A sneak peek at a little side project, The All-Seeing Eye Psychic Gypsy Witch Black Cat Fortune-Telling Oracle Cards™ (working title).
Something for ‘old fans’ of classic RB pen and ink, complete with harpies, sphinx, and other mythological creatures. Basically this is ‘prêt-á-porter’, while the Tarot deck is my ‘haute couture’ (and still hermetically sealed in secrecy) – two completely different animals.
I plan to do 32 of these bilingual oracle cards, have completed 14 thus far. When these two projects are finished, I’m done working the small size department!
I will probably do a crowdfunder when it comes to printing them up, but prior to that, if anyone would like to make a donation to support my work and speed the process up a bit, I would gratefully accept. Don’t know what it will end up costing, but hopefully I can keep it cheap n cheerful, while still printing locally.
Addendum:
Although I’ve tried to distinguish that these are oracle cards – a side project that is unrelated to my Tarot deck – I’ve been made aware that not everyone automatically knows what the difference is – my bad for assuming. So, here’s the lowdown:
Tarot cards follow a specific order and system. Although it was not always so in the past, these days they generally follow the pattern of traditional Tarot de Marseille; 78 cards = 22 ‘major arcana’ or ‘triumphs’ plus 56 ‘minor arcana’ or ‘pips’. The pips are very much the same as ordinary playing cards, except that now it is customary to fully illustrate them, following the example of the popular Smith-Waite [Rider] Tarot. The ‘triumphs’ (you can use the English word, but these days we prefer not to) are established archetypes, in an established order, and while many of us are inspired to be creative in their execution, they must be based on this system, or it isn’t Tarot.
Oracle or Fortune-Telling cards are different. There are no rules other than keeping them simple, as they tend to be more of a popular affair, not layered with esoteric meaning. There is no set number, and anyone can learn to read them. Sometimes they follow the ‘Lenormand’ system, wherein playing cards are included in the images. (This is due to card readers of yore using regular playing cards). Of course now we use Tarot primarily for divination, which is why people may think it’s all the same thing. But Tarot is all that and so much more.
The RB cards I have given you a peek at here are of this latter tradition. And actually, they are not my first – I made a (much smaller) deck in the 1990s, with illustrated fortune-cookie fortunes. You can see/read about them here.
Here’s one more for the road…!
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All works (except examples of older cards) are copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission and a link. Thank you for being respectful.