I’ve been working on a Tarot deck with insects and arachnids as the characters and using my own drawings as illustrations for the deck. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve heard about this deck before but I wanted to do a post about it here.
Bugs are important but unloved
Bugs are extremely valuable to our ecosystem and food chain. We need them to pollinate fruits, flowers, and vegetables, or we would get almost none. We need them to act as a recycling system, to bring dead animals and vegetation back to the Earth.
Some plants, like certain flowers, aren’t able to blossom without an ant eating the sweet layer and releasing the bud, and some plants aren’t able to grow without insects removing a layer from the seeds. Plus, they’re an important food source for other animals.
Bugs help us, and the rest of the planet thrive
In addition to being an important part of our lives, they make a rich, beautiful, and grounded metaphor for the transformations and challenges we go through in our lives and the choices we make. That’s why I chose them for my Tarot deck which I’ve named The Arthropoda Tarot Deck.
Why did I create a deck?
Being both an artist and a Tarot reader, I decided to combine art, Tarot, and the bugs to do something out of the ordinary. Bringing something new to the world of Tarot because I like being different.
There’s still quite a bit of writing to do and the back face of the cards to create. But I can see the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It’s taken about 150 coloured pencil drawings to do this so it’s taken a fair amount of time. since I started the first drawing in May 2015.
Why call it The Arthropoda Tarot Deck?
I chose it because Arthropods is the family that includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans, and I didn’t want to leave out the arachnids 🙂 I wanted a Scorpion for the Death card and a Spider for the Devil and they’re just as unloved as the insects.
How did I decide what bugs to use?
Before I started the drawings, I checked my interpretations for the cards and decided on an image that would fit the interpretation. I chose certain insects for each suit, so I stuck to those for the minors and did individual bugs for the majors.
How were the card designs created?
I first sketched them out in pencil and then drew them in coloured pencil. Once the drawings were finished, I scanned them. Then I increased the contrast and removed the background on the computer before placing them in the Photoshop template for the cards.
The suit symbols for are also hand-drawn by me but the characters (letters/numbers) are a computer font called Black Chancery. I’ve set a specific colour for the characters for each suit as well, so they’ll be identifiable both by insect and by colour.
How will it be published?
I’ve chosen to self-publish this deck since I don’t have the connections to publishers needed to get it published. Self-publishing a deck takes money so I’ve decided to make it available for pre-orders.
To view all of the cards, click the button below
On that page, you can also pre-order the deck.
Some of the individual insects and arachnids are also available as prints (posters, prints, clothing, mugs etc.) here: http://bit.ly/BugPrints
And all of the cards are available as prints (prints, t-shirts, stickers, cards) here: http://rdbl.co/ArthropodaPrints
Spread the word
If you can’t order it right now because you don’t have the money, that doesn’t mean you can’t help get it published.
Get the word out and make some noise about the project. Talk to your friends about it, share it on social media. You can use the images on the page to share it.
If you tag me when you share it, I’ll make sure to thank you personally. I appreciate any help you can give me with this.
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