"The cosmos is also within us / we are made of star-stuff / a way for the cosmos / to know itself"

[larryhammer]

The love of my life does indeed know me very well. For my birthday, she gave me something I had not known existed but knew, as soon as I saw it, that I had been wanting it for years: The Fantod Pack by Madame Groeda Weyrd.

For those who have not clicked through yet, let me unpack that transparent identity. This is an Edward Gorey tarot deck.

Before you squee too hard, it's not a complete deck: it's 20 cards, loosely but not really corresponding to the major arcana. But still. It's an Edward Gorey tarot.

*pause to emit little ♥s all over my journal*

A bit of history: the text and illustrations are from an article in Esquire in the 1960s. Someone did them up as cards in a pirate edition, so finally a limited edition official version was published in 1995. A couple years ago it was reprinted, and now I have a copy. I am particularly amused by the method of divination:

To read your fortune, first shuffle the pack and take it in your left hand. Stand in the center of a sparsely furnished room and close your eyes. Fling the pack into the air. Keep your eyes closed. Pick up five cards from the floor, keeping them in order.

These are used in a fairly standard cross layout. As for the cards themselves, well, here's a typical example with its interpretations (chosen at random by this online version):

The Child
September
denigration
sexual inadequacy
sties
hallucinations
breakage
loss of youth
rust
crawling sickness
an obstacle
forced restraint
aberrations
catarrh

The month (some have a day of the week) mark a time that "should prove particularly calamitous." However, as the instructions note, "The meanings given are selective rather then exhaustive, and hints rather then assertions. You must rely on your own temerity and "imagination of disaster" (Henry James) to gain full meaning of the cards."

I am in dread of drawing The Black Doll.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

---L.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Utterly fabulous.

Nine

[oracne.livejournal.com]

WOW. Way cool!!!

[daedala.livejournal.com]

...an Edward Gorey tarot deck...

OMG.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Oh My.

All hail the Love of Your Life!

[jennifer-j-s.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, Larry! And yes, the love of your life found the perfect gift for you.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! That is amazing.

[larryhammer]

Exactly!

[marith.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! That is awesome, and I must find an excuse to own one.

[alpha-strike.livejournal.com]

It's Edward Gorey. How could you go wrong?

"K is for Kate who was struck with an axe"...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There had to be an Urn. It wouldn't be Edward Gorey without an Urn.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Or my favorite, "R is for Rhoda, consumed by a fire."

[larryhammer]

And indeed there is. Readings:

Friday
a sexual dilemma
a forged invitation
harmful rays
alginuresis
a broken heart
mumbling sickness
broken communications
injustice
interference
miscalculation
low fever
scales

---L.

[larryhammer]

"N is for Neville, who died of ennui."

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's my second-favorite. My third is "Z is for Zillah, who drank too much gin"--mainly for the illustration and for the name Zillah. But also, hey: gin.

[larryhammer]

Beside my monitor here is a Gashlycrumb calendar -- this month it's Winnie (embedded in ice) and Xerxes (devoured by mice). The latter is one of the better ones. It's the loop of rope out of reach that makes it.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love the terrifying understatement. The mice don't even look threatening.

*shudder*

[sovay]

This is an Edward Gorey tarot deck.

That is magnificent.

I am in dread of drawing The Black Doll.

Yeeeah.

[larryhammer]

Unlike the other cards, with their lists of many possible interpretations, The Black Doll's description is only:

In the words of the old rhyme:
What most you fear
Is coming near.

---L.