It’s possible you’ll be aware of the Playful Heart Tarot by Kitten Chops (Zaara), based mostly on the RWS, whereas the newest creation from the KittenChops studios is a Marseille-based pip deck, the PipSpeak Tarot.
After finishing the RWS-based Playful Coronary heart Tarot, Zaara redefined her work with the tarot by unpacking her RWS framework and re-learning the tarot with the Marseille. The result’s the PipSpeak Tarot, which grew to become a liberating expertise. Likewise, this may simply be the very deck to get a seasoned RWS reader out of a rut.
“Fortune tellers and crafty people have been studying with Marseille and enjoying card/pip decks for a whole lot of years,” writes the artist. “As a substitute of esoteric mental prowess, these readers have been counting on their widespread sense, their understanding of human nature and key card studying knowledge handed down from era to era.”
The namesake for this deck, PipSpeak, is a play on phrases. “Pip” additionally means to chirp or to crack the preliminary gap whereas hatching from an egg, which is the underlying premise of this deck — that can assist you crack your pip deck readings, to thus discover ways to take heed to your individual hunches.
When studying the trump playing cards, observe what the characters illustrated on the cardboard is doing, not what they characterize. Thus, learn at face worth, deciphering actions and conduct throughout the 4 corners of the cardboard, not metaphorical symbolism or correspondences into different thriller traditions. Return to fundamentals and hold it easy.
Let’s run via an instance. Above, see La Bateleur, the Magician card. (For funsies, I’ve additionally included the Magician card from Zaara’s earlier deck, Playful Coronary heart Tarot.) For those who’re a seasoned tarot reader, attempt to overlook your entire learnings. Don’t take a look at this card as an archetype or usher in astrological or Kabbalistic correspondences to help interpretation of which means. Simply look and observe what the character depicted on the cardboard is doing.
What’s the most important motion you may determine? What are you able to intuit about this character simply by it? What does physique language reveal? Right here, The Magician’s gestures counsel slight of hand, and so he’s somebody performing methods. A trickster. Somebody is placing up a terrific present, attempting to dazzle and present you ways intelligent they’re.
The Popess is well-studied, confident, regal, and powerfully positioned, safe in that place. Right here is somebody who understands all the things she sees, and who’s retaining monitor of what’s taking place.
The Pope, Key V, is somebody that the individuals (the lots) look as much as as a determine of authority. The Pope has the facility to bless, the facility to vary lives, to steer in individuals per his ethical compass. When this card comes up, you see a beloved trainer, an influencer, with devoted acolytes, or even perhaps followers.
The Hanged Man is suspended the wrong way up, so he’s going to see the world from a special perspective than most. However maybe, due to that, he doesn’t all the time conform to the rule of regulation.
In homage to TdM custom, Key XIII is untitled. This card in PipSpeak is The Unnamed One. He cuts, he severs, he clears the sphere, and in addition, he harvests.
Card XV, The Satan, options two little sunflower seeds chained to the satan’s podium. He’s holding down and suppressing potential. Then see how in Card XVIII, The Solar, these two sunflower seeds have bloomed into sunflower infants. Full potential is actualized.
Some symbolic interpretation does come into play after we begin studying the pip playing cards, following numerology. Right here, although, be at liberty to program the playing cards with your individual attributions for the numbers. Is the quantity 4 going to point stability or cessation for you (a generalization of the western and jap divide between their respective numerological programs)? Is the quantity 8 unrealized good points/losses or is it prosperity?
I really like the strategy to studying pips that Zaara shares within the guidebook: the quantity scale is sort of a management knob, with 1 being low or dim and 10 being excessive or intense. So, for instance, one coin is a bit bit of cash, however the verdant development across the coin represents future potential, and ten cash is some huge cash, suggesting materialized acquire. The Ace of Cups is one cup, for little love, minimal feeling at the moment, whereas the Ten of Cups is too many drinks, overwhelm of feeling, and exhausted emotion; there’s going to be spillage.
Word the particular shade coding that you simply’ll discover within the PipSpeak. The swimsuit of Batons (Wands) is color-coded yellow, for the solar, for ripening fruits, and business. Whereas the swimsuit of Cups is color-coded crimson, for need, delight, wine, and blood. In PipSpeak, the swimsuit of ardour is right here within the Cups.
The Swords are color-coded blue, to suggest that which is cool, chilly, impersonal, and pensive. The Cash are inexperienced and black — inexperienced for vitality, energy, and development; black for endurance, resilience, transformation. Collectively, inexperienced and black signify life and demise, stability of sunshine and shadow, nature and thriller.
