New Era Elements Tarot

I don’t think I’ve ever said, “I’m after a modern deck that combines animals, high tech transportation, nature scenes and people with some deeply confronting imagery.” Yet, here it is and wow. The New Era Elements Tarot has had a profound impact on me. It’s a deck that demands accountability and it turned out to be just what I needed when I revisited it this week. Creator Eleonore F Pieper wrote that she wanted to, “Create a deck that would be respectful of the tarot tradition, but that would allow readers to tap into a modern and global experience.” What she didn’t mention is that she has created a deck that taps readers into aspects of themselves that they may have been actively or subconsciously suppressing. This deck has been very cathartic for me.

The New Era Elements Tarot Cards

If you walk into my office when this deck is out it is unlikely you will be able to walk out again without hearing me gush over the artwork on some of the cards. Why? Because I am in awe of Eleonore Pieper’s artistic ability. It doesn’t matter whether she is reproducing nature scenes, racing cars, animals or people, each is exceptional. I don’t feel like I am looking at dark sepia-toned, monochromatic pencil drawings. I am looking at people and places, events and actions, that sometimes feel all too real to me. For example, when I’m looking at scenes highlighting how we treat animals I find the cards confronting. Other cards show what we do to each other and what we do to ourselves. But, I’ll get to that more later.

While inspired by RWS tarot decks, Eleonore Pieper uses Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot designations for the New Era Elements Tarot pip cards. Therefore 10 of Fire pictured above for example is Oppression rather than the RWS idea of burden. Although I see both reflected in the imagery. I want to imagine that the bars behind the jaguar are saplings but I know I can’t so I try and focus on the magnificence of the animal instead. Rather than lessening the impact of the card, I find doing so makes the image even more powerful.

Not only is Eleonore Pieper a brilliant artist, her innovative approach to the cards leaves no doubt as to the message she is trying to portray. Take the firefighters in the scene above. We may have some questions surrounding their actions but we don’t question their bravery.

The decks approach to diversity

What she has also managed to do is create a deck that celebrates diversity. New Era Elements Tarot represents people of various ages and ethnicities without the inclusions feeling tokenistic. The young Indian tightrope walker, featured on 8 Adjustment, concentrates as she learns to find her sense of balance. This process begins when we are young and it continues as our life circumstances change. The young girl doesn’t appear just to prevent any ageist comments.

The Lovers card provides another more obvious example. Here we see an older couple that, having made their choice to build their lives together, have stuck with that choice. On the tree, the initials represent their children and their grandchildren. Eleonore says it’s a family tree. This makes me consider the impact of our choices on many levels. But at its most basic, it shows that the choices we make don’t just affect us in the moment. They ripple out into so many aspects of our lives whether we think about that or not.

Who are these people on the card and what impact did their choices have on their own lives, their children’s lives, and their children’s children’s lives? Even small choices have flow on effects. Looking at this card now I am forced to consider how many choices I’ve made without really thinking through their ongoing impacts. I could write so much on this, and maybe down the track I will because I think it is important. But for now, as a hint to where my mind was going, I’ll paraphrase this oft cited idea, “If you think you are small and your life is inconsequential, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

But back to showcasing the deck’s diversity. In the Court cards Eleonore Pieper features Maasai, Māori, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, and European peoples. Her drawing for the Father of Fire, pictured below is one of my favourite in the deck. He is so alive for me and I find it hard to look away from him. He commands my attention. This is the perfect energy for the Father of Fire.

General information

As you can see above she has renamed the Court Mother, Father, Son, and Daughter to create a more relatable family dynamic. You can also see that she has renamed the suits. Since this is an elementally-based deck, Swords have been renamed Air, Wands are Fire, Cups are Water, and Pentacles are Earth. Taking this approach adds to the universal feel of the New Era Elements Tarot. If you are unsure of the elemental symbols, she has included them in the guidebook at the beginning of each suit. She hasn’t included the suit name on the pip cards though because she has chosen to allocate the space to a keyword.

Some of the Major Arcana have been renamed as well. 1 The Magus, 8 Adjustment, and XXI The Universe adopt the Thoth appellations, although she hasn’t adopted this throughout the Majors. The rest retain the RWS titles. Adjustment, which is the name given to Justice, is 8 and Strength is 11.

If you look at each card you will see that, with the exception of the Court cards, they include the symbols for the astrological associations. However, 0 The Fool is aligned with Earth rather than Uranus, 12 The Hanged Man is associated with Water rather than Neptune, and 20 Judgment with Fire not Pluto. Here she has followed the Thoth associations. In a lot of ways this makes sense to me since those planets do not feature in the Minor Arcana. However, since I learned them the other way I personally tend to apply the planets. Yes my thinking contradicts itself and now I’m wondering about it. But, then I question the lack of a Major Arcana card to directly represent Earth so I’m swinging back the other way again. This is not really the place for this discussion though so I will move on.

