Penguin King

This tarot card is about putting duty first, social responsibility and controlling emotions. It can signal repressed creativity.

The deck uses the anthropomorphic illustrations of JJ Granville who was a 19th century artist/illustrator. When I first saw this tarot deck which is known as ‘The fantastic menagerie tarot’ it was many years back. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to buy it as it as it was out of print and hugely Collectable. The cost of used decks on eBay was prohibitively expensive, I’m talking nearly £200 in some cases.

Finally in 2020, a year of real dubiousness and not much generosity, the tarot deck was updated and finally a second edition published. I was quick to grab myself a copy before it sold out again.

In a tarot deck you find 78 cards and illustrations follow the traditional system of meanings per card. You have major cards (those are the really important ones that allegedly signal very important warnings or things that can’t really be changed- the universe has decided), court cards like you get in a traditional playing card deck and finally minor cards (number cards).

I love my decks mainly for their illustrations and if I remember I try to pull one card a day and note its guidance, but not so much so that I make big changes to my day. Sometimes I just take it with a pinch of salt or ignore the ‘message’ if it doesn’t suit my agenda :-)

Although I’m aware of the traditional meaning of this card, as stated above, I could equally choose to interpret it just by my own interpretation of the picture. The king of cups can look so very different depending in the deck. With this deck the message could be the need to put some cosy socks on, sit down, have a nice drink, take care of things precious to me (penguins’s egg) and watch chaos ensue from a safe distance (maybe the fallen penguin with his head in the snow is symbolic of a certain president?!)