Pharos Tarot By M.M. Meleen

[Rose Lalonde]

EDIT: Now available for pre-order in your choice of 3 versions.

 

A place to post updates for M.M. Meleen's new majors only deck project.

As of September, 2019 there's a new homepage for Pharos with cards, along with the premise and a FAQ. 

"The deck will be available as a limited edition run of large borderless cards, in Majors only. This is a majors only deck, with a special accompanying explanatory text planned for each card explaining the meanings of the alternate card names and other esoteric influences."

"Pharos Tarot is a watercolor deck, and watercolor is all about the interplay of water, pigment, and light. One could say even that as a medium it best describes the elemental journey. It certainly involves water, and fire (light) but also air as it dries and earth in the form of pigment..."

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Rose Lalonde

[Oink]

Thanks for posting this!  I’m excited about this deck and look forward to watching the dev process.

 

First impressions:

• Her technical skills improve with every deck she creates, and she seems more confident representing the human form in this card than in her Hanged Man images from the Rosetta and the Tabula Mundi.  The light/shadow values and slight skew of the body bring it fully into three dimensions and I find them very pleasing to the eye.
   
  
• It’s impressive to see how well she works in various media.  Her use of watercolor is beautiful.  Her take on the elemental aspects of the medium were relevant and interesting, so I’m eager for the companion book as well!
   
  
• She packed an impressive amount of the symbolic language of the Thoth Hanged Man into this image without it looking cluttered or distracting in the least.  Offhand it’s got the ankh in the rigging, the inverted triangle plus cross in the body position, the white rays of Kether, the green of Venus, 13 steps in the ladder for Mem being the 13th letter of the alphabet, one snake and an allusion to a second in the form of the aerial silk, etc.  The overall composition really appeals to me.  Like the sea for which the card is named, there’s a lot going on in the depths of the image despite the calm of the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

[VGimlet]

Wow, very nice!  I have enjoyed all of the decks she's done so far, and this one looks amazing.    thanks for sharing!

[Bodhiseed]

I'm another fan of Meleen's decks - thanks for letting me know about this one!

[Rose Lalonde]

The Pharos Tarot now has its own page, and it sounds like we'll get to see more cards sometime around 2/2, less than two weeks from now.  :)

 

At the new page, she's added info about the name Pharos and about the color scales in the Hanged Man.

 

[Rose Lalonde]

:) Good morning (or at least it is here)… The Sun card is up at The lamp to light the way.  (Very Thelemic)

[Rose Lalonde]

The Star is up! Also called The Way. Lovely.

[Rose Lalonde]

Priestess was added today... The Ship

Camel for Gimel as the ship's figurehead. Nice. She's going more subtle with the presentation, but symbols are there.

[Babalon Jones]

Hi friends...the Moon card is up

and a test version of a card as borderless is there just to see how it might look that way

but I'm not allowed to post links apparently or I would provide one for you

[Rose Lalonde]

Babalon Jones[/member] It's lovely to see you here! Your latest card, The Moon or The Foghorn, is HERE.

(I think you need 5 posts on the forum before you can add links.)

 

I like your titles, so my vote is for those. They bring the theme together. I bet borderless will be the more popular choice. I'm not bothered about borders either way as long as the art is large enough to enjoy and see all the details.  :)

[Babalon Jones]

Rose Lalonde[/member] Thank you for posting it. And for what it is worth I think this is now my fifth post.  X/ I don't post much (obviously) so glad that you share these here and hope to hear if people like them borderless or not. They could be done either way.

[Little Fang]

Wow, this looks stunning!  Thank you for sharing this and thank you for creating it!  I look forward to seeing the rest. :)

[Babalon Jones]

Two more Pharos Tarot cards up. More to come soon!

