Ahab's Cards (1965) by Robert Del Tredici
Well, well; I heard Ahab mutter, "Some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine, swears I must play them and no others." Chapter 118, The Quadrant
Some time ago- never mind how long precisely - I saw a post on Reddit wondering if there was a Moby Dick tarot deck. Apparently, there wasn't! I had just finished Moby Dick after many years of false starts. I had also started to learn to read tarot. Moreover, I was stuck at home during quarantine. Why not create that very deck?
To date, no one as of yet has created an entire tarot deck based on Moby Dick. (Note though that
The American Renaissance Tarot Deck, written by Thea Wirschin and illustrated by Celeste Pille, now in pre-publication, contains
an entire suit (Wands) based on Moby Dick and Melville. Also see
Casey McCann's dreamy ink and wash drawings of Ishmael and Queequeg as The Fool and The Magician, respectively [scroll down after clicking link]. The fact that I assigned the same cards to these characters as she did while unaware of this art shows how strongly this duo resembles those archetypes.
At this time, I have completed descriptions for the whole set of 78 cards, but I'm not sure if I will be the one to eventually illustrate them. I am afraid they'll look like stick figures from
Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Diary of a Wimpy Sailor - now there's a good alternate title for Moby Dick...
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| Ishmael in Rockwell Kent's illustration from Moby Dick (1930 edition) |
Notes on Descriptions:
I am basing these cards on the popular
Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, and the brief card meanings are taken primarily from Liz Dean’s
The Ultimate Guide to Tarot. Other sources are noted when used.
Every card contains either a specific character or other element found in the book. Some characters will appear more than once, and others not at all (sorry, Elijah). Don't fret if you don't see your favorites right away- they probably ended up in the Minor Arcana. Most of the cards are based on actual scenes, and I have cited the text in these instances. Because cards are interpreted based on images and not on text, often I would find a scene in Moby Dick that seemed perfect for a particular card, but ultimately rejected it as the meaning was not visually apparent. Accordingly, the description for some cards may include an alternate depiction.
One issue that comes to mind when basing a tarot deck on Moby Dick is that there are almost no female characters in the book, yet some of the tarot cards specifically portray women or stereotypically female characteristics. But this is not a problem, as there is no reason that the symbolic meaning of any card should be limited to any gender. For the sake of consistency, I have retained the traditional feminine titles of certain cards (The Empress and The High Priestess) regardless of which characters are depicted.
Suits:
The RWS tarot contains four suits: Wands, Cups, Pentacles, and Swords. The equivalent, in the proposed Moby Dick Tarot, are:
Harpoons (Wands) : A weapon for hunting whales.
Pewter Cups (Cups): This holds a measure of grog; see Chapter 36 -The Quarter-Deck. (I originally devised this suit as Buckets, but the pewter cup makes a more memorable appearance)
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| Spade, Harpoon and Lance. Sketch by F.A. Olmstead, 1841 |
Doubloons (Pentacles): The gold Spanish coin that Ahab nailed to the mast as a reward for killing Moby Dick.
Lances (Swords): A sharp spear used in whaling along with the harpoon.
Admittedly, I am a green hand at tarot, and have read Moby Dick only once so far. Therefore, I may change some of these descriptions over the course of writing this blog as the big picture becomes apparent. I welcome constructive criticism and feedback, so feel free to comment!
A Final Note:
Have you read Moby Dick yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Start your voyage
here on Project Gutenberg for free!
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