The Steampunk Tarot Ebook. John Matthews
this world, but you will recognize them easily because the conventional order and value of the Major Arcana remains the same.
| STEAMPUNK TAROT | CONVENTIONAL TAROT | |
| 0 | Apprentice | The Fool |
| I | Technomancer | The Magician |
| II | Aviatrix | The High Priestess |
| III | Empress | The Empress |
| IV | Emperor | The Emperor |
| V | Horologer | The Hierophant |
| VI | Explorers | The Lovers |
| VII | Triumph | The Chariot |
| VIII | Engineer | Strength |
| IX | Inventor | The Hermit |
| X | Time Machine | The Wheel of Fortune |
| XI | Brazen Head | Justice |
| XII | Suspension Tank | The Hanged Man |
| XIII | Spring-heeled Jack | Death |
| XIV | Spirit Gauge | Temperance |
| XV | Cyborg | The Devil |
| XVI | Stricken Tower | The Tower |
| XVII | Comet | The Star |
| XVIII | Moon Voyage | The Moon |
| XIX | Solarium | The Sun |
| XX | Regeneration Machine | The Last Judgement |
| XXI | Cosmic Blueprint | The World |
The Four Leagues and their Legates
The Leagues (cards numbered Ace to Ten) and the Legates (the court cards, entitled Messenger, Navigator, Lady, and Captain) are the Minor Arcana of this tarot. They have a less long-term influence than the Gods of the Machine, and relate more to the day-to-day management of life events.
The Leagues depict the four quadrants of the Imperium. Airships fly through the air, Engines govern fire, Submersibles plumb the depths of the waters, Leviathans explore earth’s pathways. They equate to conventional tarot suits as follows:
airships = Swords
engines = Wands
submersibles = Cups
leviathans = Pentacles
Each number within the Leagues has its own defined function, or theme, which is modified by its suit:
☼ aces: setting out, starting up, initiating something, honoring essentials
☼ twos: choosing a way, partnering, reflecting, opposing, dialoguing
☼ threes: fulfilling, combining, understanding, coordinating, creating
☼ fours: structuring, ordering, defining, stabilizing, finding boundaries
☼ fives: breaking out, checking reality, bringing awareness, striving
☼ sixes: exploring confidence, self-worth, harmony, returning to center
☼ sevens: experimenting, heroically re-ordering, finding courage, making space
☼ eights: reassessing and recognizing, grappling with consolidation, accomplishing
☼ nines: seeking self-fulfilment, creative completion, contentment, satisfaction
☼ tens: engaged in finalization, the restatement of principles, passing things on, bringing things home
The progression of Ace to Nine completes the cycle, while Ten is both the culmination of the cycle and the beginning of a new one, in a long and endless spiral. Be aware of these resonances, especially when you’re trying to work out where a querent (the one for whom you are reading) is within a process, or when you draw several Minors of the same number.
The Leagues represent the responses your vehicle has to the road you are on. These are experienced according to your personal lifestyle, the way you relate to others, and the wider effect upon those around you.
In each numbered League card entry in Part Two, look under Personal lifestyle, Interaction, and Impact to help you navigate your way through a spread (see The Language of the Machine, overleaf, for further insight).
Legates of the Imperium
Acting as mediators of the Gods of the Machine are the sixteen court cards who are the Legates of the Imperium, or ambassadorial representatives of the Four Leagues, comprising all the skills that maintain this world. They are the movers and shakers of the Imperium, overseeing the Four Leagues, each with their own distinctive character and personality.
The equivalent correspondences between the Legates and conventional court cards of the tarot are:
messenger = Page
navigator = Knight
lady = Queen
captain = King
The Legates can represent those whom you encounter on the road, as well as states you express yourself and influential events. They may symbolize either a male or a female, and need not necessarily correspond to the gender depicted on the card.
In each Legate card entry in Part Two, look under People, Processes, and Events for the appropriate interpretations to your spread (see The Language of the Machine, over-leaf, for further insight).
Steampunk Wisdom
Each of the seventy-eight cards brings its own Steampunk Wisdom. This offers one or more questions that will help open up seemingly intractable situations to your own deep insight. This is your own unique discovery that will help reveal meanings for your specific situation, making your quest come alive by the response of your own insightful oracle.
The Language of the Machine
The three types of card—the Gods, the Leagues, and the Legates—each have different functions in the machine, and so they come with their own distinct language. They offer slightly different modes of life-navigation on the journey that you are engaged upon. When you’ve learned to calibrate these, your itinerary will be clearer, your journey will have a more defined trajectory, and your mode of travel will make for a smoother ride and more exciting quest.
When you interpret the cards you’ve drawn, whether they are upright (▲) or reversed (▼), consider each of the entries in Part Two as follows:
The Gods of the Machine offer you three aspects, which show you:
☼ Gate of opportunity: What gift does this card offer me now? What dangers attend it? What might I be missing?
☼ Gear-change: What changes are involved? How can I get into gear for them? How can I compensate for change and balance myself? Where are my gears slipping?
☼ Blockages to clear: What is stuck or blocked? What am I missing or avoiding? How can I clear the way forward?
You may find all three aspects helpful, or that one in particular is relevant to your question. You will find Blockages to clear especially useful when you have a difficult card that you can’t interpret, or when a positively themed card like XIX Solarium falls upon a negatively themed position in your spread, such as “What is stuck?”. This challenges you to look in your rear-view mirror to focus on something you are missing or avoiding.
In addition, each of the Gods of the Machine cards has its own micro-spread, so that you can experience for yourself how each archetype fuels its unique part of the machine. Use all the cards or just the Gods of the Machine for these micro-spreads.
The Leagues (cards numbered Ace to Ten) offer three ways to help you navigate your way through a spread:
☼ Personal lifestyle: What is the mainspring of my own motivation? What mood colors my life? How does my attitude shift the focus? How am I sabotaging myself?
☼ Interaction: What am I giving or receiving in relationships with individuals? What dynamic is affecting or skewing our interaction? What increases or reduces communication? Where I am failing to meet the other person?
☼ Impact: How do events affect others? What is going on around me that I am experiencing or am a part of? How do my choices change the world or impact the community? What systemic changes are afoot?
The Legates (the Messengers, Navigators, Ladies, and Captains of each League) do not always represent