I do like it when decks feature the astrological symbols on the cards. It adds another dimension to the interpretation. Although it has made me a little lazy. While I know the associated star sign for each pip card, purely because it is simple to work out and thus remember, I have not memorised the planetary alignments. Instead, when decks include the information on the card I tend to incorporate it and when they don’t, I don’t.

Before I move on to discussing a few individual cards I want to point out that at just under 6.5 x 11.5cm these cards are slightly smaller than standard which means people with smaller hands may find them easier to to handle. My daughter does. I like the satin finish because it makes them easy to fan and flip through but personally I do find the slightly smaller size makes them a bit awkward to bridge. They are flexible though so they are easy to riffle.

As you can see above, the backs are not reversible. However, the guidebook does provide meanings for reversed cards. Although she adds that the meanings given can be used for challenge/block positions in the spread rather than purely for reversals.

Onto some individual cards

Now onto some of the individual cards. It is nice to see the Dalai Lama as The Hierophant. Better still is her decision to include symbols representing many belief systems. As a card that represents our core values and beliefs, and the structures that represent them, it is good to see she is not advocating any one tradition but recognising that many options exist. Ciro Marchetti’s Tarot of Dreams does something similar.

10 The Wheel of Fortune caught my attention because it shows that we have a choice on how we play the hand we are dealt. It isn’t just about a change of fortune created by an outside force. Faber est suae quisque fortunae translates to

Every man is the artisan of his own fortune.

This ties into how I perceive this card. It is an important reminder that the cards suggest what is possible and/or what may occur, but we are always in control.

Like any great deck, the New Era Elements Tarot, has cards that are highly relatable on a personal level. Take the 7 of Air pictured above. I am blessed to share my backyard with abundant birdlife and so a few years ago I was able to witness the cuckoo phenomena first hand. I was watching a wattle bird feeding her babies when I noticed one was considerably larger and more demanding than the other. It didn’t really look like its sibling either. A quick Google and I discovered the larger fledgling was a cuckoo. Cuckoos trick other birds into raising their offspring by laying their eggs in their nests. This puts additional demands on the host bird and frees the cuckoo from any parenting responsibilities.

What a nuanced approach to this card. It suggests the deception is created by, or impacting, a third party. This deception is burdening an unsuspecting person who feels obligated to do the right thing without questioning the situation. Nevertheless, at some stage it is up to us to notice and make a conscious decision about the actions we are taking.

Another example is the 6 of Cups. It reminds me of taking my children to a local fountain style water park when they were young. They loved it. Such a simple thing created so much joy. Even though the keyword or intention here is not nostalgia, this card has that impact on me. Memories I have of life with my kids when they were young brings a smile to my face. However, I still continue to make memories with them as adults. For me then, this card is a reminder to continue to find the joy and fun in the simple things and to not become caught in a, “it was so much better in the past” mindset. Our actions today become the memories we look back on in the future. As obvious as this is, it can be easy to forget.

The New Era Elements Tarot Guide Book

When you combine the cards with the guidebook that accompanies the New Era Elements Tarot this deck ramps up the level of accountability. For example, XV The Devil says, “The price you pay and the price you force others to pay.” I haven’t photographed this card because it may be triggering. The card shows a Nazi symbol, a star, a dollar sign and a hammer and sickle. There is no “devil”. Instead, she has drawn the victims lying beneath the symbols. Eleonore Pieper points out that, “Modern evil cannot be blamed on some satanic being. It’s done by the person next to you in a crowd who may harm you simply because you have the wrong colour, sexual orientation or belief. Ideology is invoked to justify it all.” This card asks you to consider whether you are the victim or in fact the perpetrator.

Another card I haven’t photographed is the 3 of Air because it features an intravenous drug user with a tattoo of the Three of Swords on his bicep. Eleonore Pieper explains the illustration in this way. She wants to highlight that the danger presented in the 3 of Air is “that we are often evading the pain of necessary grief by numbing ourselves rather than moving through it.” The illustration makes that idea stick. Without the guidebook these cards may seem overly dramatic but without substance.

The book itself is only a 115-paged, card-sized perfect bound book with no card images. But it serves its purpose well. Following a brief introduction, it launches straight into the Major Arcana meanings. After the title are the correspondences and (+) and (-) keywords. Next she provides a Meaning section to expand on the keywords. What I find the most beneficial though is the Exploring the Card section. Here she explains the significance of the elements in the drawing.

