When I decided I was going to open an Etsy shop I knew two things would hold me back: labels for my perfumes and photos for my products. Luckily I have a talented artist friend who took care of the former for me; unluckily the latter was all in my hands. And I'm not a photographer. Oh no. I spent hours trying to figure out how to make the most of my limited resources, hours reading advice forums for Etsy sellers. Props! No props! White backgrounds! Grain wood backgrounds! Clip art! Stock images! Nothing was right, though. None of the traditional ideas and tips worked for me, not just because my skills as a photographer/photo editor are limited, but because those styles of presentation didn't speak to me. I didn't feel like my personality and voice would shine through.
And then I had a brainwave: Aleister Crowley. Well, his Thoth Tarot deck, to be precise:
So let's go back a bit. I started reading Tarot cards when I was a first-year student at University in Liverpool. It was something I'd wanted to learn to do for...forever...but for various reasons I never had. But early on in my student days I found an amazing little indie bookshop that sold (along with various text books I needed) a small selection of Tarot decks. And there was me with my student loan and no sense of responsibility! I bought my first deck - the Tarot of a Moon Garden - and I taught myself to read the cards.
Over the years I've done less and less Tarot reading, but more and more Tarot collecting. I just love how many different spins you can put on the traditional symbols - I've got everything from the Necronomicon Tarot to the Unicorn Tarot, and for the most part nowadays, they're all just gathered in a drawer under the snake tanks, hidden away from the world unless I feel a need to pull them out and admire them.
So, the Crowley Thoth Tarot! This was an early addition to my collection, both because of the unusual artwork and the historical context of the deck. Crowley's aim was to update the traditional Rider-Waite symbolism of the Tarot by incorporating imagery from science and philosophy, as well as his own personal take on the occult. He renamed many of the major arcana (Justice became Adjustment, Strength became Lust), as well as subtly adjusting the meanings of some of the minor arcana. The result is a very unique and often difficult to interpret deck, but if you're a student of the Tarot or the occult, it's worth picking up.
But none of that is why I jumped to the Crowley Thoth deck when I decided to use Tarot cards in my photos. My initial reasoning was much more mundane: they're big cards. Like, too big for me to ever get the hang of shuffling them elegantly. So that makes a great backdrop for my perfume bottles - a simple and straightforward solution for a very amateur photographer. The added bonus for me is that I really feel the use of the cards conveys that sense of "me" that I wanted. Tarot cards have been a big part of my life in one form or another for a decade now - it felt right to incorporate that love into a new one. I didn't want a homogeneous, big-brand look for my shop, either. Common Brimstone is a personal passion and I like it to have a personal touch. The cards help with that, I think.
Where I can, I've tried to use cards that can be symbolically linked to the perfume - the Death card with Grave Digger, for example - but otherwise I've chosen cards that evoke the same mood or feeling in me that the perfume does, as with Druid. When I started running out of Crowley Thoth cards that I felt were fitting, I dug back into my collection for some back-up decks. At the moment I'm slowly reworking all my photos, and the other "main" deck I'm using as backdrops now is the Tarot of the Secret Forest:
I love this deck! It manages to be both whimsical and slightly creepy, and whilst the artwork is in stark contrast to that of the Thoth deck, it has also turned out to lend itself surprisingly well to certain perfumes. This was a deck I bought purely for the art style, and like the Crowley Thoth, it subtly re-imagines the traditional Rider-Waite Tarot symbolism. I love a deck that puts a unique spin on Tarot reading - it forces you as a reader to focus harder and look deeper.
I've also got two more "backup decks" in hand for future photos - the Crystal Tarot and the Quantum Tarot. Now, the Crystal Tarot is just irresistible to me: the art work is elegant and beautiful, and it's lovely to read as well. You might recognise this image from my Lady of the Lake perfume - it's just a perfect fit!
The Quantum Tarot deck I could rave about all day (I won't, don't worry). I was a kid who hated science in school; I've grown up to be an adult (most of the time) who is fascinated by it. The Quantum Tarot is maybe the most unique deck in my collection, combining the principles of Tarot with the intricacies and mysteries of quantum physics, and throwing in some very stylish artwork as a bonus.
I'll admit that I was terrified that my shoddy photos were going to kill my shop before it even got started, but I do actually get quite a lot of compliments on them, even the older, crappy ones. I can only assume this is down to Aleister Crowley.
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