I drew the Queen of Swords for my one card reading today and what an enigmatic figure she is. I’ve heard her given many different names and descriptions; The Grey Widow for instance. Water of Air, the Order of the Golden Dawn called her. She is sorrow tempered by wisdom. She is the human heart, sobered by the trials of life.

One of my favourite descriptions is given by Kate Warwick-Smith in her book, The Tarot Court Cards (Destiny Books. 2003). She calls her ‘The Exactor’, someone who’s accumulated wisdom won’t allow her to suffer fools gladly. Her discernment cuts right through to the quick, brushing aside pretension and uncovering the truth. Following this description, I like to think of her wisdom in the manner of a single word to cut through a thousand lies. She is an honest and kind person but not necessarily a warm and comfortable one. We all need someone like her from time to time, especially if we’re fooling ourselves or running away from something we don’t want to face.

I’ve asked myself two questions today. Who is this person as manifested within my circle of friends? Secondly, do I manifest this character in my own life? These were difficult questions to answer, the second one especially so. To understand the Queen of Swords in the real world you must also understand her dark side. Her painful experiences are the core of Her raison d’être but she can respond to these for good or evil.

We’ve spoken about the virtues of this Queen but there are also her vices. She can possibly become embittered over the lot that life has dealt her. In doing so she festers in resentment or seeks revenge on those who have hurt her. Such a woman, born of the element of air, dwelling in the realms of the mind not the heart can be heartless in her vengeance.

Of course, in real life this character can manifest as a man or a woman. She is merely a symbol of the way that Air, the element of logic manifests through the feminine aspects of authority in our lives. She represents the rational mother figure or wise partner, regardless of actual sex.

In the mediaeval court, Kings made authoritative decrees. Queens were viewed as matriarchs. The Queen of Swords nurtures and advises. She is a wise counsellor. Her own suffering allows her to empathise with you but her steely logic, born of her element prevents her from losing objectivity.

She’s a very pertinent character for me. On the positive side I have several good friends who fulfil this role towards me. Whenever I’m in the dark I know I can turn to them for clear, if sometimes uncomfortable advice. On a darker note, I see my own need to forgive the pain that certain people close to me have caused in the past.

Drawing a card like this becomes a challenge, similar to the sad and happy masks, emblematic of the theatre. “Who will you choose to be?” she asks me. I can forgive, agree to feel the pain and integrate it into myself. By doing this I will grow, move on and become tempered by the same wisdom that she has been tempered by. Alternately, I can turn the card upside down, refuse to forgive and let the pain fester into something far more destructive. I’ve seen people do this and shuddered at what they’ve become. It’s not a road I care to go down.

Difficult card, difficult choices. Isn’t that what makes the Tarot so precious and so irresistible?

Chris.

Chris Butler.
Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot. To be published by Kunati Books. September 2008.

Pre-order the Quantum Tarot from Amazon

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I do love these working week where the various threads of projects start to draw together. It’s been such a week with regards to the Quantum Tarot.

Kam Wai Yu, Kunati’s design wizard has never failed to amaze me during the various stages of designing the packaging and presentation for the deck. He must work twenty six hour days, nine days a week, usually on overdrive. Designs of the highest quality just seem to appear out of no-where with astonishing rapidity. His emails make a welcome change from my usually dull inbox and it’s been one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced watching the commercial face of the Quantum Tarot take shape.

Over the last few days we’ve received the finalised card designs and the designs for the outer box. This latter design comes ‘flat’, showing the unfolded box. Despite having a digital mock-up to give us an idea of what it will eventually look like, it’s never the same as the real thing and I’m intrigued to see the finished results when they finally arrive back from the printers.

One of the joys of working with your publisher’s design department is that they bring a fresh pair of eyes and new ideas. What struck me with the box design was Kam’s choice of images. His combination of images works really well but more importantly, it’s a choice I would never have made myself because I wouldn’t have seen the visual potential. The input of an external designer has really made me look at the deck in a fresh way and that’s all for the better.

We also received the finalised book cover designs over the last few days. We’ve had the front book cover for a couple of months now. It says a lot for my brain rot that it hadn’t crossed my mind there would be a back cover design too! Kam has incorporated pentacles into the design - another wonderful touch that works well but needed a discerning third party to realise the potential.

