after finishing work on all the Liar tarot deck cards, and deciding on actually wanting to print the thing, I started work on a booklet that would be shipped together with the deck
from the manufacturer’s options I chose the saddle sewn one, number of pages to be decided based on how much content would end up in the booklet
the booklet would contain:
- the full story of Liar so far
- introduction to the deck (see below)
- optional instructions on how to use it (see below)
- reading keywords and lore connections for each card, starting from the major arcana and down to each suit in the minor arcana (this information is available on each card’s page here on the website)
took me a couple of months to write all the copy, and when done, the tiny booklet was around 40 pages long
now the booklet was missing a cover. I collaborated with my friend @lamalabletters for the lettering, he does amazing calligraphy work. the text spells “PREMEDITATIO MALORUM”, latin for the Stoic practice of “negative visualization”. here’s a Wikipedia article on it. the rest of the cover is an illustration meant to look like a guillotine. this plays with the Liar Tarot Deck box which features Liar sitting on a throne. in Liar’s world, this is a grave sin, as all thrones as supposed to be empty (as seen in the lore of the THE EMPRESS card, and all the QUEENS from each suit). with this setup, you see Liar on a throne first, then open the box to find the booklet with the guillotine on it, and then learn through the cards that Liar wasn’t supposed to be on a throne in the first place.. does it make sense to you? it did to me, but maybe it was a stretch, I’m far deep into the lore here. anyways, here’s how the cover turned out:
I ordered a proof copy, but the margins were all wrong (my bad). here how it looks:
as I’m writing this, I’m waiting to order a second proof copy with a lot of fixes for the cards, and the card box as well
what follows is a slightly edited dump of some of the sections you’d find in the booklet, the ones that are also relevant to this website:
INTRODUCTION
Liar thinks that divination is bullshit. you shouldn’t use his deck to try to figure out stuff about your future, or to discover things you shouldn’t know. will you end up together with that person? who knows! ask them out! you are in control. will you ace your test? Liar doesn’t know. but did you study? whatever happens is your answer
tarot can’t give you future sight
but tarot are ancient symbols, rooted in millennia of human history and archetypes. they are at least something to think about. Liar uses them as prompts to journal about his days. what do these powerful figures make you think about? use them to consider different angles of a thought or an idea
Liar also modified the traditional tarot interpretations to suit - no pun intended - his own lore and backstory. so even if you are a tarot expert, you might want to check each card and see what Liar thinks of it. or not. Liar likes people that can stand on their own
LIAR SUITS
traditionally, tarot have four different suits of cards:
a description of each suit is provided on the suit’s page
REVERSED CARDS
you should shuffle Liar’s deck switching the orientation of the cards every once in a while. this ensures that over time there’s a good mix of upright and reversed cards in the deck
if you draw a reversed card, you should keep it that way. you should just think about it as the opposite of its upside counterpart, with a reversed meaning or interpretation as well
THE LIAR SHUFFLE
Liar has a very methodical way of shuffling his deck. he uses the overhand shuffle to avoid wearing out the cards, and to make sure he gets some cards reversed he does two overhand passes first, and then on the third one he reverses whatever cards he has left and does a final overhand pass. he repeats this 16 times, for a total of 17 passes
if you want to copy Liar, here’s the routine:
- split the deck at the bottom
- overhand shuffle a portion of those cards
- overhand shuffle another portion of those cards
- place upside down the remaining cards
- overhand shuffle the remaining cards
and repeat until you’ve done this 17 times in total
THE LIAR JOURNAL
Liar uses the cards as prompts for journaling. he draws one each morning, with the singular question: “what is this making me think of?”. it might be a memory, or a present issue. he writes a few lines in his journal, just some reflections, then moves on. sometimes this helps Liar find solutions for problems to try, or just sinks him deeper into his head