The Mary-El Tarot (With Landscapes of the Abyss)

Marie White | 4.52 | 438 ratings and reviews

Ranked #60 in Tarot

Marie White believes that art is as important as water or breath. She was born and raised in Southern California and presently lives with her three children in the sultry piedmont forest of North Carolina.

I began the Mary-el Tarot in late 1997 when I had my first baby Sophia. 15 years later it is finally being released to the world via Schiffer Books. What a journey!

In the early days I decided my big goal with this tarot was to have one that was powerful, beautiful and balanced between male and female energies. This idea grew and evolved as this tarot unfolded, and at the end, I think, represents the greatness of the balanced human soul, which is itself a reflection of the balanced universe. A journey from perfection in innocence to experience and enlightenment.

What you should know about the Mary-el Tarot: It has a traditional structure, 22 major arcana, 56 minor arcana, standard names for all.

It is built on traditional symbolism. I took the symbolism as found in tarot and illustrated those ideas the best I could. It is not a clone of other tarots, rather a parallel.

The whole Mary-el Tarot is built on the symbolism in modern tarot. The Major Arcana is traditional and the Minor Arcana is built on the ideas, symbolism and numerology of the Major Arcana. For example, the 5s are elemental extensions of the Hierophant. The 4s of the Emperor. The 7s the Chariot. Taking this even further the Court cards are, the Pages - Strength. The Knights - the Hanged Man, the Queens-Death. The Kings -Temperance.

While there are a lot of associations, ideas and symbolism in these cards the above is the most basic of them - number and element.

I think that there is a great objective truth that underlies reality. We can't always see it clearly, though we do feel it, sense it, and are made of it.

We each try to describe it using the tools available to us, the trappings of our culture and experience, and this gives rise to different mythologies and religions and systems, esoterics included. Its all the same. I have tried to illustrate that common underlying reality, sometimes using what I thought were the best representative examples of that idea, like Raven Stealing the Sun for the 7 of Swords.

The Mary-el tarot is not perfect, not by far!! These things keep evolving!! But it is a journey and hopefully what you find inside will help illuminate a little bit of what you are looking for. less

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