Transformational Tarot copyright Aliyah Marr

Make sure that you clear your mind with a meditation: it is important that you have a small period of inner silence before you click on to reveal any of the cards in the spread. If you ask a question , it should be very general, involving the direction of your life. Pay especial attention to the issue or bridge card, if there is one (spreads one, three and five). Sometimes the Tarot doesn't answer the question that you thought you were asking, but instead answers you at a deeper level. Most of our real questions are at an unconscious level, so the player should be aware of this feature of the Tarot.

I believe that part of the "magic" of Tarot decks is in the intention (attention) of the person pulling the cards. It doesn't seem to matter that you cannot physically pull the cards from the deck; in my Tarot, the intent of the user is very important, because otherwise the computer is just pulling a random card. The "magic" is still there because it comes from you, not from the machine or even from the deck. My goal with the Transformational Tarot was to create a unique Tarot that was philosophically very balanced, and applicable for the spiritual issues of contemporary life.

The Transformational Tarot embodies the spriit of the original Tarot -- it is intended to work at a generally higher level than telling your fortune. My Tarot works more like a Zen Koan, it can tell you what is going on in your life or it can point you in a new direction.

Click here to see all the cards for the Tarot Deck.
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. Please the curator if you are interested.

This Tarot deck is making news!
Click here to read news and testimonials

Please me your comments: I would love to hear from you.

Artist's Statement

"The Ghost Is 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

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