Skill: Custom Arcana Tarot Builder

Applying Structural Transforms to the Tarot Arcana

This one is kinda out there, and perhaps a bit niche - but I’ve always been fascinated by the tarot, and given my sort of obsession with structural transformation it’s perhaps no surprise that one of my first creative projects with LLMs was to take apart Tarot as a concept to see how it works and to see if I could put it back together.

This skill is a complex multi-step workflow that teaches your LLM how to generate a completely new Tarot deck. By this I don’t just mean new images slapped on old structures - with this skill you provide a theme and the LLM will work with you to extract four suits from that theme. Then it’ll generate a new Major Arcana, based on the theme and following some abstract principles based on my own understanding of how Tarot works. Then it’ll generate some Minor Arcana, again using some abstractions that are derived from how I think about this stuff.

The result is a JSON object representing a new tarot deck. This skill doesn’t generate the art, but it does generate descriptions of the art (the art style is derived from the suit, the art content is derived from the rank) and if you install it as a Claude plugin it includes some interactive components that’ll let you generate SVG art for your cards and then deal and interpret spreads.

---

name: custom-tarot-designer

description: Design thematically coherent custom tarot decks by identifying dialectics, creating suits through dialectic cross-products, developing archetypal stories for Major Arcana, and projecting abstract narrative frameworks through suits for Minor Arcana. Use this skill when the user requests a custom tarot deck based on a specific theme (e.g., "Design a cyberpunk tarot deck" or "Create tarot for the theme of ocean mythology"). This tool generates a large JSON file representing a completed deck.

---

# Custom Tarot Designer v7

## Overview

This skill guides the creation of structurally sound, thematically rich custom tarot decks. It maintains the 78-card structure of traditional tarot while reimagining dialectics, suits, Major Arcana story, and Minor Arcana meanings to fit any given theme. The process is collaborative and iterative, with user feedback solicited at each major stage.

## Design Philosophy

Custom tarot design is fundamentally about **structural transposition**: taking the deep architecture of traditional tarot and mapping it onto new thematic territory. The goal is not novelty for its own sake, but rather archetypal resonance—creating decks where the structure amplifies the theme and the theme illuminates the structure.

Key principles:

- **Dialectics drive coherence**: The two dialectics should capture maximum semantic surface area of the theme

- **Suits emerge from structure**: Suits are the natural cross-product of dialectics, interpreted through thematic lens

- **Story before cards**: The Major Arcana story should be archetypal and structurally support 22 aspects

- **Abstraction enables projection**: Minor Arcana ranks represent abstract frameworks that refract through suits

- **Creative judgment over rigid rules**: Theme needs should guide decisions; these are guidelines, not constraints

## Workflow

The design process follows five sequential stages, each building on the previous:

### Stage 1: Theme and Dialectics

Begin by reading the traditional tarot reference to understand how dialectics function:

```bash

view references/tarot_structure.md

```

#### 1a: Defining the Theme

Work with the user to articulate their theme with depth and specificity:

**Theme Structure:**

- **Name**: A simple, canonical name (e.g., "Cyberpunk", "Ocean Mythology", "Creative Process")

- **Description**: A detailed description explaining what this theme encompasses, its key qualities, and how it's intended to be used for the purposes of deck generation.

**Example for "Cyberpunk":**

```

Name: "Cyberpunk"

Description: "A near-future dystopian aesthetic exploring the intersection of high technology and societal breakdown. Cyberpunk examines how digital enhancement, corporate power, and street-level survival create new forms of humanity, identity, and resistance. It asks what we gain and lose when technology becomes inseparable from consciousness itself, inspiring cards that allow the querent to bring to bear an implicit interrogation of power dynamics, structural conflicts and productive tensions in whatever subject they're asking about"

```

This rich foundation will inform suit generation and Major Arcana story development.

#### 1b: Identifying Dialectics

Given the articulated theme, identify 4-6 possible dialectics that capture important dimensions of tension. Present these as individual axes, not as pre-paired combinations.

**Dialectic Structure:**

- **Thesis**: First pole (e.g., "Individual")

- **Antithesis**: Opposing pole (e.g., "Collective")

- **Context**: How specifically does this dialectic relate to the theme? How might it inform a tarot deck?

**Dialectic selection criteria:**

- Each dialectic should represent a genuine axis of tension or difference within the theme

- Dialectics should cover different facets of the theme

- When combined in pairs, they should suggest natural, distinct quadrants

**Example for "Cyberpunk" theme:**

Possible dialectics:

1. **Individual ⟷ Collective**

- Tensions: "This dialectic explores concepts like personal agency vs social systems, which manifest in symbols like the lone hacker vs networked corporation. It might inspire a deck that asks us to consider the tensions between part and whole."

2. **Technology ⟷ Human**

- Tensions: "At the core of cyberpunk literature is a sort of complex tension between humanity and technology - are these poles in irreconcilable conflict, or is integration possible? What does authenticity mean when technological enhancement is the norm? How might we think about the value of things that can be upgraded vs those which can't?"

