H. R. GIGER TAROT. H. R. Giger

a completely new tarot deck. But we talked, and after some thought, decided to select twenty-two of his paintings and link them together in our minds to create “The Tarot of the Underworld.” There was certainly no shortage of choices when it came to devising a tarot cycle in which the artistic value matched the psychological value. Many of Giger’s paintings, with their archetypal and highly symbolic pictorial language, seemed almost predestined for this purpose. His version of Baphomet provided the focus of our inspiration, the sun around which the planets of the other cards revolved until they had all been given their fixed orbits within the iconographic cycle. In 1992, Urania published the 500-page book as part of a set, together with the cards and a poster, under the name Baphomet. Seven years later, the Taschen-Verlag publishing company approached us with the idea of producing a shorter paperback edition. The prospect of making the Giger cards available to a broader international public was very appealing, but we thought that the idea of shortening the original work was neither convincing nor particularly original. This approach would not only break up a self-contained work; it would also fail to meet the expectations of the market.

      Since the Giger paintings are documents of their time in their own right, and an homage to the tarot as a source of the artist’s spiritual inspiration, the relationship between the cards and the philosophy was different than the usual one. The cards were not “explained” in the common sense of the word; rather, their meaning was crystallized in a kind of “modern talk” between the philosophical questioning of the collective content and the creative depiction of deep fears. The explanations were therefore “mythologized” into the selected pictures to enable an alchemical symbiosis between the two. For the reader of Baphomet, interpretation did not mean simply being given a menu of oracular pronouncements from which to choose as they drew the cards. Rather, it referred to lines of psychological development that are reflected in the mirror of the picture that they look at. If we had watered down this approach by complying with the suggestion that we abbreviate the work, without simultaneously expanding the interpretation component (which had been deliberately neglected in the original work), we would have lost the philosophical superstructure without compensating for this by providing a useful book of interpretations.

      We therefore managed to persuade the publisher not simply to produce a shorter version of Baphomet, but to work on a whole new concept with us. We sacrificed the “Mephistophelean” stories, brain twisters and mental games that often tackled the duality of collective thinking. We either left these out completely or included abbreviated versions of them in the description of the cards. But to compensate for this, we expanded the interpretation section into the main focus of the work. Although we lost the Baphometic philosophical superstructure, this meant that we gained a compact book of tarot interpretations that was easier to understand. We have therefore called it simply, but appropriately, The H.R. Giger Tarot.

      Lake Constance, Walpurgis 2000

       Akron

      INTRODUCTION

      If a piece of roofing tile falls on a person’s head, and he is a “realist,” he will blame the incident on the owner of the house and possibly even hold this person responsible. The “realist” can therefore begin with the externally perceivable effect, such as a head injury, and relate it to an externally perceivable cause, which is a roof in need of repair. However, an “esotericist” would draw the reverse conclusion: this individual would begin with the externally perceived effect to an inner, suspected cause. For example, such a person might wonder what his “Higher Self” was trying to tell him by causing him to pass by the house at the exact moment when the tile fell down.

      Which of these is the correct approach? Both are right – at least from the perspectives of the “realist” and the “esotericist.” The roof was in need of repair, and this fact undoubtedly represents one reason for the described effect. But the fact that the injured person was passing at the exact moment when the tile fell just as unequivocally represents a major factor in this occurrence. So we see that these two causes together produced the effects of the accident. In this respect, it is quite possible that the event is an example of what the psychologist C.G. Jung termed “synchronicity.” In everyday language, this denotes a meaningful coincidence. We have probably all experienced such an occurrence at one time or another. Synchronicity of events means that the two occurrences are not joined by causality; instead, they are related to each other by some means, which cannot be rationally fathomed or explained. This means that an inner relationship might exist between outwardly unrelated factors: a relationship of synchronicity. This could be expressed as a “whenever-then” relationship. Whenever I am particularly drawn to card XVI, the Tower (when it surfaces in the spreads with conspicuous frequency), then one of my own ideas collapses in the world around me.

      This certainly does not mean that the tarot should receive some type of rational justification. Yet, Jung’s attempt is trailblazing in expanding our linear and causal ways of thinking. As long as we remain aware that images are only images, even on the symbolic level, and agree with Goethe that everything visible is merely an allegory, then we can think of the pictures and symbols of tarot as a door behind which is the numinous or unspeakable.

      The Tarot as a Model of Our Hopes and Fears

      So let us imagine the tarot as a door that reveals a different panorama each time we reshuffle and lay the cards. The cards represent their own particular cosmos, a miniature model of all sequences of events in the world. They provide us with the pattern for a reality, which we then interpret from our own personal point of view. At any moment in time, the world and human beings form a complex fabric of cause and effect. But because the world is not simply as it is in our eyes, but only becomes what it is through our own imagination, we can consider reality as a complex fabric that takes form only as a result of the interplay of all its components, including human understanding.

      In terms of the tarot’s model of reality, this means that no card exists of its own accord or just on its own. Nor should it be seen independently from the observer since it only exists in relation to other cards. And in each of these possible relationships it exists – depending on the observer’s viewpoint – in a different form. Conversely, the observer has no objective standards of value or overall perspectives, despite the fact that these are only objects, which are what they are. Because we do not see the objects as they are, but rather merely as we are able or willing to see them, each act of seeing can only ever be the perspective of our own imagination. But the roots of this concept are our hopes and fears. Our feelings are what make us “recognize” everything that we observe through the subjective lens of our inner state of mind. Nevertheless, we give the name of reality to what we ultimately see.

      Consequently, we are only able to see the cards in relation to our hopes and fears. So there is no view of the cards that would not change as soon as our hopes and fears changed. The individual imagination consists of unconscious yearnings and anxieties that are attracted precisely to those events (cards) in the world that confirm them. It is therefore clear that tarot does not in any way question the law of cause and effect; on the contrary, it simply provides a broader perspective within this law. If we shuffle and lay the cards, we are creating a reflection of our own small portion in the overall situation. In the process, we suppose that even so-called “coincidence” is essentially determined. That is to say, it is decided by the force field of the will that arises from the center of feeling and in turn is bound to the contents that present themselves to the will in the form of destiny. Through the filter of the imagination, the eternal now becomes commonplace. And this eternal quality, which is integrated into everyday life, always imparts a sense of yearning: a yearning for God.

      This is particularly apparent in the tarot. When laying the cards, experts try to find certain forms and structures so that they can recognize the spirit of the eternal beyond everyday meaning. This is because they instinctively know that their yearnings are only the shadow of the spirit that sits enthroned beyond the perceivable.

      Synchronicity of the Internal and External