Episode 84: The Mystereum Tarot with Jordan Hoggard

leisa — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:05:09 +0000

About the Mystereum Tarot

2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ playing card size decks in a great looking box complete with 46 page booklet (lwb) + fold-out intro cardlet. The Mystereum Tarot deck is playing card size! Great for small hands and for shuffling.

$28.95 + S & H.

Visit www.mystereum.com to request your copy today!

Inception Story

The concept of setting into the creative adventure of this tarot deck began several years back when I made a connection between the meaning of architecture and The Magician and The High Priestess. And when I say the meaning of architecture I am literally looking to the word architecture itself. There is a four-point mode of being that I enjoy for the general purpose of architectural analysis which I will use to preface this connection for conversation’s sake, and to provide just a moment of suspense. This four-point mode is somewhat existential, and I have to honestly say I don’t think about these four points much anymore unless a building really perplexes me. Things incorporate over time, are amended into the soil so to speak:

How does a building stand on the ground?
How does a building extend to the sides?
How does a building open and close?
How does a building meet the sky?

Now, for just a bit more suspense. I won’t go in to whether something has to be a building to be considered architecture. That’s another story, and tarot is the order of the day here.

OK. Architecture. The meaning of architecture. If I disassemble the word into its Greek roots, I get arche and techne, and I STILL can’t remember how to make the accent over a letter work on my keyboard. I ask that you please imagine the accent and play along. Further for your imagination, that the accent starts low on the left and ends high on the right. Accent ague? Accent grave? Imagination. Arche, techne. Say ar-kay. Tek-nay. And, here’s where I made a connection.

Arche is the first inkling, the creation, the first spark of an idea. Arche is the place of inception. Techne is the giving form to the formless, the making, the putting together of the idea that has been created. Techne is the place of conception. And, I saw The Magician and The High Priestess with their respective 1st spark, the creation of the Magician, and then the giving form, the making of The High Priestess. And though I remained fascinated with the deck and stayed my course with architecture and art, the connection didn’t stick. Or, so I thought.

Scroll forward several years to the summer of 2006 while I’m gardening, and I look up at my turn-of-the-century Victorian house (1906) and realize that I’ve been working on the cards here and there, reading text and history when I can, or simply come across it, and …rush inside and rinse the dirt off and open up the folder on my computer, and there I saw…just down the page!…The Empress carrying to full term! The Emperor overseeing! And, it came to mind that I was thick in the middle of the largest scale project I have ever undertaken, had been walking right on the burial as I amended the soil in my garden. Imagine my bright , wide eyes when I eventually came to looking at the Judgment card having a The Hanged Man moment!

Though architecture provided a form-giving metaphor for the creation of this deck, from which I lifted arche, techne, identity, place, and context, the architecture may or may not stop right there. The warm-up is oftentimes not a member of the performance. Either way or neither, though, one’s path is experienced and built, built back in upon and re-built, expanded and contracted…one’s path continually pulses through the scales of life, driven by life itself. The tarot cards are wonderful trail-markers as well as storytellers along the path. Sometimes there is the soliloquy of a single card as the context. Sometimes a card or cards speak with the chorus of the other cards to flesh out context. Most all tarot decks present a visual vitality that speaks to the mind – you can call it consciousness or anything else for that matter…but in this regard, never-mind the research in this area(s)in this regard though fitting and inspiring even…in this regard there is no proof or re-proof but life itself. In this regard we each have our own say. With vitality at a variety of scales, and incorporating the concept of all similar, each unique to the cards, to ourselves, a whole world is present and complete at each and every scale.

And there, at that point is a shell in my garden cracking open of its own accord underground, the story of the creation and making of this deck sprouted, remembering origin and destiny as one and the same maybe. Or not. The roots of tarot and architecture will flower perennially in my garden, naturalizing over time as this deck is completed and becomes dog-eared from use, naturalizing. I will move from there now to the fruits that began to come from my garden in the summer of 2006. Enjoy!

– Jordan Hoggard, January 2007

The Context Spread

click on the images to view the pdf

Jordan Hoggard

Jordan Hoggard is an artist and architect. He is the Principal of J. Jordan Hoggard Design which is a small architectural company established in 2002 devoted to providing disciplined, responsive, and respectful service to every client, no matter how big or small the project. Jordan works directly with every client to assure their continuing satisfaction throughout the design and construction process.

“ Form Follows Priority” ® 2007

Jordan has been working on award-winning projects singe 1991.

Graduated in 1991 from Texas Tech University with the degree of Bachelor of Architecture. He was honored with numerous scholarships and awards, held the offices of Vice President and President of the American Institute of Architecture Students, and was named by the Dean of the College of Architecture to the Faculty Search Committee.

Jordan spent five years as a professional painter of fine art oils and watercolors and continues to pursue special studies in architecture and art.

Max in a Mystereum Dog Shirt

Music Credits

Opening Music & Transition Music: Narcissus by Queenie from Dream of Flight
Closing Music: Music to Look for Something Lost by Michael Masley from Mystery Repeats Itself (Magnatune)

The Tarot Connection » Year 2