Android Dreams Tarot

Android Dreams Tarot was created entirely by artificial intelligence, which was created by humans, which were created by artificial intelligence.

This 78 card deck features the classic trumps and suits popularized by Rider-Waite-Smith, with wild art, white borders, and small clear titles.

In true technomancy fashion, the Android Dreams Tarot was crafted by computer learning which analyzed and compiled our online cultural archetype of each card into an uncanny full-color mashup of visions straight from our collective unconscious.

Preview

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Reviews

“I am OBSESSED with this new tarot deck coming out from Chaos Tarot, it clicked with me instantly.

The quality is outstanding, and the cards are the perfect amount of sturdy for my liking, not thin at all but also not SO thick that they take forever to break in. The minimalist lettering is one of my favorite features, it just looks really clean and lets the art take center stage, which is vivid and striking. And the concept that it’s AI developed I just love.

Beautiful deck for casual readers or working professionals, as well as a really intriguing deck for collectors. Pick this one up yall, you’ll thank yourself ♡”

— Octavia Saturday, (professional reader)

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@kevinthetarotreader chaostarot.com #tarot #ai #machinelearning #lunaticAI #skynet #matrix #tarotdeck #magitech #cyberpunk #cyberpunk2077 #artificialintelligence #occultok ♬ original sound – Kevin, the Tarot Reader

— Kevin the Tarot Reader, (professional reader)

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Let’s say something obvious: Tarot is, above all things, a visual medium. Sure, we can call it a divinatory tool, an aid in psychological evaluation, a study in the hero’s journey, the crystallization of thousands of year of occult lore, the psyche’s Rosetta Stone; whatever. But if it works (and it does, in my opinion) it is because of its reliance on pictorial symbols to convey its message. Tarot cards are paintings unto themselves, illustrations made to translate whatever meaning has been ascribed to them across the years; and most modern artists (starting with Pamela Coleman Smith and Lady Frieda Harris for the RWS and Thoth decks, respectively) have ensured to go the extra mile by adding as much symbolism as possible into each card, so you can surmise what is all about and still get quite a few surprises when looking more closely

So what happens when the artist in question is not even human to begin with?

The Android Dreams Tarot is quite a delightful answer, in my opinion.

The brainchild of fellow occultist and friend of mine, [redacted], this deck has the caveat that its art is entirely AI generated. Each card’s description being input for the Artificial Intelligence to produce its own interpretation, a literal reflection of what the machine understands as each Arcana. I mean, coming to terms with this idea marvels, impresses and terrifies me in equal measure: it was just a few years ago Deep Dream was launched, providing the first visual cue of how AI could grasp our world, and now here we are, and now here we are, talking about a full tarot deck whose art comes entirely from this process, without human interpretation. I AM ENTIRELY IN AWE, is what I’m saying, the very concept is amazing, as is the end result in my opinion.

AI-generated images tend to be characterized as outright oniric vistas, where characters, objects and landscapes are melded into each other or spread out and layered as the AI makes sense of the prompts input for it to generate; and I feel that this is this deck’s biggest draw as well as its most interesting challenge, in that certain aspects might not entirely line up with a traditional understanding of the card or might be harder to place as a specific card, but at the same time, there is something about the symbolism displayed in such a way that does make me think of dreams and the ethereal, and feels rather soothing to the view all in all. Animesque faces, bodies that contort into objects, floating eyes and mouths and faces; it makes me think of the Biblically Accurate Angels craze currently going on, and that is always a plus.

The Majors are each unique in their depiction, and each lines up well with the traditional scheme. Things like the High Priestess being surrounded by numerous black and white pillars and her face under the veil being nothing but eyes works VERY well with her nature as intuition and the subconscious mind, or Strength showing structures that look variously likes fists and muscular arms approached by a softer, multicolored and feminine-seeming figure, to the Devil showing two very fitting depictions of the Devil (a traditional red skinned figure, and a more suave, sophisticated, “tall dark and handsome” one) at the same time and the Death card holding a scythe made of flowers (both hinting at plants feeding on dead things and reminding me of Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts, which brings an interesting pop culture magic edge): all of them are such interesting and abstract twists on the traditional visage these figures bear, and yet easily understandable and relatable, surreal and abstract while easy to follow.

The Minor Arcana on the other hand were my biggest surprise, as they each follow a lot of the same visual language and depiction: indeed, it feels more fitting to consider it as having a Marseilles-like approach to the Minors, as each is less its own scenario as made popular by the RWS Tarot, but rather a continuation of the previous one in the sequence. It can be a bit tricky to identify each based on the card since due to the surreal depiction some things might seem like the objects of the card, or there might be a different number of them as expected (this can be prevalent in the Pentacles, where at times you see these fruit-like little circles that ostensibly are the coins in question, but sometimes there are many more, and sometimes they appear alongside other more coin or pentacle-shaped objects), but that’s easily solved by the fact that each card bears its name, allowing you to make the connection rather more easily. The Court Cards continue the visual language of the Minors as well, yet they also diverge by having more unique characters and symbols within them, calling to attention how different they are from the rest.

Overall, I LOVE this deck. It’s such an interesting initiative, and I feel it invites for a greater exploration of the relationship between us and symbols, how we understand them and how we take in this imagery in general; but above all, it’s a Tarot deck with a clear concept and a very smart twist that I feel everyone can dive deep into without much issue. I really recommend it :3

— Keeping Tarot Real, (professional reader)

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