Black Cat Deck: Jack of Fangs

The Jacks are more detailed than most of the other cards.  They show cats that I know well, whose personalities express the meaning of the card particularly well.  The Jack of Fangs features Flounder, a tiny black shorthair who has lived at the Hermitage Cat Shelter for several years.  He was born with paralyzed hind legs, so the muscles in his hindquarters are underdeveloped and he drags his legs and tail when he walks.  In contrast, his chest, neck, and front legs have grown exceptionally sturdy and muscular, and he is able to flip upside down and “stand” on his front paws and head for a few seconds at a time, just for fun.  But he is most memorable for his big fluffy head and enormous round deep golden eyes that give him an owl-like stare.  He is an intelligent, intense cat with a strong personality, full of power, affection, and impish humor – a “magic cat” with a larger-than-life presence.  He was once a friend of Scootch, the female paralytic whose image I used for the card backs.  He tested positive for the feline leukemia virus, so he lives in a special enclosure with other FeLV+ cats, though so far he has shown no signs of illness.

Jack of Fangs

In the drawing, Flounder is surrounded and aided by mysterious night-flying spirit helpers:  small Saturniid silk moths whose eyed wings match his own wide-eyed, curious expression.  The moths are native to southeastern Arizona but have similar relatives throught the U.S.  They are Dysschema howardi (back), Agapema anona (chest), Automeris randa (tail), Sphinx cerisyi (hind foot), Schinia jaguarina (forefoot).

Here is one of my favorite Flounder photos – I think it’s beautiful because it shows the latent, springlike energy in his strong little body, but there was no way to work it into the card, since too much detail would be lost at that size.

Flounder meditating

Black Cat Deck: Jaguar or Joker #1

The Black Cat Deck will have two Jokers, each showing a black cat with a jaguar.  This theme gives the deck a bit of geographic context, since I live at the northern edge of the jaguar’s present range.  The idea came from this photo that I took of Beluga when he still lived at the shelter: 

Beluga Imitating a Black Jaguar

 Jokers, of course, are “wild cards” that can be used in several ways or left out of the deck altogether.  The Black Cat Jokers, called Jaguars, have ties to the Tarot – the first card represents the Fool, and the second will represent the World.  The first card shows Beluga walking with a black jaguar.  Their poses are mirror images of each other, showing their close relationship.  The two cats are shadows, protectors, and soul guardians of each other.  Most of the time, they walk in different worlds, so each can be the other’s spirit guide in a strange place.  But they meet and become one in the Underworld.

Jaguar Card #1

The other items are adapted from protective household objects in the Santeria tradition.  They represent the three Guerreros or Warriors:  Ochossi (usually represented by a bow and arrow, but here shown by three claws – African lion, jaguar, and mountain lion); Ogoun (usually a machete, here a jaguar head whose tongue forms the blade of a dagger); Eleggua (also called Esu or Legba, usually a clay head with cowrie shell features).  Osun, the watchman who accompanies the Warriors, is usually represented by a cup fringed with bells and topped with a rooster.  Here he is indicated by a Pre-Columbian style Mexican bell topped with a tiny jaguar.  As tradition demands, Osun occupies a high place (at the top of the card) so he can see what’s going on.  Eleggua, guardian of doorways and crossroads, is placed appropriately at the bottom center of the card, with the other two warriors beside him.  So the two feline adventurers have powerful allies:  Ogoun’s strength and endurance, Ochossi’s focus and tracking skills, Eleggua’s opportunistic Trickster intelligence and adaptability, and Osun’s silent watchfulness.

For those who don’t like the symbols described above, or want something extra, the objects can also correspond with the suit symbols in the deck.

Black Cat Deck: Three of Fangs

The Three of Fangs could be subtitled “Being Invisible”.  A black cat skull, viewed from the top, has a smaller skull positioned like a third eye.  What does it see, if anything?  Below, a triskele of fangs (decorated to look like blind raven heads) encloses an empty, weeping cat eye.  Like the Three of Swords in the Tarot, this card at its best may suggests some sudden insight, revelation, or clarification, usually in regard to a relationship or complex situation.  At its worst, it may indicate alienation or heartbreak. 

