Watcher Angel Tarot
About the Tarot
The Watcher Angel Tarot is inspired by the story of the Watcher Angels, heavenly beings who chose to fall to earth for the love of human women. The story of the Watchers is mentioned briefly in Genesis but is more fully expounded in a text known as the Book of Enoch. This text was cut from the Bible in the early centuries of Christianity but nevertheless had a significant impact on both Medieval and modern angelology. Promethean elements lie at the heart of the Watcher Angel myth, and in many ways the Watchers themselves embody the concept of stolen fire from Heaven. They themselves are the fire, for they exported sacred magickal teachings and shared them with their mortal lovers, revealing the arts of prophecy, root-cutting, cosmetics, and metal-smithing to the early humans of their mythic world.
The sharing of this forbidden knowledge earned the Watchers the fury of Heaven, and they and their progeny were judged through the Flood. The setting of the Fallen Angel Tarot is the mythical antediluvian world where heavenly beings consort with humanity, revealing mystical and sometimes dangerous wisdom. All of the Major Arcana feature Watchers specifically named in the Enochian texts, each paired with a card that embodies his teachings and traditional qualities. The Minor Arcana feature a mix of immortals and humanity, and in many ways, the journey represented by each suit in the deck tells the tale of the impact had upon the mortal world of this forbidden commingling of angels and humanity.
The Vision
The cards are not being designed in any particular numeric order. In fact, they are being designed in the order in which the images occur to me. Many of the cards parallel or preceed life events for myself and those closest to me, so it does often feel like I am living the deck. Each image is designed to reflect the meaning and emotion of the card. I use background colors in many cases to carry the emotion, and in many ways the background I paint represents the way in which an emotion looks from the inside. For instance, the concept of the Empress, which means mother, of creation and potential, I thought of colors for a background that would represent something warm and embracing, like being inside someones heart, or as a child in the womb - the comfort and security and protection there in.
The Process
I always begin by seeking inspiration. I will sit and contemplate the meaning of a card, and usually come up with a pretty good idea of what the card should look like. I then start looking for reference photos to help build the idea and then make a sketch of the card.
I begin by making a sketch - the starting point of most artists. A sketch may take just a few hours or days to complete. For most cards, I will then go from the basic sketch to a shaded and largely complete drawing of the main figure, which becomes the guidelines I will follow for my shadows and highlights in the painting. I will sometimes size my sketch on the computer before transferring the drawing to my presoaked paper on board. Then the fun begins.
Because I am working in watercolors, I also then work in layers. I begin by painting the background, and in doing so I use plenty of water, sometimes shot onto my piece with a large eye dropper tool. I spend a lot of time layering pigments, creating striking backgrounds that employ the emotion of the card. I continue to move forward in the deck, adding middle ground imagery if there is any. Finally, the main figure is painted and details and final touches are added. This process can take anywhere from a day or two, to a week or more. Once the painting is complete, it is scanned into imaging software and merged with the border.
