A King's Journey Tarot

(A work in progress)

Lessons in spiritual and mundane growth, as we follow the Fool throughout his progression of life, through this Fool's Journey themed tarot deck.

Creator/ Designer - Chanel Bayless
Artist - James Battersby

Background of  A King's Journey

My inspiration for this deck started with ponderings over the Celtic Cross symbol for a table that I wanted to get for tarot readings! The more I obsessed over the table and the Celtic Cross symbol,  the greater the draw was for me to find a deeper meaning and understanding behind it. I never got the table, but I began to meditate on the Celtic Cross and saw it as more of a Journey that each one of us goes through during our lives. A process, if you will. 
 
My meditations seemed to form an understanding of the outer circle's significance and reference to how other people or situations affect and define us. The inner circle's relevance seemed to show how our inner selves (be it beliefs, emotions, fears, etc. ) affect our journey and progression toward reaching the center point. The center point seemed to be where the 'kingdom' was; you know, that moment of perfection and contentment that sits inside those walls of what we choose to surround ourselves.
 
The more I meditated on this theory, it began to play out in my mind through the Fool's Journey tarot story. Suddenly, pieces began to fall into place, and I began to  understand tarot in a slightly different manner.  I realized that we are all on a journey to be the 'King' of our Kingdom. The kind of Kingdom that will shelter us depends on the journey of experiences that we come across in life.  Those experiences came in the form of the four elements that seem to be overshadowed by the energies from the Major Arcana.  This became the foundation of A King's Journey tarot deck, and I began to design it based on, an inspired by, my meditations on the Celtic Cross.
(taken from my interview with Tarot Association of the British Isles - Dec, 2009)
 
 I started to draft the correspondences according to my meditation from 2005 to 2007. I put it aside for a time to focus on mundane life, but in 2008, I knew I had to get it out!  So, In the summer of 2008, I began to sketch the card. 
 
In Nov of 2008, James graciously accepted my invitation to work on A King's Journey and we began this journey together.  
 
We have finally completed the compilation of the images for A King's Journey tarot deck in Dec. of 2009. 

About A King's Journey

The tarot deck, A King's Journey, is based on the Fool's Journey tarot system.  In this tarot deck, we follow the Fool throughout the journey of his life, from the ages of 13-50. We watch him discover life through finding his way through outer villages around his Kingdom. We watch him struggle with love, responsibilities, family, his insecurities and finding himself. Then we watch as he grows within his Kingdom and becomes the King. This is a story that I hope relates well to what we go through in this day and age. 

The system that I developed to work with the King's Journey is based on the idea of the Celtic Cross. When we first go through life (the outer circle), we are naive and are greatly influenced by the people that we encounter in our daily lives. This could be anyone to parents, friends, enemies, bullies, our infatuations, shopkeepers, buddies, our desires, etc. We begin to collect all these influences and form beliefs that we hold very dear to ourselves. So true, some untrue, and some that need redefined.

After the Fool goes through these experiences and form his truths, he will encounter 'death' and begin to change and find his inner self.  He will begin  to understand, grow and define the person that he is and hopes to be. Through that part of the journey, his  beliefs are formed and he finds himself. But just before he finds himself, the Fool loses sight of who he is and has to redefine and build back.. whom he really is deep down. 

 When this happens, the Fool also finds out what real love is, and understands the difference between that and the infatuations that challenged him along the way. Finally, he has balanced out his mundane life and seems to be able to happily return 'home' as a strong man that knows who he is and what he is to be. 

 That's when the Fool realizes that there is much more for him to learn. He was never in a place, previously, to grow spiritually, because he was too busy balancing out his lower self persona. Now that he is in the Kingdom, he will grow spiritually and learn virtues that will fortify the Kingdom that he has build for himself and gives to those he loves and cares about. 

 At the end of A King's Journey, he has learned spiritual virtues, gifts and is completely integrated in love and his higher self and able to bring forth his excellence to show is own child  ..  A King's Journey. 

Specifications

Number of Cards : 94

Number of Fool = 0

Number of Strength = 8

Number of Justice =11

Deck Elements : 5 - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit

Suit Names : Coins, Swords, Wands, Cups, Spirit

Court Names : Princess, Knight, Queen, King

Additional Cards : Daath, Soul, Spirit Suit

Theme : Fool's Journey / Rider Waite

Titles on Cards : No

Numbers on Cards : No

Borders : No

Dimensions : 4"H X 2.65" W *

Included : Bag - no Box *

Book : Sold Separately *

LWB : Free Download *

Self - Published

Copyrighted to Chanel Bayless

Deck Designer : Chanel Bayless

Artist : James Battersby

 * These items are the proposed details, however, they are not finalized and could be subject to change.