An experiment in creating generative tarot cards.
Resonator Voyant Tarot is an experiment in creating generative tarot cards.
Though steeped in spirituality, the reasons for doing a tarot reading need not be mystical as it can be a source of creativity and help with imaginative problem solving.
Each deck is created from a "vocabulary" of images with predefined rules for joining them together. Each card has a template with some fixed elements and other random elements put together.
For example, a major arcana card of "The Fool" would have a fixed "fool" image with randomly chosen elements coming out of the base. Another example is a minor arcana card that has the suite graphic (e.g. "swords") positioned in a pattern appropriate for the numbered card with a random "creature" created in the center.
Color palettes are also chosen randomly, with a consistent color palette chosen for each suite.
Each creature has attach points where items are placed. Base creatures are fixed for the non numbered minor arcana cards and then expanded randomly, where numbered minor arcana cards have 'templates' for the suite and have a center creature filled out randomly.
Each graphic item has different types of "attach points", labelled 'crown', 'horns', 'arm', 'leg', 'tail' as well as a 'nesting box' area, along with another 'anchor' point, representing the bottom of the graphic. Some items have restrictions on where they can attach but for the most part, any item can be placed at any other attach point. Each attach point has a position and orientation, so kind of like a vector 'normal', so that newly attached creatures know where to be placed and how much to be rotated when attached.
When building a "creature", a new item is chosen at random and the new random creature is attached to one of an already placed item's attach point, shifting and rotating the new creature around it's anchor point and attaching it to one of the already placed creatures attach points. The new creature is rescaled by a certain factor (say 0.5). The nesting areas are chosen similarly except the rescale factor depends on the size of the nest box. For the major arcana, a base creature is pre-chosen and fixed (chariot, empress, etc.) with random creatures attached to that base image, up to a certain depth (called the "complexity"). For the minor arcana, each card has a small library of "template card" where it has just nest boxes with predefined regions for the first N nestboxes, meant to have the suite item be placed in them, with the (N+1)th nestbox region somewhere in the center, meant for a creature.
By having attach points with different classes ('horns', 'arms', etc.), you can exploit a certain symmetry, so you only need to choose one creature for the 'arm' attach point and repeat it. For example, if the empress had an 'arm' attach point, one on each side, you could choose a 'snake' graphic on the left and repeat it on the right. The convention is that odd attach point indexes have their y-axis flipped, so you can lend yourself well to the type of mirror symmetry seen in human and other animal body forms.
For items that have restrictions, different lists are built up with those restrictions so the random draw doesn't have to keep resampling. When drawing a new creature, the space of available items is restricted so that you don't get into a situation where a major arcana base creature is being chosen in another card. For example, the Emperor chooses from a list without the Empress, so that the Empress doesn't show up in a nestbox or at an attach point (and vice versa). Same for all the card types, where the minor arcana don't draw from lists that have other minor arcana template cards in them. The minor arcana also have most of the major arcana base creatures restricted, though some are allowed (like "death", "man_standing", "woman_standing", etc.) because they're generic enough to not be completely tied to the major arcana card.
For the "Lovers" and the "Justice" card, special processing is done. For the "Lovers", there's no base graphic that represents the card, so a special "Lovers" template card of just nestboxes is used, with the man and women item always placed in two of the nestboxes and the rest chosen at random. For the "Justice" card, I wanted the scales to hold different graphics, so the second right nestbox where the other part of scale is has a random item chosen instead of duplicating the one from the left part of the scale.
The minor arcana "Paige", "Knight", "Queen" and "King" cards have a base graphic of a dog, horse, crown and other type of crown respectively, with a single suite (pentacle, sword, etc.) item placed at the 'crown' attach point for the "Paige" and "Knight" and attached at the 'tail' for the "Queen" and "King". The rest of the "Paige", "Knight", "Queen" and "King" creatures are built by randomly adding other items to their free attach points. The "Ace" has a base item chosen from a restricted set ("book", "door", etc.) with the suite item placed in it's nesting box, with no further random items attached.
The background image is built by choosing just one or two creatures and "tiling" them in the background. Same with the "back" card but from a restricted set.
Two color schemes are chosen for each major arcana card, one for the background and one for the foreground creature. Three color schemes are chosen, one for the background suite, one for the suite items themselves and another for the creature. The color scheme is chosen so that the three color choices and their luminance are far enough away to be differentiable. For each, as the creature is built up, the color schemes primary and secondary colors are swapped so that nested and attached items can be differentiated more clearly.
To run locally:
git clone https://github.com/abetusk/ResonatorVoyantTarot
cd ResonatorVoyantTarot
python3 -m http.server
firefox 'http://localhost:8000'
Building the main Javascript file, browser-sibyl.js, is pretty ad-hoc but
via:
cd scripts ; ./build.sh
This will create the js/browser-sibyl.js used as the engine to create the SVG
cards and has the data for SVG graphics and tarot reading.
Unless otherwise specified, all original code and other artwork is CC0 licensed.
Artwork in the _svg-vocabulary-pretty-printed.json file is copyright Nina Paley and is
used by permission under a CC-BY 4.0 license.
Check for third party libraries to see individual licenses.
All third party libraries were chosen to be under a free/libre license, so please check the individual libraries for their respective licenses.
- Artwork in the
_svg-vocabulary-pretty-printed.jsonfile is copyright Nina Paley and is used by permission under a CC-BY 4.0 license. alea.jsis copyright Johannes Baagø and is MIT licensedjszip.jsis copyright Stuart Knightley and is dual licensed under the MIT license and GPLv3pixi.jsis licensed under the MIT Licensejquery.jsis copyright OpenJS Foundation and other contributors and is released under the MIT licensecanvgis copyright Gabe Lerner and is MIT licensedskeleton.cssis copyright Dave Gamache and is MIT licensednormalize.cssis MIT licensed
The above is a non-exhaustive list of software used. Please see individual source files for their individual copyright.
- Show card interpretations for the 'full deck' view
- Allow for suite elements to be rotated. Sword suites can have some 'texture' added to them with a little rotation.
- Allow for different suites other than the "default" four (swords, keys, pentacles, cups)
- Rotate cups (and maybe others) under Queen and King cards (or allow option to do so)
- Fix some of the color scheme where the background images appear indistinguishable from the background color
- Provide script to render SVG deck large enough for print
- Print a custom deck (one possibility is makeplayingcards.com)