The William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination

The William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination. What a great title. Albeit from now on I am just going to refer to it as The William Blake Tarot because, well, it is quicker and easier for everyone. According to its creator, Ed Buryn, it is ‘a reimagining of William Blake’s art and ideas for modern Tarot.’ Apart from reading The Tyger at university I am not overly familiar with his ideas but I feel that is about to change. Buryn claims, ‘this 79-card deck presents William Blake’s central thesis that human creative imagination is the divine aspect of mankind,’ so I look forward to discovering his philosophy through the cards. I know I will do further research because that is my nature, but this deck wants to free us to uncover and discover and create for ourselves.

The Cards

There is much to love about The William Blake Tarot. Much to ponder too. Normally I would describe the physical attributes of the cards much later but I figure I will get the straight forward stuff out of the way. I get the feeling this is going to be a long post. So firstly, this is a big deck. It measures 9 x 13cms and is printed on a low sheen card stock with gold-gilded edges. I have had no issues with the gilding. None of the cards were stuck together, nor does it feel sharp on my hands. Its dark green backs are illustrated with white angels and are fully reversible even though the creator does not work with reversals.

The William Blake Tarot is said to follow traditional tarot but with a twist. It is a big twist. For starters, just about everything has been renamed and reimagined. Plus, there is an additional Major Arcana card. If you read my last review, Grimalkin’s Curious Cats Tarot, you would know that I am not generally a fan of additional cards, but I like the inclusion here. It makes sense to me. Normally, we get to the end of the Major Arcana and the understanding is that we realise that the Fool’s journey starts again. Here it is made clear. The 00 Eternity card pictured below begins the Major Arcana.

I love the multidirectional flow of the people on the card. So much can be read into the image. In particular I love the way the message to bring back to Earth what you discover is visually represented. Spirit is a place we visit, gain knowledge, understanding and so on in order to integrate that connection, knowledge and understanding into our day to day lives. It is not a destination.

Major Arcana

Now I mentioned that just about everything has been renamed in The William Blake Tarot and that extends to the Major and Minor Arcana themselves. The Major Arcana are referred to as Triumphs and most have been completely renamed. The cards you can see pictured above are Justice and Strength. In this deck “Justice” is VIII and renamed Assessment and “Strength” is XI and renamed Energy. Just so you know, the different sized imagery is not a result of my poor photography skills. This deck follows its own rules. If a lack of consistency bothers you then this deck might not be for you.

To make it less clunky I have listed the Triumphs name changes below. They are as follows:

00 Eternity

0 Innocence (0 The Fool)

I Magic (I The Magician)

II Mystery (II The High Priestess)

III Nature (III The Empress)

IV Reason (IV The Emperor)

V Religion (V The Hierophant)

VI Knowledge (VI The Lovers)

VII Experience (VII The Chariot)

VIII Assessment (VIII Justice)

IX Imagination (IX The Hermit)

X Whirlwind (X The Wheel of Fortune)

XI Energy (XI Strength)

XII Reversal (XII The Hanged Man)

XIII Transformation (XIII Death)

XIV Forgiveness (XIV Temperance)

XV Error (XV The Devil)

XVI Lightning (XVI The Tower)

XVII Stars (XVII The Star)

XVIII Moon (XVIII The Moon)

XIX Sun (XIX The Sun)

XX Liberty (XX Judgement)

XXI Union (XXI The World)

The cards above show further differences. For the most part the font used is the same until you see VII Experience all in capitals with an emphasis on the E. No explanation is provided but I see it as once you have gained a certain amount of experience you can break the rules. The book description opens, ‘Wanting to be in control of your instincts, emotions, or elemental forces’ and ends with, ‘Possibly bizarre circumstances.’ In this way, The William Blake Tarot lives its philosophy. To be clear, it is not insinuating that everyone needs to be an artist. Rather, it is about living creatively.

For me, the random font choice here and on V Religion, pictured below, express a quote shared in the online version of the book, (more on that later):

Everyone is an artist, but only a few possess sufficient freedom, courage or foolishness to artistically assert their identity.
William Blake

Not everyone is going to be a fan, but that is okay.