Word additionally how the court docket playing cards in every swimsuit don’t proceed the color-coding of their respective fits, however share an analogous golden-hue background because the Majors. The Cups court docket are individuals pushed by need. Cash individuals are pushed by cause. Baton individuals are melancholic, and pushed by contemplation, probably even idealism;. Swords individuals are pushed by motion, ambition braveness, and satisfaction.
Kings order and delegate; they wield energy of their respective fields. Queens are creators and instigators, so for instance, if ill-positioned, a Queen can instigate drama or gossip. Knights go off on adventures; they’re mission-driven. Pages are nonetheless apprentices and in studying/play mode.
There are 4 bonus playing cards within the PipSpeak deck:
Time: That is the cosmic hourglass. In lieu of the Demise card, you may swap on this Time card.
C’est Si Bon: That is Curious Braveness, which as iconography harking back to the Idiot card.
The Language of the Birds: This card options St. Francis. Per the guidebook, “In European medieval occultism and literature, the language of the birds was considered a divine, angelic language to speak with the initiated ones.”
And at last, the Sure (Oui) and No (Non) playing cards.
The deck is printed on micro linen cardstock, which suggests it’s buttery clean to shuffle. There’s gold foil detailing on the playing cards, which simply elevates the playing cards to a degree of luxe that makes them enjoyable to work with.
Whereas the PipSpeak cardstock is similar end because the Playful Coronary heart Tarot, it’s barely smaller than the usual tarot measurement dimensions. The PipSpeak is 60 mm x 110 mm (in comparison with the usual tarot measurement of 70 mm x 120 mm).
The perimeters are a matte end with simply the slightest most delicate gold shimmer when the playing cards transfer throughout your studying desk. I really like the LWB (little white booklet) and the way a lot sensible TdM studying how-to is packed into it. The mantra for working with this deck: See for Your self. Assume for Your self.
Every little thing is available in a ravishing matchbox fashion field with gold foil detailing. KittenChops is form of a branding and design genius. I really like how all the things is all the time so cohesive.
From the second you obtain the bundle, it’s an expertise. She curates each millisecond of your interplay with the deck to verify it counts.
As I had ruminated on for Playful Coronary heart Tarot, cuteness is usually dismissed as trivial, playful indulgence, however the gentle, endearing kinds can function highly effective symbols of resilience, hope, and emotional connection.
It’s pleasure. It’s evocative of primal responses inside us, the optimistic ones that induce us to like, to nurture, to consolation, to carry affection for. Playfulness and hope fosters emotional resilience.
Likewise, these cute, playful components are right here within the PipSpeak Tarot, in all of the unimaginable artwork that comes from KittenChops.
Working together with her artwork is like micro-meditation. It’s momentary reduction from unfavorable thought patterns. It’s a shot of oxytocin that items us with a way of consolation.
I really like the childlike surprise in Zaara’s artwork. It’s like religious balm. I really feel sense of surprise and gratitude. The cuddly animals and anthropomorphic characters instruct us, on a unconscious degree, to be sort.
There’s unimaginable therapeutic advantages to working with a deck like PipSpeak or the sooner deck Playful Heart Tarot.
I really like how these easy, lovable work (Zaara’s illustrations are finished in gouache and coloured pencil) are so extremely efficient at serving to us navigate complicated emotions.
Zaara’s artwork guides us to rejoice cuteness, and to see the positively transformative drive that such illustrations can possess. Zaara and I met back in 2022 in Portland at the Northwest Tarot Symposium. (Scroll via that linked post and also you’ll discover a selfie of Zaara and me.) You’ll see how even in that picture caption, I famous that Zaara was, at the moment, at work on a Marseille deck.
Nicely, right here it’s now! She gifted me with this copy of the PipSpeak, not for overview functions, however simply because she’s cool.
Working with the Tarot de Marseille turns into irresistible enjoyable with the PipSpeak illustrations. It’s pleasant and eccentric, and stands out for its mixture of the normal TdM construction and its uniquely charming cute artwork fashion. It’s a contemporary tackle the traditional Marseille system, but blends in one thing playful and refreshing.
KittenChops is understood for her playful aesthetic, artwork that’s by some means each minimalist and but detailed, with an entire lot of character. PipSpeak succeeds at de-mystifying the TdM. Its whimsy and heat are what set this deck aside.
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