3. **Control ⟷ Chaos**

- Tensions: "Cyperpunk settings often include a backdrop where corporations and/or governments exert unilateral control over the infrastructure required for existence within society, and yet the protagonists frequently find clever if dangerous ways to subvert that control. This dialectic asks us to consider what can be controlled, and in what ways? It also invites speculation as to who gets to define chaos."

4. **Flesh ⟷ Digital**

- Tensions: "A more visceral take on the Technology/Human dialectic, this asks us to consider the organic vs the digital directly. This dialectic is more concerned with embodiment, substrate and ontology."

After presenting options with their tensions, optionally suggest particularly generative combinations (e.g., "Individual/Collective + Technology/Human would create suits around personal tech, social tech, personal humanity, and communal humanity"), but allow the user to choose any two dialectics or propose their own.

The **tensions** will be particularly useful when:

- Generating suit meanings (each suit embodies specific tensions)

- Developing the Major Arcana story (narrative can explore these tensions)

- Creating card interpretations (tensions suggest reading depth)

Finalize two dialectics before proceeding.

### Stage 2: Creating Suits

Using the finalized dialectics, create four suits by taking the cross-product of the dialectic poles. Each suit represents one quadrant of the two-dimensional space defined by the dialectics.

For each suit, develop:

1. **Name**: Creative interpretation of the dialectic combination, reflecting the theme

2. **Symbol**: Brief description of a visual symbol that represents the suit

- **CRITICAL**: Symbols must be simple, iconic shapes that can be rendered as clean vector graphics (SVG)

- Consider how traditional tarot or playing card suits are instantly recognizable from a flat shape

- Avoid: complex scenes, detailed illustrations, or anything requiring fine detail

3. **Symbol SVG**: Generate clean SVG code based on the symbol description and store in the `symbol_svg` field

- Use simple paths and shapes

- ViewBox should be "0 0 100 100" for consistency

- **CRITICAL VISIBILITY REQUIREMENTS**:

- **TRANSPARENCY VIA SVG MASKS ONLY**: Use SVG `<mask>` elements for cut-outs (eye holes, etc.), NOT white fills or multiple colors

- Good: `<mask id="m"><rect fill="currentColor"/><circle fill="currentColor"/></mask>` applied to main shape

- Bad: Using `fill="#fff"` for "holes" - these become solid white when symbol is recolored

- **NO PARTIAL OPACITY**: Avoid opacity values between 0.1-0.9 on symbol elements

- Partial opacity creates muddy, unclear symbols at small sizes

- **SIZE CONSISTENCY & BALANCE**: All four suit symbols must be roughly balanced. Achieve this by ensuring that each image takes up the full ViewBox either in terms of height or in terms of width, or ideally both depending on the shape. If either dimension is not full, center the image within the view box on whatever axis has room.

- **SHAPE DISTINCTIVENESS**: Symbols must be clearly different from each other at a glance

- Each suit should have a distinctly different form language

- Test: viewing at 16px, can you instantly identify which suit each symbol represents?

- **BOLD WITH PERSONALITY**: Symbols should be both recognizable AND expressive

- Favor thematic interpretations over generic geometric shapes

- Use bold strokes (5px+) and filled shapes for visibility

- Each symbol should feel like it belongs to its thematic concept

- Think "icon" not "illustration" - simple but meaningful

- **STROKE WIDTH**: If using strokes, use stroke-width of 4-5 minimum for primary elements

- **DESIGN APPROACH**:

- Think "playing card suit icon" or "road sign" - instant recognition from silhouette alone

- A good test: if you blur your eyes, can you still identify the shape?

- Prefer 1-3 distinct elements maximum (e.g., a circle with a triangle inside, not 10 small details)

- Negative space should be used deliberately, not accidentally created by thin gaps

- If combining shapes, ensure clear separation (minimum 5-8 units between elements)

- Keep file size small (< 500 bytes typically)

4. **Meaning**:

a. **Upright**: Consider what this suit *means* in the context of the theme and from the standpoint of a tarot deck. We're not trying to reduce the suit down to a specific thing, but rather to create a generative space by identifying 3-6 general "meanings" that this suit may represent.

b. **Inverted**: Chiral reflections or subtle antitheses of the suit meanings - not simple negations, but the shadow side, excess, or misdirected form of the suit's energy. Come up with 3-6 inverted meanings.

6. **Visual Style**: Description of the aesthetic approach for cards in this suit. This should be a reflection of the identity of the suit within the context of the theme.

a. **Details**: Be specific, and identify things like colors, perspective, any associated art movement, compositional approach, etc. All cards within this suit will have their imagery generated using this style.

b. **Intra-Suit Coherence**: Consider the ways in which each suit may or may not represent a coherent set when compared to the other three. Some decks may have suit visuals that vary in small specific ways but remain otherwise similar; other decks may have suit styles that vary wildly, challenging the idea of a coherent identity. Play with this tension as you consider this.