In this section for 4 The Emperor, pictured above, she writes,

The Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C. serves as the Emperor for this deck. This card brings to bear contrasts between male and female, race, power, and animate vs inanimate. 
The Empress cares about her own flesh and blood. The Emperor will sacrifice other mothers' children to serve his vision. 
Lincoln's seat has two fasces supporting his hands. These bundles of reeds were carried before Roman officials to mark their status. 'Fascism' derived its name from this tradition. This points to the card's shadow message: that the Emperor will destroy anyone who dares to challenge his power.

I was unaware of the fasces and their relevance until I read this. Everyday is a learning day with the tarot.

However, sometimes I interpret cards quite differently to how she has presented them. For the 5 of Air pictured above the books say it represents the victims trapped in the spider’s web. She writes, “Much as we’d like to we cannot extricate ourselves from the mental web we’ve woven around ourselves.” I see the relevance but I also believe that should be seen as a state – not an ongoing situation. Therefore to me this card is pointing out a victim mentality. Furthermore, when I saw this card when I flicked through the deck, my focus was on the spider doing what it needs to do to survive. Therefore it is overcoming defeat even if people don’t like its methods. There are many ways to interpret the relevance depending on the reading and the position in the spread. That makes for a very well rendered card in my eyes.

In the images above you can see that 18 The Moon and 19 The Sun are deliberately portrayed in a similar fashion. The moonflowers unfurl at night and stay open until the sun rises. Pieper writes that, “they are beautiful – white, elegant and [they have] a subtle scent. However they are also poisonous.” She adds that Native Americans used them for initiations and therefore she links them to a “descent into your subconscious” to uncover “truths that allow you to grow.”

In comparison, 19 The Sun features sunflowers which follow the course of the sun during the day. Therein she suggests “we should align ourselves with clarity and the light side of life.” Other cards in the deck ensure this isn’t considered as an everything-is-fairy-floss-and-unicorns type of sentiment. She adds that sunflowers “provide nourishment in their seeds, meaning that abundance will reach us and that we in turn share joy, energy and love with others.” I have to admit that I don’t unpack the seed symbolism in the same way. I see the ability of sunflowers to successfully self propagate as indicative of abundance. However because I am aware of her interpretation now maybe that will come up in a reading. For me the joy aspect comes from the fact that my “niece” loves sunflowers and so now I too see them as happy flowers.

The book wraps up with a section titled “Reading with New Era Elements Tarot“. Here she shares her personal approach to working with the cards and she includes a spread. Her description of the spread positions are quite detailed. This can help beginners understand what the positions actually signify. Just saying Air isn’t much help.

Wrapping it all up

When I first looked through the New Era Elements Tarot I thought there is nothing gentle about this deck. The drawings are phenomenal but it is brutal. As the picture below proves though, this was a hasty judgment. While it isn’t a deck I would generally use to read for others because it is potentially triggering, it is a powerful, powerful deck. It really laid bare an aspect of myself I try to ignore.

Eleonore Pieper wanted it to be inspiring and it is if your mindset responds to overwhelm by taking action. Many of these images forced me to consider my thoughts, actions, behaviours and beliefs. Being horrified by some of what I see makes me accountable. Some of these cards don’t let you look away. They force us to consider where we benefit while others suffer which isn’t something that is pleasant to consider; but it is necessary. There is the possibility that some may feel this deck is judgmental but I don’t see it like that. I see it shines a light on our own judgments and forces us to face some harsh truths. As I said in the opening, pulling out this deck to write this post happened at the perfect time for me and for that I am truly grateful.

Summaries

The New Era Elements Tarot Cards

Artist	Eleonore F. Pieper PhD
Card Size	approximately 6.5 x 11.5 cm
Card Stock	Flexible satin cardstock
Shuffle	Easy to shuffle straight out of the box
Fan & Flip Through	Easy to fan, flip through, and generally handle
Suits	Air, Fire, Water, Earth
Court	Daughter, Son, Mother, Father
Strength / Justice	Adjustment (Justice) is 8 / Strength is 11
Miscellaneous	Solid two part box, non-reversible backs,

The New Era Elements Guidebook

Written by	Eleonore F. Pieper PhD
Pages	115 pages
Appearance	Perfect bound, B & W
Contents	– Introduction – The Major Arcana – The Minor Arcana – Reading with New Era Elements Tarot – New Era Elements Spread – About the Artist & Author
Spreads	New Era Elements Spread (6 cards)

Publishing Details

Deck Creator:

Eleonore F. Pieper

Pictured Version:

Published by U.S. Games Inc in 2018