Tarot Cards have a history of being elaborate works of art, fortune-telling aides, and symbolic designs. Each Tarot card represents an aspect of life, and the card itself is attached to many thousands of symbolic ideas through the pictoral representation. Over recent years, many anime artists have linked Tarot to anime through art and sometimes occultist themes. The anime art style and the deep complexities of anime characters lend themselves to creation of such anime tarot decks.
One such anime with deeply symbolic characters is the Dejimon series of anime, manga, and games. As a fan of dejimon, symbolism, and art, this site's creators designed a deck of Dejimon Tarot cards for display on the internet. We hope that you will enjoy them.
The deck encompasses all major characters from the different seasons and manga(graphic novel) of the series. As of this point, there are only plans to create the 22 major arcana (named cards) of the Tarot Deck. The characters to represent each card were chosen at the decision of the artists. If you have any suggestions, comments, complaints, or your own tarot cards you would like to share, please send them to me at this email: mishirouagent@hotmail.com
Major Arcana 0: The Fool - Yagami Taichi: The Fool is the most powerful of all the Tarot, it symbolizes the adventurer who has both just begun and just completed his journey. It is often portrayed with a walking stick, dog, and the compass rose. Taichi, the main character of the first season is exempletory of the qualities of the fool: naive, headstrong, adventurous, immature and ready for growth and experience. He is pictured here with four colorful ribbons representing naive joy, a backpack to show that he is on a journey, the crest of courage forms a compass rose that represents his direction in life. The dog represents seeking companionship and loyalty, which Taichi finds in Agumon and the other Chosen Children.
Major Arcana I: The Magician - Kanbara Takuya: The Magician is a nurturing figure in the tarot cards, the first 'guide' of the major Arcana. He represents creativity, opportunities, self-reliance, and the merging of the four elements. Takuya is the unnofficial leader of the season 4 chosen children, and is the one who is the most 'nurturing' of them, taking it upon himself to make sure everyone is always safe and happy, if at times, he is a bit reckless. One of the reversed meanings of the Magician is that 'bad judgment causes loss' - a trait Takuya is also known for. The Magician is typically portrayed as a mystical figure, performing magic with the four suits' icons (in traditional Tarot the Pentacle, Sword, Wand, and Cup represent the four elements). To reflect this, Takuya holds power over the four elemental symbols of the chosen children: Fire, Wind, Ice, and Thunder. The symbols for Darkness and Light floated on either side of him in the original image, created the duality that was present in the traditional Tarot as black and white pillars. The Magician is one of the more important cards, though it has less 'power' than the later cards.
Major Arcana II: The High Priestess - Yagami Hikari: The High Priestess is the second card of the Tarot. She represents wisdom, mystery, foresight, and feminine intuition. Hikari, in both seasons 1 and 2, was a child of mysterious power, with an almost psychic sense within her. Wise beyond her years, Hikari is one of the most powerful chosen children. The High Priestess is typically portrayed with a crystal ball and book; she is associated with the moon. In this card, Hikari holds a dark book to represent wisdom/night and a crystal with the crest of light within it to represent intuition/light. The moon is symbolic of femininity and Hikari is adorned by Angewomon's 8 wings to show her holy significance.
Major Arcana V: The Hierophant - Takaishi Takeru: The Hierophant is also known as the High Priest and parallels the High Priestess card. He represents intelligence, logic, concern for form over function, and long-standing tradition. Takeru was a major character in both seasons 1 and 2, and he is the 'legacy' of the Chosen Children. He is an intelligent fighter in season 2, with a good understanding of how things work due to his experience. He also has a problem judging things by their initial appearance, such as the reformed Kaiser and BlackWarGreymon who developed emotions. The Hierophant is typically portrayed with a scroll and a staff; he is depicted within a church. In this card, Takeru holds the Angel Rod to represent the priest's staff and Angemon's ribbon to represent his connection to Angels and his holy significance. The crest of hope decorates the backdrop like a stained glass window in a church, it also mirrors the sun imagery that parallels the High Priestess' lunar images.
Major Arcana VI: The Lovers - Tachikawa Mimi & Izumi Koushirou: The Lovers is an unusual card, being able to represent both pure love/partnership and also lust/desire. Since there were no official couples in the series which demonstrated this, I chose the characters based on the symbolism of the card. The traditional card is meant to represent the perfect unity of masculine and feminine images. When creating this card, I wanted to enhance that unity by choosing characters who exemplified characteristics that were opposite of their gender. I finally settled upon Mimi and Koushirou for just this reason. Mimi's purity struck me as suiting the card perfectly, along with her selfishness at the beginning of the series, she also suited the reversed meaning. I chose Koushirou over the other possible characters due to the feminine characteristics he displayed more clearly. In terms of their physical sides, Mimi obviously represents femininity while Koushirou is masculinity. On the basis of personality, Mimi is a more assertive and outgoing character, a masculine trait, while Koushirou is more submissive and shy, a traditionally female trait. Represented by their crests, Mimi is a more emotional creature - traditionally feminine trait, and Koushirou is a creature of logic - traditionally male trait. I tried to emphasize their opposing characters by making Koushirou appear shy and obviously shorter than a self-assured Mimi. The rose parallels Mimi's connection to plants, and the butterflies Koushirou's connection to insects, both of these symbols are in turn related to 'the birds and the bees' reproductive life metaphors.
