Tirage-en-ligne: dodalisque reads for Charlie Brown

[dodalisque]

Once more with feeling! If you don't have a personal question, I'm happy to try to answer a philosophical question or a fanciful fictional or historical question.

[Charlie Brown]

I would like guidance on how to most effectively disseminate and/or promote the current creative project that I'm working on.

[dodalisque]

Question: I would like guidance on how to most effectively disseminate and/or promote the current creative project that I'm working on.

[Tarocco Soprafino of F. Gumppenberg 1835 (Il Meneghello 2000)]


Temperance (14) / Emperor (4) / Strength (11) / Fool / Sun (19)


The 5 card Tirage-en-Ligne contains a single simple message: the way you deliver or present your new work to the general public should be diametrically opposed to the emotional tone of the work itself. That is, if your work is highly refined and sophisticated, the packaging should be bloody and brutal; whereas if your work is viscerally powerful, the advertising material for it should be ornately formal.

This dramatic contrast is exhibited on the central card in the conflict between the two figures. A noblewoman in fine clothes and a splendid hat is wrestling with a savage, naked beast.

Looking at the first mirrored pair, the difference between the Emperor (4) and the Fool could hardly be more extreme. The first is the richest most powerful man in the land, while the latter is a penniless beggar. But the differences between the two figures goes a little deeper than that.

The Emperor's clothes, and especially his boots, are too big for him. He looks like a child dressed up in adult clothes. The lace bib around his neck and the trim around wrists is the sort of thing we associate with children's clothing. He does not have the strength to hold his sceptre upright, even when it is resting on his knee. That yellow bird that he is resting his other hand on should be a mighty eagle but looks more like a sleeping turkey.

The Fool on the other hand, who is actively moving forward rather than passively seated, has a bristling beard and strikes a muscular, swaggering pose. The dog on the Fool card in the French TdM tradition is actively pestering the Fool or even tearing at the seat of his pants, but this dog seems more like playful pet. This Fool is too virile and strong to put up with any nonsense from such a small animal.

The other mirrored pair, Temperance (14) and the Sun (19), again seem like opposites. The winged angel on Temperance is standing as still as a statue while performing a very delicate operation, whereas on the Sun card the man and woman staring amorously into each other's eyes are dancing with their arms linked together. Temperance exudes purity while there is a sexy vibe from the couple on the Sun.

So the two cards on the left represent gentility and seem to correspond to the woman on the Strength card, while the two on the right are more exuberant and seem connected to the power of the lion. That central card combines the two elements - outer appearance and inner content - that you need to meld into a single product to present to the general public.

Well, that didn't amount to much, so I thought I would do a subsidiary reading that might have more to say about the business end of things, which is perhaps what your question was meant to be about. For this I am using the Weekly Planner Tarot Spread, with a card to represent each of the seven days of the week. The cards are from the Tarot de Marsella (Pablo Robledo 2013), and I drew just from the 16 court cards to demonstrate what qualities you need to encourage in yourself to sell your work.

1) Take a closer look at this: Page of Wands
The page has inverted his club so that it looks like a large pencil or paintbrush. If this new creative project is about music then perhaps you need to pay more attention to the lyrics; if it's about painting then you need to use larger brushes.

2) Don't worry so much about this: King of Swords
Don't worry so much about overseeing every little detail of the production, or about winning every battle. You don't need to prove yourself anymore, you're already the king.

3) Beware of this danger: Queen of Swords
Aggressive women. I notice the King and Queen of Swords are facing each other head on.

4) Hold tight to this: Knight of Coins
You need to hold tight to your money, which is floating out of reach of the Knight of Coins like a balloon. Or on the other hand, perhaps it means that if you are looking to exhibit your art, it might be worth holding on tight to the idea of investing in a trip to a gallery in another city or country.

5) Learn to appreciate this: Queen of Wands
The size of the Queen's club and the beauty of her golden hair is what jumps out at me from this image. So, "big is beautiful"?

6) Stop pursuing this: Knight of Wands
This Knight has been distracted and is turning from his chosen course. Remain focused and do not divide your energy between different projects.

7) Seek this: King of Cups
This is a simple instruction to "follow your bliss". The heart is king, and you need to be driven by happiness and satisfaction rather than money or ambition. Your enormous pleasure in your own project will produce the kind of enthusiasm that will draw people to it.

[Charlie Brown]

Well, that didn't amount to much,

Actually, it was 100% on point.

[dodalisque]

Well, that didn't amount to much,

Actually, it was 100% on point.

Thanks, CB, that makes me feel really good. Questions about work and business always fill me with dread because I've never been any good at finding work for myself and have no idea how business works or "things" get done. Cheers.

[Charlie Brown]

I'll post more detailed feedback when I hve the time.

[Charlie Brown]

It's been a week or so and I didn't re-read your reading super closely right now as I write this.

So I think the big takeaway that I got from your reading was the idea to balance out the content and the presentation. That actually, was a big lightbulb moment that solved a lot of problems for me.

At the present moment, I'm working on a music album in lieu of writing King Lear. I don't recall if the two of us have ever discussed my erstwhile music career, but what little reputation I had and/or continue to maintain is based on being highly, if not overly, serious. A composer with a capital K as someone once put it. In any case, my current project is 1) primarily entertainment (fun) music 2) completely divorced from anything I've previously released and 3) meant to raise money for charity.

So to make a long story short, the reading led me to the idea that I needed to re-tool my notions around how to publicly present the work. Since it's 'fun' music, I had been planning on giving a wacky and jovial element to the titles, art, etc. But, now, I'm going to present it on a par with how I would package my other work. Just because the music is "fun" doesn't mean it's without value nor that the project as a whole doesn't have any underpinnings of substance. By "elevating" it into my "official canon" I'll perhaps be able to leverage whatever small amount of juice i have left for a little more attention and, hopefully, a few more dollars for these causes.

[dodalisque]

That's great to hear your musical creative juices are flowing again. When we first started talking a couple of years ago you were going through a dry patch, and the weight of expectation was a topic that kept coming up in readings. Maybe your strategy of taking up drawing, a new field for you where you didn't feel any pressure to excel, is what helped kick-start your new work.