Making a Tarot Deck

If you have used a set of tarot cards, you may have held them in your hand and at some point asked yourself if it wouldn’t be easier to remember the meanings of the cards and have a deeper significance to you if you made your own cards. This may have seemed a daunting tasks beyond your means. There are so many cards and so many differing meanings associated with different packs that you may be asking yourself, can I really do this? Well the answer is yes, you can create your own tarot deck using your intuition.

The tarot works via the collective unconscious. A pool of ancestral knowledge shared by all of us, which can be accessed using various esoteric means. Our subconscious has knowledge far beyond what we are aware of in the forefront of our minds and the tarot is one of many tools to access this information, you can do the same thing — both in readings and if you wish to make some cards yourself.

If you know nothing or very little about the tarot then have a go at this yourself and try sketching purely from your intuition with only the names of the cards to guide you. Have a look in some books afterwords to see what others have said about the cards — remember that everything you read is simply one persons interpretation and there are really no wrong answers here.

You may wish to begin with a deck of store bought cards, If you keep in mind that each card tells its own story, linked within a deeper story, then this will help you. Start with one card at a time, make sure you take the time to look at each card and using your intuition tell that card's story. This will help you to understand the inherent meanings in each card.

I would suggest long before you begin to create each individual card that you also meditate on the card's meanings and allow your intuition to reveal to you your own hidden symbolism that relate to that card. Keep a note book where you can jot down ideas and imagery as it appears to you. You can also ask your guides to assist you to develop your cards.

Once you feel you have a good understanding of a card, you can begin to create your own cards, you may think: "But I'm no artist, how can I create a deck of tarot cards if I'm not an artist?" The answer to that question is simply what I know to be true, we are all artists in one form or another. If you aren't comfortable drawing, or painting your cards, you can use collage, or a 3D art program such as Daz Studio. Daz Studio is free, and comes with free content.

If you have any skills in other types of arts & crafts, why not apply that to your tarot creation. Textiles represent a lot of different opportunities for creating a tarot. If you want to see an amazing example of what I am talking about, check out some of the attached images.

If you don't want to spend all of your time in front of your computer, then collage is a great way to go if you can't draw or paint. Once you are done creating, you can always scan the collaged cards and reprint them so the cards won't be so bulky. For collage, you can get a pack of playing cards and just paper over the hearts, clubs and spades. If you want a traditional tarot sized deck, you can get a blank set of tarot card backs and paste your collage pieces directly onto them. (Blank cards can be purchased through the store.)

There is no reason to restrict yourself to working at a tarot card size, anything you create can either be photographed or scanned and then reduced in size for printing onto card stock. So if you want to create large scale mixed media pieces, you should definitely do it!

Whatever method you choose to create your tarot deck, keep in mind this is not about art, but rather about creating a tarot deck that you will be able to use to do readings and that will be based on your own personal intuitive understanding of the Tarot.

Next you need to decide if your cards will have a theme, this way you can incorporate your own symbolism to a theme that will run through the whole deck, many witches of course choose witchcraft, but you may decide to use your totem such as for myself the Raven, which may feature in each card, you may choose a fantasy idea such as mythological beings, or Deities, whatever theme you choose should reflect you own personal connections.

If all this seems so far beyond you capabilities don’t despair, you can buy ready made cards with pictures of the tarot printed on them for you to color, or otherwise place your own mark upon them (My Tarot: Color Your Own Deck by Juliet Sharman-Burke is also available) you could collage or paint or use glitter or any other method of decoration and then as above, scan the cards and reprint them onto cardstock.

There are many books available that can assist in creation of your own Tarot deck, (my personal recommendation is Tarot for Yourself by Mary K Greer), it is an instruction book, a workbook and a valuable source for anyone thinking of creating their own deck.

There also sites online that allow you to print of standard imagery of tarot decks that you can transform into your own deck.

Whatever you choose, and however you go about it making your own tarot deck is a rewarding experience and being able to do a reading from a deck you created, infuses your readings with a greater depth of meaning and an enjoyment the surpasses the creation of the deck initially.

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