The Tarot Of British Birds (Part 2)

These 11 works conclude my series interpreting the Major Arcana tarot deck.

The fascinating thing about tackling this second and final half of the series is that by splitting the deck in the order it was created means that a lot of the initially quite dark cards are housed here, Death, The Hanged Man and the Devil for instance.

My goal in creating this series has been to inhabit each of the cards with an iconic British bird, sometimes several, drawing out a depiction which captures the character of the bird whilst summoning up the light and darkness that according to the specifics of each card requires addressing .

 

The balancing act is to provide the feeling of duality that arises from a symbolic image able to be read in both positive and negative terms.

 

The journey of the soul through the series of the tarot beginning with The Fool stepping guilelessly into midair begins the journey that concludes with the card called The World suggesting an expansive and eternal opportunity for enlightenment .

 

The whole deck in its entirety reads as a struggle between light and shade the multifarious options afforded to humanities existence in any era.

The card called The Tower I deliberately chose a slightly apocalyptic setting of my home city the usual medieval tower replaced by the Shard tower and a wrecked south bank with a glimpse of Big Ben and the London Eye, it’s hard not to react to the state our world feels in in this moment, the Jay is trying to hold fast to the stricken tower whilst the Jackdaw rears either in alarm or aggression, again the image can be read in many ways.

   

The world in The World card is a bird bath where Apollo offers benediction and a rounding of all the turmoil and adventure that has gone before it into domestic peace and the wisdom afforded by age.

    Birds, birds come first for me, they always have and I am reminded of one of my heroes, Laurie Anderson, saying that on her death bed she asks her mother why she was looking in wonder at the ceiling, her mother replied joyfully before she died “so many birds”.