The Vulpine Tarot

[Foxy Gekkerson]

Hello everyone, I'm Foxy Gekkerson, and I'm working on resurrecting my flagship project, The Vulpine Tarot!
It'll be a fully-illustrated 78-card tarot deck featuring 22 different species of anthropomorphic foxes from all over the world. I've got so many plans and ideas for the deck, and have done extensive research into several subjects to bring it all together.

I'm eagerly looking forward to collaborating with the forum and sharing my progress with everyone. I hope to make good use of this forum to help bring The Vulpine Tarot to life.

Here's The Vulpine Tarot's entry on the Cult of Tarot's Library of Decks, and a link to my deviantART gallery below that.

app.php/decks_v?start=4
https://www.deviantart.com/mabon-tail/g ... tarot-beta

I also have a Patreon account for anyone who wants to financially back the deck.

https://www.patreon.com/TheVulpineTarot

[Joan Marie]

As of the thread's initial posting time, The Vulpine Tarot is not yet up on the Cult of Tarot's deck list, but I trust it should be up soon enough.

hey Foxy, Send me the images etc. and I will add it to the library toot-sweet!
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=46

[Foxy Gekkerson]

I mentioned earlier that The Vulpine Tarot will be home to 22 different species of anthropomorphic foxes. Here is a list of them and where they can be found in our world:

North America

• Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) - Southern half of North America
• Island Gray Fox (Urocyon littoralis) - Six of California's eight Channel Islands
• Kit Fox (Vulpes macrotis) - Southwest USA
• Swift Fox (Vulpes velox) - Central US

South America

• Chilla (Pseudalopex griseus) - Argentina/Chile, Andes Mountains/Patagonian Steppes
• Crab-Eating Fox (Cerdocyon thous) - Brazilian Subtropical Forests
• Culpeo Fox (Lycalopex culpaeus) - Rainforest/Desert Plateau
• Darwin’s Fox (Lycalopex fulvipes) - Isla San Pedro, Chile
• Hoary Fox (Pseudalopex vetulus) - Brazil
• Pampas Fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) - Argentinian Forest
• Sechuran Fox (Pseudalopex securae) - Ecuadorian/Peruvian Deserts

Europe

• Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) - Entire northern hemisphere (also Australia, but they're not indigenous)
• Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) - Anywhere north of the Arctic Circle

Africa

• Bat-Eared Fox (Otocyon megalotis) - African Savannah
• Cape Fox (Vulpes chama) - South Africa
• Fennec (Vulpes zerda) - Sahara Desert
• Pale Fox (Vulpes pallida) - African Sahel
• Rueppell’s Fox (Vulpes rueppellii) - Sahara Desert/Arabian Penninsula

Asia

• Bengal Fox (Vulpes bengalensis) - Himalayan Foothills - India
• Blanford’s Fox (Vulpes cana) - Middle Eastern Steppes
• Corsac Fox (Vulpes corsac) - Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Northern China
• Tibetan Fox (Vulpes ferrilata) - Northeast India/Southwest China

I've also got a chart at least partially drafted of how I plan to match each fox to their respective cards. The Major Arcana is all matched up, but I haven't yet done the same for the Minor Arcana. Despite that, and the fact that the 56 cannot be divided evenly by 22, I still have a system to decide how the foxes and cards will be paired:

1. All foxes will receive exactly one Major Arcana Card.
2. Court-card foxes get their respective four Court Cards (five cards total)
3. Ace-rank foxes will receive two additional Pips (four cards total)
4. All other species will receive only two Pips (three cards total)
5. Foxes may not take two adjacent Pip cards, neither by rank nor by suit
6. Foxes are sorted into suits by habitat (pentacles=forests, wands=plains/grasslands, swords=mountains, cups=coasts/islands)

[Foxy Gekkerson]

Following up with my last post showing what species of foxes will be included in The Vulpine Tarot, here I'll share in the attached file how I've mapped them out to each card so far (I'll try to keep this as updated as I can.) The Major Arcana has already been charted out to my liking (at least with one arrangement,) but there's another one I'd like to at least try out, one where the so-called True Foxes (those of the genus Vulpes: Kit, Swift, Red, Arctic, Cape, Fennec, Pale, Rueppell's, Bengal, Blanford's, Corsac, and Tibetan foxes) are mapped out to the Zodiac cards (Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Justic, Death, Temperance, Devil, Star, and Moon.)

As for the Minor Arcana, I'm probably just going to play a little fast and loose with which foxes get which cards. I've already settled the situation with the Aces and Courts, so the guidelines I set for myself in my previous post should still give me a fair deal of freedom with the remaining 36 cards.

[Joan Marie]

I just added this deck to the Library of decks.

You can see it here: app.php/decks_v?start=4

[Foxy Gekkerson]

In the hopes of combating my ADHD and executive dysfunction (which is why I keep going dark on here and also why The Vulpine Tarot has been in development hell for over a decade,) I created a Trello board to keep track of my progress with The Vulpine Tarot. I also made it visible to the public. If any tarot or general planning experts want to help out or give advice, I'd love to hear your feedback!

https://trello.com/b/LhQdVaCF/the-vulpine-tarot

[Foxy Gekkerson]

I've got a new background experiment for The Vulpine Tarot's Ace of Swords. Right now, it's a WIP since I've yet to add the character. She'll be an anthropomorphic Rüppell's Fox leaping to the right edge of the card with a sword in her paws. It's the first time I've really sat down and gave Krita the old college try, and I'm really impressed with how powerful its digital painting capabilities are. I've had to drop Adobe since upgrading my Hackintosh to macOS Catalina. The latest operating system dropped support for 32-bit architecture, which means I couldn't run my old Adobe software anymore; I'm also too poor for Creative Cloud. Not that I'm really willing to upgrade, anyway.

I've also been doing some research for the deck, and I found a list of meanings for the Minor Arcana that should hopefully make storyboarding the rest of the cards much easier. From what I found, the Aces and Tens mark the beginning and end of cycles.

From Ellen Cannon Reed's The Witches Tarot:

Kether's number is one; Malkuth's, ten. The difference is zero—zip—nothing. The zero is a circle—symbol of containment, enclosure, concentration. There is nothing in Kether that is not in Malkuth. Malkuth is Kether manifest.

This Qabbalistic approach to the Tarot gave me a rather interesting idea: The characters that I end up putting here in the Aces, spectral anthropomorphic foxes carrying the symbols of their respective suits, could also end up appearing in the Tens. The only thing is, as I've planned so far, it could very well be the only time any character in The Vulpine Tarot shows up in more than one card.

Members of my Patreon can see my new artwork three days before everyone else, so join for as little as $1 per submission, and help bring The Vulpine Tarot to life! My gratitude to my patrons, Crystal Faolan, McDoopinDraws, im1witchymama, and BlueRiverDear1.

[Foxy Gekkerson]

Just a quick question for design choices. For those who have designed their own tarot decks, do you include a mix of wands and staves within the suit of Wands, or do you tend to stick to only one over the other?

[SaturnCeleste]

Just a quick question for design choices. For those who have designed their own tarot decks, do you include a mix of wands and staves within the suit of Wands, or do you tend to stick to only one over the other?

I don't create tarot cards, I'm not an artist but I do read them and if you don't mind my opinion, I would prefer one concept of either wands or staves. Just pick one and stick with it. To me it's kind of like using a few different fonts in an essay, it just makes it more confusing. I wish you luck on your deck, your pictures look great!