Tarot / The Prototype has arrived!

Hello again everyone, another update on my Tarot deck project, what I have been calling the Sigil Arcanum Tarot, or the Nigredo Tarot (Maybe you can help me pick a name?) I ordered a prototype to be printed on demand from a site called The Game Crafter. They did a decent job, but most of the cards appear to be shifted to the left, and so the designs become off-center. It also turned out a bit darker than I was hoping, but I'll fix that.

Other than that, the deck shuffles well, it reads very well, and it's already finding its position in my life. I did a reading for the deck.

Q: Who are you?
A: 9 of Fire

I take this to mean that it is the almost fulfilled manifestation of a creative endeavor. That project of course would be my exertion of will (fire) into creating this deck from my imagination. This is the 9, not the 10. We are not quite through the forest, and there is still some learning to do before the project is complete.

Q: What is your purpose?
A: XIII - Death

A lot of people are nervous about this card, or afraid of it, but I take it to be a good thing. The process of death is inevitable, and brings concluded / perfect things back into essential material. Decomposition, perhaps; Solve. This is the first step in the Alchemical Process, the Nigredo. To represent this on the card, I have included a reversed (and slightly altered) image of the sun, a black sun, if you will. The word Nigredo literally means black, and it is followed in the process by the Albedo (White / Rebirth), the Citrinitas (Yellow or Gold / Aging and Learning), and the Rubedo (Red, the Completion).

This deck is sort of a personal milestone in my life. I was originally going to get a particular tattoo, but I can't afford it, so I ended up having to cancel the appointment. Instead, this came along in my life. The idea is in essence my approach to a Tarot of the Nigredo, an all black, slightly darker approach to the Hermetic principles and Alchemical ideas in the Thoth and Waite decks. It felt appropriate, and perhaps I'll want to do some kind of all white deck to complement it, but for now I'm just focusing on realizing this project. Remember, we're at the 9, but soon the 10 will come.