Noticed some things in the Baroque Bohemian Cats deck

Ok, I've been going through the cards & noticed some tiny details that are intriguing. For instance:

The Sun—There are three very, very tiny human figures in this card on the balcony on the top left, bending over as they look down at the gardens below (tourists?). Those are the only human figures I’ve seen in any of the city backgrounds. Baba, is this you, Alex and a friend up there?

10 of Swords—only 9 swords hover over him, is that 10th one waiting to drop, like that proverbial ‘last shoe’ to end it all? Possibly. Maybe he’s laying on the last one. Maybe it’s coming at him from a different direction.

8 of Wands—only 7 of them are up there in the air. Ok, misprint that puts it into Collectible Aspect! Whoo Hoo! Or, maybe it’s just not in the frame of the picture yet - they do take up an awful lot of the sky. Maybe that’s why the cat’s so amazed? He sees the REALLY big one coming down behind the thin ones?

3 of Pentacles—There’s a hazy bottle nose dolphin swimming past in the extreme upper right of the card, under the hanging curtain, looking down at the singer on the card. Tell me it’s not there…he’s got a white blotch around his eye & you can see the grin & the nose. (Ok, I’m the kind of person who watches the windows in the background at a movie to see if the camera crew is reflected in them when a shot pans across! It happens sometimes!)

The Chariot—He’s got people eyes! Yellow with green irises and black pupils. I thought there was something disturbingly weird about his expression. And that gold guy on the left has Donald Trump’s hair!

7 of Wands—The fighter cat will win every time! Know why? He’s got a stick, everyone else is wielding giant pretzel sticks! (Sorry, they do look like they’re covered with salt crystals & I was hungry when I did the first look through the deck…). Fighting against the fragility of pretzel sticks, no matter how large, gives him an edge, just like being on the high ground does.

Death—Call me a Buffy fan, call me weird. But remember the episode where she & the gang had those dreams where the First Slayer came after them in dream sequences after the monster Adam was vanquished? Remember the guy with the cheese? (“I wear the cheese, it does not wear me!”). The scene where Buffy has the First standing in front of her…and this cheese guy leans slowly into the camera frame from the left & shakes the cheese slice like a bell & then leans slowly back out, making the scene really surreal? Take a look at the bottom left of the Death card. Aaarrgh!

Anyone else got those 'little things' to add?

(URL for the pics are over here: http://www.bohemian-cats.com/cards.html )

Well, I did notice the 8 wands being only 7, and the dolphin, but the eyes of the cat in the chariot didn't look unusual for a feline, and the other things I may have to pull out the magnifying glass to see if I can see what you see....your interpretation of the symbols were very personal and seems to really personalize the cards for you!

ROTFL!

Hudson! My goodness, this is QUITE a list. Well, swords, wands and the rest - yes, one is hanging in the air invisibly behind - the thing that is going to drop but that you don't see (this began as an accident and then we liked it and left it - and yes, we have had a somewhat crazy debate on whether we do this if we do the limited edition or only on the smaller version - and yes again, no-one notices anyway mostly).

The eyes of the Chariot? No, those are real feline eyes. Honest. I will take another look - but we didn't change the eyes that much, so if they are human-looking, well they are like that in the real cat I think. Have you managed to decifer the background of The Chariot yet? It takes a lot of looking at, but is worth it.

Humans in the background? No, not us I'm afraid. But there is more of this sort of joke in the book in fact. There are three little humans in one scene, but really very tiny and I doubt that anyone will see them. But sometimes humans may be there simply because WE didn't see them you know It can be hard to spot all of them and remove all when we are photographing in a really touristy area.

Pretzels? 'Fraid not Hudson (though it's a truly wonderful idea, I love it). They are bamboo. Note the fighting cherubs behind please. Yes, even cherubs fight (shocking!)

Bottle-nosed dolphin? Eh? But there is a grinning fish in the Strength card - I challenge you to find it!

Other things, well... I don't want to just give all away but there is lots and lots going on.

I'm about to redo the website - and to put up far more pictures of the book, but for now, I'll just presently post a link or two. In some ways the book is quite different, in other ways, it has some of the same jokes and oddities going on.

We like a certain humour in things. I don't think it makes them less serious, but it does add a certain something.

We are in very "Jan Svankmajer" mood right now (the famous Czech surrealist, animator who has just had a major retrospective here) so expect a move into something considerably more bizarre from us this year. We LIKE bizarre, as long as it is also warm and funny rather than "nasty". You know what I mean?


