A most splendid evening, everyone, as my test copies of the SPECTRUM deck have finally arrived. I am very pleased to say that they definitely live up to the quality I was hoping for. The colors turned out fantastic, and even the black backgrounds appear significantly darker than my original test print.
This is the first edition of the SPECTRUM deck, and I printed four of them: one for myself, one for my mom (for mother's day), and two for a couple of friends who paid me in advance. I couldn't have gotten this thing done without the amazing support from my friends and family, and from the Steemit community, urging me to keep working on it, because there really is something special in this project.
My deck is in this black bag, with a Black Agate smooth stone.
The deck for my mom is in a purple bag with a purple Fluorite crystal.
One of the other decks is in a burgundy bag with a silver-leaf Red Jasper.
One of my friends beat me to the box before I got back into town, so he took his copy before I could get him a bag and stone.
Above are all of the cards laid out, starting on the left is The Mirror, which is the double-faced 79th card (and also the back image). Next is the Black Agate, acting as a conduit to the spread. From the top down, left to right, the spread is as follows:
The Magician, the actor who utilizes the elements and his tools (the Hermit's caduceus, and the quintessence), under the proper alignment of the Stars to transform the idea (The Fool) via the process of Alchemy (Temperance / Art) into the Philosopher's Stone (The World).
Underneath the Fool card are the rest of the Major Arcana, acting as an anchor for this spread. To the right are the Minor Arcana, organized into each suit and topped with their respective aces.
The spread is something I laid out to represent my process of creating this deck: I set out to create a tarot deck, and took that Work upon myself. I consulted "The Stars" in a number of ways throughout the process, and I believe firmly that a great deal of inspiration for this project came from my performance of the Headless Rite in order to establish communion with Hecate. It was the next day that I decided to create this deck, and the whole project was visible in my mind immediately (though of course things changed over time). It was the most clear and inspired circumstance of creating Art that I have ever experienced, and I'm very grateful that the "product" of that experience is not just one painting, or one book, but a whole deck of cards.
The MindBent Ideas Lunar 5000 Kickstarter will be launching at the end of this month, and once that is out of the way I'll be focusing my efforts toward setting up the Kickstarter for producing this deck to sell in stores and online. I work at a Metaphysical shop which has a selection of over 280 decks of cards, and I'm proud to announce that it will soon be available to purchase at the Eye of Horus in Minneapolis, MN... though I don't have a set launch date yet. Stay tuned!!!