I’ve discovered this morning that today is the day when it’s all shipped off to the printers. What an exciting thought! All the magic is now ready to manifest in physical terms. The strange thing about working digitally is that you’re denied ownership of the ‘original’ artwork. After all, the original is just a series of electronic algorithms stored on a hard drive. It doesn’t come to life until the printer allows it to.

To make the day complete I went into my web site this morning and found my Amazon pre-order buttons now have a Quantum Tarot book cover on them instead of the inscription ‘Artwork not available’. Coincidence yes, but it’s as if cyberspace senses it’s all about to come to life. I think a bottle of Bollinger’s in order!

Fair Fortune,

Chris.

Chris Butler.
Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot, to be published by Kunati, September 2008.

Visit me at the Kunati web site:
www.kunati.com
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/
http://www.kunati.com/quantum-tarot/

Visit my homepage, shop and online portfolio:
http://www.butlerart.co.uk/

Blogging at:
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Network with me:
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I always find court cards problematic at worst, enigmatic at best. How do you know whether they represent a person in your life or just a facet of your own personality and circumstances? The answer lies in the content of the surrounding cards but as I’ve drawn a court card for my single card draw today I’ll just have to make my best guess.

I’ve drawn the Page of Pentacles and if I’m really honest, pages always make me feel deflated. Knights, Queens and Kings are such grand figures. They have a strong sense of purpose and fill me with excitement, even if I’m not quite sure what they are saying to me personally. Pages, by contrast are young and subservient. On the surface, they have no purpose of their own but to act as messengers for the Court.

Maybe my slight unease at these cards has a lot to do with not wanting to be vulnerable myself. If you relate yourself to the Page then you’re getting in touch with all those parts of you that need to grow and mature. The Page of Pentacles represents my relative inexperience in several key areas of my life, not least my profession. He is an apprentice learning new skills and trades. At his best he is a diligent worker. At worst he is lazy and reluctant to learn. He may also be arrogant, thinking that he no longer needs to learn or to develop his skills further.

Drawing this card keeps me grounded and reminds me that in a business like mine, you permanently need humility to carry on learning from others. Every job I’ve done without exception has taken me into virgin territory. The publication of the Quantum Tarot has required that I change from being just an illustrator to also being a writer (in the form of blogs) and a salesperson to promote the deck. I find neither easy and I’m realising just how heavily reliant I am on fellow authors and the Kunati staff as role models. I hope in the end I don’t disappoint!

Apprenticeship brings rewards and despite the difficulties I experience I’m really proud of how far my boundaries have been pushed over the last few months. The key to the Page of Pentacles is the art of perseverance. Like all members of the Pentacles Court, he is steadfast and rooted in the Earth. He may not be the most creative thinker but his slow, methodical determination gets him through. Emulate this Page and you will learn by doing.

Chris.

Chris Butler.
Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot, to be published by Kunati, September 2008.

Visit me at the Kunati web site:
www.kunati.com
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/
http://www.kunati.com/quantum-tarot/

Visit my homepage, shop and online portfolio:
http://www.butlerart.co.uk/

Blogging at:
http://chris-butlerart.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=219944844
http://classicalmusicforidiots.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/

Network with me:
http://www.myspace.com/butlerart
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris_Butler/712967513
http://www.squidoo.com/quantumtarot
http://www.youtube.com/user/the78thfool

People often assume that because I’ve illustrated five tarot decks I will always read with my own cards. Much as I appreciate my work I’m too close to it and if I’m not careful I can become complacent reading with my own cards. To stay fresh in my readings I use a variety of decks by other artists alongside my own.

When discussing my favourite decks I must first mention the work of Ciro Marchetti. I have admired his Gilded Tarot since first seeing a selection of cards on the web. It was a groundbreaking deck for its time and set new artistic standards where tarot was concerned. I subsequently became friends with Ciro Marchetti and he taught me much of what I know in the field of digital illustration. I use both the Gilded Tarot and his second deck, the Tarot of Dreams on a regular basis.

I also use the Tarot of Prague by Karen Mahoney and Alex Ukolov. This is a stunning deck, digitally collaged from photographs of Prague’s art and architecture. Along with Kat Black’s Golden Tarot, similarly collaged from mediaeval and renaissance paintings, this deck spawned my interest in the digital medium. While developing my own techniques, these two decks were my benchmark, showing the high standard I wanted to aim for. It’s a special pleasure for me that Kat has recently been signed by Kunati who will publish her new deck next year. I never dreamed that we would end up in the same publishing stable.

