Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Ideas for a Neuro Tarot

Taking an idea from Lowell Francis, I’m working through a neuro tarot as a means to help me with the games I run.  He defines it as, you could make a your own version of a tarot deck reflecting the ideas, images and concepts most important to you.” You can find his article here. There are two articles that go into the concept further here and here. I am probable to use it with the concepts presented in Microscope, as well. Lowell walks us through using it in a session here.

I’m not going with my own thoughts/ideas for this quite yet. Instead, I’m going to combine ideas of things I like. The major cards will be represented by the Tree of Life, as represented in various schools of thought…Gnosticism, Qabbalah, etc. The minor cards will be various ideas that I want to incorporate in some manner. These are largely just concept cards and represent the first stages of my own neural tarot. The suit cards are based on 5 of the angelic orders.

Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress and nothing is near finalization. I still have much work to do with the imagery and definitions of each card.

Card Count – 68
Major Cards – 10
Suits – 30 (5 suits of 6 cards each, could be expanded to 7 cards each using the concept word)
Minor Cards – 28 (4 sets of 6 cards each and 1 set of 4)

Major Cards
words in parenthesis are a current array of imagery

Kether/Thaumiel  (the king) – Unity, kingship/Duality, anarchy, corruption of leadership
Chokhmah/Chaigidiel (the queen) – Wisdom/Arrogance, confusion
Binah/Sathariel (the knight, female) – Understanding, revealing/Judgmental, concealment
Chesed/Gamichicoth (the page, male) – Kindness, mercy, youth/Ruthlessness, laziness
Geburah/Golab (the hardboiled man) – Severity, strength/Prideful destruction
Tipareth/Togarini (the femme fatale) – Beauty/Falsehood, the dead
Netzach/Harab-Seraph (the samurai) – Eternity, openness of love, victory through honor/Death, rejection, victory through betrayal
Hod/Sammael (the merchant) – Splendor/Rotten, barren, desolation
Yesod/Gamaliel (a group working together in a field) – The word, foundation/Misshapen and polluted, destruction
Malkuth/Nahemoth or Lilith (a group planning together around a table) – Kingdom, kingship/Lacking in unity or purpose; frightening sounds in strange places, causing strange desires

Suits
Suit name is in bold, concept of the suit is in italics, cards are plain-faced

Powers
knowledge
truth
guardian/defender
peace & order
knowledge
warriors
physical realm

Principalities
protectors
governance
politics
religion
administration
organization/large groups
freedom to act

Dominions
leaders
travel
lordship
consistency
order (maintaining it)
freedom (of the soul)
balance (of the spirit and body)

Thrones
justice and authority
healing
light
justice
humility
stability amongst people
the planets

Virtues
workers of miracles
grace
valor
might
elements
miracles
heavenly bodies

Minor Cards
Elements
Air
Earth
Fire
Spirit
Alchemy (not sure about this one)
Void

Directions
North
East
West
South
Height
Depth
No movement

Places
Mountains
Hills
Plains/fields
Forests
Deserts
Cities

Weather
Snow
Ice
Rain
Fog
Lightning
Clear

Life (can these be worked in somewhere else?)
Love
Birth
Death
Vengeance

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