like. Still, I had to play with it for a bit, as people in a couple different places suddenly asked if I was considering a 5th suit. When it starts to look like the universe making a suggestion it needs serious consideration!
Anyway, as always, thanks for the kind words. Back to work on the 9P...
Egypt Urnash
