Behind the scenes

As with so many, this hunt went through a fair few changes. I first thought I would have a Celtic Cross, but then realized it would be very challenging to “force” the next card. It was a fortunate moment to remember Eden Gray’s “The Fool’s Journey” - very much derived from Joseph Campbell’s 1949 The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The question remained, how to layout the final clue pointing to Sharlee’s side of the house? There are a fair few ways of dividing out the 22 cards, 21 if we exclude the fool. Twenty-one is good as it divides evenly by 7 - one group of three cards for each clue. But that worked poorly for thematic reasons and so I came up with something that visually looked good and still kept a theme.

I also decided, as a stretch goal, to attempt to make custom Tarot cards, with appropriate characters from Harry Potter and, if possible, only use each character once. Each set of notes would cover some group of the Major Arcana, when you deciphered the end clue and found the next set of notes, you would also get the Harry Potter version of those cards (with the half clues at the top and bottom).

For these custom cards, my first thought was to take line drawings of Colman Smith’s art and modify them to be Harry Potter characters. This proved far too much for my artistic abilities and, in the end, I created these blending generative AI, found art, and heavy use of Photoshop.

From birth to adolescence

The first stage is the self.

The Fool

Harry is our titular protagonist and so it was easy for him to play the fool. I was very happy with the way the art came out. This is not Harry at the end of the series, to be clear, but Harry from chapter five of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, saying to himself “It was a dream…”

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The Magician and the High Priestess form the role models for our fool.

The Magician

Dumbledore was the clear choice for the Magician. Aside from being “the greatest wizard in the world”, Dumbledore is the preeminent role model for Harry. There were a number of happy accidents with this version of Dumbledore as the Magician. Outdoors with the same “As above, so below” pose. Flowers at his feet and green leaves above. Additionally, I like that Dumbledore has two wands, the Elder Wand, in use, and his previous wand, never mentioned explicitly in the book, hangs down by his side, unused but present.

In the Fool’s Journey, the next four cards are frequently taken in pairs, with the first two the “heavenly” parents and the second the “earthly” parents.¹ In that interpretation, you can see Lily & James Potter as the heavenly parents and Petunia & Vernon Dursley as the earthly ones.² But I think an as above, so below interpretation works better here, with the first two acting as interior parents–that is, role models and inspiration–and the second pair being the earthly, that is, actual parents.

The High Priestess

At first, I thought of using Professor McGonagal as the High Priestess. But McGonagal really isn’t the keeper of secret knowledge and isn’t really a role model to Harry - we never even see a teacher-student relationship with McGonagal and Harry. But Harry learns quite a good deal from Professor Snape. “Well,’ said Hermione, ‘I thought he sounded a bit like you.” ³ Harry learns Potions from Snape. “Just shove a bezoar down their throats.” ³

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The Empress, the Emperor and the Hierophant are the Parental Figures of our fool.

The Empress

Lily Potter was the clear choice for the Empress, but getting the art even passable was a challenge. The full quote is “She had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even and, perhaps, most especially, when that person could not see it in themselves.” ⁴ Some others I looked at were “We never left” ⁵ and “What magic is this?” ⁶ (Professor Quirrell)

The Emperor

Similarly, James Potter was the clear choice for the Emperor, the challenge here was finding a good quote. I think part of my challenge is that James Potter isn’t a particularly sympathetic character to me. The few times we get to see him as he lived frankly do not cast him in the very best light. Some other alternate quotes were:

“My father was a great man. Your father was a swine.” ⁷
“I’m pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren’t sticking with your own kid.” ⁸
“Until the very end.” ⁸
“Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!” ⁸
“Sometimes you remind me a lot of James.” ³
“He was looking at himself but with deliberate mistakes” ⁷
“He was good at pretty much everything” ⁷

But in the end, I thought Hagrid’s quote was best.

The Hierophant

Another obvious choice was Dolores Umbridge as the Hierophant. The scene with her sitting on Dumbledore’s throne in the Order of the Phoenix just so perfectly captures her.

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From adolescence to adulthood

The hero, our fool, leaves childhood and starts “growing up”.

The first stage is individuation—developing relationships, their own will, empathy and introspection.

The Lovers

There were a number of couples that could have been on this card - Harry & Cho Chang, Ron & Hermione, Ron & Lavender. But as this is Harry’s journey, Harry & Ginny are the clear choice. Likewise, there were a lot of relevant quotes—

“…to have been loved so deeply…” ⁶
“It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love” ³
“Always” ⁸

In any case, who else but Professor Lockhart for playing Cupid?

The Chariot

For Harry, perhaps the more obvious chariot would have been his broom—or even the Weasley’s Ford Anglia. But it was Sirus’s motorcycle that took him to the Dursleys’ and then, sixteen years later, permanently away from the muggle world.

Once that was settled on, it seemed clear that Hedwig and Sirius in his transfigured form of a black dog would make perfect versions of the white and black sphinxes that pull the chariot in different directions.

Strength

It was clear to me from the beginning that Hagrid would play the part of Strength. Hagrid embodies all of the great concepts in Waite and other’s interpretation of Strength—tempered by empathy.

The Hermit

There are a fair few good choices for playing the Hermit if you only think of them as a loner. But the hermit was originally time—and its affects. In the 17th century the art changed to give the appearance of the subject searching for something “like Diogenes searching for an honest man.”⁹ It is in this light that I think Mad-Eye Moody fits well. An old soldier, having suffered the ravages of battle, still holds his own internal light and continues to be unceasingly vigilant.

