Cheimonette

The Deck

In the fall of 2013, I ran a Kickstarter to fund the printing of the Cheimonette Tarot. It was funded far beyond my expectations, and I was able to make my stretch goal of printing with Cartamundi, the oldest card printing company in the world, and a producer of many top quality cards used around the world.

The decks and accompanying full-color booklets, in which I have written about the meaning and symbolism of each card, can be purchased by clicking THIS LINK to my online store.

The Music

Six of the west coast's most talented musicians were inspired to write original songs and music about the artwork and concepts in the Cheimonette Tarot deck. They have produced an album that is a mixture of pop electronica and soulful vocals, darkly beautiful gothic cabaret and moody lullaby-ballads about grief and redemption, elegant cello music paired with sweet songs and eerie ambient electronica.

These talented people are Mark Growden, Artemis Robison, Star St. Germain, Jill Tracy, Unwoman, and Meredith Yayanos, and the album, the Sonic Arcana, is up for pay-what-you-want download on bandcamp.

Click THIS LINK to download the wonderful music from the Sonic Arcana.

Background

In 2003 I began to design, illustrate and paint my own deck of Tarot cards. I had been interested in tarot for a long time, at first because of the mysterious and fascinating artwork, and later because of the wonderful historical and mythological symbology which organize the card system. I synthesized a lot of the research I did about the meanings behind the cards over the centuries, and I also overlaid a lot of my own ideas about the individual meanings and images behind each card, and about the connections between them. In 2007 a friend helped me to publish a small run of the decks, and I was able to use the cards I made for the first time.

Those original decks are all long gone. Over the years, many people have asked about obtaining their own Cheimonette Deck. I made some improvements and modifications to my deck, and wrote a booklet about the unique symbolism I use and my personal relationship to the tarot.

The new card decks are just beautiful. They are printed on heavy cardstock, in brilliant color and velvety black linework. It has been a pleasure to use this new, high-quality deck.

Read more about the cards in the Cheimonette Tarot deck in my previous blog posts:

The End of the World

The Maiden and the Beast, or How I Crossed the Egyptian Border in a Bikini

The Wishing Well

Ada and the Queen of Swords

Synaesthesia

The Dizziness of Freedom: Fortitude and The Devil

Atlas / Alas / At Last

The Numinous

You can see the full photo set of all my cards on Flickr, and an expanded version of the companion booklet to the deck is available for free download.

A Million Thanks to my Kickstarter Backers, Without Whom this Project Would not have been Possible: