The
Harbinger's
Tarot
The Harbinger’s Tarot is a deck of 80 unique, hand-drawn, hand-painted cards based on the Rider-Waite Tarot and elements of modern fantasy from Dungeons and Dragons and Tolkien lore. Originally done on watercolour paper with India ink, acrylic and gold gel. There was never an intent to print this deck; it was created as a personal challenge to keep running a consistent, long-term project, as well as a celebration of characters and what they meant to the artist — me.
When I started this deck, I had stained several sheets of watercolour paper and hastily trimmed them to size — again, there was no intent to sell or publish these. Sorting the cards out on a chart, only about 20% of the cards were accounted for in terms of a character or theme I wanted to dedicate them to. In the year it took to fill them out, more pieces fell into place for the creative puzzle, and it wasn’t until the last month did I have a fitting character for each card. The illustrating came over the course of three years with one additional year of production. Because of this, there are minor imperfections on every card.
Nothing was done in order, save for the first and last cards; the latter was honestly a technicality, considering I had paper leftover as spares. I was hesitant to start, knowing that even after the deck was finished, whenever that would be, I would create more characters who would fit the themes better in hindsight (which are the alts., "variations", listed on some)
That is exactly what happened. I do not regret any of what I created afterwards in relation to this deck, because it captures a single year of my creative life and career, spanning wholly within the pandemic era. Quite like the start of a sketchbook, I was unsure of where to start — fittingly, that answered my question: The Fool.
Reading Tarot
Tarot is highly interpretive, so everything explained here can be taken with heaps of salt. There are two sections: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana, the latter split into four suits. Within each suit, there are ten numbered cards and four court cards: the page, knight, queen and king.
Wands Suit:
The suit of Wands represents Spring, air, creativity and curiosity. It takes pleasure in matters of joy, wants, emotions, the arts, and imagination, amongst other personal factors.
Cups Suit:
The suit of Cups favours intuition and wisdom, stepping into a more mature and subtle realm than the youthful and fiery Wands. This suit represents Autumn and water, a transitional and transcendent period.
Pentacles - Suit
Pentacles is a suit that explores the earthlier nature of people and the world around us — either through desires or hard work and fruition. This suit represents Winter, both for its hardship and its serene beauty.
Swords - Suit
The suit of Swords is one of initiative, the planning stage is over, it is time to act. Summer is encapsulated in this suit, a symbol of passion, fire, intensity and fury. Though at times aggressive, this card builds on the imagination of the Wands and the careful consideration of the Cups, to reach its full potential.
Individual Cards
Not including the alternative designs, here are the basic 78 cards inlcuded in the original Tarot as well as 2 cards specific to this deck. Alternative designs will be published on a date TBA!