For example, I like the artwork on XIV Forgiveness (pictured below), but the keyword throws me. The book meaning aligns with traditional meanings with forgiveness only receiving a brief mention at the end – ‘Promoting forgiveness and healing, being compassionate towards those around you.’ I can see that forgiveness can be part of the balancing process, but aside from using the renaming to highlight and/or add, (depending on how you interpret the card generally), another aspect to the meaning I do not see the need for the change. Although, the other day I was having a conversation with a friend and she told me she does not believe in forgiveness. We discussed it from a number of different angles and seeing this card reminded me of that conversation. I can recognise there is something in this for me. I need to go deeper.

However, I found V Religion, pictured above, jarring. For such an open-minded deck I find that the renaming, and the presence of a devil-like religious figure, creates a very limited interpretation. Within the card explanation it does list, ‘need or desire for personal guidance,’ but for the most part the interpretations are negative. I am not a religious person so that is not my issue. It is that in a deck such as this, I believe the more open idea that The Hierophant can represent examining whether you are living in alignment with your personal truth would have been more in keeping. Unfortunately, the image on the card limits the options considerably.

To be fair, in the online book Buryn writes, ‘Although the imagery of the card is overwhelmingly negative, it makes the statement that humanity’s spiritual needs must be addressed, and thus stems from a positive impulse. Blake rejects traditional religion for being worldly and corrupt. His denunciation only underlines the importance he placed upon the influence of leaders and teachers in educating people to see the beauty and divinity of life.’ That I can understand.

The William Blake Tarot has many subtle inclusions. For example, there is a small number in the top right hand corner of the Triumphs. This number represents the order Blake presented the twenty-one etchings he created to share his version of Job’s story. Also, the thin border colours serve a purpose. Cards I through VII have a grey border to represent that they are each part of the ‘Cycle of Matter’. Cards VIII to XIV have dark blue borders and are part of the ‘Cycle of Awakening’, and XV – XXI are part of the ‘Cycle of Spirit’ and have red borders.

Minor Arcana

Neither the changes nor the attention to detail stopped with the Triumphs. Here the Minor Arcana are “Creative Process Cards”. Each suit has a new name as well. The suits are Painting, Science, Music and Poetry and the Court is Angel, Child, Woman and Man. It is probably easiest to express them elementally. Angel is Air, Child is Earth, Woman is Water and Man is Fire.

Painting aligns with the water element and is described as follows: ‘The embodiment of Inner Vision. Giving form to spiritual light. Path of Sensation and Spirit’. Border details are important here too.

Buryn explains that ‘the upper borders of all the [Painting] cards depict the clouds that Blake associates with the body’ and ‘the lower borders … depict the flow of water (matter) in various forms, sometimes anthropomorphically in the forms of faces and human limbs that appear in the flow. The inner edges of the card borders are blue to symbolize the element of water.’ All the individual suit borders are similar yet they are not identical. Ed Buryn took no short cuts with this deck.

Poetry represents, ‘The expression of eternal truth. To speak from prophetic inspiration. Path of individuality and revelation.’ The green inner border and the grapevines show that Poetry is linked to Earth and thus what is more commonly known as the Pentacle suit. That may surprise many people. The grapevines are there to symbolise ‘the vitality of the imagination’. Additionally, ‘each card has a symbol window at the bottom whose faint design of biblical words suggests the faith in imagination’ that is said to characterise the suit.

An included Blake quote adds further meaning. The quote really adds to the card. I love the quote on the Two of Poetry pictured above, ‘Every man’s wisdom is peculiar to his own individuality.’ Although I have to admit it changes the meaning of the card for me. In all honesty I read these cards intuitively based on the imagery. I become confused when I consciously layer my tarot knowledge onto the cards.

Science is Air and is each card has a yellow inner border. The stars are there because it is said that, ‘Blake associates [them] with the intellect (speculation upon the universe).’ The Science suit is described as, ‘The challenge of self-understanding. Striving to know self and world. Path of Intellect and Learning.’ I like the 4 of Science pictured above.. To me it says, “take a break so you can read between the lines.” Therefore the rest serves a purpose which aligns with the active energy of the Air element.

