Monday 17 September 2012

Hexagonal tarot cards

A Psychographic Orrery. Imagine a cube, with Spirit [highest potential and purest form] above and shadow [distortion and over-identification] below, and the four other elements [fire - instinctual, air - mental, water - emotional and earth - physical] around the sides, all expressions of a central energy. Each of the hex cards is a such a cube. There are 11 spheres, 22 paths and 6 elements. Place one card down as the 'significator'. Add a row of 6 around that, then another row around those. You have a map of the psyche, showing what is - potentially - coming in at the edges. Looking at where the cards join, see the paths of identification open to you. The worded cards give a challenge to meet when travelling a particular path. With the hex cards in the set shown here, contemplate the possible meeting point of the symbols portrayed. Some 15 years ago, while asleep, I dreamt how all things fitted together, and knowing I was dreaming tried to bring this through the liminal threshold to consciousness when I woke. Somehow I was granted this and did, saw a way to express this in 2 dimensions [plus movement], and made the first set of cards that day. You'll see the reading hinges on which aspect of one force meets which aspect of another. Of course it is not really in just two dimensions, but this is close enough to what I can understand and express. I'm putting these up in case anyone wishes to print them for personal use or construct their own version. I'd love to publish a version that is a tiled map, like an isometric video game using tarot imagery. I wish I had more time! Feel free to disgree with and change any aspect of the arrangement [elements, etc.]. All correspondences here are from Crowley's 777 or Will Parfitt's tables. If I rendered these with traditional oblong cards, I would have an ordinary tarot deck with 2 extra suits, Crowns and Shadows, for the virtues and vices from liber 777. You'll realise that the elemental 'castles' or courts are all the regular court cards of that suit, with added characters expressing the virtue and vice. The sphere cards show all the suit cards sharing the same number. If you're not getting the idea of cubes from these hex cards, put you thumb over one corner to see it. What to make of these cards? Lets say each describes an aspect of someone, or rather anyone. So to describe this aspect to you I'm saying, "Spiritually they are original, which is their greatest virtue. Mentally they are stimulating, they are emotionally expressive, they have a drive towards wholeness and they are physically energetic. Their biggest vice is that they can be impractical." It is also like that game which goes, "If you were a gem you would be an opal or agate, because you are bright and complex. If you were a bird you would be a heron, because you are so quick! If you were a tree you would be an ash, because they are so magical."