Author: benebell

Reflecting on My SKT Tarot Art Journey

On By benebellIn personal, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot community11 Comments

Evolving from the pen and ink line drawing you see above to the digitally-remastered in-color version of The Priestess was a journey. As 2021 comes to a close and I send out the final shipment of first print run decks of the Revelation Edition, I’d like to share my reflections on this journey.

Fair warning upfront: This is going to be a looooong blog post. I also share some tips, from direct personal experience, to aspiring indie deck creators.

Completing the Revelation Edition is one of the coolest things I’ve ever achieved, because I leveled up so much in terms of my own art. I did something I didn’t even know I was capable of doing.

Continue reading “Reflecting on My SKT Tarot Art Journey” →

Wisdom of the Tao Oracle Cards by Mei Jin Lu (Vol. I and Vol. II)

On By benebellIn deck review, feng shui, I Ching, oracle deck, Taoism5 Comments

I’m really excited about Mei Jin Lu’s The Wisdom of the Tao oracle cards published by U.S. Games. I’ll be covering both Volume I: Awakenings and Volume II: Strategy.

These oracle cards pictorialize Taoist philosophy in what is presented as “for the first time, a visionary system, incorporating teachings from Taoist masters, the power of nature’s elements, the revelations of zodiac animals, and the dynamic interactions among them.”

Continue reading “Wisdom of the Tao Oracle Cards by Mei Jin Lu (Vol. I and Vol. II)” →

Wandering Star Tarot by Cat Pierce

On By benebellIn deck review8 Comments

A non-tarot friend sent me the Wandering Star Tarot by Cat Pierce, the mass market version published by Hay House. This is a contemporary arts deck with keywords, and not just one or two per card, but strings of keywords cleverly integrated into each illustration.

What I find the most impressive about the art is the graphic design. Everything works with everything else in terms of design elements– the colors, the way symmetry and tension work together in the compositions, and Pierce’s linework all come together in harmony.

There are 80 cards– the traditional 78 plus a Yes “The Mother Star” card (an absolutely stunning illustration, by the way– I would love to see merch, like journals, notebooks, coffee mugs, etc.w ith this print) and a No “The Creator” card. You’ll see both in the top left corner above. Oh, that Hermit card is absolutely love. So many of these illustrations are incredible. That Key X might very well be one of my favorite Wheel of Fortune cards.

Continue reading “Wandering Star Tarot by Cat Pierce” →

The Citadel Deck by Fez Inkwright

On By benebellIn deck review, oracle deckLeave a comment

The Citadel is a 33-card oracle deck in a unique hexagonal cut. I’ve been describing the deck as cube of space meets archetypes from a medieval fantasy live action role play. It’s certainly got that vibe.

The creator of Seed and Sickle Oracle is also the author and illustrator behind The Citadel, having built an incredible Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque world, or more specifically, a city– The Citadel– atop a cliff, with white stone walls that “gleam in the sun, and banners snapping lazily in the breeze.” I feel like I’m reading YA high fantasy now.

“The sea below curls lazily at the rocks, warm and placid, with farms and orchards and livestock.” Oh now it’s definitely reading like YA fantasy.

Continue reading “The Citadel Deck by Fez Inkwright” →

Working with My 2022 Metaphysician’s Day Planner

On By benebellIn grimoire, personal, personal spirituality, promotional1 Comment

So if you saw me share this video earlier but it was the same video as the one on the Day Planner pre-order page about how to upload to Lulu, then you saw the wrong video. I took that down and re-uploaded with the correct video. Serves me right for naming both video files “2022 day planner how-to.” Totally confused me this morning when I went to upload to YouTube.

THIS video walks you through how I’m filling in the different page sections of the day planner. Sorry, it’s been one of those weeks. I’m frazzled and fried. Going to go take a nap now. Thanks.

BA GUA (EIGHT TRIGRAMS) PRINT-OUT

Order Your 2022 Metaphysician’s Day Planner
+ Complimentary 2022 Forecasts & Guides

Johnny of Cosmic Wheel Tarot’s Deck Creator Corner

On By benebellIn tarot community5 Comments

I am so, so excited to have stumbled upon Johnny of Cosmic Wheel Tarot and his video interview series called Deck Creator Corner. It’s on Instagram as a video channel, which is the only negative thing about it (lol, am I biased against technological progress or what). I say that only because I don’t know what to do with someone’s IG video channel that I love. I don’t know how to share it. I don’t know how to bookmark it for later. I can’t even subscribe to it. Argh.

But this is worth your fuss. I promise. Johnny’s Deck Creator Corner interviews artists from our community who share their inspiration, their creative process, and give advice straight from experience.