Three of Fangs

In some American folk magic traditions, black cats contain a special bone that has the power to make a person invisible.  Depending on the tradition, the bone must be carried in a secret bag, used with other items in a special ritual, held in the mouth, or even eaten.  I haven’t been able to find out which bone it is supposed to be, or even whether it’s the same one for every black cat.  This unpleasant bit of folklore is a 19th century blend of African and European magic with very old roots, so I have chosen the skull (a powerful symbol in its own right) to represent the mysterious bone that confers invisibility.

Homeless cats are invisible to most people.  Blindness, either partial or total, is a fairly common affliction among these creatures.  It can be caused by malnutrition, injury, and various illnesses, all of which are preventable if the cat lives indoors in a safe, loving home.  Yet because their eyes are so beautiful and their gaze so direct (and forward-facing, just like humans), blind cats often inspire unease, disgust, or even fear rather than compassion, and they are less likely to be rescued or adopted.

This was a very difficult card to draw.  I made several sketches and ink drawings before coming up with the final design, which is much more abstract than I originally intended.

Black Cat Deck: Card Back Motif

The design for the card backs will be quite intricate, as is traditional for playing cards, in order to provide a visual contrast with the spare, uncluttered card fronts.  Here’s the image that will eventually be doubled and surrounded by a border so the card backs will be reversible.  The cat is Beluga in one of his favorite sleeping positions.

Black Cat Card Back Motif

Although the ink drawing shows the Full Moon, the design is based on one of a series of eight paintings that I did a couple of years ago showing Beluga with the primary phases of the moon.

Beluga Dark Moon

Ironwing Tarot Update

Ironwing Tarot  full 78-card deck with book and bag:

SOLD OUT as of today.

 

22 card MAJOR ARCANA set (square-cornered cards, no book or bag) is STILL AVAILABLE.

Black Cat Deck: Four of Paws

Adytum

The Four of Paws is a reworking of the Adytum painting that I did last summer.  This card shows a cat sleeping inside a cell – a prison or sanctuary?  A picture or carving of a weeping angel cat watches from above.  Whatever it knows is hidden from the resting cat, at least for now.  The iron door has paw-shaped hinges, a heart-shaped lock, and a key ready for someone to come and claim the precious creature – theft or rescue?  The small size of the cell suggest that if the door were left open, the little room might become a cat’s favorite sleeping nook or even a nicho, a place for a shrine. 

Four of Paws

The cat is Impy, who would never enter a place like this voluntarily, because he gets anxious in small spaces.  But when found him as an injured stray, we couldn’t get near him and had to trap him to take him to the vet.  We found that he was not feral but merely scared, and craved a loving home after someone dumped him outside.

How to Draw Fire

The title phrase has shown up in my blog stats every day for about a year. 

What does fire look like?  Regardless of the art medium or style that you are using, you need to be familiar with what fire looks like and how it behaves.  Here’s the photo gallery at wildlandfire.com, the ultimate online resource for PICTURES OF FIRE.  Under the first heading, “Fire Photo Pages”, you’ll find 40 pages, each with several photos.  There are more photos at the bottom of the page under “Incidents by Name and Year”.

Symbols for Fire:  The Ironwing Tarot uses several symbolic techniques to represent fire in small ink drawings.  It shows fire, sparks, or smoke on 27 cards (Major Arcana and Spikes).  Many of these are rather subtle, since fire isn’t usually the main subject of the card.

Painting Fire:  Fire is surprisingly easy to render effectively in mineral pigments, especially against a dark background.   This egg tempera sketch shows a whitetail deer scapula painted in charred bone, with a smoky background painted with forest fire charcoal.  The fiery figure is painted in yellow ochre with red ochre accents.  Commercial transparent watercolor would offer more color options, but the idea is the same – keep it simple, with thin glazes of intense color against a darker, more neutral background.

