First of all, I admire Chris’s work, his artistry, from the CC, Kadar to the Artifactum, I love his imagination, his way of thinking magic, reading his manuals (books or pdf) is pure pleasure and the imagery of his creations is fascinating.

I use the CC and Kadar, soon I will use the Artifactum. The beauty of the cards is engaging, appealing and arouses curiosity.
Sometimes I take them out just for my own personal enjoyment.

Two years ago, on Pinterest I found these myriorama cards in Alchemy Moon‘s development hell board. I was just intrigued.

https://www.pinterest.fr/lunalchemy/development-hell/

I then asked to Chris if it was a soon to be released project. He told me that the cards may not come out, in playtesting they did not really work as a reading system and the « magic fairy » in his head did not follow through with what they were actually for.

Since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Apart from the obvious beauty of these drawings, I'm sure they have huge potential and the profusion of details contained in the cards is not against them but on the contrary give them great depth and a wide range of possibilities and interpretations.

My question is : Should I stop bothering Chris about these cards, like a spoilt child, or are there enough people interested so that Chris can consider giving this project a second chance ?

Best,
Pascal

Pascal,

I'd buy them in a heartbeat. Chris' artwork, his thinking into an essay around their use, a new spin into my reading repertoire, and supporting Vic's distribution of them is a no-brainer for me.

Thanks for asking.

All the best,

David

My sentiments exactly !
Thanks for your reply David.

All the best,
Pascal

I’d buy them in a heartbeat as well.

BUT, I believe we should let the genius himself (Chris) decide what are his best creations to release. He won’t let us down.

They look incredible, yes I would definitely buy them, seems such a shame if they didn’t see the light of day (or the moon) But as Sean say’s we should let Chris decide which of his wonderful works of art should become reality.

I would suggest only bugging him 6 or 7 times a day for the foreseeable future, and then perhaps ramp it up a bit........

I trust Chris's judgement and skills as an artist implicitly. These look stunning to me - and I would snatch them up in a heartbeat - but I don't want his children until Chris feels he is ready to give them up for adoption.

So..
I’m a bit torn on the subject of “Readings” vs Bizarre Effects.
Chris has created a wonderful contribution in Kadar, which is Jungian Red Book in its origin.
Artifactum has been another step in the direction of Readings.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Prof BC’s contributions in Spectre.
Even Dan Baines & Freddie Valentine made a very cool step forward using a combined Reading System with Lebanon Circle’s Spiritas Claritas/Flibbertygibbit System. I have used their system for a few years in NY and the Sitters have been bowled over by it.

Let’s not lose sight of the simple fact that “Diviners” the World over bow to Mother “Tarot”.
Querants tend to either seek out “Cartomacers”, who read w/playing Cards OR Mother Tarot’.

Perhaps the Creative mind also is mindful of the LARGE World of Readings & their associated followers.

In my communications w/Chris.. I am inclined to thinks his best work is ahead of him in Bizarre.
BTW - he is far from bashful, we will hear from him😈

I hear what you are saying; Bizarre storytelling magic performances where there is a specific story being told and effects along the way as "special effects" don't seem to mesh naturally with "readings." As I have been slowly learning and developing, I discovered the link between readings and performance really occurred long ago in mentalism, since it was said by several writers that adding a bit of cold reading to a prediction created a much stronger effect, and that spectators would remember the performance long afterwards if you tell them about themselves as a sideline of a prediction, such as remarking how their choice told the performer a lot about them. Used in this way, you could turn a card prediction effect into a very short reading using a playing card reading system. Since some people have a problem with Tarot (too spooky, too 'evil'), they might be more comfortable with a reading as part of a card prediction effect.

I have several of Chris's reading/magic effect systems, and a common theme is that these systems are easier and simpler to learn than Tarot for beginning performers, they are more universally applicable and do not have any negative Tarot connotations, but they range from the dark (Cuss Cards) to whimsical (Kadar) to mysterious (Artifactum) to delightfully creepy (Hedge Tarote). They also offer variations on a theme, and a wide range of potential performance opportunities in which the primary thing is to tell a cool, mysterious and entertaining story, and provide a single spectator with an extraordinary experience, and the audience with the entertainment of both the story and the secondary, vicarious enjoyment of the interaction between performer and spectator. Alchemy Moon's story worlds are vehicles for creating wondrous moments, not just a reading or a magic trick, although both of those may happen in the context of the performance; however, I would say both the readings and the magic effects and even the performer are de-emphasized and just used as ingredients to step into other worlds for a moment.

That's smart ! To go gradually ... If only I'd had that suggestion before, maybe I wouldn't have had a restraining order against me !

Thanks for your reply.

That's exactly my thought.

Thank you very much for your answers, gentlemen, I must admit that I was starting to worry with only two answers in two days, and more than 250 views.

All the best,
Pascal