Obviously, I don't know which will come to pass as of yet, but time will tell

Fool

As the Fool seems to me to be a journey, I wanted something that depicts just that�the beginning of a journey. The colors are softened to show that things are not always clear when we begin something. The road bears off out of site, once again contributing to the "unknown" quality of the card. Is it a wise journey or a foolish one? That can only be found during the journey.

The butterfly shows a beginning�often as another part of life. Starting as a caterpillar one's views are geared toward what is seen in that body, but when we take on the garb of the butterfly, a whole other world opens up to us. Will it be happy or full of woe? That will depend upon the turns taken after the journey has begun.

High Priestess

I didn't know what I wanted for the High Priestess. I would often draw this card for myself in various readings. Gee, what a concept.

For me, the tarot is my means of seeking out that hidden knowledge. So, what better way to depict the High Priestess then by making the user see thru her eyes.

Notice the "veil" over the table. Things aren't always clear. This fits in well with traditional symbolism in which the High Priestess wears a veil or sits before the veil which separates the outer area from the most sacred. It is almost annoying, making you want to rip it out of the way so you can see more clearly.

The dark background adds to the mystery and secrets of the card.

Empress

This card was born of my feelings that the Empress was a card of healing. This cat came to live with us in secret when she was quite young. I found her when she was about 6 months old. We had pledged no more pets, but something inside of me could not let her go. So, the adventure of helping her to not bolt at every sound and to trust being touched began. She naturally has a star in the third-eye position, adding to the intuitive aspect of the Empress. There is much more with this card, but I will reserve that story for the book.

Emperor

This Emperor is not what most would think him to be. The Emperor in this card is actually the man dressed in the least colourful outfit with hands raised; no gun�just a walking stick.

In 18th century military, the commander of troops was more then just the boss. He was responsible for the well-being of his troops. He was responsible for the punishment of his troops. He was very much a father figure.

Totally in control, willing to go into battle with his men; here he trusts his well-trained men to take care of the battle. He's done his job well enough to rest assured that they will make sure nothing happens to him. He understands the consequences of his decisions�even when that means the death of those in his charge. The Emperor does not sit on his throne out of arrogance. He sits on his throne because he's earned it.

Hierophant

My Hierophant was born from years of BAC (born again Christian) living. Having left that life far behind, this card seemed to be a freedom cry.

What I saw was the mask that is worn; so few ever showing their true nature, their true selves for fear of rejection. Instead they wear the masks that look like everyone else. I never did quite fit in, so this center mask stands out from the rest. This makes the entrapment all the more poignant.

The collar represents the bondage I put myself into by following things I did not believe. Notice that the chain goes off to the side. Someone else holds the control, which had to be handed off to another. The bars are just one more symbol of feeling imprisoned. Note that there are no bars behind the "figure"�only the representation of "his" faith, which may or may not be an illusion.

He could leave. He can take back control of his life. He can cast off the mask. The masks that hover in the corners have no chains, as some do not feel the bondage which I felt. They also are quite content thinking like their peers.

Strength

In this card, I wanted to show potential as well as extremes. Lots of blank space leaves room for growth.

The strength and often fierceness of the lion and the gentlness of the kitten are portrayed as well as how they might each be the shadow side of each other.

Wheel

For some reason I got into the "wheel of time" mentality with this card.  The hourglass seemed to say more about the passing of time with me then a clock or wheel would.  You can see when the sand it running out.  It creates a kind of anxiety when you're trying to "beat the hourglass".

Believe it or not, this came to me while watching "Days of Our Lives".  I grew up with this show...watching it beside my grandmother.  That hourglass became a part of my psyche.

I included each suit on the card.  The corners are set up in a North, South, East, West manner, albeit, at an angle.  I'm always reminded of "Wheel in the Sky" when I draw the Wheel card.  Go figure.

Death

Death is a reality of life. It is also a necessity of life. By showing the tiger with its kill, it is showing the harsh reality of death. I'm also trying to depict a kind of "chain" of life. The flower on the bottom feeds the butterfly which is eaten by the bird, who, in-turn, is food for the snake.

The adult tiger kills the antelope�a young tiger sits at the top of the card. If not for the death of the antelope, the young tiger would die. It is all tied together. That is why the circle is there.

Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, creator of Tarot of the Crone, helped me with the final touch of the circle. Thanks to her generous spirit, the circle took on the color of blood�a touch that was missing until she kindly gave her insight.

