The Tarot of the Revelation has now been published in Japanese. It is available from Kinokuniya, Junkudo and Maruzen bookstores, among others, as well as at Amazon.com http://amzn.to/fPglCl
There are only a few sets of the English version left now. The cards are the same but the text is in English. 2,000 have been sold (mainly in Japan) over the past two years; perhaps I should reprint or find a publisher…
#4 The real relationship between Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. People believe that John the Baptist is someway inferior or not as important as Jesus Christ, probably because he is known as “The Precursor”, the person who comes before. In fact John is Jesus’ equal, and this too is shown in the cards, but you have to know where to look for it. This secret was so powerful that it nearly brought down the Church of Rome, and it started hundreds of years of war in Europe by Catholics who fought to destroy the secret. The reason this secret is so powerful is because it shows us that we all have the same powers as Jesus to heal and divine the future, but we have forgotten how to use them; for more details and exercises, please read my book “The Tarot of the Revelation”.
#3 Tarot cards explain the hidden teachings in the Book of Revelation. Once I had compared the cards to the Book of revelation, and I knew the secret teachings, then it was easy to understand the importance of the cards. They were used to teach the secrets to other people in Europe; in the Middle Ages only about 20% of the population could read. Pictures are easier to remember than long texts, and if caught by the Holy Inquisition people could explain it away by saying that they were playing a card game. If you want to study the secret lessons on spirituality, please read my book “The Tarot of the Revelation”.
#2 The Book of Revelation is a spiritual handbook. I learnt about the spiritual lesson hidden in the Book of Revelation through the teachings of Edgar Cayce, the American psychic who died in 1945. It is obvious when you think about it, but the Bible wasn’t written for lay people (people who are not priests) to read. It is a compilation of 66 books, poems and letters that were used to teach in the early days of Christianity. Many of the books in the New Testament contain secret teachings for the benefit of the disciples, and were written in a code in case they were found by lay people or worse, Roman soldiers. Edgar Cayce explained the hidden lessons in the Book of Revelation, which are quite surprising!
#1 Tarot cards are a visual explanation of The Book of Revelation. There are many explanations about the origin of Tarot cards, but none of them “hold water”. That is because some of the cards seem to relate to one story and some to another; but in reality the cards are not a mixture of different ideas, but rather a complete story. When you try to match the cards to the Book of Revelation, you find that nearly all the Major Arcana can be identified in the text, that 14 of the cards are in nearly the same position in the Book of Revelation (using the Marseilles system) and that the Book of Revelation is divided in three and fits the Fool’s Journey nearly exactly.
Now the hard part; how do you print your Tarot cards? If you are lucky or talented a publishing company may print and market them for you. Send a few designs and the outline of the philosophy to companies that already publish Tarot cards, don’t send them all until you have a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed. If you can’t find a publisher, try printing them yourself. Not many printers make playing cards, and the ones that do are expensive. I found a card printer in China who made them for me. They will be less expensive but be aware that there will be mistakes; some of my cards were cut badly, some cards have ink dropped on them, others had the corners bent as they were forced into the boxes. So when someone buys cards from me, I have to open every box to check each card – that’s the compromise you make for printing them cheaply! I now have two websites accepting orders from all around the world and many shops in Japan now sell them – it is a great hobby but don’t expect to be able to pay the rent by selling Tarot cards!
So once you have decided the size, colour and theme for your card, the next important thing is to design them. Here we have two options; firstly, should they follow the Marseilles numbering or the numbering used by the popular Rider-Waite cards? Many people think this is unimportant, but if you want to use astrological or Kabbalah correspondences it does make a difference. Secondly, what about the Minor Arcana? Many people think that they are not important, but as I have explained before they are very important to give balance in a reading. (Many people ignore them as they think they are difficult to learn; so they should learn my easy way “The Royal Road to Tarot”) But the question is whether you have Minor cards with images or just “pips”. I prefer pips as it makes the reader use his/her intuition instead of relying on someone else’s ideas as in the Rider-Waite. If you are going to have them printed be sure to draw them twice the size of the actual card as the printer will reduce them to size. Learning how to use Photoshop and Illustrator software will make it easier.
The Tarot of the Revelation was conceived and designed by myself. Other people have asked me about the “nuts and bolts” of designing cards. Firstly I believe that there must be a philosophy behind the cards that inspires the images, otherwise the cards will not incorporate the power of a belief system. A second consideration is the size of the card, I based mine on the Golden Ratio; not only the size of the cards but the frame on the image in the card also fit this rule. Then there is the colouring: I used the chakra system to colour the backgrounds to give an indication of the energy of each card. Lastly, there is the back of the cards. Many people don’t think of this as an integral part of the card and just put any old design. In the Tarot of the Revelation the curse is written in Greek to remind people the seriousness of the spiritual journey and that Tarot isn’t a game – (you can also see which way up the cards are as the back has a directional design).
The Fool’s Journey was first described by Eden Grey in her book “A Complete Guide to Tarot” which may have been inspired by A.E.Waite. The Fool is set aside from the 22 cards and the remainder divided into three sets of seven cards. The first set gives the simplest type of life, depicting relationships, the second set shows the Fool’s growth as he develops inner strengths, and the last set shows him overcoming greater challenges which leads to “enlightenment”. These could also be described as the conscious, subconscious and super-conscious planes. The Tarot of the Revelation fits this pattern nearly exactly. “Cards 1 to 7 give John’s own opening, starting with his Oversoul’s description of the seven chakras and the need to regenerate them. Cards 8 to 14 represent the battle to raise mankind’s consciousness to Christ consciousness. Cards 15 to 21 describe the completion of this transcendence and the final manifestation of Christ consciousness on earth.” Quoted from The Tarot of the Revelation”
Continuing from the last post, there is however an interesting use of Tarot cards in magic that involves following the Lightning Strike in the Kabbalah. The Lightning Strike shows the order in which God’s energy entered into the universe to create the world. As Judaism believes that man is separated from God, the only way for mankind to reconnect with God is to meditate on the Sephiroth in the reverse order of that of the Lightning Strike. Laying out the Major Arcana in this order and working with them may bring powerful insights.
© The Tarot of the Revelation