The deck necessarily selected from the whole range of the animal and plant kingdoms. Those shown on the cards are just the ones which chose to work with this deck (they were drawn after the trump and court cards had been completed). They chose their own form, in the sense that the cards were not predesigned and then executed deliberately, but each drawn at a single sitting as seen.
Sphinx
The images depict
relationships between humans and non-human beings: sphinxes, ie
unions of human with animal or plant forms. Ancient Egypt and Classical
Myth are two well known sources for a variety of sphinx images. Human-animal
working is a central feature of shamanism, and in fact probably of all
folklore and myth worldwide.
The skin-tone and body shape shown in the images may suggest to you a particular gender, age, or race. These are useful for meditation.
Numbering
The attribution
of numbers was largely intended to place the beings in an order which reverses
expectations based on size and glamour, ie the 'small' creatures have a
high number while the 'big' creatures have the lower number.
The numbering was considered before drawing, but mostly developed afterwards in meditation and intuitively - with the beings concerned - and with a loose sense of the underlying qualities of the planetary spheres associated with the numbers. I worked with the animal-plant cards without numbers for some time, and finally decided to add the numbers because the deck as a whole seemed to need them. The beings on these cards have then taken on their number quality.
Interpretation
The colour on a
number card indicates what aspect of the person or situation is affected,
and the number indicates the scale and remoteness/imminence of the effect.
So a yellow two would indicate a profound but not immediate mental change,
whereas a green ten would indicate a more specific, looming change in physical
circumstances. The Ace, signifiying power in the present moment,
creates a circuit by functioning at both ends of the spectrum:
| remote
large but diffuse immanent |
near,
immediate
small but highly focused manifest |
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Ace
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The numbers relate
to the planetary spheres which underlie the tree of life structure on which
the tarot is based. The higher the number, the closer the energy is to
taking manifest form, whether in the mind, the will, the feelings, or matter.
The lower the number, the closer the energy is to its unified source. This
doesn't mean the energy is less powerful, only at a different stage in
the process of becoming manifest.
| Ace | Beginnings | the Source |
| 2 | First division | the Stars |
| 3 | First interlocking | Saturn |
| 4 | Expansion | Jupiter |
| 5 | Uncomfortable transition | Mars |
| 6 | Harmonious balance | the Sun |
| 7 | Excitement, anticipation | Venus |
| 8 | Acceleration | Mercury |
| 9 | Verge of manifestation | the Moon |
| 10 | Manifestation | the Earth |