ABOUT

A recent Tarot inspired commission for a very cool client.
A single framed six-card tarot-style pantheon as one unified artwork (3x2 grid), designed as an inner symbolic map of a psyche in its shadow hierarchy.
This is not occult horror and not fantasy spectacle, but a psychologically dense symbolic system.

1. THE EMPEROR OF DEAD FORM -
A frontal marble sovereign seated in rigid symmetry.
Heavy brow, strong jaw, deep-set stern eyes, solar halo behind the head.
Ceremonial robes with heavy architectural folds.
Marble throne carved with set-squares and compass-points.
Staff of measure.
Beneath the throne: stone roots and hairline cracks in the floor, which the ruler pointedly ignores. He is calm, noble, beautiful, and lifeless.
Caption under card: "FORM WITHOUT LIFE"

2. THE MAGICIAN OF CONTROL —
A standing younger figure, clean-shaven or with close-cropped stubble, sharp clever features, short hair, lean wiry build.
He wears a working robe with geometric embroidery, sleeves rolled to the elbow showing bare working forearms.
He stands at an angled wooden worktable covered with instruments: brass compass, cards, red thread, quill, scrolls, diagrams, pentacle.
One hand pointing/naming, the other arranging.
He is NOT crowned - a simple headband with a single small star.
Around him, lines of writing and diagram-thread become visible chains of structure linking objects. The tools are magnificent, but the atmosphere suggests control before creation.
Caption under card: “NAME TO RULE"

3. THE HIGH PRIESTESS AS PROJECTION —
A veiled woman seated frontally before a half-open inner chamber.
Moon above, dark water below, hidden staircase descending behind her.
A lunar halo. Long veil covering almost all of the face — only the lower mouth and chin visible, pale and still.
She is mysterious, silent, inward, unreadable.
The lower part of the card suggests projection and mirage: faint phantom faces rising from the dark water reflecting the VIEWER rather than her, so the water reads as a mirror pretending to be a well. Caption under card: "DEPTH OR MIRROR”

4. THE CHARIOT OF MISDIRECTED POWER —
A hooded anonymous driver under a demon shaped shadow, a great ceremonial chariot driven by the hooded, faceless armored driver — his identity is concealed under a deep hood.
Beside him, a vast shadow is cast across the chariot in the unmistakable silhouette of the androgynous demon from card 3, same long hair, same horn-hint - but this shadow is clearly a projection, not a physical presence.
The demon's shadow leans into the driver's shoulder as if whispering.
The chariot is pulled by opposed symbolic sphinxes (dark and pale).
A burning distant city to the rear.
The imperial force remains enormous, but its impulse is visibly misled.
Caption under card: "POWER WITHOUT DESTINATION"

5. THE DEMON AT THE THRESHOLD —
A tall androgynous intruder standing beside a half-open doorway.
Clean-featured, glabrous, long straight hair falling past the shoulders, unnaturally luminous pale skin, very narrow elegant features, high cheekbones.
Subtle shadow-horns hinted above the brow.
Tall slim body, elongated limbs.
Robes are long and trailing.
The figure is alluring, intelligent, restrained, and dangerous
- not monstrous, but catalytic.
The pose suggests access through consent and temptation, not invasion.
Caption under card:
"ACCESS THROUGH DESIRE"

6. JUDGMENT OF THE SELF -
The same old emperor, now as judge.
Now elevated, seated behind a high tribunal with great suspended scales of objective measure.
His robe is now darker, his light is colder.
The scales are perfectly level.
Below the scales lie discarded objects echoing the other cards: a broken mirror and a torn veil (priestess), extinguished embers and a broken key (demon), the snapped key (chariot), a spilled compass (magician).
The judge is noble, fully legitimate, severe, and unmistakably judging the very fire and excess released by his own system.
This is not chaotic guilt but rightful, almost beautiful self-condemnation.
Caption under card: “CONDEMN THE FIRE"