I frequently use the Rohrig Tarot and the Haindl Tarot. Both are the work of fine artists and feature paintings rather than illustrations. The Haindl in particular has incredible depth and to get the most from it you need to have read Rachel Pollack’s two volume guidebook. This may seem like hard work but it’s richly rewarded in the end. The deck is a feast of symbolism drawn from a variety of ancient traditions.

Most precious to me are my first ever decks. These were a 1JJ Swiss Tarot, A Grimaud Marseilles deck, Fergus Hall’s Tarot of the Witches and finally, the Rider Waite Tarot. This latter deck may not be as visually arresting as some of its modern counterparts but it’s a wonderful example of illustration from the Arts and Crafts period. Pamela Coleman Smith who drew the deck was a real intuitive genius and the more I look, the more hidden meaning I find in each of her images. When I’m not reading with the Quantum Tarot, this is the deck I’m turning to most at the moment.

Fair Fortune,

Chris.

Chris Butler.
Illustrator for the Quantum Tarot, to be published by Kunati, September 2008.

Visit me at the Kunati web site:
www.kunati.com
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/
http://www.kunati.com/quantum-tarot/

Visit my homepage, shop and online portfolio:
http://www.butlerart.co.uk/

Blogging at:
http://chris-butlerart.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=219944844
http://classicalmusicforidiots.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/

Network with me:
http://www.myspace.com/butlerart
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris_Butler/712967513
http://www.squidoo.com/quantumtarot
http://www.youtube.com/user/the78thfool

Following my hysterical ramblings two posts ago, about my lack of technological aptitude, I now have an embarrassing confession to make. I had close friends staying this weekend and because they won’t see me again before my birthday, they presented me with an early birthday surprise: an I-pod. With reluctance I’m being dragged further into the 21^st Century!

It seems that God, or whatever you like to call the ultimate creative Deity was looking down with disdain at my sarcasm over the great and mighty Apple Corporation. Accordingly, an I-Epiphany has been sent to manifest in my life that I may see the true light. I loathe all those tacky and jubilant product launch parties where mere gadgets are worshipped like Gods but regarding the gadget itself I’m having to eat my words. It’s bloody marvellous!

What finally sold me was the fact I could upload the complete orchestral works of Ravel and Debussy, the equivalent of 8 CD’s, and only use a fraction of the gadget’s memory space. I’ve gone from carrying a house brick that plays one CD to carrying something smaller than a credit card, giving me a portable music library that Bach would have been envious of. Being one of those sad people who dithers for ages over which CD to take out with me, this is great. I don’t have to choose any more.

I refuse to blatantly advertise a multi-million dollar technology corporation on principle but I must grudgingly admit that my listening habits are set to be transformed. Even I, technology dunderhead that I am, can use I-Tunes with ease.

Where will all this lead? I’m sat at my computer. Beside me is a device that allows me to carry the complete works of Maurice Ravel in my pocket. Technology is allowing the life’s work of one of our greatest artists to be condensed to the size of a credit card. How long before the complete works of Mozart can be carried in your pocket? It’s awesome to wonder where technology like this will have led in a hundred years. It’s also a little frightening too.

Chris.

Blogging at:
http://chris-butlerart.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=219944844
http://classicalmusicforidiots.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/

Another day and another milestone! It’s great to be able to announce that The Quantum Tarot is now listed on Amazon and available for pre-order. It has that beginning of Term feel to it - most of the details are there, but there’s no cover artwork as yet. The author/creator blog pages are empty and waiting but that should change over the next few days. It’s as if the Quantum Tarot has been set down in an empty room and I’m getting ready to decorate and move the furniture in. When it’s all finished, those pages will be the primary retail home on the web for our deck.

I’m also just very happy. It’s quite a novelty to type the name of your pet project into Amazon’s search box and see it come up with a publication date and price. It’s one more step to that eagerly anticipated day when I finally hold the printed product in my hands for real.

Anyway! Support a struggling artist on the breadline guys and place your pre-orders here:
http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Tarot-New-Physics/dp/1601641699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205843821&sr=8-1

If you’re in Canada, you can pre-order on Amazon.ca:
http://www.amazon.ca/Quantum-Tarot-New-Physics/dp/1601641699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205845641&sr=8-1

Or from Chapters:
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Quantum-Tarot-Tarot-New-Physics-Kay-Stopforth/9781601641694-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527quantum+tarot+stopforth%2527&sterm=quantum+tarot+stopforth+-+Books

Kunati have done the deck proud! I may already have mentioned that the cards will be printed in a borderless format with silver gilt edges. Along with the book, they will be presented in a solid box with a lift off lid. Have a look at the Quantum Tarot’s special page elsewhere on this site and you’ll get some idea of the special attention they’ve lavished on the deck’s presentation. I for one can’t wait to get hold of my copy.
http://www.kunati.com/quantum-tarot/

Fair Fortuna !

