Star Trek Pixmit tarot deck

[Anabiyeni]

I've been a Star Trek fan for most of my life, so when I learned a Romulan Tarot deck had been created, I had to get it. Apparently, it is called Pixmit and while my deck contains 32 cards, it is unknown whether this is the entire deck. I have not seen any of the episodes containing this deck and have deliberately read very little online about it, but others have posted about the cards if you want to google them. Any other Trekkies on the forum?

 

Reading with a triangular deck is an interesting challenge. It did not come with any documentation and as far as I know, no official documentation exists. The deck contains 32 unnumbered and unlabeled cards, so to me, it more closely resembles an oracle deck than a Tarot deck. Since my background is reading Waite-type decks, not oracle decks, that's where I began while reviewing the cards. 

 

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The image above I am calling the Ace of Fire. In the image I labeled the basic anatomy of the cards. most cards contain two rows of vertical script, that I assume is supposed to be Romulan, since Vulcan script is vertical and the languages are related. I cannot read Vulcan script, but some symbols repeated across multiple cards. I'll study the scripts more later.

 

All cards have a clear apex and as they are labeled with the company and item number on the back, they cannot easily be used for reversals or truly random draws. (They were made as promotional items, not a deck intended for use, but I plan to use them anyway.)

 

The central images include people, some of whom have horns, wings, or animal bodies, eyes, fire, and a random pterodactyl. I think fire and eyes are the most common symbols. Some fire is contained, as above, but not all; in one card, fire spans the entire horizon. Eyes may be on people, open, closed, cyclops and third inner eye, or hidden by hair. Eyes that float are open, but one has no pupil. 

 

I am still determining card meanings, so all I've got for this card at the moment is that it is about contained action or emotion. Romulans are highly emotional and militaristic, so I could see fire meaning either emotion or action (I'm leaning toward emotion). This card shows a source, from which fire can be drawn and spread. It could refer to a pupil or a newly minted military officer, who is just starting out and learning their power/passion.

 

If there is interest in me continuing this thread, let me know.

[katrinka]

It's an attractive card and I like the concept. 
I don't know how it would work as a reading deck - maybe it's better not to try to fit it to a Tarot format. Ace of Fire would normally imply Wands, but this image is well off the beaten path. 
As for myself, I'm a lazy Trekkie - I like Star Trek but loathe television, so I haven't watched any of the newer stuff yet. I'm sure I will in time. 
I hope the thread continues. If I run into any information, I'll post it here.

[gregory]

Just in case it's in any way relevant, it's not the first triangular deck: there's Mara Thorson's Trilateral. Majors only. "The shape allows for three orientations for each card - upright, left and right (relating to the conscious, unconscious and meta-conscious.)"

[Anabiyeni]

55 minutes ago, katrinka said:

maybe it's better not to try to fit it to a Tarot format

I thought about that because I do think this deck is more oracle than tarot, but I'm not much good at reading oracle cards and haven't had the patience to learn. At least Tarot gives me a place to start with meanings, relationships, and symbolism. If an oracle reader wants to chime in, I welcome the insight.

 

On another note, I found a key to read the script, sort of, but I have no idea what the words mean. Some scripts are repeated on multiple cards. On this card, the script reads something like (word start)-i-n-(new word)-(null signifier, whatever that means - I'm not a linguist).

 

 

[Anabiyeni]

2 minutes ago, gregory said:

Mara Thorson's Trilateral

I'm ambivalent about the art, but happy to see more non-standard decks.

 

I noticed after posting that if you lay out a bunch of cards in the pixmit deck, they seem to form a labyrinth. I will probably incorporate that into ways to read them when I post a pair. A few of the cards seem to form related pairs and triads.

[katrinka]

7 minutes ago, Anabiyeni said:

I thought about that because I do think this deck is more oracle than tarot, but I'm not much good at reading oracle cards and haven't had the patience to learn.

 

I don't think it would help much, anyway. Most of what get called "oracle decks" these days are actually affirmation decks, something people reassure themselves with.
For actually stringing cards together into some kind of coherent story, studying combined meanings, etc., you might want something like playing cards, Lenormand, Kippers or Sibilla. That's done with Tarot, too, but in this case it would be better to strip away the esoteric noise and mysticism, and get down to the bare bones of reading cards, and then apply that to these cards.
 

7 minutes ago, Anabiyeni said:

On another note, I found a key to read the script, sort of, but I have no idea what the words mean. Some scripts are repeated on multiple cards. On this card, the script reads something like (word start)-i-n-(new word)-(null signifier, whatever that means - I'm not a linguist).

 

I think it's a kind of floating signifier? Not much help, I know...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_signifier

 

[Anabiyeni]

9 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Lenormand, Kippers or Sibilla

I just picked up a Lenormand about a month ago, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll try it out this week and revisit the torch above after. I'm only vaguely familiar with the other two from reading this forum.

[LogicalHue]

2 hours ago, Anabiyeni said:

I noticed after posting that if you lay out a bunch of cards in the pixmit deck, they seem to form a labyrinth. I will probably incorporate that into ways to read them when I post a pair. A few of the cards seem to form related pairs and triads.

I googled the deck and that's definitely the thing I find the most exciting about it. The paths connect and form groups which could be very cool for reading.

 

Its definitely not "tarot" as we know it but its, y'know, aliens. So its kind of allowed to be called "tarot" but its clearly nothing like the same system.

 

I'm a TOS fan myself. I have all of the Star Treks listed out and where to watch them (I have the TOS dvds) and want to work through it all at some point, but we try not to just pile on tv subscriptions so we have to coordinate canceling one and then deciding to pick up a Star-Trek-having one. Its all so complicated.

