Cult of Tarot Forum

hello! i've been working on a tarot deck based on lyrics by the songwriter joanna newsom. it's kind of niche, but i figured i could post at least the court cards here as they're based closely on the tarot de marseille court card poses (sans horses).

i have three suits done now, and each suit is based on a particular album.

the suit of BATONS is based on the milk-eyed mender. specifically the page goes with the song "inflammatory writ," the knight with "sadie," the queen with "three little babes," and the king with "sadie" as well (the title track). this album is from 2004 and was seen as part of the "freak folk" trend so i tried to keep the arts and crafts feel in the outfits.

the suit of COINS is based on have one on me. the page goes with "occident," the knight with "ribbon bows," the queen with "in california," and the king with "have one on me." the title track is about the dancer lola montez, so the king is based on portraits of her and in general i wanted a victorian feel for the outfits.

the suit of SWORDS is based on divers, and birds mentioned on the album. the page is based on a nightjar, the queen on a mourning dove, the knight on a canada goose, and the king on a loon. this album has kind of a time-traveling theme and as influences she names writers like joyce and proust so i tried for a 20s neoclassical thing.

and now the only one i have left is cups! thanks for reading!

These are absolutely exquisite and I sense behind them a lot of insight and detail. I'll have to take the time to listen carefully to the lyrics of the songs - I mentioned once that I don't really understand Joanna Newsom's songs - and then I'll understand your cards better.

I hope you'll be showing them all to us as you go along. I for one will be looking out for them eagerly.

I'm hugely impressed.

Diana wrote: ↑05 Feb 2020, 17:56 These are absolutely exquisite and I sense behind them a lot of insight and detail. I'll have to take the time to listen carefully to the lyrics of the songs - I mentioned once that I don't really understand Joanna Newsom's songs - and then I'll understand your cards better.

I hope you'll be showing them all to us as you go along. I for one will be looking out for them eagerly.

I'm hugely impressed.

thanks diana! i have three suits done, 6 of the major arcana that i'm happy with and 11 of the major arcana that i want to redo. i've been sharing it mostly to joanna-newsom-fangroups instead of general tarot because i don't want to come across as ~making my own tarot system~, if that makes sense. i think all my choices are within the realm of meaning of the cards but a lot are non-traditional. e.g. i'm making all the figures "feminine" since it's based on the work of a woman.

another example, for "the lover" i used the song "esme":

The phantom of love
moves among us at will.
Each phantom-limb lost,
has got an angel
(so confused,
like the wagging bobbed-tail
of a bulldog):
kindness, kindness prevails.

this song is about a child. i think that most of the joanna newsom songs that explicitly mention romantic relationships have a dark tone. but the sentiment of "esme" and especially those lyrics, to me, fit the marseille card so well. i posted my drawing to reddit (i'm not going to repost here since it's one i'm redoing, i'm not happy with the composition) and some lady berated me for corrupting the tarot because i didn't want to draw a heterosexual relationship. anyway, i don't want to be confused in that way with wanting to change the tarot, i'm just fitting the songs into a tarot format

EDIT: i forgot to mention, you may be interested, joanna newsom has taken inspiration from tarot though i'm not quite sure exactly what. there's only this cryptic statement from an interview in 2011 (after her third album was released):

RH: What’s your favorite kind of character?

JN: It changes, always. But I will tell you this: there’s a slim little deck of cards constituting the available archetypes, and, in a public capacity, I have used three.

i finished the court cards for CUPS, here they are!
the suit of cups is based on the album "ys"
the page is based on part of "sawdust & diamonds" ("the little white dove, made with love, made with love, made with glue and a glove and some pliers")
the knight is based on "cosmia," the cloak is meant to be like moths' wings. (my XIII is based on the same song, so this creates a similarity between the two cards like in rws)
the queen and king are both based on parts of the song "only skin." the queen has just emerged from underwater in "webs of seaweed," the king is high in a treehouse reviving a little bird.

Hi arlecchino, somehow I missed this thread. What a lovely concept and such charming images. Are they made with fabrics? They're very special - however they were created.

Yo
I have looked at your cards and i think they are truly amazing.
Are you sure your not Vincent van Gogh´s child? May you have traded your soul to become a great artist (joke aside).
You should be proud of yourself.
Im currently trying to make my own deck of cards. But im not nearly as good at drawing as you are.
Best wishes
/ cloudberry

The images look like watercolour and coloured crayon - beautiful. I'm embarrassed to confess that I never heard of Joanna Newsom but I'm off to remedy that situation. Oh what a wonderful deck this will be. Absolutely unique esthetics.

Gorgeous music!!!! It reminds me from afar of German singer Bobo who re-interprets songs based on classic German lyrics.

!! This looks so great! I hope you plan on making this available somewhere...

These cards are awesome!! Looking forward to seeing it when it’s complete. I’d purchase that in a heartbeat.

Thank you for all the kind comments! I haven't been on here in a while I actually finished all of the pictures and I'm working on doing a Kickstarter to fund printing!

The pictures are all done with marker and colored pencils

cloudberry wrote: ↑09 Apr 2020, 13:19
Im currently trying to make my own deck of cards.

^ I hope it's been going well!!

Nemia wrote: ↑09 Apr 2020, 13:58 It reminds me from afar of German singer Bobo who re-interprets songs based on classic German lyrics.

Thanks for the link! I recognized her voice from "Engel" I'll be looking for more of her own music!

Hello again! I finally have the Kickstarter campaign running for this deck, it's called Anecdotes Tarot