Allen Chester is the creator of The Templar Tarot.
Did you attend art school, and if so, did you learn anything useful from it?
Yes I did attend. I have a BA degree in fine art. I learned many valuable lessons in school. The values of being resourceful with ones own actions and to appreciate like-minded people, both students and professors, were profound lessons. I learned from this experience that "art" is not temporary like so many things in our society. The fact that art can generate emotion is a powerful lesson. I learned that the practice of my art would be a life long journey. I consider myself blessed to have received knowledge from "mystical" professors. I attended college from 1975-1979 and the lessons learned then still apply today.
When did you become interested in tarot?
Being a student of art I started an appreciation of the art tarot decks in college. Through the years the tarot would come in and out of my life. Looking back it seems like a gradual build-up of my awareness. When I met my significant other, Cathy, in 1991 my art started to take on the images of tarot. It was not intentional on my part and it wasn't until 1995/1996 that people around me started associating my paintings with tarot images.
What was it about the Templar legends that attracted you?
This is a hard question because I'm still figuring it out. Instead of the legends being attracted to me, the legends seemed to be trapped inside the blank canvases and it was my job to release them. It is as though I was on the outside and the images were trapped in another world and depended on me to bring them to life once again. I do not think I was alone in this task. It seems as though the Templars have been reaching out to artists and authors throughout the world and making their presence known once more. I would like to think that in my recluse in my studio at my easel that the Templars are here. They were not eliminated from the face of the earth despite the extreme measures that the Church took to do just that. You can call it an energy of existential experience that is attracting me and my fellow artists to these warrior monks. I think the mystery is holding my attention and my openness to the legends. The simple fact is that we do not have a clear knowledge of just who the Templars were and I sense that they want us to know more. In the recent past we only knew the history that was allowed to be told but eventually we will uncover the true story.
Creating all the illustrations for a tarot deck of 79 cards is a big project, especially since one card can take many hours of work. Did the project ever seem overwhelming?
When someone is doing what he or she loves to do the energy is there like magic. The deck took six years to complete. Judgment was the first, painted in 1995 and the Magic Flute was the last, finished in September 2001. Once the goal to complete the deck was set, there was no hesitation. I can say from experience that creating a tarot deck is a journey of self-introspection that will take you on a strange, yet wonderful trip. It is a big project that will take you through all of your emotions, physical and mental exhaustion, and finish with a fulfillment that tells you that you are alive!
What projects are you working on now?
Since the Templar Tarot was published I have been working on paintings for another tarot deck. This deck will be a sequel deck to the first. I expected the Templar influence to wane after the completion of the Magic Flute but instead it grew. I was not sure the meaning of the Magic Flute when I painted it but knew it belonged with the Templar deck. It was later that I realized that it was the Fool for the sequel deck. As I put the images for both decks side by side, I can clearly understand the purpose of the sequel deck. The images, while similar, are on a different plane. See for yourself by comparing the Fool and the Magic Flute. It will be at least another year before I am ready to print the sequel deck but it is in process. Since none of the paintings for the Templar Tarot or the new deck are for sale individually we are making them available as prints and will have them on my website soon. Another project that is in process is an expanded book on the Templar Tarot deck that Daria Kelleher has written. She has developed each of the Major Arcana images with a narrative and much more detailed historical relevance to the Templars.
The Templar Tarot is available from: www.templartarot.com
All images copyright Allen Chester
Adding the Magic Flute card to the Templar Deck makes it a 79 card deck (as opposed to the usual 78)... There is a numerological sidebar to this augmentation. The 78 card deck first adds to 7+8=15 (The Devil) and further adds up to 1+5=6 (The Lovers). This has an esoteric relevance (of course) as does the 79 card deck adding up to 7+9=16 (The Tower)... relevant because of the tragic history of the Templars in terms of what happened to them on a Friday the 13th in 1307... this further can be added up to (16) 1+6=7 (The Chariot) which as all know is "God's number" throughout the Bible and elsewhere... A very interesting accident if in fact it was... or perhaps divine inspiration.
Posted by: Thomas Scofield | July 06, 2009 at 03:07 AM