Major Arcana VIII: Strength - Katou Juri: The Strength card represents courage, energy, lionhearted strength, and the gift to soothe others' grief or to help solve their problems. Juri is girl who embodies all these traits perfectly. She is kind and caring, with "a lion's heart". She is often around to assauge Takato and the other Tamers' fears. The strength card is always pictured as a woman soothing or taming a lion gently with her hands. To reflect this, Juri happily hugs onto her digimon, Leomon.
Major Arcana IX: The Hermit - Ishida Yamato: This card augurs a time of withdrawal from the extraverted activities of life so that the wisdom of patience may be acquired. The Hermit represents the search for oneself that can only be done alone. Yamato was always described as a lone wolf, he was never able to be at peace with himself while around others, he always threw himself into tasks to forget this, such as being the sole protector of his younger brother, Takeru. When Yamato loses this focusing task, he realizes he has lost himself, and leaves his friends to sort things out for himself, finally overcoming his own doubts and finding himself after passing a trial sent by a creature of mind-consuming darkness. The card depicts Yamato alone in a midnight-black forest, lit only by a small lamp. The forest parallels the place where Yamato first realized he lost himself (the Dark Master's forest), and the lamp comes to symbolize Yamato's eventual rediscovery of his destiny to be with the other Chosen Children in the final fight. I chose to use Yamato from the first season instead of second season because his Season 1 persona more correctly suits The Hermit card and its emphasis on being alone.
Major Arcana X: The Wheel of Fortune - Kimura Kouichi: The Wheel of Fortune card represent the changing of good fortune to misfortune and back again. It symbolizes destiny and moving ahead for better or worse. Kouichi as a whole suits this card. He seeks out his twin brother whom he has never met before. When he finally finds him, he looses the chance to talk to him and nearly dies. His spirit leaves him body and is trapped in the alternate plane of the digital world, where it is corrupted by Cherubimon. Kouichi becomes the controller of the corrupted Duskmon, but is later healed by his twin brother and becomes the controller of the pure spirit Löwemon (Löwe is German for Lion). The Wheel of fortune is pictured as a wheel with a dark side and light side, surrounded by the Three Fates that spin, measure, and cut the thread of life. In Kouichi's card, the boy is framed by Duskmon on the right and Löwemon on the left. Surrounding the wheel are the three great angels that are the gods of the digital world: Cherubimon, Ophanimon, and Seraphimon.
Major Arcana XII: The Hanged Man - Minamoto Kouji: The Hanged Man card is a card of waiting, meaning 'suspension'. It is often portrayed as a figure hanging upside down from a tree or cross, bound by rope and sometimes blindfolded. The card implies a sacrifice in order for change to occur. For Kouji, there were a lot of sacrifices related to his journey in the Digital World. When he was called to other world, he was in the process of accepting life with his new stepmother - he was ready to call her 'Okaasan'/Mother. The call took him away from this, and put his life in a state of suspension, where he shunned the company of others and his personal growth was placed on hold as he tried to understand his reason for being in the Digital World. The great sacrifice entailed to the Hanged Man comes in the form of Kouji's twin brother, Kouichi, whom he finally meets in the Digital World - his reason for coming. Kouji learns much about being a better person from his twin, but before they return to the real world, it is discovered that Kouichi was severely hurt and he dies. The others are able to revive him with the power from the digital world, but Kouji's moment of growth is expressed through Kouichi's sacrifice that allows the others to save the digital world. Kouji is depicted here hanged from an oddly-shaped cross, which is a combined perversion of the japanese characters for 'light' and 'dog', both of which apply to Kouji's inner power as the wolf-like warrior of light. Kouji is bound to the cross by bloodied bandages to represent trials he had to overcome for his own growth and also Kouichi's sacrifice.
Major Arcana XIII: Death - Ichijouji Ken: The Death card does not mean death in the Tarot, but rather it symbolizes a great change which must take place or will take place. It is often portrayed as a skeleton or robed figure walking through ominous lands with a sharp sickle or scythe. Ken's great change occurred after the realization of all the horrible acts he had committed as the Kaiser, torturing people and digimon alike. When the realization finally hit, he was lying in a desert in the digital world, defeated. Saddened by the revelation, he walked limpy into the dunes to get away from the eyes of the other children. Later, he has a dream about the same desert, where those wronged by him as the Kaiser return and crucify him. It is his greatest wish to die and atone for his sins. The Death card represents his great change, but also carries the solemn undertone of the card and the character. He carries the scythe from the traditional Death card, and the blood on his hands represent his sins that forced him to incur his dramatic change.