 

The Arc, aka Temperance:

http://www.tabulamundi.com/the-arc/

The Stanchion, aka The Hierophant:

http://www.tabulamundi.com/the-stanchion/

 

[Rose Lalonde]

 

These new cards are fantastic, and great news that more are coming soon. Love "Arc" for Temperance too in all three ways.  (I've been away for a bit with crazy work hours, but this was a treat to return to! Thanks for adding.)  :)

[Babalon Jones]

Hi Rose,

One more is up. The Tower, aka The Rod (don't laugh, I know all the jokes haha)

http://www.tabulamundi.com/the-rod/

 

Once again the scan isn't the greatest, it flattens the colors too much. In real life there is much more variation of color. If anyone knows where to get a decent art quality large bed scanner that doesn't cost more than my car (that is a low bar since the car is nearly 20 yo) I am seeking one. These are A3 so pretty big.

 

Not sure what to put up next. The Majors are done but am in process of redoing several of them. I'm not totally satisfied with even some of the ones posted but need to move on to a new deck project. This deck I made the designs simple and didn't try to get the drawing perfect since it was just to have something to paint to teach myself how to use watercolor (verdict:watercolor is harder than it looks but also can be fun). It was also to explore a certain idea set that will become apparent when the Majors are seen all together. I don't know if it will actually become a full deck. It might get shelved in favor of something new once I finish up the Majors.

 

But for now I just have to finish these and get it out of my system and see what comes next.

 

 

 

 

[Babalon Jones]

Well I just totally redid the page. I finally decided on the dimensions of the cards, the font, and that they will be borderless. So I got them all cropped and sized and added the titles. Wow it makes a big difference having them all the same size and shape - they actually look like cards now instead of the mish mash of illustrations I had going on! And I put a graphic showing all of the Majors at once as they are revealed.

 

Check it out - what do you think now?

http://www.tabulamundi.com/pharos/

[Rose Lalonde]

I love the new cards. I was hoping to say something much more eloquent, but if I keep waiting for work to settle down it'll be July before I post. So for the moment, I just wanted to say how exciting it is to see these go up. Regardless of whether this project becomes a deck or you move on as you mentioned you might, the images are both beautiful and helpful to me, and I feel like I'll keep returning to them.

[Guest]

So I know this is a little late in response, but as I am part of MM Meleen's newsletter I've been catching the updates on the Majors for the Pharos deck. All I want to say is that I love the theme and the vision behind the majors and admit that I would love to see this come to fruition, if only in a majors only form. I have a huge soft spot for nautical topics/themes and seeing the concept and idea of a lighthouse explored in the majors is really enticing. The art is beautiful and I love how you've adhered to the specific colors schemes for each card. 

[McFaire]

On 4/19/2019 at 10:49 AM, Babalon Jones said:

Well I just totally redid the page. I finally decided on the dimensions of the cards, the font, and that they will be borderless. So I got them all cropped and sized and added the titles. Wow it makes a big difference having them all the same size and shape - they actually look like cards now instead of the mish mash of illustrations I had going on! And I put a graphic showing all of the Majors at once as they are revealed.

 

Check it out - what do you think now?

http://www.tabulamundi.com/pharos/

It's lovely and intriguing! I'm glad you chose borderless.!

[Guest]

I just caught the latest newsletter and there's quite a bit going on for the Fortune's Wheelhouse team, plus MM Meleen is considering printing a small batch of a majors only Pharos Tarot. I hopped on here to share and also to add my name to the list of people that would love to hold these cards in their hands. 😍

[Rose Lalonde]

There's a new homepage for Pharos with all cards so far, along with the premise and a FAQ.

 

The latest publication news is that this will be a majors only deck printed in a limited edition run, and after seeing the newest cards she's added, more than ever I'm looking forward to that.  Only 5 cards now that aren't up on the site. 

 

[katrinka]

 I talked myself out of the Tabula Mundi a few times. It ticks all the boxes like knowledge, symbolism, readability, and good old occult weirdness - but it just looked a little too clean and slick. (And going back and revisiting the images, I'm going to have to de-enable myself yet again.)

But this Pharos...there's no point trying to resist it. The damned thing is exquisite.

 

[Rose Lalonde]

Great news! This deck is going to be printed as a limited edition soon. If you don't already get her updates, to request to be on the list for order info, email info@rosettatarot.com.

[Flaxen]

Thanks for the update, @Rose Lalonde. No doubt it will be a stunning deck. 

[Rose Lalonde]

🙂  pre-order is now available. 

you can choose from 3 versions