Blogging at:
http://chris-butlerart.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=219944844
http://classicalmusicforidiots.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/

Case History:

Sex: Male.

Age: 40.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree. University of London. Second Class Honours.

Photoshop: Self taught (with informal assistance) to professional industry standard.

Microsoft Word: Can push the buttons and write a basic letter.

PowerPoint: I assume that’s the one on the kitchen wall. 240 volts. 13amp.

Excel: I was very good at basket weaving in primary school.

Web cam: Never owned one

I-pod: Frightened to let go of my Sony Discman.

USB Mike: I think he was my Trade Union rep when I worked on the Railways

Social Networking and On-line Marketing:

Blogging: Newcomer to all of this but on a steep learning curve as I go. Tendency to be too verbose and not to put enough emphasis on external links/press releases.

MySpace: Finally managed to customise my profile and manipulate the HTML. Have resisted the temptation to throw a brick at my laptop in the meantime.

Facebook: Even less user friendly than Myspace (I’m only jealous because teenagers fathom this one out instantly whilst I’m left looking like a complete pratt.)

Bebo: Haven’t been there yet, although I’m trying to find out if Easyjet or Ryanair fly there from London Stanstead.

Amazon: A fearsome, 7ft tall tribal female or the web site I spent half the afternoon trying to set up an Author profile on. One of my neighbours told me the former would be the hottest bet. I wouldn’t know about that either.

How on Earth can someone of my age be so thick when it comes to the Technological Revolution ? I’ve had an afternoon of total frustration with things that should be common sense. Somehow I got to the stage of being able to digitally illustrate the Quantum Tarot. Despite this, I can’t upload tracks to my newly acquired MP3 player. When it all goes wrong I dissolve into hysterics that make Priscilla, Queen of the Desert look butch.

I’m having to admit to some harsh truths! I have led a technologically sheltered life. I tolerate the digital revolution because it fuels my creative work but in every other way I’ve avoided it like the plague. Granted, prior to being a self employed artist/illustrator, I never worked in a single job that required computer literacy. My 1980’s style education only featured two ZX-81’s, bought by my school in my final year.

The bad news for me? I can’t put it off for any longer! I decided that the best strategy was to publicly admit my “I-ineptitude” as the Apple Corporation would no doubt brand it. The theory is this will save me from further humiliations in the future when I have to ask my fellow authors how to cross-link, upload, download, cross-blog, newscast, pod-cast and generally do all the things the rest of the western world has been doing for years.

Thankfully, the great thing about being published by Kunati is that you end up surrounded by plenty of people who know what they’re doing (or whose kids know what they’re doing anyway!) Thank you all !

Blogging at:
http://chris-butlerart.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=219944844
http://classicalmusicforidiots.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunati.com/blog-chris-butler/

I first read the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien in my teens. Along with C.S. Lewis’s sci-fi trilogy, it is one of my two favourite books and I try to re-read it each year.

One of my favourite chapters has me drawing parallels with the Tarot. When Frodo and Sam are invited to look into the Mirror of Galadriel, they see “Things that were, and things that are and things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell.”

Being professionally published brings with it a responsibility for what you’ve put into print. Since the publication has been announced, I’ve been blogging on the tarot and I’ve received messages and emails from people asking for advice. These queries make me re-evaluate my own use of the cards.

If I’m to be a reputable published tarot author or illustrator then what constitutes responsible use of the cards? It may seem odd that I’m only just addressing this but I’ve been shielded from putting my ‘manifesto’ into words until now.

I am the illustrator for the Quantum Tarot but not the author. Kay Stopforth has written the book. I only provided an introduction. I’m in the process of writing a book but that is to accompany my next project, The Son Tarot. I have yet to write the section on readings so what I write here will probably form the kernel of any future text.

The Mirror of Galadriel is a superb metaphor for responsible tarot reading. The irresponsible or bogus reader will claim that they can see into your future and tell you what you need to know. I’m usually extra wary when the term ‘gifted psychic’ starts getting bandied around. This implies the reader has something that you haven’t and you’re reliant on them to know your destiny. What rubbish!