[Anabiyeni]

1 hour ago, LogicalHue said:

I'm a TOS fan myself.

Same, and TAS and TNG, but mostly TOS. I haven't watched any series more recent than Voyager except a few of the fan TOS series. In related news, I read that a new TOS tarot deck is in the works. 

This pixmit deck is from Picard, by the way, which I have not seen yet and have no plans to see in the near future. It apparently doubles as the base for a board game, so I wonder if the labyrinths are related to the divination, the game, or both. I also wonder if Vulcans have a similar divination system or if this was developed after the Romulans' ancestors left Vulcan. (Probably Vulcans would say divination is illogical, but all knowledge is important, so it's stashed in some dusty archive somewhere, and now I want to write a story about a zealous Vulcan archivist.)

[LogicalHue]

I saw that its also used for a game (or possibly several) but I didn't even think about the paths for a game. I'm actually very into board games as well but I don't think there's any info out there on how to play it either. But its fitting since Tarot is also a card game.

[Anabiyeni]

6 hours ago, LogicalHue said:

paths for a game

I imagine it being something like a dungeon crawler, where the doors and paths show which rooms (cards) you can visit next. And now I'm picturing using these cards to play Clue or Black Sonata.

 

I call the pair of cards below the telepathic lovers. After I took the photo I realized I should have switched their positions so open doors connect them. They are a pair with the blond haired one thinking about the black haired one and vice versa. I find it interesting that in the thought bubbles, the blond one is in the sun and the dark-haired one is in the moon. Romulans are telepathic as far as I know, but I don't recall ever seeing any blond haired Romulans. I can't decide their genders and wonder if they are intended to be androgynous and what their relationship is to each other. Maybe lovers or siblings or agemates - or I could claim the Romulan equivalent of Spock's ambiguous word th'yla, which apparently means any very close telepathic relationship. 

 

I am still struggling to read the scripts, but the card on the left might say a-s-e-sh and the card on the right might say x-u-a-n. I have no idea what these words mean or whether a line break corresponds to a word break. For card meanings, I would guess something like message, news, or communication. I don't know whether Romulans have specific positive or negative associations with the sun and moon. If so, those would be relevant, too. If I read the card on the left as I might in Tarot, for example, I will receive a message that I can't ignore, but it may contain hidden motives or information of which I am not aware. The message would be further obscured by the lack of an open path between the cards.

 

I have started studying my Lenormand deck and I think a more straightforward meaning would work well for some of the cards, but the images on these two cards appear more Tarot-like to me. I think there's too much going on for them to be the gentleman and lady of Lenormand.

 

Others' thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I'm not a trekkie.  I don't like non-standard shaped cards.  I don't use oracles much, and I definitely don't need another deck.  But this, I kinda likey.  I love the dungeon crawler idea, the imagery is cool and wide open to interpretation, and just the geometry of it is kind of a trip - the pic of your telepathic lovers 🙂 looks both like a reverse bowtie and a 3D pyramid, really plays with the eyes and could take us places as readers.  Where?  Who knows!  but I'd love to dance with it a while to find out.  A great deck to make your own, no need to fit to another system, and no need to know who Spock is (sorry Spock).

[Anabiyeni]

@barkingdeer I looked into the labyrinth shapes. There are six in total (I think; I'm still a bit loopy from my COVID vaccine yesterday). I will cover them in a future post when I have time to mock up vector images. I tested whether it is possible to lay out the cards such that all doors that touch other cards connect to other doors, and the answer appears to be no. I did not test creating 3D pyramids, but I want to try that now.

 

I looked into the scripts a bit more and here's what I have for the two card pairs I already posted. Colors are distorted to increase contrast and make the scripts easier to read. I am not entirely confident with the consonants, since x, s, and t look almost identical to me. The symbol for ? in the card with the moon would symbolize s-h at the beginning of a word, but I don't know if it follows the same rules at the end of a word. I have no idea what any of these words mean or if they are supposed to be the Romulan equivalent of lorem ipsum.

 

[Anabiyeni]

I'm focusing on labyrinths today. I think this will be my last post before I return to individual cards. The image below shows vector art mimicking two elements from the cards. There are 5 labyrinth designs (not 6; I couldn't count yesterday). One of the two base designs on cards A and C below appears on each of the cards. You can see examples of the base designs in the telepathic lovers cards above. I have not figured out any rhyme or reason for which labyrinths or base designs are on which cards.  The diamonds are the apexes. I have no idea if cards are supposed to be laid out such that apexes touch, but in my design program, it's easier to rotate and align images 180 degrees than 60 degrees, so I went with reversed.

 

I laid out the cards in the formation shown so that the gamers among you could see all the possible configurations for the doors. In terms of divination, I see the open doors (A-D) as open communication or a positive influence, the crossed doors (A-B) as miscommunication or an influence that throws something off or introduces a complication, the single open door (C-E) as a message trying and failing to get through or as something needed, but not available, and the two walls (B-C) as no direct interaction or no communication when perhaps communication is needed.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Anabiyeni
Clarify door pairs

[Anabiyeni]

I referenced the musicians cards last week and forgot to post them. The women in both of these cards look ceremonial to me. I call the left card Musicians and have given it the keywords shared victory and triumph, given the left woman's perch of skulls. I call the right card the Dancer with the keywords joy and celebration. These are the only two cards with people wearing elaborate headdresses.

 

If you lay these cards side by side in either order, the doors are open between them. In my head they are paired, but there are enough differences that they may both be single cards.