This is a post about a new deck, the Tiger Tarot, by Lori Field, book by Laetitia Barbier. This deck excites me. I’ve heard Lori talk about the deck and the tiger symbol as a sign of empowerment. That draws me in. This will draw you in too.

My auspicious first pull from the Tiger Tarot is the ace of eyes. I say auspicious because Aces are always considered good luck. We’ve got that in our language. I aced the test, the race, the competition. It’s all good when we ace something. Synchronistically, that’s the first pull and I’ll take that as a good omen for beginning this exploration.

Let’s take a look at the card: The ace of eyes, in the Tiger Tarot by artist Lori Field.

There are two figures in the card. One sits in the left hand corner and her eyes gaze up to the tiger with a girl’s face. An Eye sits atop tiger girl’s head, like a headdress or crown. It has the jaunty look of a pirate’s hat. Yet her eyes look warily at the viewer, perhaps giving us the side eye if she sees us at all.

My eye is drawn initially to the curiously elfin nude figure in the left hand corner. It looks like that figure is a girl, there is the curve of a breast obscured by the knee drawn up and hiding the nipple area. I am struck by her headdress which I first thought was a monarch butterfly but when I orient my view more carefully, I see it is the head of a giraffe.

Then my eye follows this little figure’s gaze to the tiger girl with the eye. It is this tiger girl that appears to be the ace of eyes.

Next, my eye drops down to the lower right hand corner where there is an open pod-like structure positioned on a leaf with what might be seeds or buds about to blossom. That leads my glance to the words ‘ace of eyes’ in lower case type. Next, I follow the pink flowers which lead me diagonally from lower right corner to upper left. Finally, my vision rests on the giraffe.

I’ve been very specific about the pathway of my gaze because I think it may contribute to an understanding of the ace in this particular deck because this ace of eyes is arranged quite differently from Aces in other decks. It breaks with the typical convention of having the signifying suit placed directly center. That is a bold perspective and conveys a very different message to the viewer than in more typical Tarot decks such as the Rider-Waite-Smith or decks based on that tradition, e.g. the Morgan Greer and the Aquarian Tarot.

The visual movement brings to mind the diagrams of eye movement that are used in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). I was first introduced to NLP back in the 1980’s when I was deeply involved in studying body psychotherapy. For several years I participated in multiple trainings. There was yoga teacher training, I became a massage therapist and studied Swedish and shiatsu, completed a dance/movement therapy certificate and then took several years training in what was at the time called Gestalt Synergy which brought together talking, touch primarily using Alexander and Feldenkrais technique.

Briefly, to explain Neuro Linguistic Programming, the therapist watches the client’s eye movements. The idea is that the direction of the gaze gives clues about the way a person is processing an experience.

Here’s my handmade diagram that shows the gaze and the kind of processing it implies.

Gazing upper left is about visually constructing an image; upper right is about remembering an image. Gazing center left is about constructing via auditory processing; center right is about remembering sounds. Gazing lower left is about kinesthetic sensory feelings and gazing lower right is about listening to inner dialogue. In working with healing energy and therapy the practitioner pays attention to the client’s eye movements and determines what sensory modality the client may be using to process information and do the work of the session.

Imagine that we put the diagram of the gaze around the ace of pentacles in the Tiger Tarot. Then my gaze goes from (follow the numbers 1–5):

Here’s my interpretation

1. Lower left kinesthetic — As I look at the card, I feel the pose of the elfin girl gazing upwards. It is a dreamy feeling. Contemplative. Desiring. As I follow her gaze, I am looking at the tiger girl. Lori says in a WNYC interview that “ [the] Tiger symbolizes feminine power, …[a] protective force for people who are vulnerable.” Nakedness is a symbol of vulnerability and has also been a symbol of powerlessness. Think of the nakedness in the Garden of Eden for a well-known instance.
   

2. Upper right remembered images — The Tiger girl, the ace of the eye suit. What is remembered about this? It seems entirely new. The symbol of the suit, the eye is not centrally placed as is typical of aces in most card decks. Perhaps, the naked elfin girl dreams of enough power to protect her vulnerability. Are we, culturally, remembering a time of female power? I think a case could be made for that. The case basically stems from the way that our culture is working so hard, so cruelly, and so murderously to take away power from women.
   

3. Lower right auditory internal dialogue — The image seems to be seed pods, or the budding of new growth. The internal dialogue here is an inner conversation with oneself about power and vulnerability. Seeds need to be planted in order to grow. Currently, we have strong, knowledgeable women in our political/power culture who are speaking up. They are planting seeds Heather Cox Richardson and her letters, Joyce Vance on the podcast with other women called Sisters in Law, Joanne Freeman in her talks on National Council for History Education. Those are just a few women speaking to us.
   

4. My gaze travels along the diagonal and sees the words ‘ace of eyes.’ All in lower case typography. No capitals and this reminds me of the poet ee cummings and his lack of capitalization that breaks with convention. I see three flowers, a rose, a dahlia and at the top left corner what looks like a water lily and gently cut off in this collage are a couple roses in that corner.
   

5. Finally, I see that giraffe, another unusual headpiece on this ace. It tops the naked, little elfin character.

There is certainly more to say with regard to a response to a tarot card so rich in images and composition.

Julia Roberts Makayla Davis Joanna Mikulski JoAnne Hall Scalf Dean Landsman tarot TG Tarot Psychic Tarot Cards Reading

By Martha Rand on December 17, 2022.

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Exported from Medium on March 1, 2023.