Major Arcana XV: The Devil - ADR-01 Juri-Type (J-Reaper): The Devil card is one of the more morose cards of the Tarot. It represents manipulation, greed, trickery, self-destruction, and violence. Many of the villains of the series could represent this card, but ADR-01 (1st Agent of D-Reaper) seemed most appropriate. It manipulated Juri to feed the D-Reaper, impersonated her form to trick the Tamers, led Juri to attempt suicide, and wanted to 'delete' all life. The Devil card typically pictures two lovers chained to a demon. In this card, Takato and Juri are suspended to ADR-01 by cables and wires. The red color theme is present to allude to its foreboding atmosphere. Traditionally, the Lovers from card #6 are pictured in the Devil card, but Takato and Juri substituted here to complete the symbolism.
Major Arcana XVI: The Tower - Saiba Neo: The Falling Tower represents the "wrath of God" in Tarot, often paralleled to the Tower of Babel. It represents catastrophic transformation, destruction, and security lost. Neo Saiba is from the Digimon V-Tamer manga. He is chosen by an evil being to become the partner of the demon-digimon Arca-Demon. Neo is considered the greatest trainer in the world, and when Taichi ties him in a match, Neo developes a desire to destroy him. In addition to Neo, there is a Dark Tower/Spire featured in the card, this is representative of the Kaiser (one of the main villains in season 2 of the series). Also pictured is Spiral Mountain, home of the evil Dark Masters in season 1. The three together represent Taichi's (the Fool's) greatest challenges from seasons 1, 2, and the manga.
Major Arcana XVII: The Star - Lee Jenrya: The Star's foremost meaning deals with hope. It signifies an inner strength that allows one to overcome hardship despite the fact that there may be no end in sight. The Star does not represent a solution to a problem nor does it guide one to a solution, it is simply a welcome help in times of crisis. Jenrya symbolizes this helping strength. He is the most selfless of the Primary Tamers, wishing that fighting is unneccessary, unless of course, it is -he- who is to be self-sacrificing, as can be seen in his interaction with his younger sister and Takato. The Star card is often portrayed by a bright figure pouring water into a star-reflecting pond, a symbol that represents that even though the water's surface is disturbed, the star is still there to provide light. Jenrya forms part of the Primary Tamers, just as the Star is part of the Star-Moon-Sun triad.
Major Arcana XVIII: The Moon - Makino Ruki: The Moon is a card of deception and paranoia, signifying the time when one in thrust into something greater than oneself without a guide. Its archetypal meaning is a 'night journey' wraught with peril. Ruki is a character who walks a path bordering on darkness, she is fierce and fights to survive on her own without a guide. At the same time, she fears becoming dependent on those close to her, though she eventually overcomes this. Additionally, Ruki sees the Moon itself as a symbol of strength. In the card, Ruki is shown to be walking a long path lit only by the moonlight, passing by the same pond as in the Star card. The Moon card is a warning of deception, and Ruki does not need hope to continue on. The traditional symbols are the lone empty road, the moon, and the pool, which is a symbol for the dream world which is implied by the Moon card, a place where the warnings of deception can be communicated. Ruki is one of the Primary Tamers just as the Moon is part of the celestial triad.
Major Arcana XXI: The World - Akiyama Ryou: The World card is the second most powrful card in the Tarot deck, only after the Fool. It represents completion, wholeness, and triumph. Ryou is deigned the Legendary Tamer by all those who reside in the Digital World, his power is matched with that of the dark god who wreaks havoc upon the other world. As the Legendary Tamer, Ryou has the power to traverse dimensions, and exists within the continuities of the Adventure dimension, the Tamers dimension, and the V-Tamer dimension. It is likely that he has the ability to travel to the Frontier dimension and others as well. As such, Ryou is the uniting link between the various Dejimon continuities and worlds. The world is typically depicted as a jovial and powerful figure at the center, with the four elements, suits, or heavenly guardians in each corner. In this card, Ryou stands in the middle with light emanating from his hands to represent his power as the Legendary Tamer. Behind him are the three digital worlds of Adventure, Tamers, and Frontier to represent the card's title "The World". In each corner of the card, one of the four holy guardians of the Digital world resides, representing the elements and cardinal directions: Seiryuu, Genbu, Suzaku, and Byakko.
My best friend, AngelHeero, and I worked on a set of Dejimon Tarot cards a long time ago, back before Tamers was even a glimmer in Konaka's eye (That's the year 2000 for non-digimon fans). The set was to include all 22 major arcana of the Tarot, however, only 17 were ever drawn, and of those, only 9 were suitable to be placed on this website by mutual agreement. These were all drawn by Angel-chan, with a little input from yours truly every once in a while. Mouse over thumbnails for a description [requires IE].
Well... that's all the Digimon Tarot currently posted, please email me and tell me what you think, submit a picture, or ask any questions!
BYE! BACK to Digital SCRATCH!
