Tarot of the Everlasting Day - AI Generated Tarot

Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated tarot decks are a recent phenomenon in the tarot industry, as advancements in AI technology have made it possible for commercial applications. It has been suggested that AI technology has progressed to the point of being able to pass the Turing test, which is a test designed to determine whether a machine's intelligence is distinguishable from that of a human. Is this science fiction or the future of tarot?

Above: selection of AI-genrated tarot cards created by Marcus Katz using the Midjourny application.

The process of using AI to generate artwork is known as "prompt-craft", where the creator provides prompts in a chat-like fashion to the AI to generate the desired result. This method of creating artwork has led some to speculate that it could replace certain roles within a traditional workplace, such as graphic designers or copywriters, with those who are skilled in "prompt-craft" and can find the optimal prompts to give to the AI.

Above: the Chariot, which Katz said was particularly hard to create.

Marcus Katz used the AI application Midjourney to create the Tarot of the Everlasting Day deck. By using the “prompt-craft” technique to give the AI concepts for the design of each card, the AI would then generate a result.

Katz explains "the process of using Midjourney to generate tarot card artwork is not a one-way street, it has been a surprisingly two-way conversation. [...] Sometimes, despite re-inputting modified prompts for a card over a hundred times, I have had the feeling 'we' are after something else, and then, re-input a totally new prompt based on that intuition, and the A.I. has delivered something very different, almost with a sigh of 'yes, that’s what we were trying to do'."

"Some cards took much longer than others to generate," Katz noted. "The Chariot out of the Majors was one which took several days, with constant pruning of prompts and returning to basics before finalising the image.”

The process of generating tarot cards using AI can be time-consuming and require constant adjustments to the prompts. Katz likely spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with different prompts to find the optimal ones for each card, resulting in over 130 pieces of artwork with consistent styles and themes.

I signed up for Midjourney to try it for myself. Initially I prompted the AI with this: “colourful Rider-Waite tarot deck. The fool tarot card.”

Above: the Midjourney chat-like interface used to prompt the AI.

A few moments later Midjourney returned these results:

Above: selection of the AI-generated 'pips set'.

The new unique cards are:

Above: a variety of new cards were added to the deck. The Artificial Intelligence card includes the terms interference, algorithm, pattern and prediction. The phrase "The Worker is hiding in the Workshop" is on an Initiation card. The subtitle "By Our Work We Are Changed" is seen on the Great Work card. The cards The Gate and The Rose Key, with the subheads "Enter the Order of Everlasting Day" and "In Arkartia, We are." These keywords only provide a start, the booklet does not fully interpret these new cards. The Kickstarter Certificate of Authenticity, which is also displayed above, features an AI-created self-portrait; my deck was number 1,383.

The nine new cards fit into Katz’s own tarot system, "Tarosophy", which he has developed over the course of his career as a tarot reader and author. In the booklet, it’s explained that "Tarosophy" is “the living wisdom of the tarot” of which we “use tarot to engage life, not escape it”.

I couldn’t find any interpretation of the nine new cards in the booklet or the PDF supplement, which I found to be a disappointment, leaving a tarot reader to create their own interpretations for these new cards, or dive into Katz’s own tarot mythology and Kabbalism.

The Kickstarter Certificate of Authenticity features an image prompted by asking the AI “how it imagined itself as an artist” which Katz says is a “rare and unusual self-image in which we perhaps see how the machine intelligence sees itself”.

The use of Midjourney enabled Katz to create the tarot deck without the need for collaboration with an artist or illustrator, and the resulting deck is a novel combination of AI-generated artwork and Katz's own tarot system. This innovative approach resulted in a tarot deck that is both unique and visually striking.

Where is Tarot heading in the future?

Of course, it's difficult to predict exactly where tarot will head in the future, as it's now become a dynamic and ever-evolving tool. However, based on current trends and the growing interest in self-help and personal development, it's likely that the use of tarot as a tool for self-discovery and developing your own mystic lifestyle will continue grow.

As we can see here with Tarot of the Everlasting Day the integration of AI technology to generate personalised tarot decks and readings is starting to emerge. AI can provide an individualised approach to tarot and can adapt to the needs and preferences of the individual. It could also provide a more convenient and efficient way of generating tarot readings and interpreting the results, making it more accessible to a wider audience.

The tarot of tomorrow may embrace a more personalised approach, utilising AI personal assistants from tech giants such as Microsoft and Facebook, that already possess a digital representation of the user's life, such as your searches, online shopping preferences and travel history. These AI assistants could generate a customised tarot experience, reflective of the individual's unique beliefs and lifestyle, and deliver on-demand interpretations.