There are gifted psychics out there but there are fewer than you think. In most instances, these genuine people will be putting their powers to good use and not drawing attention to themselves. If one of these wonderful people is reading your cards, you’ll find they don’t have to remind you of their credentials on a frequent basis. You also won’t find them mentioning tall dark strangers!

The cards don’t rely on psychic ability. They are a language of symbols that anyone can read. A good reading hinges on the querent’s reactions to those symbols and the reader’s ability to guide them through these reactions.

Readings teach us about our inner selves. As the Mirror reveals glimpses of the past and present, we see our own past and present reflected in the cards. The future is unknown to us so what glimpses we see are filtered through our own limited understanding.

The cards reveal possibilities and our reaction to an individual card image will tell us how we may deal with those possibilities should they arise. If we are honest enough with ourselves and brave enough to face what the cards are saying, we can learn much about our hopes, our fears and what drives us. Knowing such things equips us to let go of the future and confidently face whatever it brings.

When Sam looks in the Mirror, He sees a vision of his village being destroyed. In blind panic he wants to go home, thereby turning aside from his quest. Galadriel counsels against this. She tells him “that the Mirror shows many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them. The Mirror is dangerous as a guide of deeds.”

Knowing the future may not be the best thing for us. There’s a fine line between making informed choices with a view to future security and manipulating the present in an attempt to ensure the outcome we want. Also, to assume that any card gives you a reliable picture of the future is dangerous indeed, particularly if you fix all courses of action with only one end in mind.

Most readings contain cards that speak of the future. This is good, but hold onto them loosely. We are finite human beings and we may not always have the capacity to understand what those cards are telling us. Also, when a card is drawn, it symbolises only a single possible facet of your future. Our lives are so much more complicated and one symbol can never contain the multi-layered truth of reality.

The lesson for me is hear what you want to hear, but also to listen for what you don’t want to hear. Look to the future by all means but if you’re fixated on a single outcome then you need to ask why. This is the sum of what I believe regarding the Tarot. It’s also the sum of how I believe a good reading should be conducted. If I’m doing a reading for someone, I hope my role will be to explain the card symbolism and aid the journey through what these symbols mean for them. A reading is about possibilities and choices. For me, that’s far more exciting than the mere predictive.

Galadriel’s Mirror is a dangerous guide of deeds and so is the Tarot. A reading can be an incredibly rich experience but all to often we take the cards for granted. It’s only when we have a healthy reverence for both the rewards and the dangers of the reading experience that we can truly learn from the cards.

If you’re interested in the esoteric then chances are you’ll be thinking of which stars and planets will have the most influence through the coming year. Have you ever stopped to ask which cards will have the greatest influence over you as well?

At a basic level the Tarot is just a picture book but the reason it can be used so powerfully lies in the pictures themselves. Each image is an archetypal representation of the basic forces of life and more often than not, a single picture better expresses truths that a thousand words cannot encapsulate. This is especially true of the Major Arcana. They represent the most powerful archetypal realities within the deck.

As we pass through the year we also pass through the sun signs of the Zodiac. When we pass through the years of our lives we also navigate the sequence of the Major Arcana, a single card rules each of your years.

If you want to know which card influences you at the moment, you can find out by doing a simple calculation. Take your birthday as it falls this year and lay it out numerically. If your birthday is the 14^th March then it will look like this:

14 03 2008

The next step is to add all the digits together:

1+4+0+3+2+0+0+8 = 18

18 is the Moon, so your year, starting on your birthday will be influenced by this card.

The Major Arcana end at 21 with the World. For our purpose we take the Fool as 22. If your digits add up to more than 22, simply add the two digits of this number together and reduce it down. If your answer is 27 then 2+7 = 9 which is the Hermit.

If you end up with the numbers 8 or 11 you must decide whether you see this as Strength or Justice. Some decks swap these cards around numerically. I’m still sitting on the fence and as I haven’t experienced a Strength or Justice year since I began calculating then I can evade the issue for a little while longer!

This may seem a little far fetched but my own experience shows a subtle pattern running through my life. Several years ago I suffered the collapse and break up of a business partnership. Doing this calculation for the first time I found it was my Tower year. The following ‘Star’ year brought an incredible upsurge in my creative skills and a prolific increase in my output. In my Moon year I had to deal with fears and insecuriti