The border for the suit of Music makes it very clear that the elemental association is fire. Buryn says the Music suit is, ‘The celebration of life force. Feeling with heart and soul. Path of Love and Beauty.’ All Music cards include a quote as well. Many of the quotes really strike a chord with me. The 9 of Music pictured above reads, ‘He who binds himself to a joy, Does the winged life destroy, But he who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in eternity’s sun rise.’ Rather than the traditional sense of being a bit beaten around by experience, this card urges you to stay in the here and now.

The William Blake Tarot Guidebook

The William Blake Tarot comes with a 96-paged full-colour guidebook. You can also access an in depth book online for free, (but the site seems to be down at the moment). Even though Ed Buryn urges us to use this deck creatively claiming that, ‘no outside reading or study is necessary to use this deck’ and that ‘the keywords [in the book] are only starting points for interpretation’ I initially wished the online guidebook had been included with the deck.

Having accessed it and used it to find information about the deck to share here, as someone who likes to read through the book, I think I would have found it too overwhelming. There is a lot of information on the website and I appreciate that I can access it for free. But, I also appreciate that we are encouraged to ‘use [our] imagination to relate directly and personally to the images.’ Plus, if like me, you are unfamiliar with Blake’s work, it is not the easiest read.

Using the included guidebook and referring to the website to access specific information works well. The accompanying book is concise and is definitely enough to enable you to work with this deck. The book provides a brief overview and a couple of spreads before launching into the card descriptions.

The Major Arcana meanings are simple and easy to understand and work into a reading. Like many things in this deck, it turns things around. It is the Minor Arcana that has an additional section titled – “In the creative process”. For the Child of Painting pictured above, this section reads, ‘Now is a time to experiment with processes and materials, taking great pleasure in what you learn and create.’ Since more information is provided for the Minor Arcana, the card image that heads each page is smaller.

Sharing the meanings given for the tens may help to justify why I read the images without automatically layering my existing knowledge on top. Take the Ten of Music. It is elementally associated with fire. But there is no suggestion of managing burden, being overburdened, or reaching a finish line in either the included quote, ‘Peace and Plenty & Domestic Happiness is the Source of Sublime Art’ or the book explanation.

The book explanation reads, ‘Gifts of love, especially in relationship or marriage. Sharing your deepest feelings with others. Rewards of friendship and social involvements. Recognition of achievement, (okay maybe there). Finding happiness in hearth, home and hospitality. Experiencing fulfilment in communal or community involvement. Resonating with others. Joining the sexy dance of life.’ Most of that I would equate with the 10 of Cups which in this deck would be the 10 of Painting.

And yet, it reads, ‘Your work or ideals take on a life of their own. Financial prosperity. Physical well-being. Achievement or promotion on the job. Inheriting something of tangible or permanent value. Family gatherings and traditions. Finding your roots. Active involvement in community and societal spheres. Experiencing the fruits of your labours.’ I would associate many of these descriptions with the 10 of Pentacles. The imagery expresses the book meanings though.

Spreads

The book includes three spreads:

Two-card Creativity Spread
Four-fold Vision Spread (5 cards)
Celtic Cross Spread (10 cards)

I quite liked the Four-fold Vision Spread but, just like the deck itself, I do not think it is a straight-forward, beginner-friendly spread. That is not a criticism.

While Ed Buryn claims the deck adheres to standard tarot meanings I personally do not find that to be the case. Although, I do find the deck easy to interpret from the artwork. After all, it is what he intended. Nothing says that every deck needs to be beginner friendly. Furthermore, I believe the people this deck will appeal to will delight in its differences. If you love William Blake’s work then this deck presents his ideas in picture form.

Even though no prior knowledge is necessary, I think any knowledge of Blake’s work would definitely add another dimension to a reading. I cannot say that for sure because I know very little about his body of work. It was the title of the deck that drew me in. It seems fitting to wrap this up with a powerful final quote from the man himself.