News about the Transformational Tarot

  • Exhibited at "Digital Concentrate Exhibit", Purdue University in March / April 2005
  • Recommendation from the editor of Inner Realm Magazine, Barbara DeGraw to a readership of almost 100,000 in the NY, NJ area (see below)
  • An article I wrote about the making of this deck -- META-Physics -- featured in the January 2005 edition of Inner Realm Magazine

Testimonials

I think your Tarot site is wonderful and beautiful. I am recommending it to all of my friends and almost 100,000 readers from Inner Realm Magazine (January 2005).
— Barbara DeGraw, editor of Inner Realm Magazine

I loved transformational tarot. It is the only tarot reading online that gave me very deep insight to the core of my problem. That is very rare to find.
— A.C.

Never thought a computer program would be able to emulate the shuffling process, however, my reading was as profound as I would have found it with cards....
—C.K.

What a great tarot spread! It actually helped to clarify (and surely will continue to do so as I continue to think about it) some of the issues I have been struggling with. Thanks!
— Chantelle L.

Beautiful experience - thank you!
— W. Okoli

I Love your tarot deck and how it works!!! Thank you so much for creating this!
— S.B.

This is wonderful work. I consider this a well constructed deck, offering a truly intuitive read. This deck offers intuitive cues without the sometimes chaotic input of the card collages of James Wanless' Voyager Deck. Remarkable work. — J.H.

I am very impressed with the cards and the readings they perform. Very accurate and truthful.
—Erin

Just read the cards. It was great..although I feel I can read others pretty well I'm pretty pessimistic about my own readings. This one was great. It totally addressed current issues (shockingly well, in fact). Congratulations.
— M.K.

I love the art work.
—M.M.

I would like to congratulate you on a job well done. Very intelligent and accurate.
— M. H.


Artist's Statement

"The Ghost In The Machine"

I have wanted to create a Tarot deck for years, but it was not until I was looking at Magritte's work that something inside of me clicked. I have always liked how he titles his work: the title does not describe the piece, but instead, the words of the title seem to set in place a kind of alchemic reaction in the mind. This relationship of words, image and concept is something that Magritte explored to a great depth, and something that I find quite fascinating. The combination of the mysterious image and the enigmatic words of the title serve to do what I call "stop the mind", an effect that resembles what happens during certain types of esoteric meditative practices. When the mind is stopped, something extraordinary happens: another type of thought process starts to emerge.

My original idea was that I wanted to randomize the titles to my paintings. Can an image be changed when a different phrase is placed next to it? I wanted to see how the context of the words changed the perception of the image, and how the proximity of the image changed the meaning of the words.

A Tarot deck seemed to be an ideal medium for my experiment. Since I work in interactive media, I started creating the project in Flash. Rather than create new illustrations, I chose paintings from the last 15 years. These images became the Arcana cards. Then I culled words from three Tarot books that I own. Throughout most of this project, I had no idea whether my Tarot would actually work: did I choose appropriate images and words? Most importantly, I had no idea if a mere computer program would be able to perform the magic of a real Tarot deck.

Since the completion of the deck I have done several readings for myself and my friends. I cannot speak for the others, but when I draw a spread, the cards seem to address my current mental, emotional and spiritual state.

A mysterious thing I have noted: in all the spreads I have drawn, there are some cards in this deck that have never appeared in any reading I have done for myself. They do, however, appear for others. Is this Tarot Deck merely matter of random scripts, chance, and mathematics? Or is there truly a ghost in the machine?

Aliyah Marr


Links

information for publishers
Click here to read about what makes this Tarot different. We are looking for a publisher so that we may offer a printed version of this Tarot Deck. the curator

try the Tarot (allows one free trial per person)
http://www.radi8.org/exhibits/exhibit_8/

an article about the making of the tarot
http://www.radi8.org/coaching/articles/meta-physics.html

Tarot Touchbase (free one card online application)
http://www.radi8.org/exhibits/exhibit_8/tarot/readings/touchbase.html

main site
http://www.radi8.org/