Meditating on Ithell Colquhoun's Taro as Colour

Part 1 - saved from my old website

While I would not consider myself very knowledgeable about art, I have a distinct memory of being around 16, perusing the art books in my secondary school art class and coming across a book on Surrealism. While I found things like Oppenheim’s fur cup, saucer and spoon fascinating, I was stunned when I came across Joan Miró’s ‘Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams’.

I felt what I can only describe as soul shock, and that sense that something has been unlocked and the world has suddenly become larger and more things are possible. Miró has remained my favourite painter (we took a trip to the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona last year, which was an electrifying experience, a lot of merch was bought!).

So when I came across Ithell Colquhoun’s Taro As Colour, through Fulgur Press, I was once again transfixed. Tarot can be surreal too! My love of Tarot predates even my love of Surrealism, so to combine the two is a dream, and I had to have the deck. 

This is very different from any other tarot deck I had ever seen, even the Hilma af Klint Tarot. Because of this, I feel this is not a deck that beginners would find easy to understand. Own it and love it, yes, but understanding it is another thing entirely.

I decided to meditate on each card in turn, and in the Not-A-Blog I will share these thoughts.

My interpretations are undoubtedly influenced by the card meanings as I understand them, but I also look to the use of colour and shapes to deepen my understanding. This can mean that new elements of each card may come through. I believe this is what should happen with each design of Tarot. The artists must bring through something of their unique interpretation, and the reader may pick up on this or see an unintended effect. With this in mind, it is important to state that I have limited knowledge of Ithell Colquhoun, and do not know what she intended for each card. This is only my take on the images, and another reader may see something very different.

I am also in the still early stages of serious occult study, hence our name OCCULT PROJECTS (there is no real agenda or planned end result, instead this is about the glory of occult exploration). The colour system of the Golden Dawn is something I have yet to fully study, but I know Ithell Colquhoun used this. I think it would be interesting to give my layman’s interpretation and then revisit this much later and compare.

Some card meditations are short and some are longer. What was written about each is simply what came forth at the time of the meditation. While there is a specific order, the one that the cards arrived in, I will take each card in the more commonly known order, then speak of this deck's ‘correct’ order at the end. The ‘not-a-blog’ will take several pages to cover this deck; beginning with the trump cards individually, then examining the Aces, the pip cards need to be compared and contrasted on a suit basis and the court cards grouped by suit. 

This will first split the Trumps into three (21/3 + 1), so this post will go up to The Chariot.

So let’s begin, as ever, with the Fool:

THE FOOL

There is a light yellow (air?) nucleus surrounded by a blue (water?) outflow in a firmament of green (earth?) with burnt orange dots (fire). It also looks like a flower, or a tree, with pollen floating around. The words ‘essence’ and ‘wellspring’ come to mind. The green evokes spring time, eternal youth. The birth of a star or galaxy with matter spewing out in all directions to begin the process of creation. The ‘pollen’ or ‘star dust’ shows the essence of new creation spreading onwards and outwards endlessly.

THE MAGICIAN

Immediately the yellow centre looks gold; that this is surrounded by purple only further confirms a psychic/spiritual significance. It looks like a nerve, something in the brain. The purple spreads out but not far. The grey looks like grey matter - the brain. Some have talked about the brain as not a store of information but a reducing valve to the collective consciousness. Also, magick and manifestation are achieved through focusing one’s mind. This is in contrast to The Devil, which speaks of the mind’s power to enslave or free us; here the mind turns thoughts into reality. Thought creates matter. The outer blue evokes The World card.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

The rectangular structure is like a temple; it represents the High Priestess and the temple she sits in. The blue in the centre is like a heart that contains the ocean. Often this card counsels patience and that the HP sits with her thoughts/intuition, this skips over what that actually entails. To want to act but to have to wait may feel like containing an ocean of feelings within you. There is nothing constraining the heart but itself. The green streaks feel like psychic emissions transmitting signs, symbols and dreams out to the world. The green harks to nature and creation; artists sometimes speak of feeling like they were channelling something during their great works “It came through me.” The grey field seems to express an ambivalence; it is not day or night, not black or white but both. It may be also what a black void would look like with a thin white veil in front of it. It makes me think of concrete, used for constructions that cut us off consciously from the outside world.

THE EMPRESS

I see two things in this card. One is sperm racing to an egg. The other is the Fertile Crescent. The green evokes nature in its passive form and the red evokes the fieriness of creation. The red is the vessel (uterus) and the green is the sperm and egg. The Fertile Crescent is the cradle of human civilisation, Mesopotamia, Babylon, by the River Euphrates. This was such a fertile, creative time and hugely influential on the modern world. There is a mixture of passive (natural), inevitable creation and the energy/fire needed to spark it in the moment.

THE EMPEROR

I see dark Earth energy; magma, lava, dark fire. The middle looks like a solar flare, strong emissions of energy. Fire is necessary for life and comfort. It also can be violent and dangerous. Fire is power. It links to the myth of Prometheus, giving humans the secret of fire, bringing us closer to the gods. Fire cooks, is used in kilns, keeps us warm, but can also effect complete destruction. Therefore, it commands respect; it cannot be ignored or dismissed. The Emperor is like controlled fire, knowledge of which brings him closer to god status, is essential for the wellbeing of his subjects but should be treated with respect, or suffer the consequences.

THE HIEROPHANT

The fire that burst through the Emperor is now contained, through skill and dedication. The fire (power, creativity) is now controlled and cooled by water (empathy, philosophy) creating rock-like structures. This tempering of fury then enables the natural order of things - the right ingredients for life/community. The brown makes me think of the garments worn by capuchin monks. This links the earth and the divine. If knowledge of fire brings us closer to gods, then control and examination of that fire could enable us to study the higher mysteries.

THE LOVERS

This one was tricky, I had to think over a few days. It looks like a heart, a comet entering the atmosphere, the moment two entities become one (seen by the two tails). There is a release of energy in the background, the different colours expressing a rippling effect.

THE CHARIOT

This also looks like elemental fire, but like oil/gasoline and an explosion/combustion that is funnelled in a particular direction. There is a drag on the edges of the forms as the force steams ahead in a new direction, almost off the card. It is the vehicle, combustion, source and direction all in one.

And so this is the first post on Ithell Colquhoun's Taro as Colour! As I study the Golden Dawn system further I am sure I will be able to expand on some of these cards. 

Images posted with kind permission from Fulgur Press. If you also love this deck, you can purchase directly from them. They also publish many fascinating occult books and magazine.