The Outer Space Tarot is based on humanity's obsession with the stars. Cards represent objects or events that captivate our imagination and symbolize aspects of our life on earth. The space images on the cards are mostly taken by NASA. For specific credits see individual card pages.
The goal of the Outer Space Tarot was to create a deck with "traditional" Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) meanings but space-based images. I chose space correspondences for the cards based on my understanding of RWS meanings. Some cards are sentimental (3 of Swords), some are cheeky (The Devil), and some are literal (The Moon and The Sun). The cards feature planets, concepts, landmarks in the US/USSR Space Race, and people who have contributed to our understanding of space.
Another goal was to remove gender from the court cards. Courts are named "Student", "Researcher", "Teacher", and "Scholar" instead, reflecting the progression one might take at the university level when pursuing a degree related to outer space. I have made an effort to include contributions from around the world. Unfortunatly, the reality of modern society has left a limited pool of diversity to draw from, so this deck is very american-centric.
Thanks
I am not a graphic designer, just someone with an idea and some photo-editing software. My friends Jessi and Ethan helped provide design feedback and encouragement. With my brother Vic, they helped validate the card correspondences and come up with new ideas. Without them, this deck would still be a spreadsheet. I am also grateful to NASA for releasing such high-quality images (and general research) to the public.
Licence
Please feel free to use or alter this deck to fit your needs! It is licenced under CC BY-SA 2.0, which means you can use this in your own work under the following conditions:
- Provide attribution (minimum the author's name) back to the original creators of the images. You can find these on the pages for each card.
- Provide attribution ("Leo Bowen-Biggs" and a hyperlink to this site) back to me.
- Your work must be released under a similar licence
The Background image is "Hubble Peers into the Mouth of Leo A" by NASA Goddard
Eratta
If you would like original copies of the GIMP files used to make the cards (in .xcf format), please reach out to me via E-Mail. A printed edition of this deck may be available based on demand.