The JARRY ARCANA - An IMAGINARY SOLUTIONS Deck

  

THE JARRY ARCANA DECK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-jarry-arcana
 

The Jarry Arcana is not a tarot, nor an oracle, nor a spell casting deck. While the deck of 34 cards (Alfred Jarry’s age when he died) may be used for divination or conjuration, it’s primary function is intended to be that of a generator of imaginary solutions. Actually, it is not really even a deck at all, but rather and example of “that which is comprised of cardboard rectangles” (in Jarry-speak).

Shuffle these rectangles, state your quandary, allow three (or possibly more) of the enigmatic objects to fall on the table (or floor) in a sort of line, then read the “communique” that emerges from the sequence. This pronouncement will inevitably point to your solution, as highly suspect as this might seem at first glance…an uncovering, which, invariably, will prove to be of profound use despite its alleged “imaginary” status.

Individual cards are composed of (approximately) three images, each of which is either a computer game icon, photograph, painting or artifact suggestive of Jarry’s world. Several of the cards also contain images from the Marseilles Tarot of Jean Dodal (circa 1701-1715). Each image combination may either be read as one “statement” or three or more individual “suggestions” which may be read within the context of the other cards in a spread. Three card spreads seem to provide the most useful solutions from my point of view. The cards are intended to be read according to the principals used by Camelia Elias and Enrique Enriquez, which emphasize what the images themselves are “saying”, rather than looking at the images or combinations as symbols with fixed meanings.

Indeed, the creation of the Jarry Arcana was partially inspired by the work of Enrique Enriquez, who in his book and film Tarology, exposes the Marseilles Tarot as a “’Pataphysical Machine” which unfailingly expresses Jarry’s , swerves, alignments and imaginary solutions and hypotheses. The Jarry Arcana attempts a similar gyration.

The card images suggest Jarry’s preoccupations with seeing life as literature and the actions of the self as performance art. Indeed, he turned himself, some say to his detriment, into a wondrous and bizarre piece of work…his last and best Imaginary Solution.

It is my sincere expectation that this box of properly shuffled cardboard rectangles will help steer the reader along the twisty, swerving pathways of the ‘Pataphysical Imagination.

The card images are presented below. 

THE JARRY ARCANA DECK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-jarry-arcana
 
Original icons made by Lorc, Delapouite & other contributors are available HERE and are provided under the terms of the Creative Commons 3.0 BY license.

Other images, including Jean Dodal Marseilles Tarot, are in the Public Domain.

Deck concept and this post

© 2016 Charles Webb