James Well’s asks “If you designed a tarot deck (or any other tool of insight), what might it look like? What’s the worldview that would birth it into existence? Let us know. There may be a creative project in the works of which we’re not yet conscious.”
It’s funny how often such a question comes up. If you read tarot, sooner or later someone will ask you, “Why don’t you design your own deck?”
If I were to design one now it might be something steampunkish because that imagery speaks to me. Or gypsy with owls since I adore that too. In the past I considered something more of a medieval/fantasy blend. But all this speaks more to the imagery than to my world views. I hadn’t really ever thought about it beyond the imagery before. But I do like James’ idea of neutral cards:
Any images would be as neutral as possible. I don’t believe in “good” or “bad” cards. Every card is a neutral concept. Only when we apply a question such as “What’s my most helpful resource?”, “What’s my worst personality trait?”, or “How can I best accomplish this goal?” does a card take on nuances of challenge or ease, restriction or freedom, sadness or happiness, fear or love. So I’d want the symbols to be as neutral as possible. For example, the Five of Wands would somehow depict change (five-ness) and selfhood (Wands-ness), a change to one’s identity or an adjustment to the role one is playing. Sometimes that’s hard (a shaky sense of who one is) and sometimes that’s helpful (a personal makeover).
Sometimes I find with the “bad” cards, I can’t look past the idea of it being bad. And I’ve seen this especially become an issue for readers trying to read for themselves. They turn over one of these cards and groan, not necessarily seeing the true meaning of the card. I’m not sure if I would create my own deck as neutral or not, but it’s an interesting concept. 
On thing I often do with readings though is pull cards from one deck, then pull the same cards from another deck and lay them over the original cards I pulled. It gives me different incite than I might normally not see. The transparent tarot deck is also great for that. I wonder if there is a way to create a deck that offers two versions of a card. I’m not sure how that would work and actually, the more I think about it, I can’t see it working at all. 
On a side note, collage decks are fun to create. I can’t see publishing one, but I’d suggest everyone give creating some of the cards as collages a try. It’s inspiring and can lead to new insight for the cards. Speaking of which I’ll have to share some exercises you can do with that in another post.
What about you? If you designed your own deck, what would it look like?
I’ve often thought about designing my own Tarot… except that when I dwell on that thought I tend to come across what I’m looking for in an already published deck.. at the moment I’m pretty engaged with the dark grimoire tarot but another I like the look of is the maroon tarot http://www.kartytarota.pl – interesting point about “negative” cards – they’re often the first I look at when judging a new deck. The tower in the maroon Tarot is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
That’s a great angle for the tower on that maroon deck. I’d never seen that deck before. Thanks for sharing it!