Tag Archives: freaks

The freak Show Circus Tarot Deck.

9 Jun

This deck of 78 cards intends to portray the universe of the traveling circus and the freak show to the
mystical universe of the tarot. I take a variety of major and minor arcana and turn them into the main
characters of the greatest show on earth.

In my tarot deck, the high priestess is a powerful and attractive bearded woman; the pope is a strong giant weight lifter; the jack of pentacles is a friendly seal playing with a golden ball; the hanged man is an escapist chained up and cornered by sharks; the hermit is a tamer who jealously guards an old Russian bear in its cage; the king of pentacles is an elephant man who horrifies everyone; the magician never ceases to be an enigmatic conjurer… and so on and so forth, until the tarot arcana become members of a mysterious and unique traveling circus where, under its protective tent, fate brings together a collection of curious characters and makes them a big family.

There are some unfortunate and deformed beings, known as freaks, who did not choose to be born that
way, but, as a means of subsistence, used their physical misfortune to unleash intense and complex
emotions between children and adults.

In contrast to the freaks, there is a group of superhumans who, with skillfully and pridefully, display to
their devoted audiences their extraordinary physical or mental qualities, or their innate ability to make
people laugh.

Finally, we find a chosen group of wild beasts that were plucked from their native jungle and trained in
different arts and juggling skills before finally being exhibited in the central ring of our circus-tarot to the
delight of the staff.

All of them form a magical and united family that, under the virtue of temperance, travel from city to city
in their wooden chariots. Chariots with powerful wheels that carry a big tower around the world, sometimes under a blazing sun, sometimes under the moon and the stars, but always guided by the strength of a fool tightrope walker.

Another important feature of this tarot deck is that I have used the four suits of the minor arcana (pentacles,
cups, wands and swords), specifically those from 1 to 10, to tell four little circus stories in sequence, as if
each arcane were part of a comic strip.
This is another aspect which makes my tarot quite unique: the use of the cards as if they were the cartoons of a comic book.

the tarot is for sale in my etsy shop

the tarot is for sale in my etsy shop