Deck Review: The Colorays Tarot

The Colorays Tarot by Nathalie Besnard is a joyous little deck with some really smart, yet prosaic, ways of conveying traditional RWS symbolism. To this extent, it reminds me a little of the Everyday Enchantment Tarot. It’s also an AI deck, which I realise is a whole can of worms! I only have 2 AI decks (this one and the Älvdansen Tarot) , both of which, imo (and according to the creators), have involved the creators really refining and editing the original AI images to make them into something meaningful and credible. While there are certainly ethical issues with how AI scrapes/collects/plagiarises its data, I think there’s a big difference between using AI to churn out some random deck and collaborating with the AI to create the deck you want.

N.B. You can skip all the following rambling thoughts about AI text and scroll down to the photos if you just want the deck review!

I’m a university lecturer and assignments are overrun with students “cheating” with AI. We’ve told them it’s cheating. We’ve told them it’s unethical as it recycles, uncredited, other people’s work. We’ve told them it’s racist and sexist, in so much as the algorithm prioritises the “big” names in the field – i.e. old dead white men – and ignores newer work by minority scholars. This makes no difference. We keep getting AI guff handed in and it’s super hard to prove.

We obvs all try to “AI proof” assignments, but with any kind of written work this is very tricky.

So I’ve figured “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. AI is here to stay. It’s a tool, and it’s foolish to think you can forbid people using tools. So instead I set assignments for my students to work with AI. As in “use AI to write an essay answering this prompt. Then go through it and edit and critique it”. Investigate what it does well and is useful for, and what it does poorly (or even dangerously, when it makes up sources and misattributes ideas). I figure at least in the future for different assignments the students will have learned to have the wherewithal not to turn in some AI generated shite, but will actually DO SOME WORK to edit and refine the AI production into something better.

I’ve also learned from tinkering myself that AI is aces at editing (especially chopping down word count), and writing abstracts (and I bloody hate writing abstracts). Is this plagiarism? Is it cheating? Is putting my own words into an AI generator and asking it to shave some off bad, because it stands on the shoulders of editing giants? I don’t know. I think there needs to be further, open discussion that doesn’t a priori take the position that AI Is Evil. That’s not helpful when we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

So that’s my thoughts on ‘collaborating’ with AI to create a deck, like this one. I don’t think it’s de facto souless or skill-less. I realise this doesn’t address the wider issue of the way AI appropriates others’ art, however. I’m not trying to minimise the plagiarism aspect inherent in AI art – and I think we need to do a lot better with how we restrict and limit AI and the material it draws on – but, equally, all art and literature is derivative. And I think there’s a difference between repainting Van Gogh’s sunflowers stroke for stroke and trying to flog it, and repurposing the image into a new piece of art, riffing on the theme. Idk. I think it’s complex. Benebel Wen has posted some great blogs on Tarot, AI art, copyright law, and plagiarism here and here.

I also think music has a WAY better system for allowing people to riff and expand on others’ ideas, in a way that still acknowledges and credits the original artist (intellectually and financially) than either art or literature. From covers to sampling, I think music gets “it” and this has allowed for real innovation in the genre, while still staying ethical. Though I note the use of AI to approximate the voices of other (sometimes dead) artists has caused deep unrest in the music world too, so I do think AI keeps posing new kinds of ethical and legal problems.

I write and read fanfic and feel similarly there – it’s a shame that copyright law has been applied so ruthlessly to people who would like their work to be read, while acknowledging (certainly intellectually and also financially if there’s profit involved) others who created the original characters or universes they are utilising.

Anyways, I like this deck. I think it’s smart. I think it enabled a creator who otherwise wouldn’t have been in a position to find and pay an artist a chance to do a small, selective run of an interesting deck that otherwise wouldn’t have seen the light of day.

Right, on to the deck!

The deck comes in a simple tuck box that does the annoying ‘tears when you try to open it’ thing. Urgh. I appreciate they’re low cost and keep prices down, but I hate that style of tuck box! The cards are square shaped, and pretty thin, but with a good quality mat finish, meaning they’re easy to shuffle and nice to handle. I’m not wild about the slightly psychedelic fluorescent back design, or the thick double black/white + rainbow trim around each card image, but I can deal. Cards are in French (the creator is French) and English, and there’s no guidebook – you’re on your own, folks! However, they’re pretty faithful to the RWS system, and easy to interpret.

I’ve stated on this blog before that I’m a big fan of first person POV Fools, so this one is no different. I feel of all the cards in the deck, the Fool is the one that is most introspective (Hermit says ‘what now?’). Perhaps that’s the wrong word. Maybe I mean personal. Obviously there’s positions in a spread where the Fool can be talking about someone else, but to me the Fool very much asks the question ‘are you ready to take a leap of faith? Are you ready for a new adventure? Are you brave enough to go on a long dark journey of the soul?’ So I think first person POV cards work really well for Fools.

Then I LOVE the joyful abandonment in this rollercoaster Hanged Man. Sometimes if we surrender to the sensation of not being in control, of having everything flipped around and turned upside down, we can find a kind of wild pleasure in it. We don’t have to fight to see things our way all the time. Jessica Dore likens the message of the Hanged Man to therapeutic processes, and quotes the psychologist Steven Hayes: “acceptance is not passive tolerance or resignation, but an intentional behaviour that alters the function of inner experiences from events to be avoided to a focus of interest, curiosity, and observation”. In certain circumstances the physical sensations of being turned upsidedown on a rollercoaster would be terrifying. But when we actively choose to engage with going on the ride, those exact same sensations become genuinely pleasurable.

The Hierophant here is a gorgeous card, illustrating the traditional (and perhaps staid and problematic) aspects of the card, but also showing the beauty of light and knowledge that can be passed on to us from the collective wisdom of our communities and ancestors. The quality of light and colour in this image is really stunning.

I also like the first person POV for the Eight of Wands (Fire), as this is another card I associate with personal speed, direction, and agency. Keep moving, now is not the time to take your eyes off the prize.

The Five of Wands (Fire) as politicians having a debate is really provocative. I quite like a more positive take on this card (we need ‘friendly’ competition to hone our skills for real-life combat), but if we take the more traditional meaning of the card: strife and conflict purely for the purpose of sowing discord and stirring up trouble, then this depiction is so on the nose. If we all came together to find common ground and work in harmony to fix things almost everyone agrees are broken (hungry children, lack of access to basic health care, war crimes) we could do great things. Instead these issues are politicised and weaponised, and turn into so much hot air – while the real-life misery persists. We sit and debate who is right and who is wrong, instead of actually going out into the world and working as a team to make it a better place. Our current politicians really are the modern day Five of Wands…!

The Six of Swords (Air) as boxes on Moving Day is really lovely. You’ve come through a lot. Now it’s time to unpack and settle in a new sanctuary.

I adore all of the Knights as the ‘adolescent’ energy of each suit, busy leading their best, wildest lives on their thrill-mobile of choice. The way each mode of movement has been linked to each element is so clever and satisfying. It really helps me think through the energy of each of the Knights in a novel and illuminating way.

I don’t think AI decks are unproblematic, and they’re not something I would regularly add to my collection. But every once in a while one comes along that speaks to me, and the Colorays Tarot is such a deck. You can get it from the creator’s Etsy shop here.

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