PROLOGUE (Extract)

The song the Serpent sings is often a hushed and remote whisper in the dark, barely audible, drowned by the cacophony of other sounds. At times it is a vibrant urgent calling and, on occasion, a beauteous melody underscoring our existence. It is carried on the breath of a wind, the dance of a wave upon sand, a flicker of a flame, in the beat of a heart and upon a flap of a moth’s wing. It is everywhere and nowhere in particular, ancient, primal, constant and eternal - a Song that remains forever the same. It is the Soul Song, Spirit Song, Deep Self Song and this Song belongs to us all – we need only but listen, learn and sing along.

The Serpent is wisdom supreme. She dances - rising, falling, coiling and swirling in ever changing intricate patterning, shedding skins and re-birthing anew, slithering through transformations with a watchful reptilian eye. Beneath the kaleidoscopic turbulence of life, the moods, mirages and meanderings of mind, She moves and bids us listen, bids us follow [...]

INTRODUCTION (Extract)

[...] The origins of the Tarot have been lost in the annals of time. Despite the various theories and speculations, ranging from it being based in Egyptian Magick or as a legacy of European gypsies to it having its genesis in the illustrations for Petrarch's I Trionfi. The truth is no one really knows for sure, and this really does not matter. It has sustained its popularity over the centuries for good reason, namely on account of it being pictorial. Pictures speak directly to the part of the mind below ordinary daytime consciousness, to a place where an image means more than a thousand words and communicates with especial clarity. Once distilled there, in the depths, it will then rise up as intuitive understanding, knowledge and insight

Unlike many of the decks available today, this deck is not 'themed' as such, but rather it is the Tarot in pure form, albeit with a unique twist. What this deck does have, however, is an insignia of sorts, for in each card the Serpent is present. Here, the Serpent is the sacred guide that leads us through the marvelous journey of the Tarot, the journey of the human soul, its transformations, cycles of growth and wisenings.

The imagery of the Singing Serpent Tarot is deliberately stylistically simple, and not laden with occult glyphs, extraneous symbols or astrological insignia. Each card, of itself, is symbolic without further complication by such things. Fascinating though such correspondences may be, and despite it has become fashionable to attempt the leapfrogging and forging of linkages between disciplines, my feeling is that to over burden the Tarot images, in this way, is to somewhat dilute their essential power and numinosity.

Likewise, the accompanying text refrains from the employment of cross- referencing around the occult spectrum and delving into the, often difficult, nomenclature of Cabalistic, Alchemical, Hermetic and other such schematics. Such a display of ‘cleverness’, though may well serving to over-puff my ego if acknowledged and praised by others, runs the danger of over exciting the mind of the recipient. And it is not the ego or the mind that this Tarot is designed to stimulate – but the deep, creative Self.

All the aforementioned systems, and indeed, all systems, are arbitrary, and the Tarot is no exception.  As a whole, the Tarot is an invented set of pictorial keys, signposts, which make up a map for the journey of Self discovery, Self knowledge and Self actualisation. For this, the most worthy of all causes, it is well to have a map, for without one, it is easy to get lost, stuck or overwhelmed.

The deck is divided into three main sections, in the vein of some older decks, rather than the customary Major & Minor Arcana of more recent decades.

TRUMPS (Triumphs) = Major Arcana

COURTS = Court cards

PIPS = Numbered Elemental cards

The twenty-two TRUMP (Triumph) cards (the Atu, Atouts, Keys or Major Arcana), laid out in traditional manner, are divided into three horizontal rows of seven cards with THE FOOL 0 as the outsider.  Each row is designated as follows:

THE REALM OF THE GODS - Top

THE REALM OF EQUILIBRIUM – Middle

THE REALM OF ILLUMINATION – Bottom

These three Realms find correspondence with the three Worlds of many magickal/shamanic/mythological mappings, commonly referred to as the Upper world, Middle world and Lower world. [...]