Welcome to

Apocalyptic
Theatre

Tarot study tool + Jesus mythology + queerness + global culture + spiritual journeying

Project Summary

Apocalyptic Theatre is a tarot deck and study guide for the revolutionary, the heretic, and the spiritual seeker. Through exploring the tarot archetypes and the life of Jesus, Apocalyptic Theatre gives the reader the power to decolonize our world through history, myth, and spiritual storytelling.
To me, including Jesus is not a Christian motive, it is a motive to restore spiritual trauma and uplift marginalized people through reclamation of a story that has been used to oppress so many.
This project uses the 22 major arcana and 16 elemental court cards to form a 38-card signifier deck, which allows us to meditate on our identities and spiritual journeying. The cards are accompanied by a 380-page written guidebook, detailing the concepts linked to the cards with academic sources, for deeper tarot study. To accompany the traditional card and book duo, I have added a dice to each set which allows for a reader to intuit the progressional stage using numerology when a court card appears. (This is to remedy the lack of an ace-ten pip card storyline). The court cards are focused on how we perform identity through the 4 traditional earth elements (also used in astrology), and are included to enhance the queer narratives that uniquely juxtapose the included religious scriptures.

The Story of Jesus

Scenes of the Major Arcana

The spiritual journey's most impactful moments occur across 22 cards. Apocalyptic Theatre outlines this process through the myth of Jesus as we re-examine where these stories emerge from and who these stories are for.

"The ‘resurrection of the dead’, like this card suggests, is a mental concept, where the physical matter is not actually reanimated, but the concepts, spirit, and inspiration they provide are reanimated in the imagination of the human psyche and the social spirit of the people. We see what’s died, literally or metaphorically, in a new way. I see this as a metaphorical raising of the dead, and more of a reanimation of what the dead’s lives represented. This can mean even reanimating or giving new life to aspects of ourselves we had forgotten or needed to cleanse and make new from a period of ‘death’ or transformation.
I would like to make something abundantly clear to those who may still argue that Jesus really did arise from the dead and reanimate the living flesh, JESUS DID RISE FROM THE DEAD, BUT IN THE METAPHORICAL FORM OF ACTIVATING HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE LEGACY OF A DIFFERENT AWARENESS OF PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION TO A CULTURAL SPIRITUAL STORY."
Mergens, 245.

Who are we?

The Cast of the Court

the elements of our world are alive. deciding and realizing who we are is just as important as we live through those elements. The freedom to live and love through our expression of gender is the focus of these 16 character cards.

"All water signs in the zodiac have a hard outer layer that protects them from harm (pisces-scales, cancer-shell, scorpio-exoskeleton). The water signs, dealing with the emotional realm, teach us a lesson through this outer layer which reminds us of the importance of analyzing our boundaries and what the individual experience means through the stories our emotions tell.
This association shows the resilience, protection, and interdependence of collective and individual experiences in the realms of emotional and spiritual. One without the other (spiritual without emotional, emotional without spiritual) is unable to evolve, go deeper, and recognize truth with clarity."
Mergens, 361.

& a Twist

Dice + Pips

Intended to expand the intuitive relationship we have with the pip(minor arcana), the 10-sided dice which accompany this deck act as a determinant of the stage the querent is at in the development of any card pulled.
Read the dice using your knowledge of numerology; ex: if a 2 is rolled, this may indicate a fated encounter, or be influenced by the law of duality(opposites).

"The CONSCIENCE in your own mind, is the compass of this bridge of hope and intuition which is rooted in truth. A great part of reading tarot is figuring out which is your intuition speaking, and which is the voice of fear or conditions from your social and historical being. Intuition is something that is peaceful, and has a deep well of knowing. Fear is anxious, grasping, and feels like projection or manipulation, and often has a charged emotional response and seeks outside approval. Fears regarding intuition may coexist with the intuitive nudges, just as intuition can certainly contain an emotional charge."
Mergens, 214.

About the artist

My name is Collrane. My pronouns are They/them.
Here's how to connect with me:

A Special thanks to Curious Publishing

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