Scapulimancy Fire

Here is a rather stylized egg tempera painting of fire glowing in the earth, surrounded by charred thorns:

Fire and Thorns

Previous posts on this blog that include fire paintings include a painting of an iron pomegranate with fire inside (rendered in realgar, not yellow ochre), and a painting of a pomegranate made of fire.

http://ironwing.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/clay-iron-and-realgar/

http://ironwing.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/walking-close-to-home/

GREEN fire?  Yes, when copper ore is heated (or copper metal that has developed a green patina), it gives off green flames.  This watercolor miniature was painted in iron oxides and copper ores (red cuprite, green malachite, and blue azurite).

Copper Fire Bowl

Black Cat Deck: Five of Masks, Nine of Fangs

So far, most of the cards show cats doing ordinary, universal cat things.  The cats just happen to be black.   Only the the Two, Three, and Ten of Masks, the Two of Paws, and the Queen of Paws present black cats as special or different from other felines.  They also demonstrate that all black cats do not look alike, which is one of the deck’s themes.  But several cards will explore specific black cat challenges and advantages, and address some of the myths and folklore that contribute to human ambivalence about black cats (and by extension, felines in general).  I hope the final deck will combine all these diverse aspects into one true image.

“All these you are, and each is partly you,

and none is false, and none is wholly true.”

- Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown’s Body

The Five of Masks is about personal identity.   The only sign of a live cat in this card is a pair of eyes peering out of a box.  The other four cat faces represent idealized felines.  The box is a hiding place for cats – a “kitty condo” with a door cut like a cat face and a roof decorated like a shrine.  Beside it, a stuffed toy and an Egyptian statue of the Goddess Bast have been placed like guardians.  The deity, the plaything, the ornament, and the abstracted outline are all familiar human-created feline symbols, yet the tenant of the shrine ignores them all as strangers.  Inside, a real, living creature watches, unseen and unknown, waiting silently for understanding as an individual…or just wanting to be left alone.

Five of Masks

The Nine of Fangs deals with real or imagined fears of personal attack.  It shows a cat with a fully puffed tail, indicating that he is startled, excited, and perhaps afraid.  Above him hangs a black cat poppet made from fabric, buttons, hair, and a gnarled root.  It holds nine black pins and wears a necklace of nine cat fangs.  Depending on your point of view, the primitive doll could be an amusing curio, an interesting cat toy, or a sinister “voodoo doll” or magical object used to control or ”put a root” on the spooked cat.   The cat is Leon, an intense, excitable little guy who fluffs his tail and runs to investigate whenever the other cats start facing off.  He even gets “poofy tail” when playing with his toys.

Nine of Fangs

Black Cat Deck: Four of Masks

The Four of Masks shows a cat guarding its favorite possessions, including a rug adorned with cat faces at the corners, a string of beads, a bell, and a ball. 

Four of Masks

In a colony, some cats are very possessive about “their” toys and blankets.  Others are quite happy to regard such things as community property, and some simply ignore them.  An interest in human-made playthings is not the same as the desire to hunt (cats know the difference between live prey and a plastic ball), nor does it have anything to do with the need for personal territory.  Instead, it seems to be very similar to the human urge to surround ourselves with objects that are beautiful, interesting, entertaining, or comforting.

Fric with Beads

The cat is Fric, a small roly-poly male who came to the shelter several years ago with his brother, Frac.  They were kittens rescued from a feral colony.  Frac was quickly adopted, but shy Fric remained at the shelter.  He follows me around and picks a spot (usually out in the open or on an empty shelf) to sit and watch me, “talking” with his eyes.  Occasionally he lets me pet him, but he isn’t comfortable with it very often.  When he stops and stares, I know that is my signal to sit near him and spend quiet time together “in the place between fleeing and clutching”, as I described it when I first began to work with these shy cats. 

Lichen Oracle Card Design

Lichen Card Sample

I’d like to print the Lichen Oracle as cards that look something like this, and include the unfinished 16-card Sticks and Stones Oracle along with it.  The card border (shown here in shaded gray) would be warm metallic silver.  But I doubt there would be much interest in these except from a few oracle collectors and people who are interested in divination systems.  But I may consider printing a very limited edition (50 copies or so) once the Black Cat Deck is done.  Meanwhile, I’ll revise the Lichen Oracle website to show the oracle in the form of these cards instead of the current glyph table with separate descriptions.  That should make it more accessible and prettier.