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After individuation, the fool now must look at how they will fit into the world, integration.

The Wheel of Fortune

I’ll be honest, this one is a bit of a reach. I think it works, but it is not as clear cut. Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes at least fit in that one might be stepping along, high, wide and plentiful, then come across a canary cream and come a purler. The wheel of fortune at work.

The items in the corners, replacing the four evangelists are four items from the joke shop:

• Ton-Tongue Toffee
• A Decoy detonator
• A Skiving Snackbox
• Extendable Ears

Alternative Quotes:

“The thing about growing up with Fred and George, is that you sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
“I’ve Always Felt Our Futures Lay Outside The World Of Academic Achievement”
“I could do with a few laughs.”
“More Magical Mayhem”
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Justice

Another easy one. Who but Cornelius Fudge could best represent Justice—or the lack thereof?

The Hanged Man

I went back and forth on this one quite a bit. On the one hand, Harry himself, both as the hero as well as what he goes through, is a great candidate for the hanged man and, in the end, I used the “Undesirable No. 1” quote to illustrate the card. But the hanged man is also about betrayal and traitorous behavior. And that really called out Peter Pettigrew. Not duplicating characters was also a consideration and so I went with Peter. If you can’t tell, this is a heavily modified picture of Peter Pettigrew as a Lego mini-fig.

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Beyond Adulthood, Outcomes and Enlightenment

At this point in the Fool’s journey, the hero has gotten a grip on things sufficently, but now faces more serious outcomes and challenges before hopefully experiencing enlightenment and final conclusions.

The next phase is one of outcomes.

Death

I first thought about Voldemort—or a masked death eater. But as Dumbledore points out, Voldemort fears death. And so Thestrals came to mind. “The only people who can see Thestrals, are people who have seen death.” And this card is very much about accepting death.

Temperance

I think I was a bit flumuxed about Temperance. But the more I thought of it, the more Hermione seems to be a perfect avatar for moderation, management and balance. As an alternate quote I thought of “I am afraid I counted on Miss Granger to slow you up, Harry.” but decided to go more with the action than the avatar. I also had a number of other art sources that would have fit the visual theme better, but this was the best Hermione I could come up with.

The Devil

The Devil, as interpreted by Waite, Gray, and others, is less about evil and more about the opposite of Temperance. And so it occured to me that the over-fondness Horace Slughorn has to material comforts (and crystalised pineapple) would make him well suited for this role. The figures below are Ron and Lavender Brown.

Alternate Quotes:

“Still…the prudent wizard keeps his head down in such times.”
“…his great velvet-covered belly seemed to fill all the remaining space in the compartment.”
“He can be charming when he wants to be…”

(All quotes from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

The Tower

The tower was the easiest choice of all of them. Trawlaney’s quote really set all of this up and then the visual image of the Dark Mark over the Astronomy Tower. It is only at this point that we can see that it is, indeed, all up to Harry.

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Having faced death, the balance between moderation and immoderation, as well as radical changes, the next phase is enlightenment.

The Star

There was never a question as to who would play the part of the star. It was always going to be Luna Lovegood, with her quirky, yet uncomfortably accurate, exposition of the world. The star Tarot card has always been a bit of a mixed set of imagery. “This frees us to project our favorite myths onto the Star image.”¹⁰

The Moon

Similarly, the moon was always going to be Remus Lupin. As the Moon Tarot card has had two creatures howling at the moon, who would be a better companion than Sirius?

The Sun

I had wanted a much closer version to the Rider-Waite deck, with Luna’s father, Xenophilius Lovegood as the ‘babe’ astride the horse. But when I got this sun-centric version, I realized it was a great tie-in to the ultimate present and so let it ride.

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Our last phase is endings, for good or bad.

Judgement

Who better than Professor McGonagal to portray Judgement? That said, the art could be better…

The World

Only if you let me skate by on the Lovers and insist that it is Professor Lockhart, as Cupid, that is the avatar for the Lovers, do I get to say I didn’t repeat anyone. In any case, who else but Ginny can be the avatar for Harry as the World. I did have a couple of good quotes, one from Luna: “I think the anser is that a circle has no beginning.” and the other, the final lines of the series: “All was well.”

The Knight of Swords

The final card, tucked into the ribbons of the present with some last miscelaneous notes, was of the Knight of Swords, which is the card I would pick to represent my daughter.

Backs

I was initially going to have a simple pattern of repeated alchemical symbols for fire (🜂), water (🜄), earth (🜃) and air (🜁) but that looked overly simplistic…

I was then going to use more interesting symbols, for the moon, star, sun and earth

But my wife convinced me to go for a more interesting back, one that evoked the dueling table and, lets face it, looked cooler. And so I modified an image from VectorStock.com image to change the color scheme and extend it to fit the traditional Tarot card dimension (2.75” x 4.75”)…

Footnotes

1. Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero ↩

2. Eva Deverell, The Fool’s Journey (Part 1) ↩

3. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ↩

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ↩

6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ↩ ↩²

7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Sherryl E. Smith, L’Eremita/L’Ermite/The Hermit ↩

10. Sherryl E. Smith, La Stella/L’Etoile/The Star ↩