Jamaican Tarot – The Majors Part 1

So, I was in Jamaica recently on holiday and thought for fun I would try and create a Tarot deck with my iPhone while I was there. It was not easy. I found myself stretching my mind and sometimes only using small aspects of the card or at other times going with puns or metaphors. I’d love it if you would pitch in what you see in the cards an what you think I was aiming for. The person who gets the most right in this series will get a free reading or 1hour private lesson. I will be posting all the images over the next week or so.

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The Majors

The Fool

The Magician

The High Priestess

The Empress

The Emperor

The Hierophant

The Lovers

The Chariot

Strength

The Hermit

Fortune

Justice

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Kelley Snodgrass July 22, 2011

3 comments on “Jamaican Tarot – The Majors Part 1”

Pingback: Jamaican Tarot – Part 1 « The Hermit's Lamp | Tarot
Maryke July 15, 2011

I love your images! I do not get the meaning for the magician. I love the symbolism of the lovers the way the coral the ?fish provide for each other, their lives intertwined and better because of the other.
The fool brings joy to me just seeing the smile on his face, he looks like a friend who could be there for you but also sometimes get into trouble with you. 😉
The high priestess. the power of the wave a force you could never control, sometime harsh, strong and powerful, sometimes calm and soothing. My fav pic!

The hermit – Love your shadow against the wall! So full of expression!

I don’t really care if I win the reading Andrew, I just really wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your personal expression in this creation! Best of luck to you!

Maryke
Kelley Snodgrass July 22, 2011

Fabulous collection of photos, Andrew. What a mind you have! Great use of the i-phone.

Here’s my take on your images

Fool:
Youthful energy ( not androgynous, but hey!) Yellow shirt & towel: breath of life Prana
White orbs –the spiritual sun, cigarette is the fools wand, Off balance weight of photo
Gives the “fall into the abyss” metaphor some life. Eight spoke wheel (eight fold path of life or 8 as the symbol of rhythmic activity..Smile of the youth is care-free

I note the seven pointed “star a trial and error” indicator “perfection through trial and error” Don’t think its classic fool stuff but…

The Magician:
Earth, Air, Fire and Water with the wand of focused attention. White binding could be the uroborus. There is an above to below defined by North South orientation of the wand and package …also the package is organization and focus, order (by intelligence) over the natural world. Mind over matter. Packet vs. Ocean: Self-consciousness vs. unconscious

The High Priestess:
The ocean says it all with the shore depicting the vast dualities: creation itself the huge potential power. No sun.

The Empress

The sea gives birth, the green of fecundity. 1+2=3 The abstractions of consciousness and unconsciousness differentiating into one of the many varieties of life form. Shapes suggest womb with embedded seed/egg in gestational phase. Water and sunlight=creation birth life

Emperor
Red hot mars and fork (rhymes with four and has four tines)Aeries a fiery sign
Cubic stone (classic tarot) we have (possibly?) a salt shaker (also cube via NaCl salt crystal is cubic) ceramic cube like shape and stone counter top. Bottle has a central commanding presence

Hierophant
Stair to higher self, this view could be from within the ear looking out through a tangle of hairs: the ear that listens to the still small voice from within, the viewer is the consciousness of listening for this voice, pope is pontifex a bridge to another world (see stair) Grey sky (grey results from equal mix of complimentary colors = balance of opposites = wisdom, I can see the popes crown in the banister supports.

The Lovers
Union of opposites, rock/life…black/white…solid gossamer The Gemini disposition to examine and investigate ( a “biologist’s specimen photo”)

Chariot:
This is a slam dunk: a field and the fence enclosing it. Cultivation/ wild. The definition of ego as a fence or boundary between self and not self.

Strength
O.K. this is a stretch…the black is the edge of a large figure eight (female magician)
Also methinks we have the tartan of clan MacGregor A clearly self-conscious reference. The tartan is the result of basic conscious choices which result in the pattern we see. The patterns we set create the realities we experience. Change the pattern —change the result.
Through your informed and conscious efforts you tame the lion. This is subtle strength not brute force

The Hermit
Very cool image! The hermit and the lamp from the perspective of the shadow of the hermit cast by the lamp. Nice job! The shadow self, the concept of a “will/ force” originating in the personality revealed as an illusion, a distortion.

Fortune
Another great photo! Some obvious references: fortune teller, the wheel of life, wheel of fortune (horoscope) Cause and effect (see duplication in photo of fortune teller). Tarot and JANA (inverted V vauv makes an N so the mirroring of person and photo and V against inverted V mirroring making the name Jana yod he vauv he and TARO are woven on the classic tarot wheel (BOTA and Rider Wait) I realize that this is an over the top cabbalistic mind game (but part of the tarot heritage.). The act of reading is an act of reflection. But don’t mistake the map for the territory: (photo (on the table) vs real human (behind the table) –both depicted in the Andrew photo-card).

Justice
Lamed means “to teach” so this sign teaches you what not to do. Also it is an indication of an authority to be reckoned with. The words “signed management” (which is a kind of grand pun on the whole idea of reading tarot, “managing the signs” the readers job and also management by sign (the querrent’s job). Scales of justice represent a balance and the image in the photo depicts a left/ right symmetry. The number 11 can be seen in the structure of the sign. The bottom of the sign and support struts are a slam dunk for the classic central figure’s breastplate “ T “cross. 1+1 =2 (high priestess –see the sea. The mars red letters: strength, force of law.

That’s it!

Thanks Andrew. Lots of fun.

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Jamaican Tarot – The Majors Part 1

The Majors

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