**Example for "Individual+Technology" in Cyberpunk:**

- Name: "Programs"

- Symbol: "A circuit node with radiating connections"

- Symbol SVG: '<svg width="100" height="100" viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><circle cx="50" cy="50" r="8" fill="currentColor"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="50" y2="15" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="85" y2="50" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="50" y2="85" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="15" y2="50" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="75" y2="25" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="75" y2="75" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="25" y2="75" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><line x1="50" y1="50" x2="25" y2="25" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="3"/><circle cx="50" cy="15" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="85" cy="50" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="50" cy="85" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="15" cy="50" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="75" cy="25" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="75" cy="75" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="25" cy="75" r="4" fill="currentColor"/><circle cx="25" cy="25" r="4" fill="currentColor"/></svg>'

- Upright Meanings: ["individual agency", "technical mastery", "composable specialization", "personal power", "crafted solutions"]

- Inverted Meanings: ["isolated expertise", "over-optimization", "inadequacy to the task", "tools become chains", "solution seeking problems"]

- Visual Style: "Neon wireframes (pink, green, blue, red for errors) over dark backgrounds; close-up views of interfaces; angular, precise compositions"

### Stage 3: Developing Major Arcana

The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards numbered 0-21. These are generated using a structured approach that ensures both narrative coherence and deep archetypal resonance. The Major Arcana itself functions as a sort of suit (defining visual style), while each card functions as its own rank.

#### 3a: Defining the Identities and Primes

The Major Arcana is built from irreducible archetypal energies. Begin by defining these atoms; the remaining cards will be derived from their combinations.

**The Identities (0 and 1):**

- **Card 0** — The additive identity. The void, the precondition, pure potential before differentiation. In traditional tarot, this is The Fool. Define what "nothing yet" or "before the journey" means in this theme.

- **Card 1** — The multiplicative identity. The unit of agency, the first act, the transparent operator that makes all further action possible. In traditional tarot, this is The Magician. Define what "becoming one who acts" means in this theme.

**The Eight Primes (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19):**

These are the irreducible archetypal energies of the deck. They cannot be "factored" into simpler components — they simply *are*. Each prime should:

- Represent a fundamental, atomic experience or energy within the theme

- Be capable of meaningful combination with other primes

- Scale meaningfully when raised to powers (especially 2 and 3, which appear in many composites)

Define each prime as an archetype:

- **2** — The first prime. Often represents duality, separation, or the fundamental binary within the theme. This is particularly load-bearing as it appears in many composites (4=2², 6=2×3, 8=2³, 10=2×5, 12=2²×3, 14=2×7, 16=2⁴, 18=2×3², 20=2²×5).

- **3** — The second prime. Often represents synthesis, generativity, or offering. Also heavily load-bearing (6=2×3, 9=3², 12=2²×3, 15=3×5, 18=2×3², 21=3×7).

- **5** — Third prime, appearing in composites 10, 15, 20.

- **7** — Fourth prime, appearing in composites 14, 21.

- **11** — Fifth prime. First prime in Act II. Represents something genuinely new that cannot be built from earlier primes.

- **13** — Sixth prime. Traditionally the Death position. An irreducible transformation.

- **17** — Seventh prime. First prime in Act III. Often represents hope or renewal after the composite-heavy middle journey.

- **19** — Eighth and final prime. Near the end of the journey, an irreducible illumination or clarity.

Present the identities and primes to the user for feedback. These are the foundation — get them right before proceeding.

**Note:** The mathematical structure (prime factorization) is scaffolding for generation. Present cards to the user by their names and meanings, not their numerical properties, unless the user specifically asks about the structure.

#### 3b: Deriving the Composites

Once the primes are defined, derive the eleven composite cards (4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21) by meaningfully combining their prime factors.

**Composite derivation:**

| Card | Factors | Meaning emerges from... |

|------|---------|------------------------|

| 4 | 2² | Prime 2 squared — stabilized, structured, or intensified |

| 6 | 2×3 | Prime 2 × Prime 3 — the combination of these energies |

| 8 | 2³ | Prime 2 cubed — deep mastery or extreme expression |

| 9 | 3² | Prime 3 squared — fulfillment or completion of this energy |

| 10 | 2×5 | Prime 2 × Prime 5 |

| 12 | 2²×3 | Structured Prime 2 × Prime 3 |

| 14 | 2×7 | Prime 2 × Prime 7 |

| 15 | 3×5 | Prime 3 × Prime 5 — often shadow territory |

| 16 | 2⁴ | Prime 2 to the fourth — often excess, collapse, breakthrough |

| 18 | 2×3² | Prime 2 × fulfilled Prime 3 |

| 20 | 2²×5 | Structured Prime 2 × Prime 5 |

| 21 | 3×7 | Prime 3 × Prime 7 — the final card, completion |

For each composite:

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