Avatar TArot
 

I've mentioned it before, my idea of wanting to create, at least for myself, a Tarot Deck, based on Avatar. This summer I had lots of opportunity to deepen myself on Tarot and its symbolism and meaning.

This thread is again, typical of me, more of a personal journey and exploration, while I work on the creation of a deck.

Although normally on these threads, I'm not looking for a lot of input, but I am appreciative of others thoughts.

In this case, as I am extending an invitation for input, I'm also making it very specific. I know that there are others out there whom appreciate Tarot and its symbolism. Those are, and only those voices are the ones I'm inviting to make contributions to developing this deck.

I appreciate everyone's consideration in this!

At this time I have not yet started to create the 'Art Work' .. this is more the meaning for each card, instead, the actual Art Work will evolve from my explorations in symbolism!

As ever I hope that others will enjoy the process

Mika!

Major Arcana
 

My way of approaching this, will be to post which ever 'card' symbolism comes up as in way of a reading, and the general meaning and symbolism behind the 'traditional' card. From there to expand it to make both the 'image' that will eventually be used or created, and the meaning to be completely Avatar related. This in particular is where others input will be most constructive!

Key XVI: The Tower

Traditional Meaning:

"A series of insights propels you to new awareness; you have outgrown the old structure physical or mental - you built, you must destroy this structure (or allow it to crumble) in order to make room for the new structures you need; you may have to sacrifice certain things, in order to grow, you may find yourself changing quite a bit; search your heart for answers; we often have to give up before we can gain"

"As the Tower is the key of rapid and destructive change of form, of letting go, for you at this time means that you may be moving to higher level through the experience of drastic conditions. You may sacrifice your job or your home, go bankrupt or get divorced. You may experience natural or man-made violence, disease or disaster. You may be confronting and coming to terms with Death. Key XVI implies raising consciousness or becoming liberated through facing destruction. "

To me the most obvious Symbol for this card .. is the Burning of Home Tree .. although Jakes 'enlightenment' comes just before the destruction, it would all seem to fit the meaning of this card ..

Other suggestions?

Oooh I love this idea, Tarot cards are a great tool to search for answers..I have a few suggestions but I'll edit this post and include them when I have more time later today.

Okay so I know there's a death card: You could have a picture of a Na'vi burial.. The lover's card could be Neytiri and Jake. The Hermit card could be a thanator sitting by a waterfall deep in thought.

/me is anxious to see what the end result looks like. :D

Hey Pa'li wonderful to have you onboard, and looking forward to your continuted input. The first two definitely, and what a very neat idea for the Hermit card, would not have thought of that, at all, its marvelous! :)

Thx Advent, LOL, me too! ;)

Ok so giving this some more thought, I realized that actually we need to come up with the images from the movie, as we are contemplating the meaning and symbolism to be associated with each card. The reason being, is that Tarot is not just a set of cards that has a set meaning, it is actually a highly intuitive process that comes from how ones' psyche and intuition is evoked by the images as well.

So for the Tower Card, We need some images of the bombing and burning of Home Tree, to evoke a deeper connection to the image, to create the eventual meaning that is specific to how the AVATAR symbolism relates and speaks to us!

Definitely could use some help here in this area. SO Anyone is welcome to post some burning Home Tree Images. Lets try to avoid duplicates or reposting (aka quoting) another's image already used, but definitly can refer to it in the discussion, just to keep from image overload.

Lets see how that image, calls to us invidually and colletively, as related to the Traditional Meaning of the Tower!

Thx!~ :)

that's a wonderful idea. I'll buy,and use them. You got to sell them via the PC

Hmmm I'll try to get some screencaps Mika. Mind you I don't have the blu ray copy of Avatar. :
Found this on the net: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...estruction.jpg

http://images.wikia.com/jamescameron...b5/Deshome.png

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...h08m03s129.png

I think that unless it's supposed to only be a negative, something like Jake first waking up in his avatar or the ending shot might work better.

Mika wrote that one of the meanings of the tower card was destructive and rapid change which would bring in new awareness. I think that the destruction of the hometree is a big change to the Na'vi and their awareness of the Tawtute change as a result.

Here, Mika I have a pic..It's sad though. :(
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...h43m14s172.png

A great idea Mika - I'll buy them, too! (I will have to learn to read Tarot first tho :))

^^^this - or a screenshot just before it, when we can see How tall & powerful Home Tree is (was:'( ) (sorry I don' t have any screenshots :( )

Quaritch is El Diablo!

