TAROTS 2021

The following lists the Tarot decks (majors-only and full decks) which Paraluman has published over the years. Each links to a small entry on the specific deck named.

  
 
 
 

Unpublished decks and works-in-progress I have begun (and am continuing) over the years. I really do hope to finish and publish (when applicable) all of these.

These works are decks created for other publishers.

TAROT NG DAIGDIG SA BALINTATAW

The title translates to "The World Inside The Pupil of the Eye". It's a deck I created for Adam McLean's wonderful press. He has been a huge supporter of small press and independently published tarot decks and it was a pleasure to have created this deck for him. The deck features beings from a made-up world (inside the pupil of the eye, as in the title!). Aside from being inspired by some modern paintings I saw featured in Flaunt magazine when I was in college, the landscape and some of the figures were also inspired by Persian miniature painting.

The deck is still available for sale via Adam McLean. Click on the image above or follow this link to view more details of the deck.

VANESSA TAROT

The Vanessa Tarot was inspired by a friend (Vanessa!) who is a strong and independent type of woman who also happened to have a huge doll collection, and she could talk doll lingo (like how collectors would reference stuff). I also noticed that a lot of people who are into tarot are female - from young teens to older, more experienced women. I wanted to create something fun and quirky, but at the same time has imagery which represents the meanings of the cards (and people have commented that readings done with it were quite spot-on!). The deck is something I would think of as feminine but not feminist. In fact, and when I was creating this deck, the quote "for the little girl in every grown woman (or man. lol)" kept ringing in my ears. I wanted a lighthearted approach to tarot, one you can have fun with (even laugh at the images), but something which can still be used for readings. True, you'll see dashing knights replaced by motorcycle-riding or sky-diving women, or perhaps get a lady politician for an emperor, but then I guess that's the beauty of the tarot in the contemporary world: it's a set in an arena where it can take on (and does take on) different forms, and (perhaps) gain new insights and parallelisms. that's what personally attracted me to tarot-making as well, how one pack of 78 (or so, depending on your tarot convictions. lol) cards can be expressed in so many ways yet still retain that tarot sense of mystery that has been the cause of many a tarot hoard.

I am particularly proud of this little creation of mine because while it has in many ways gone against the grain in terms of what people would normally expect from tarot, it has found a place in the tarot world and has earned the respect of a lot of tarotists.

The deck was published by US Games Systems, Inc. back in 2005 and is still in publication. You can follow this link or click on the image above. Both will lead you to US Games Systems' page on the Vanessa Tarot.

TAROT DE MARIA CELIA

Tarot de Maria Celia is my personal homage to the tarot face type called Tarot de Marseille. It is NOT a Tarot de Marseille per se, but rather, my goal in creating this deck was to reference the TdM while also having more freedom to include my own personal inputs into the cards.

The illustrations have this soft, light and... transluscent quality to them. Adam McLean's description of them is perhaps the closest to what I had envisioned for the coloring style I developed specifically for this deck - "as if they had been created on translucent tracing paper using oil based paints and one is viewing them in transmitted light,".

These were originally self-published, but were subsequently picked up and published by US Games, in a much better size and packaging - the dimesnions really compliment the wonky proportions of the figures, and the tin box is just wonderful. You cann follow this link or click on the image above. Both will lead you to US Games Systems' page on the Tarot de Maria Celia.

Some other works which aren't part of the other categories. Some of these were created as parts of collaborative tarot projects in the past; some are the results of quirky ideas and may be considered as stand-alone works because I don't really know if I want to pursue creating an entire deck with them as springboards.

(IMAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS TO FOLLOW)