Meta-Barons Tarot: First Cycle

[Ciderwell]

Saw this deck today in my local Tarot shop. I'd not heard of the Metabarons but the name Jodorowsky caught my eye. He had tried unsuccessfully, back in the 1970's, to make a Frank Herbert Dune movie. As the new Dune remake will be in cinemas soon I took a chance on this tarot deck.

My initial reaction on opening the Lo Scarabeo box was like how I remember as a kid opening a packet of trading cards - I could almost smell that stick of gum! The card pictures are taken from the Graphic novels, with plenty of glorious colour and detail by the artist Juan Gimenez, (who sadly died in April this year from Coronavirus):

The spread from the little white book, as follows:
1. Initiation/ conflict
2. The Hero/ dealing with conflict
3. The Arm/ strong points, resourses
4. The Future/ the outcome

Question: Have I got the Deck Stork to bring me an applicable Graphic novel, (from one of the many expensive books) to accompany this tarot deck?

4. XVII the Stars/ the stars we observe today in the heavens come from the past - Differing points of view.
3. The Magician/ great power or great deceit? - Initiative, lateral thinking.
2. Six of Chalices/ Aghnar conquers Oda - Life, relief.
1. King of Pentacles/ Aghnar is the first Metabaron to inherit the title - Valorous, getting over the past.

Conclusion: Thumbs up!

The character Aghnar appears three times in this first spread, as Magicain, Oda's friend, and as the first King. Which shows there is a tight relationship between the cards and their mystical tarot cycles. Each card is closely interconnected with the other.
Metabarons' Tarot is simply superb for Sci-Fi enthusiasts. And should be a good deck to work with, revealing for me new ways of reading tarot.

[Ciderwell]

Two Kings tonight - the return of Aghnar King of Pentacles, and Othon the King of Swords.
The adjacent two cards represent the two spacecrafts that will flyby Venus on the 9th and 10th of August.
I'll leave these cards face down untill then.

Question: what will be my mission on the 9th and 10th of August?

The graphic novel I ordered did not arrive today because I'd used an out of date bank card. Silly me! I had to reorder and should arrive tomorrow. I realise now that I don't know how to read these cards, not until I know the stories behind the characters. So for now I'll just have to wing it with the little white book:

1. Initiation - ripples in the space time continuum! King of Pentacles on top of things.
2. The Hero - perseverance and patience. King of Swords, ideal back up.
3. The Arm - Solar Orbiter 9th of August
4. The Future - BepiColombo 10th of August

[Ciderwell]

Had me a perfect Saturday so I asked the Metabarons how I might preserve the day. I drew the Knight of Swords and the LWB says Anger/Desperation, which isn't quite right! However the picture is actually very accurate as my world had seemed to tilt by several degrees.
I'm sure the Knight of Swords will make more sense when I reach that part of the Metabarons story. In the meantime I took a scan of the picture; merely for archives purposes I might add.

[Ciderwell]

Question: what will be my mission on the 9th and 10th of August?
3. The Arm - Solar Orbiter 9th of August
4. The Future - BepiColombo 10th of August

The Arm -
I decided my mission would be the construction of a waa-waa guitar effect. Not a stomp box or a pedal mechanism, just a very simple snazzy tone control. On test the unit performed much better than I'd imagined - nice clean sound with just enough boost to give a low growl and soft meow with the main amplifier drive switched in.

The Future -
Stage 2 will connect the eight cables to a control panel - battery & on/off switch, input/output sockets, and tone control knob.
An extra cable has been included for an optional add on automation circuit.

With Stage 1 completed I turned over the two mystery cards. The 3 of Pentacles & The Empress. Both cards are featured in Chapter 1 of the graphic novel so their meanings are closely related:

The Barons lived on a planet made almost entirely of marble. They sold marble in blocks by the thousand, for any dynasty that could afford to build marble temples and palaces. They used a secret antigrav element that made the blocks light as a feather. They were then able to move the blocks from the quarries to the transport docks with ease. After their secret accidentally got out, and to prevent a galactic war of greed, they sold the antigrav element to the rulers of the galaxy the Emperor and Empress. The Barons asked only for a new and fertile planet where they could retire and live in peace, and ...