Edited to add: is it possible to have Na'vi names for the cards, too? Quaritch will be Vrrtep then :) the screenshot - only as a suggestion - would be the one when he caught Jake by the queue - on the usual Devil cards there is often somebody in chains, right?

On the other hand, cards like The Chariot... mgmgmg... what to do with this one? The Na'vi don't have chariots... Altho it could be the image of warriors on direhorses - or else, Jake & Neytiri flying ikrans?

THX Pa'li! :)

Definitely! I finally got to watch Avatar the other night, as hadn't seen it all summer, And yeah this image, or as Apache Blanca says below, there is one where we can see the whole of Home Tree start to lean, and the burning fires below. Just need to get to a decent computer to capture the screen shot! But i think it captures that moment well .. But if we end up rendering it wether by painting or photoshopping, .. we can caputure the other feelings as well .. somehow the 'shocked' look of Na'Vi faces .. maybe symbolically in a corner of the card ..

So now the next part .. is the reflection .. when we see the destruction of Home Tree .. and intuitively now .. embracing the meaning of the Tower card .. what does it start to mean to us .. in Avatar terms .. Umm I guess in both cases .. as again Apache Blanca your suggestion below, would be good to turn to the Na'Vi language references, lol, for referencing!

Hmmm .... might need more help here on that part too!


Apache Blanca, first welcome and thank you for joining ...
And second .. what a good idea .. hadn't even thought that far along, but absolutely makes complete sense .. that's the shift .. from just being a Tarot Deck .. to completely Avatar Meaning .. of course the card names should change! THX! :)

the pleasure is all mine :):)

glad you liked it :) sure somebody from LearnNa'vi can help - or else, we'll go to Paul Frommer! :D

I've just thought again, The Chariot: Toruk Makto. This should be it! In charge of your own (not only!?) destiny, know where you going, fast powerful movement... Something like this?

PS Added: ooh, wait, Mika! Avatar Tarot Reading... as one of Seattle Meetup 2012 activities...! Hey, if you have a waiting list, add me there pleeeeaaazzze :)

I want mine told too!!:):):rolleyes: Please plus infinity

It will read:


"You will have tortured life"

So far the cards are right

"You will find something worth fighting for"

True again

"You will meet a tall pretty blue female with a tail"

Yes and..

"Go through hell and back, and hell and back, have a wicked movie type ending. Then have a sequel and repeat"

Wow these cards are GOOD!!:xD:

^^^^ :xD::xD: who says the cards don't tell the truth???

Those who say that probably haven't had a proper reading. It's an art to read tarot cards for someone.

^^^"an art" is the word.
I have a close fortune telling friend here, she is pretty spot on: 75-90% of right guess is good. I never saw anyone guessing 100% true. Plus, some things could be interpreted differently - like, once she said I would probably sign up for horse riding but instead I signed up for a driving course :P but yes, some sort of "mount" was there. Definitely :)

Ooh, another idea: about The Death card. I am thinking about one of the very first scenes: "One life is over; another is about to begin" (Tommy's face in flames - Jake's face in cryon). Maybe this image could be combined with the Na'vi funeral scene? (An Atokirina must be there imho.) Cos - afaik - this is what The Death card is about in Tarot: not so much a physical death, "the end of everything" but rather a radical change. "A fresh start in a new world". Hm?

Hmmm that's quite a good idea Mika. The Na'vi burial I thought could be something similar since the spirit returns to Eywa, symbolised especially with the atokirina there.

MOM's and HNM .. my apologies .. i missed your posts from earlier! So thank you for joining the discussion and welcome! :)

Well .. can't say how long it will take, and in the end its clearlly going to have been a ToS group process .. so if WE sell them .. guess have to decide how and what the money would be raised for or somehing .. in the end it could just be an online Tarot .. and there is lots of those, but we will have to see how it goes!


That's the interesting thing HNM .. there are a lot of other subtler images that can give the meaning of the card as well, and they all 'tie' into gther, the 'Tower' energy actually carries over symbolically into a lot of other Major and Minor Acrana cards .. so where we might use the specific image such as Home Tree .. yet would find that the image your sugggesting be one of those other cards. Thanks though good suggestion worth considiering!

Mika, are you doing only the Major, or the Minor Arcana, too?

The eyes opening image as HNM suggested should definitely be somewhere. I just wonder what cards it clicks with best... I am thinking, "The World", but it's what first came into my head. let's think together....

Ah, & - only imho - painting cards vs screenshots definitely allows more space to play & for creative interpretation. Screenshots can give good ideas, but then painting can amplify & develop them.

Online Tarot is a good start. Me, I would like to touch things - cards in this case. I'll keep them under my pillow & see what dream(s) they inspire :P