Devil

The Devil was my first card. I wanted to give a feeling of being in the card, thus the lack of borders and keywords.

This card needed to feel like a self-made prison. The chain extends off the bottom of the card, giving the sense of the user being the prisoner. Lights shine in from the sides, hinting that there may be ways out of the present situation.

While you do not see the lock, you do see the key beneath the mirror. To me, the words "To Thine Own Self be True" are a key to unlock many a chain that binds us. By being willing to see yourself clearly (the mirror), and get past your fears (monsters on either side of the chain) you can get what you need to be free.

Moon

In this card, I wanted to give the feeling of illusion. The water is there for intuition, the moon as well. The ship was something that to me could be either a vehicle for the journey or a prison taking you where you don't want to go.

I place a lot of salt in the fact that we are the "captain of our own ship". I wanted that to come thru in this card. Either you pilot it or it takes you where it will.

The sea monster tentacle is one thing to depict either illusion and fear or that which we conquer in our journey. It all depends on how we make that journey.

Judgement

I started this card out as Death. Once I got going, it started to have a feel of Judegment. I couldn't make up my mind. After polling for the thoughts of others, it became Judegment.

The bottom of the card has dark feathers and clumps of dirt. The bird ascending is light in color and the falling feathers are white to show the change that's taken place.

I wanted to show something rising out the base into something higher, giving us all that possibility.

1 of Swords

"Things are simple in the beginning". Here I wanted the air of the swords. Below the sword are flames. I wanted to show the "good coming out of something bad" idea.

With the flames, it is also possible to use the swords as fire which some decks use. I, however, use them as air.

The bird flying lends an air of freedom to the card. We often feel a sense of freedom when we've "escaped" something bad.

The sword is a weapon, used to take life, protect life, all at the same time. This sword is still untouched by blood.

3 of Swords

The 3 of Swords came to me as I awoke one morning. I was suddenly remembering an incident when I was a child. I was no older then perhaps three-years old.

I had a pet snake. It was small and green. I walked into the living room one evening to find that my father had nailed my snake to a board. There it was, writhing in pain, its mouth open in silent screams.

I didn't understand why it was being punished like this. I was told that it had bitten me.

A friend asked if the snake was crucified with three nails. At the time I didn't remember, but after further thought, it is possible that this is part of what spurred this card. I wanted the heart to seem to writhe in pain. Even emotional pain can bring such a physical reaction. I also needed it to seem behind something mist-like. We can't always see things clearly when we're in such agony.

8 of Swords

This card mimics the RWS version except that I did not like the captured aspect. Instead I decided to depict the "after escape" part of this card. I wanted to show more of the possibilities rather then the negative aspect. You may be able to see the footprints leading off toward the water. To me, water can be a very healing thing.

Queen of Swords

This card came to me via a dream. When I awoke, I did some research on owls and their place in the spiritual world. Much of what I found fit with what I was feeling. I tried to capture the feeling of the dream, but of course, nothing can really do that.

1 of Wands

Here I wanted to get the fire in the card. Repeating myself again, �Things are simple in the beginning�. I was definitely going for the phallic symbolism here.

Water is often used to depict sex. I get this card a lot for readings about sex.

I had some trouble with this card at first. I couldn�t get the orbs to look right. Then I did some personal research and remembered that the staff should be in front of the orbs.

I used a walking stick to create the wands. But the straightness was bothersome to me, so I gave them the curvey look. They feel better to me that way. Since wands, to me, have to do with our inner selves, straight just didn�t cut it as none of us is without our little twists and turns.

4 of Wands

To me the 4W is very much about establishing roots of some kind. Although the site picture is a little blurry due to the reduced dpi, there are roots pushing down from the wands.

Within the sun are wedding rings...another form of "roots". Because wands to me are spiritual, this is also a card of "spiritual roots". Usually when we have roots, the strength of the situation is much more powerful.

5 of Wands

When I decided to do this card, I kept trying to figure out how I saw this card apart from the deck I use for readings. What were these guys doing with the wands? Then I had a flash...males with lots of testosterone and the competition, etc. This reminded me of my dog, who adamantly runs around making sure each bush is marked as his.

This is what inspired this card...dogs marking their territory. It can be such a sense of competition, that in spite of all the trees available to them, they would much rather re-mark the wands which have already been graced with another dog's scent.

Nine of Wands

I am a fan of Aesop's Fables and similar stories. I was pondering a zen story of the fox and the scorpion. This card is born of that story.