"And?" said, The Empress.

And a horse from the DNA (extinct animal) Archives. Shazam (see above) became the only living horse in the entire galaxy.

[Ciderwell]

I thought I might try the 7 card Horseshoe spread, both to see more cards and to give a little continuity to the previous post.
I asked the cards more for advice than an actual question and in doing so decided to complicate things, just for good measure!
As I am in a sci-fi frame of mind the spread is now an expanded version based on an idea of 'The Cosmic Horseshoe', a twin galaxy in the constellation Leo.

7 cards will remain face down which I'll look at after I've made some sense of the first 7.

Reading from left to right
1. The past - 3 of Cups
2. The present - 9 of Swords
3. Hidden influences - 7 of Wands
4. Myself - 6 of Swords
5. Attitudes of others - III The Empress
6. What should I do? - Queen of Swords
7. Outcome - 3 of Swords

Well I've only seen three of these cards as I'm just half way through reading the graphic novel: 6 of Swords, The Empress, The Queen of Swords.

4. Myself, is forced to sell the secret of Castaka to the Empress, (and Emperor).
5. The attitudes of others is in the past tense with The Empress.
6. Therefore, I should follow the advice of Honorata, Queen of Swords:

The two top cards are the most interesting to me. 3 of Cups has a pyramid that looks like the picture jasper stone from the first post, and 3 of Swords has an odd looking globe somewhat like mine! There is definitely a crossover and mergence of purpose and meaning - all very promising and in a positive light.

Now I can't hardly wait to see what lies hidden on the other side!

[Ciderwell]

The story so far ...

Honorata, The Queen of Swords was sent by the nun-witches as a gift to Othon. She was to conceive an hermaphrodite child in order to make an androgyne. The child would be proclaimed Emperoress of the galaxy. But instead she gave birth to a male through her love for Othon.
Honorata had been booby-trapped, (if you'll excuse the pun). The nun-witches had replaced her heart with a quantum explosive device. The bomb could be triggered if she failed in her mission.

So my question is how did Honorata fall in love with Othon without a heart?
Was the bomb partly organic, or when the nun-witches found out they were betrayed and Honorata went supernova, was this simply a metaphor of the love she felt for Othon? These things weren't explained, so can the cards do the explaining?


Today's spread is the Pentagram with two central significators, the Queen of Swords and The Empress.

1. Spirit - The Magician
2. Earth - 2 of Wands
3. Air - High Priestess
4. Fire - 2 of Cups
5. Water - 8 of Wands

The Emperor and Empress unable to have a child used all their science and technology
to impregnate the Empress. She gave birth to an abomination - Siamese twins, joined at the neck and shoulders!

(Honorata, Queen of Swords) 7 of Swords - IX Hermit (the Empress)

Answer: Too much deceit and duplicity to make any real sense of this reading. Thick milky!
The super-louse High Priestess seems to be the card obstructing communication, inspiration, and forward movement. Fortunately the 7 of Swords falls into place with The Hermit, as Honorata taking her son Aghar the Magician into exile to be trained in the art of witchcraft. Reminiscent of Jessica Bene-Gesserit and Paul Atreides fleeing into the deep desert of Dune.

In conclusion I'll go with metaphor, I do like that idea!

[Ciderwell]

That was quite a trip reviewing The Meta-Barons tarot, and I've really enjoyed trying things out as some things worked and some things didn't. I found this tarot deck too advanced for me, though if I wish to progress I'll need to go back to the source: watch some of Alejandro Jodorowsky movies, maybe look into his mystical psychomagic.

Catching a glimpse of the meaning of life can be wonderous and magical, with the Metabarons, it can also be dark and twisted.
Good things come to those who wait ... but be careful what you wish for, you might not like what you see.