First day of the New Year: time to leave behind the old issues; the old pain. Time to forgive. Time to let go of that which no longer serves us. Time to make lists of what we want for ourselves in the months ahead. Time to set goals.
My big commitment for 2019 is to complete half of the cards in my Tarot deck.
I've been talking about it for years, with vague thoughts that I would actually work on it, but I am finally committing to it. I've finished about seven cards in the past couple of years and those images have always resonated with my buyers.
This is a project that I know can benefit me spiritually as well as giving my artwork a direction for the new year.
The Tarot is a card deck, used for spiritual insight as well as "fortune telling". The decks is divided into two distinct parts: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana most closely resembles a traditional deck of playing cards; with four suits from Ace to Ten with four court cards in each suit.
The Major Arcana is a series of 22 cards (number 0 to 21) that tell the tale of the Fool's Journey. His journey through the Major Arcana is a spiritual journey from innocence to enlightenment.
The Fool is the beginning and the end. He is naive. He is fresh and uninformed. He is wise. He is all knowing. His number is zero as he stands outside the Major Arcana and yet is the key to all. I am starting my new journey of working on my own deck by beginning with the Fool.
The two of us are starting this path together. It's a long journey that we have before us and I know there is much for me to learn.
(I know that there are many different schools of thought and tradition as to how to best to interpret the cards of the Major Arcana from Tree of Life, Kabbalism, and many, many more, but I am choosing the interpretation of the Fool's Journey as it fits in with my plan for the year as well as it being the interpretation that I first learned and has always resonated most strongly with me.)
I want to approach this project in as immersive a fashion as I can. I can work the meaning and the symbolism into my abstract art as well as my poetry. I can meditate on what we can learn from the Fool and each card as I make my stops along the way. I hope to deepen my understanding of the cards and interpret them in new and interesting ways.
Come with me as we journey into the New Year and continue to learn and evolve much as the Fool learns and evolves on his own journey.
I hope that by the time we reach the end of the Major Arcana we will be more enlightened and much less the innocent Fool.