Queen of Wands

My first Court card. Done in first-person. I sat down and wrote down all of the qualities that make the Queen of Wands come alive to me. What I found was that she likes to be "center-stage". Thus, the stage, flowers thrown on it, and I still kept the black cat to depict her senuality.

Ace of Pentacles

I had a lot of trouble deciding on what my pentacles would be. I didn't want a coin as I didn't want it to feel limited to money. I also am not a Pagan or Wicca so I had no affinity to the pentacle as a symbol.

So, I tried to come up with something that would bring in the earth element with those things in the material world. I make meditation beads out of gemstones. This seemed like the perfect solution.

Here I wanted the pentacle to take on the feeling of the earth. This one seems to rise up out of the ground in the distance. The wagon is one for the harvest and this is in autumn.

"Things are simple in the beginning".

Page of Pentacles

Wandering through my pictures I saw this picture of our dog when he was just a baby. Suddenly I had a flash�what better to represent the Page of Pentacles then a puppy.

Everything a puppy learns is "earthly". The pentacle sits behind him in the rocks showing more of the connection with the earth element as well as the fact that sometimes pages don't pay attention to what's going on around them�a burden of youth.

5 of Pentacles

I felt this card needed to portray the destruction which can be associated with the five of pentacles. The tornado is almost an illusion at times, as can be the potential of the card.

Some of the pentacles are flying in the wind, some seem to be secured to the ground or tree. Life has things that are secure and others that take off in the slightest breeze. The overturned tree is there to represent when our lives get turned upside-down�when things are uprooted.

Beyond the storm, the rest of the area seems calm. Being so close to this whirlwind makes it difficult to see a way around. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't.

6 of Wands

Since the 6 of Wands is supposed to depict victory, I wanted to figure out how to show it in the simplest form.

What came to mind was when a warrior is greeted and walks beneath crossed swords. Since this is a wands card, I decided to still use that symbolism. The wands meet in the middle and give off a light.

Confetti drops from the sky as happens in parades. I've had comments that this is money dropping from the sky. That's good too. With success usually come financial benefits.

I wanted this card to feel "first-person" so I tried to give it the look of the user walking under the wands.

8 of Swords

Trying to figure out how to get the idea of speed across was not easy. I've always been an animal person. I watched every nature show that existed when I was a kid. To me, the fastest animal was the cheetah. (land animal, not air or water)

The wands seem to be flying thru the air, trying to keep up or outrun the cheetah.

I also wanted to make sure there was a slight blur to this card. When we're moving at such a furious pace, we have a tendency to miss out on what's going on around us. We can't always see what we need to when we're going so fast.

Ace of Cups

When I started the Aces, one phrase kept coming to mind, �Things are simple in the beginning�. With the Ace of Cups, I wanted to depict the water, the flowing emotions that accompany any new emotional or intuitive experience. I used a unique glass piece which I own as I like the blue colour and the uniqueness of the glass itself. Our emotions and intuition are unique to us. While we may be part of the larger �body� of the water, we still stand apart as this cup.

This ace underwent at least three lives before I decided I liked this one. The water shooting forth from the cup can indicate the way our emotions can sometimes spew forth. Since this is a beginning, the spray has not yet hit the calm surface of the water. We don�t yet feel the affects of letting our emotions run loose. I also felt that this can be the emotional side of the Ace of Wands and it reminds me of a climax as well.

4 of Cups

One day I was thinking about a situation. It involved stress for someone else. I walked by a printout on my wall that contained the 4 of Cups. My immediate reaction was "peace offering" and that gave me a different outlook on this card. While it is often seen as one of discontent, and that can still be seen in this card, I wanted to present that "peace offering" idea. Using Native American symbolism, the peace pipe made sense for the 4th cup. An Iroquois bark house sits at the end of the path. 5 of Cups

When I was thinking about this card, I was trying to consider the most extreme of it's feelings. If one were to lose the most important thing in their life, what would be a possible reaction. Suicide seemed the most intense.

Page of Cups

The inspiration for this card came from the fish. I was looking at another Page of Cups and the fish was looking out of the cup, then suddenly, what if I were looking at that fish�so, this card developed into first person thusly.

I added a palette to speak about creativity, a heart for the emotions and it is slightly broken to emphasize the pain we experience when we are young and in love. The moon for the psychic nature of this card, the book for learning as Pages are always learning. The music for it seems to be a cup thing to me and the DNA strand, for with this Page, I feel there is much more learning about our inner make-up; who we are, where we come from, and I wanted to take it back to its most base element.