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Tarot, Katrina, and Jackson Square

Getting your Tarot cards read in New Orleans' Jackson Square was a ritual -- one of those authentic, local-color activities you simply had to do. Almost every client I read for here in Jackson has, at one time or another, sat down opposite a Jackson Square reader. Whether you loved them or hated them, admired them or considered them to be con artists, the street readers of Jackson Square added an undeniable dash of color, spirituality, and New Age mysticism to the melange that is New Orleans.

And now, for the most part, they're gone.

The Best Little Deck They've Never Heard Of

No, this isn't the story of that elusive, archetypal, original Tarot, designed by some mysterious magician centuries ago. Instead, it's the story of my own Bright Idea Deck -- and it's a cautionary tale, especially for those of you who are interested in designing and publishing your own decks someday.

Here are some insights into the little deck that could have -- and should have -- found a larger audience than it ever did.

Preview: Tarot of the Elves

Exciting news! Yesterday, I received a ZIP file containing the final artwork for my upcoming deck, the Lo Scarabeo Tarot of the Elves.

Back when Riccardo first invited me to script the deck, I admit I hesitated. In the end, though, he overcame my resistance by asking, "What kind of elves deck would you design if you had the freedom to do something really different and really exciting? How can you 'push the envelope' of the elves?"

So: I set myself some ground rules.

Ebay Auctions Underway Again

After taking a short break from the auction business, my eBay auction of more than 200 decks is underway again. I'll be posting between five and ten decks for sale per day, many of which are rare, out of print, and hard to find anywhere else.

Keep your eyes peeled -- and don't forget you can track all my auctions on the auctions page of TarotTools.com.

Tarot Card Widget for Apple Computers

If you're an Apple computer user interested in a card-of-the-day approach to Tarot, you might be interested in Jeffrey Coggins' Tarot widget.

The widget, made to reside on the Apple OS X dashboard, adds the "day, month, and year together" (how?), and uses that number to pull one of twenty-one Majors from the Rider-Waite deck. (The Fool, number zero, "cannot be chosen, since whole numbers greater than zero cannot add up to zero.")

I'm always on the prowl for great Tarot software. If you know of any -- especially titles for Apple computers -- please leave a comment or drop me a link via email.

Mona Lisa Tarot

Not long ago, the folks at Lo Scarabeo approached me with an idea: would I be willing to help develop a Mona Lisa Tarot?

"Hmmm," I thought. "An entire deck, based on a single painting?" My main fear was that the deck would be too repetitive, or that, after hours and hours of research, we would discover the background material wasn't rich enough to support the development of an entire deck. I was also having a great deal of trouble grasping the concept: what, exactly, did my Italian friends want to see in a Mona Lisa Tarot?

Working with Lo Scarabeo

Have I mentioned how much I love writing for the team at Lo Scarabeo?

Riccardo, my primary contact there, and the other folks at Lo Scarabeo work very differently from their U.S. counterparts. More and more, deck publishers here in the States focus on decks tied to market trends. (To be fair, they have to take this approach. The American Tarot community is very small, and publishing funds are tight.) The Italians, on the other hand, will actually publish decks just because they "think this kind of deck ought to be out there."