#our flag means death tarot

[ipomoea-batatas]

Day 25: Lighthouse

✨Stede Bonnet as The Hanged Man✨

This was actually one of the first pieces of OFMD fanart I ever started, and it’s just been sitting in my WIPs since March so I decided to quickly polish off.

The Hanged Man is a card about releasing old ways of being, sacrifice, surrender, transformation, and evolution.

The traditional imagery is based not on the typical hanging with a noose, but on ”Pittura infamante”, a sort of public humiliation in Renaissance Italy where caricatures of wealthy men who had committed white-collar crimes would be painted hanging by the foot (this actual type of hanging was an older punishment specifically for traitors).

[swalshart]

Our Cards Mean Death - Kickstarter Campaign for my fan-created Our Flag Means Death tarot deck

Our Cards Mean Death: A fan-created Our Flag Means Death tarot deck for pirates, brigands, rogues and scoundrels of all sorts

The kickstarter campaign for my Our Flag Means Death tarot deck is launching today! This deck features all your favorite OFMD characters (literally almost all of them), accompanied by a tarot guidebook featuring Lucius’’s snarky commentary, packaged in a magnetic book box that looks like Stede’s journal. Back the project within the first week and get a $10 discount!

[ofmdtarot]

TWELVE HOURS REMAIN to apply for That Card Means Death, an #OFMD Tarot Deck!

📆Applications close on October 5 at 11:59pm PST

Apply here or check out our Carrd

[akans-dead-at-sea]

I mean, it's an absolute gem!

[lunar-system]

Edward Teach: The Star.

Adapted from the traditional Ride-Waite-Smith tarot, this version of the Star shows Ed kneeling down serenely by the spring of life, bare to the world, ready to heal after tumultuous events.

Stede as the Sun to follow, Izzy as the Moon can be found here.

Longer exploration of the card's symbolism under the cut.

***

The Star: Hope, openness, especially after a crisis. Renewal, healing, restoration.

Rachel Pollack writes: "This is the calm after a great change, whether it comes after a drastic planetary shift or a personal upheaval. There are still difficult times ahead, but the Star tells us to trust."

In the card Ed is depicted with a short, growing beard. Multiple personal upheavals and great changes have already happened, and he is settling into a new reality. Who is he when he is stripped from titles, uniforms and roles? In the space of the Star, he has enough trust to try and find out.

Pollack continues: "In Star, we find our inner strength and belief. The Star teaches us to accept whatever it is, to drop all our shields, to believe. The water poured out signifies healing, emotional and physical."

Ed as the Star is learning to shine his own light after witnessing Stede shine as the Sun. Trust and belief don't come easy, but as the Star he can be vulnerable enough to try again. The water flows from an infinite source, letting the emotions come and go.

Even though the Star opens up towards a bright future, Ed carries his history with him. His tattoos, pictures from other tarot cards, tell about his past:

Chest: Three of Swords, the infamous card of heartbreak. "Trust no one."

Left side thigh: the face of the Devil from the Devil card. One of the largest tattoos he has, projecting his self-image. "I'm the devil."

Right side thigh: Lobster from the Moon card, a beast that lurks under the surface, in the unconscious. "I'm the Kraken."

Right side: wolf from the Moon card. In my depiction of the Moon, Izzy stands for the wolf. Here the loyal wolf is cast to the side, left howling after the broken heart.

Belly: Ram from the throne of the Emperor, a symbol of masculine power. The placement on the lower belly suggest a trans reading of the character.

Chest, around the heart: birds from Ace of Cups, suggesting new beginnings even for a broken heart.

With his past carved to his skin, Ed is kneeling at the edge of land. One of his feet is planted firmly on the ground while the other graces the water. In Tarot, earth is often connected to the material, such as the body, and the conscious mind. Water is the element of emotions and the subconscious. At the edge of the water, Ed is in balance, grounded both in his body and in his emotions, the conscious and the subconscious. The water he pours rejuvenates them both.

TL;DR: After great personal upheavals, Ed as the Star is ready to heal and trust. He carries his past with him, but is ready to shine his own light and have faith in himself and for the future. He is vulnerable and at peace, and he is connected both to the ground and the water, nourishing them both with the water he pours.

***

Sources

Image source: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, republished as Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

Text source: Rachel Pollack, A Journey of 78 Steps, 2011, as cited in the booklet for instruction and guidance of Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

[poorcitrusmanagement]

The Fool symbolises the beginning of a long and fruitful journey. This card embodies innocence and naivete. The Fool usually indicates stepping into a world in which you are lacking experience but ready to spring forward anyway. It presents a choice to indulge your desires and embark on your wildest dreams without hesitation. Your optimism will protect you in these untested waters and will block out all the fear and doubts that usually come with beginning something new and hard.

The Fool is numbered 0 in the tarot deck and can be placed at either beginning or the end of the Major Arcana (which is often conceived of as The Fool's journey). For this 'deck', I've decided to depict Stede at the start of his journey. This scene represents Stede's situation and mental state before the start of the first episode.

In the Rider Waite deck, The Fool is walking toward the edge of a cliff, head turned to the sky, seemingly unaware of the drop into the unknown that lies before him. He carries a knapsack over his shoulder and a white rose in his other hand, symbolising his innocence. Although Stede's pose in this card is the same as the Rider Waite deck, I've decided to play with the symbolism to make it more fitted to OFMD.

Rather than a cliff, Stede is walking the bowsprit of the Revenge. He seems blissfully unaware of the risk he has taken, not just by walking the bowsprit but by deciding to become a pirate. Instead of a knapsack, he carries a black flag. Because this card represents Stede before the first episode, there is nothing on his flag yet. The flag as well as his journey are a blank slate. I've replaced the rose with an orange blossom, both a tie-in to the theme of oranges that runs throughout the series and a symbol of new beginnings and immaturity. The blossom looks pretty but it needs time and experience to bear fruit. So too Stede needs to go on his journey throughout the Major Arcana in order to grow into the person he wants to become.

[sketchindoodles]

I realised I hadn't posted any of my fandom related art onto here, The Fandom Website, so please enjoy the dump of art that you are about to be bombarded with.

This being the first in a short-lived series of Our Flag Means Death tarot cards.

Stede Bonnet as The Fool.

[inkeyjay]

The Tower and The Star.

After tragedy, hope again. After the Storm, light.

It is your turn, beloved It is your flesh that i wear.

I gaze out, to the stars. They lead me back to you.

[ppeachmugen]

the past

[karrahe]

The Wound that Woke the Kraken ☠️

https://karrahe.carrd.co/ 😊💙

[sensationseekng]

izzy as the eight of cups - giving up and moving on, courage and loss, letting go of friends, lovers, and old ways of being

(that's the inn in the distance)

eight of cups description from Little Red Tarot:

[shhhsekkrit]

Sketch for a painting I probably will never do but wanted to get the concept out.

Possibly hanged man tarot card…? Is there an ofmd tarot project anywhere…?

[liltaireissocute]

please know my actions are not motivated only by envy

[ofmdtarot]

There's just ONE DAY LEFT! Time is running out to get in your app That Card Means Death, an #OFMD Tarot Deck!

📆Applications close on October 5 at 11:59pm PST

Apply here or check out our Carrd

[oxalees]

Izzy Tarot card

[rileyomalley]

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