The Kilted Rubber Chicken Tarot

As proof that Tarot de Marseilles readers are not always obsessed with historical correctness, I present my favorite purchase from the 2013 Bay Area Tarot Symposium (BATS): Beth Seilonen’s Kilted Rubber Chicken Tarot de Marseilles. Evidently, this deck started as a joke on the oh-so-naughty Daughters of Divination Facebook page, where someone posted the photo of a hunk in a kilt cradling a chicken. Thus was born one of the most delightful TdMs to cross the road in recent times.

Every card cleverly incorporates a yellow rubber chicken sporting a kilt. What’s more, the deck can double as a Lenormand oracle. Seilonen has incorporated traditional Lenormand symbols on the trump and court cards, like the boat and snake shown below. Just pull those cards out of the deck, et voila, you have a Lenormand. This deck was self-published in an edition of 35, so don’t procrastinate if you want one. The cards are 2.5 x 4.0 inches, laminated, sturdy, and very easy to shuffle.

Let’s use the three cards below to demonstrate a technique I learned in a BAT’s workshop. Before doing the serious work of a reading, lay down three cards and quickly tell the inner child a story:

“Once upon a time there was a tarot history blogger named Sherryl who set out in a yellow-orange boat seeking adventure on the far horizon. The boat washed up on a pleasant Mediterranean cove at the other end of a wormhole, where Apollinaire presided over a table of literary luminaries. There was the young Breton, Tristan Tzara with his monocle, Emmy Hennings handing out pacifist manifestos, Benjamin Peret in a dreamy haze, and several others. They waved her over and poured her a drink. After dipping her beak and feathers into several goblets, the “green fairy” turned into an ominous green snake. But our intrepid traveler knows how to deal with illusions, and soon the snake was her companion and muse.”

Beth Seilonen has self-published numerous unique decks ranging from shamanic to whimsical, usually trumps only, and in very limited editions. She’s currently selling a deck of TdM trumps in a custom-made box that look rather traditional except for the deliberately bulbous noses. 

See her decks and original art at http://www.Catseyeart.com