Btw, I’ll be chatting with Johnny on his Insta channel this Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10 am Pacifc, 1 pm Eastern (Man, do you midwesterners feel left out? We always flag the east coast and west coast time, but rarely mountain, central, and let’s not even talk about Alaska or Hawaii.)

Here’s a sampling of 12 interviews from Deck Creator Corner, linked for your convenient viewing pleasure.

Continue reading “Johnny of Cosmic Wheel Tarot’s Deck Creator Corner” →

72 Shemhamphoras (Shem) Angels, Tarot Correspondences; Tetragram of the Zohar

On By benebellIn free download, grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, traditional witchcraft3 Comments

Sorting through the mess of files I have on my computer drives and found this. I think I shared these in a past Bell’s Newsletter. It’s excerpted from the textbook for the Western Witchcraft I: The Fundamentals course. References in this free handout to other chapters, etc. are because this is just an excerpt from that textbook.

72 Shem Angels, Tarot Correspondences & the Tetragram of the Zohar

Click Me to Download the PDF

Click Me to Download the DOCX

SEE ALSO:

Frater Setnakh’s correspondences compared to Payne-Towler’s.

FRATER SETNAKH

PAYNE-TOWLER THL
DOCX MS WORD FILES

Posting to the blog just so it’s up on this website and available.

How Do We Value Art? What AI art means for tarot and oracle deck publishing

On By benebellIn I Ching, oracle deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot20 Comments

If you haven’t played around with the wombo.art app yet, then check out this link and have fun. You type in some keywords– any instruction you’d like to give the AI, be that themes, subjects, nouns, adjectives, colors– then choose an art style, like ukiyo-e, pastel, high fantasy, dark fantasy, medieval, etc., and the AI will generate a work of art based on your commission.

And the results are rather stunning. Human artists, in particular those who work primarily with digital art techniques, are now wondering what this means for the future of their vocation. No, not necessarily because of this app specifically, but just in general, this inevitable supplanting of human artists with AI.

More notably, I think, this is going to have an irreversible impact on tarot and oracle deck artists.

Take, for instance, these I Ching oracle card illustrations generated by the AI in a ukiyo-e art style. I typed in keywords for each corresponding hexagram, plus keywords for the two trigrams, selected Ukiyoe for art style, and hit the Create button. Then I did the design layout, added the hexagram image, number, and key phrase. Voila.

Oh, and if you’d like to download the digital image files for all 64 of these AI generated cards, go here.

Continue reading “How Do We Value Art? What AI art means for tarot and oracle deck publishing” →

SKT Revelation: First Printing Sold Out

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot11 Comments

The first print run of the SKT Revelation deck has now sold out.

We sold out on December 2, exceeding our projections. Based on the numbers from the First and Vitruvian editions, plus the number of pre-orders for the Revelation, we did our best to project the print run quantity we would need to ensure that anyone who wanted a deck in 2021 could get one, and have some surplus to last us until Spring of 2022. Oops.

Second Printing Waitlist

CLICK TO JOIN THE WAITLIST

Although you probably won’t get e-mails from the waitlist newsletter anytime soon, other than that initial canned introductory message, if you are sincerely interested in purchasing the SKT Revelation deck, second printing, please be sure to put your name on the waitlist.

This is very useful to us, because it helps us to gauge interest, what to do with production, the pre-order process, timeline, everything. So if you’re interested in getting a deck in the future, join the newsletter group.

Shipping Status

Everyone who pre-ordered prior to Oct. 6, 2021 has already received their decks or your deck is in-transit and heading your way now, with the exception of some Australia orders.

Some Australia orders are sitting tight while we wait for the US post office to resume mailing to your country. (The private UPS mailing option is still available for those who are in Australia, but the cost of it is pretty crazy.)

We are now making our way through the post Oct. 6 orders. Our ship-out date, meaning when your deck is packaged and sent out by us, is still set at late December.

Continue reading “SKT Revelation: First Printing Sold Out” →

The Celestial Tarot by Kay Steventon and Brian Clark

On By benebellIn deck review4 Comments

This deck was first published back in 2004, so that’s 17 years ago from the date that this review is going up. This post is another one of my 2021-walk-down-memory-lane oldies-but-goodies deck reviews. I fished it out of who knows where from what old box of decks I totally forgot I even owned, and was delighted to rediscover the Celestial Tarot.

Underpinning the Celestial Tarot is astrology, astronomy, and mythology, with the 78 cards projected up and out onto our night skies to see what constellations, planets, and celestial phenomenon correspond with the tarot keys.

Continue reading “The Celestial Tarot by Kay Steventon and Brian Clark” →