Today on the agenda

The chapter Cards, Books, Newspapers, and Other Arcana became Cards, and isn’t finished yet, and is already too long.

But I ran into three problems I didn’t forsee:

1) locating good card decks unrelated to tarot for writers whose religious beliefs would not permit them to own tarot cards;

2) recommending a few useful tarot decks out of the zillion or so available, and,

3) realizing that the deck I use most of the time is so racist and sexist that I cannot in good conscience recommend it, and have to consider dumping it from my own use—not easy, since this is the deck in which I found the Phoebe Rain “door” solution, and a dozen others that saved me from beating my head against a wall when my plots froze.

The deck is the Motherpeace deck, which does have a nice racial mix most other decks lack, but which is generally anti-male (with the exception of gamma males—essentially, gay uncles and members of the castrati choir), and vehemently anti-white-male, and built on revisionist history of the Barbara Walker, Marija Gimbutas variety. Back in 1987, when my first marriage was going into a tailspin and I was pretty anti-white-male myself, a friend in my writers’ group introduced me to the deck by reading for me. At the time, the deck’s blame-men philosophy matched mine.

Now I find myself having to admit that this is the deck I still occasionally use because I have twenty years of practice with it (as opposed to ten for the Universal Waite, the other deck I use), and because of its quirky, complex imagery and my ability to find funky solutions to plot problems in it.

Aside from figuring out the kinks in cards issue and finishing the Cards chapter, today I’ll also be writing the chapters Making Things and Chop Wood, Carry Water.

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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wisemoon
wisemoon
15 years ago

Hey Holly, your new Worldbuilding book sounds faboo. I use Tarot Cards in developing my stories too. I know what you mean about the Motherpeace deck; I started using it in the late eighties and it was useful in some ways, but I haven’t used it in many years for most of the same reasons you listed. I just don’t buy into the ideology behind it anymore and that makes it hard to use. I like the round shape and the multicultural imagery but the bad aspects outweigh the good for me these days. I recently picked up a copy of the Aleister Crowley deck, strangely enough, because I had always vehemently avoided it before–and the imagery in that deck is intense. I find it interesting to compare and contrast the imagery and symbolism between the Thoth deck of Crowley and the Waite-Smith deck (my first deck and the main one I’ve been using for twenty four years now). Crowley and Waite were both in the same organization but had very different views.

One of the things I’m doing for the story I’m working on is trying to come up with divination practices for the culture of my main character. I’m trying to develop a card-based divination system similar to Tarot but based on a somewhat different cosmology. It’s really a challenge to think outside the typical Western mystical tradition!

Katherine
15 years ago

Probably just as religiously dicey as tarot, but I’ve found I Ching cards helpful every now and then. The set I use (by Richard Craze) is probably too verbal for your purposes, but image-based sets exist.

Inkblot
Inkblot
15 years ago

I too would like to add my thanks that you would consider those of us who may not feel comfortable using tarot. Truly you are lovely, Holly!! 😀

Carol
Carol
15 years ago

Holly, I’m intrigued, can’t wait to read this. On another note I’m with LadyQ, and am grateful for your thoughtfulness. I’ve been reading your books and blog for some time now, only occasionally surfacing to make a comment. I don’t pretend to know you, but the things you reveal make me believe that you are someone worth knowing. Thank you.

jgm
jgm
15 years ago

Another fairy tale deck is the Magic Realist Press Fairy Tale Tarot. For sample cards, see

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/fairytale/

It is sold as a tarot deck, but the imagery is quite far from usual tarot imagery, and rooted in fairy tales and other stories.

And there is (again, a tarot deck, but with very unusual imagery) the Lo Scarabeo Universal Fantasy deck. This one draws its inspiration from fantasy fiction. Sample cards for this one can be seen at:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/universal-fantasy/

fionaphoenix
15 years ago

These are called “oracle” cards, so I’m not sure if they’d fall under the heading of Tarot. The artwork is great, though. Brian Froud is amazing.
http://www.worldoffroud.com/www/faeries/oracle/index.cfm

I used these as journaling prompts a few years ago (when I was also going through an anti-male phase, though these are certainly not biased that way.

LadyQ
15 years ago

1) locating good card decks unrelated to tarot for writers whose religious beliefs would not permit them to own tarot cards;

Wow, I’m touched by your thoughtfulness. I’m one who wouldn’t use tarot cards for exactly those reasons. I’m not sure that you *could* find any non-tarot cards, but I’m grateful that you at least thought to look. Thank you.

sundart
15 years ago

I have a Robin Wood tarot deck, which, while not particularly multicultural, is quite nice in other respects. It does include a limited amount of nudity, though, including male frontal nudity on the Lovers card.

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