Oh, okay, for now, one that is both bizarre - in that way - and funny. Notice the wedding of Death and The Devil here? That's the kind of touch we enjoy. (sorry, BIG picture, but it needs to be).
Oh - and yes, the guy from the ToP Ten of Wands is there - we could not resist...

http://www.bohemian-cats.com/images/puppet_workshop_small.jpg

So - here is another one (hmm, I ought to begin a competition really...)

Spot the tarot cards. Actually, it's pretty easy!

http://www.bohemian-cats.com/images/scratch-sleeping_crop.jpg

This is good Prince Scratch the morning after a hard night of roistering with balls of wool, cards, cream and - oh, is that a feather?

Note angel-doggie-bank!

and one more (I am on a bit of a "high" as the book finishes printing in the next couple of days and we got a silky ribbon gold bookmark added in! - haven't seen one of those for years).

Here is a theatre scene in which you may see many familiar characters as well as some new ones. We are hugely fond of the Diva Cat (Three of Pentacles) so she gets a little feature...

http://www.bohemian-cats.com/images/theatre-panorama-copy.jpg

Okay, I had better stop! I'll get some of these images up on the site soon anyway, so if you have the deck (edited to add - well, even if you haven't!) you can always browse online around more aspects of the Bohemian Catdom.

I wonder if all this adds to readings? I hope so.
I know that someone here said that they don't like a deck to draw you into a distinct world, but, well, that's partly what this deck is all about. To us, this IS a world - and we have loved living in it this past year. It's been odd and interesting to construct more of the world after doing the deck - to me, that has added a lot to the cards. But it can also make my readings with the deck almost too layered perhaps?

Anyway... enough for now!

baba-prague said:

the book finishes printing in the next couple of days and we got a silky ribbon gold bookmark added in! - haven't seen one of those for years

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oooh, sounds wonderfully deluxe! Karen, will you be selling the book from your website? I saw a link on the book's page to order from Amazon...but I thought if you were selling it too, that might entice me to add on a print, so I have a BBcats print to hang with my Tarot of Prague prints. The biggest trouble with ordering a print is that there are so many tempting choices!

And Hudson Gray...pretzel sticks! Oh great, now I'm going to get thirsty every time I see that card!

Blessings,
Sally Anne

Yep, there's a dolphin in the 3 of Pents, right under the tassles. Someone else saw it too so I'm not crazy. Dolphins 'sing' (ok, sonar) but they have to be masters of it or they don't survive--sort of goes with the meaning of the card, ya know? Thought you hid that up there for us.

I see the grinning fish--he's got TEETH! Hmm.

Ok, I see the collars on the guys with the leashes in the cat's paws, for them to move the chariot they've got to do it by foot pedal since there's no other locomotion connected to it (sort of like those swan boats that people can rent at park lakes maybe?). Sure, I see them pedaling furiously down the street with the Somali standing behind them, Donald Trump & the other guy like some refugees from the movie Goldfinger or something.

The mural behind looks like a chariot with 2 sphynx's resting on the shaft, letting the Pan/Satyr creature do all the work, only aren't the wheels bogged down in mud? Or is that water? Maybe that's why the Sphynx's are staying where they are on the shaft so their feet don't get wet? Poor Pan, he's got a smile on his face, so maybe he got them all mired in the muck?

I like the new pictures, especially the white cat & tabby in the theater box. But what size is that bird that dropped the feather in the room with the sleeping cat? Does he have an ostrich meandering through his home?

I still like the pretzel idea though, even if it sort of defrays the fight on the 5 of Wands card (hey, maybe they all came from the Mall with their pretzel sticks, it IS a big building behind them).

the bird in the cage, on the 5 of swords. hehehe! The bully cat not only defeated the dejected kitty but took his prize dinner.. err I mean BIRD!

HudsonGray said:

I like the new pictures, especially the white cat & tabby in the theater box. But what size is that bird that dropped the feather in the room with the sleeping cat? Does he have an ostrich meandering through his home? .

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In fact, in the theater scenes many ostrich feathers appear, so yes, I suspect that he DOES have ostriches wandering around. This is Bohemia, in real life Rudolph had a lion wandering around his apartments, so why should Prince Scratch not have an ostrich?

Well, in fact, it might be a Pelican, but that is a whole other story

I have just seen the dolphin!

Lb