Australian Contemporary Dreamtime Tarot

Australian Contemporary Dreamtime Tarot
by Keith Courtenay-Peto, 1991

The Australian Contemporary Dreamtime Tarot is a 78-card deck emulating Australia’s Aboriginal art. Its designs follow a contemporary Aboriginal style known as The Rainbow Serpent which depicts the world of the Eternal Dreamtime, an inner dimension of being. The figures themselves represent its guides and ancestral spirits which inhabit the rocks, waters, plants and animals. While at first glance this deck may appear to be a non-Tarot oracle, it does follow a standard 78-card Tarot structure.

The images are playful, graffiti-like, and all follow an earthy color scheme, as if the pigments were mixed from soils, plants, and berries. The black borders help intensify this rich palette.

Because the deck does not use traditional names or numerals, an understanding of its numbering scheme is helpful when referring to specific cards. Whether or not this numbering system is Aboriginal is nowhere mentioned in the booklet, but its design is quite simple: each large dot represents a value of 5 and each small dot a value of 1. The card Weja’s below, for instance, shows one large dot and one small dot, a value of 6, indicating that this card is that of The Lovers. This system is used for the suit cards as well.

Each trump could be described as a blend of Aboriginal and Tarot imagery. This marriage of symbolism is engaging but requires effort to decipher since the booklet does not explain any of the designs. This is particularly frustrating given that this deck is illustrating cultural ideas unfamiliar to most of us. Even the names for each trump are nowhere translated in the booklet, which mentions only that these reflect a variety of Aboriginal dialects. The Fool, for example, is titled Karadji, but one must refer elsewhere than to the booklet to learn that this word translates as ‘clever man’ or ‘healer’.

What the booklet does provide are lengthy lists of correspondences for each of the Major Arcana. Fortunately, these offer some meaningful clues. Perhaps the most important of these correspondences are those labeled Value and Concept, which hint most directly at each design’s content.

Trump III (shown above) is here titled Yaccana. The female figure stands behind what looks like an altar, and she raises her hand as if performing a ritual. This stance may reflect her Value of ‘Reaction’ and her Concept of ‘Intuition’ in that it suggests active receptivity in contrast to the passive receptivity associated with the Trump preceding it. Around the woman flows a river, and in the distance above the horizon are disks which emanate solar rays. The letters inscribed within these circles are mnemonic cues indicating specific correspondences, an elegant technique used for each of the Major Arcana; on Trump III, the solar orb initialed “E” denotes the Direction “East to the rising sun,” and the middle orb initialed “F” denotes the Day “Friday.” Each of the Majors are also assigned the correspondence of Color, and these figure prominently in the designs; the color associated with Yaccana is emerald green. The circle inscribing the periodic abbreviation “Cu” at the bottom of the card indicates the Element correspondence of “Copper”.

Every card in the deck also displays an astrological correspondence; Trump III is assigned Venus in Taurus, the symbols of which (though difficult to see in the scan above) are placed in this card’s upper left corner.

Trump VI, here titled Weja’s (shown above), has parallels with the Waite-Smith design. At the left stands a woman next to a seven-blossomed tree, around which can be seen a serpent; to the right, a man stands next to a three-blossomed tree. The image alludes to the Garden of Eden and its two trees: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. The card’s Value is ‘Tradition’, its Concept is ‘Ecstasy’, and its Key is “Gathering experience.” The “T” between the figures stands for “Tungsten”, an Element which increases the strength of metal alloys. Also assigned to this card is the Gem “Agate”, the Animal “Sugar Glider”, and Mercury in Gemini, all of which are represented above the two figures.

The suits of this deck use Kundas (digging sticks) for Staves, Muggils (stone knives) for Swords, Coolamons (carrying bowls) for Cups, and Wariats (stones) for Coins. The 16 court cards represent the persons of Tribal Elder, Earth Mother, Hunter, and Maiden, corresponding to the traditional King, Queen, Knight and Page respectively. This reflects something of the Aboriginal society, a society in which, for example, there was no King or Chief but instead a group of Elders whose status was attained through experience, merit and calling.

In some cases, the court figures hold objects other than the suit symbols, but unfortunately the booklet does not explain these. For example, the Coolamons Tribal Elder (King of Cups, shown below) holds a snake in one hand and an indeterminate reptile in the other, the Kunda Maiden (Page of Staves) appears to be holding an uprooted cactus, and the four Wariats courts hold coins which are each inscribed with different symbols.

The booklet, written by Keith’s wife Daicon Courtenay-Peto, describes her husband’s journey to Australia in 1960 and the events which inspired the deck’s creation. This background information is very brief; the majority of the booklet concerns the divinatory meanings for each card and the Major Arcana correspondences. In spite of its large body of correspondences, the images seem to ask for an intuitive, personal approach.

The Australian Contemporary Dreamtime Tarot was published in 1991 by Goldrope Pty. Ltd., Queensland, Australia. While I've not seen this deck sold in American stores, it may still be available elsewhere; I bought mine several years ago from an online seller living in Australia.

Review by Mark Filipas, 10/10/03