View single post by hoo
 Posted: Fri Aug 19th, 2011 02:13 am
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hoo



Joined: Fri Jan 29th, 2010
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 Hello- My name is 'hoo', and I am a pathological procrastinator. While working on this Tarot card project I made the amazing discovery that this otherwise unfortunate personality defect plays a central role in my creativity. I learned that I create by some sort of an alchemical process. My commitment to the deadline provided the container, the 'aludel', the 'pix', or the 'bomb'. My procrastination created the heat and pressure as the deadline came nearer. When I finally did begin the work I had only the cold dark substrate of my imaginary talent. So I decided to try mixing in one half of the ingredients from the famous traditional recipe for a lucky wedding: "something old", and "something borrowed". Eventually, under the influence of the forces described above, the whole mess sublimated into an ether of pure ineluctablity. Then, waiting till the very last moment, just before there was an explosion, in a final act of desperation, I found myself grabbing at these free floating bits and pieces of ephemeral sublimate and holding onto them until, with the pressure now subsiding, they cooled, collected, congealed and hardened into the images you see in the cards.
No real thought or planning went into them. I waited to start on the project so long I didn't have the time to think or plan. Miraculously, they seem to possess a certain magical appearance which is far far beyond my natural ability. A pure accident caused by desperation under intense pressure.

The 7 of Wands exhibits this process and result. Seemingly random elements have come together to create a scene of startling appearance and possible mystical significance. It appears to be a lamp post from the corner of Market and Stockton Streets the day after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, a tree in the wind, and 2 illuminated bushes in Golden Gate Park. Or could the lamp post really be a magical scepter and orb, with Daphne (the famous original "tomgirl" of ancient Greece), and two Ovidian Dryads gathered around it for either a "pow-wow", a battle or perhaps even a dance, in that same park ?
- Waite says of the classic 7 of wands card that it signifies "A card of valour... six are attacking one, who has..the vantage position. On the intellectual plane...Discussion... Negotiations... Competition... Success. Reversed: Perplexity, Embarrassments, Anxiety." This may be why the tree Daphne looks so tempestuous, but the 2 bushes seem to kneel in surrender or supplication. 6 wooden arms raised before a single iron rod. I don't know for sure, because I did not really design this card. Like anyone else, I can only wonder what the heck it signifies. I think it means that battle is really just a dance. After all, you can never actually win an argument with a lamp post, or a tree. (Thus the "embarrassment".)

The King of Swords shows a king slashing with a sword, and a dragon comfortably perched upon it. This card joins the Knight of Swords (designed by Philebus) in having a political message. But where the Knights political message is clear ("Live By the Sword, Die by the Sword"), I have to confess that, because of the mysterious alchemical process fueled by my procrastination, which created this image, I cannot really say just what my politics are !

The 7 of Swords - A woman tied to the hypnotic 'wheel of death' and 7 thrown swords which she has just barely escaped / or, reversed, which appear to have drawn blood.
- Waite says "Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarreling, a plan that may fail…"
So here too the ineluctable alchemy beyond my conscious control which has created this image has produced an uncannily appropriate confluence of seemingly disparate images.
Somewhat tellingly, perhaps, the woman is Diana the Huntress. She wears her signature Lunar Tiara, and the Leopard Spotted Panties of a Goddess.

Wheew - made it...Thanx for putting up with me people (and cats).

Last edited on Fri Aug 19th, 2011 08:49 am by hoo
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