Thank you for all your kind comments so far..
I will be adding more information and scans to my blogspot, so feel free to keep checking it.
The deck is a co creation between myself and my husband, and we are glad to hear that people like the border, this is also part of work in progress and hadnt been fully decided yet which border to use, the red border being one we liked the most so far...
To answer those questions.. the reason why we chose Eklektikos as the working name of this tarot ...
Eklektikos stems from Greek, meaning "to choose"..
in philosophy, the selection of elements from different systems of thought, without regard to possible contradictions between the systems.
Also eclectic's meaning of ...
Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles.
These ideas represent all that we want to incorporate into the tarot system, being inclusive of many elements, be it historical ,cultural, botanical, the animal kingdom (animal totems and natural animal behaviourism) and symbolism ( alchemical, traditional, occult based etc)
Also to answer the Question why use the elephant in the king of pentacles card..
The cards include many animals, for their meanings ,be those totemic or animalistic or from their natural behaviours.
In this case the grandeur and the connection to the natural environment ,the family orientation of the elephant and many other reasons added to it being chosen for this card.
Without giving too much away, as my husband will be doing a write up of the cards ,their symbolic meaning etc for the decks book, the animals all have some symbolic meaning to add to the cards.
The feel we wanted for this tarot deck, was of a natural, "green" deck, including as many natural elements as possible. And this is highly reflected in the artwork, one part that i hope helps to give the deck a certain feel and consistency of themes.
Thank you again for your comments and welcome more