The SEAMS Tarot Project has dreams, and it hopes to be able to unite the region and bring tarot cards into a whole new light. We sat down (virtually of course) with the project head and professional tarot consultant, Rowen Ong and his team to find out what these dreams are and the inspiration behind it all.
Inspiration behind SEAMS Tarot Deck
Did you know that The SEAMS Tarot deck was not the first idea that came to mind when the team was brainstorming for ideas? Multiple ideas such as food that plays an important part of shaping the Southeast Asian culture as well as tradition was thought up to create a unique blend of ideas, culture and religions with an underlying message of harmony. This eventually led to the birth of the SEAMS Tarot deck using Southeast Asian legends to unite the region using stories with peace and harmony as the underlying messages to spark and inspire the next generation of Southeast Asians who the team hopes would in turn seek and preserve peace in the world.
Artists Behind The Deck
The SEAMS tarot deck is a collaborative effort with various artists across the Southeast Asia region. Due to language barriers as well as the requirement of knowledge in tarot imagery, a core team from a select few countries came together for the creation of this deck.
Did You Know?
Tarot cards require certain symbols to be incorporated into the design of a card. The symbols provide the card with the symbolism and the mysticism that gives that card its character.
Consisting of influential tarot artists in the region, these core team members were in-charge of linking up with artists from their respective countries and guide the creation of the artwork.
Chosen Legends
With the many different legends available across the Southeast Asian region, the SEAMS tarot team had to first find legends that had the feel and meaning that they can match the meaning of the card to. As mentioned by Rowen, it was a tedious process as they had to go through all the legends in Southeast Asia and had to ensure a good mix of legends from each country to ensure a balanced representation.
Art Style
Many different art styles ranging from digital, water colour and tribal art forms in different mediums were used to reflect the background of the different artists that worked on the project. The art styles varied depending on the artist and the country the artist was from. Citing several examples, a few noteworthy cards such as the Queen of Wands card was drawn entirely using watercolour, while the 5 of Pentacles was created using rice paper, charcoal, acrylic paint, and paper cut-outs.
Our favourite in terms of art medium used would be the Page of Wands which was made using paper cut-outs and digital enhancement. The art pieces created for the deck used a blend of traditional and modern techniques to create a masterpiece for each individual card.
Uniting Southeast Asians
Through this deck, Rowen hopes that people would be reminded of the legends and the lessons to be learned from these stories to positively impact the future. This deck also serves as a platform to reimagine the legends and to appeal to the younger generation by redrawing the stories with modern styles and breathe new life into the stories of old.
Given that cosplay is rising in popularity in the region, Rowen also hopes that through the deck, youths would use the cards and characters in the deck as inspiration for their cosplay costumes, uniting the region under another art form.
Before we ended the meeting, we of course had to ask them a few questions:
Q: What Are Your Hopes For Tarot Card Usage In The Region?
Rowen: My genuine hope is that Tarot cards would not be seen with too much superstition. (It) can be academic (with) knowledge that can by tied in with astrology and storytelling. In addition, I also want to show people that there are certain knowledge within the cards that needs to be properly guided. One of the reasons why we created the Tarot and Cartomancy Association was to share knowledge and frameworks (so that it is) not used “any how”.
Ethics is also one thing I want to engrain in people, we should not be unethical in what we’re doing. Youngsters (may) think that having tarot cards will give them a lot of power and think they are better than other people. (As such), we must have ethics at all times because that is the ethos of how society will become. (Thus we) created this association so this knowledge is used with ethics and (to) advise people in a correct manner.
Q: Do You Think Tarot Reading Would Be On The Forefront Of The New Age Movement?
Yu Xian: The New Age Movement phenomenon started way before the rise in interest during the COVID period. The rise during COVID came from mainly the younger generations (Gen Z and millennials) who are more reciprocative and looking for emotional and mental support. I do not think Tarot would be at the forefront as there are other elements like crystals, oracles, astrology, and runes thus (Tarot) would be one of them as well.
The idea of the (Tarot and Cartomancy) Association adding “cartomancy” in the name is to bring the various cartomancy systems together under one umbrella (in hopes that we can) grow together.
Q: What Are Your Favourite Cards From The Deck?
Rowen: I am very biased. I will choose the card (that) I drew myself. So my card is the lion one. When you are doing art, you’re in the zone, you don’t stop, its like inspired art. Basically, this (was done) with inspiration, and I took my effort to finish this art in one sitting (of) 5 hours.
Yu Xian: One of my other favourite card is the Ace of Pentacles. I do also like the Ace of Cups. These are actually 2 of my favourite Minor Arcana cards.
Kickstarter & Southeast Asian Tarot Conference
Kickstarter, a US based platform, was chosen as a platform to crowdfund the creation of this deck as well as to allow our western counterparts to know more about Southeast Asia. Supporters from the Western cultures would also be exposed to more in-depth cultural aspects, instead of the usual iconic ones that they already know.
The SEAMS tarot deck serves as a medium to communicate to the world the unique art and amazing stories of the region, educating the youths across the world of the different and varied cultures that a single region can have.
Read more about the SEAMS Tarot Card Deck here! If you would also like to purchase the tarot deck, you can head on to their kickstarter page to support them in making these dreams come true!
