Geomantic Visions
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 04, 2020 at 01:21:04 AM

I did not think this update would be going out as soon as today, but we're probably going to hit this stretch goal in the next few hours. I've been trying to figure out the best way to go about Geomantic Visions, which is why I haven't announced much about it yet. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it this far, but here we are! It could honestly be a ~whole other project~ but this campaign has surpassed all of my wildest expectations SO here we go..

Geomantic Visions is basically a brand new "deck" (of coins) inspired by the 16 beings of Cosma Visions. It's going to be a set of 16 double sided coins housed in a nice protective box with a manual on beginners Geomancy.

Geomantic Visions will be a new reward tier/add on item and will not come free with any tiers. The production cost on this set of coins is double what it will cost to make a tarot deck. It isn't going to be cheap to make but it's going to be SOOO COOL. Geomantic Visions is definitely a collector's item and will  retail somewhere between $60- $75 when it is released next year. But since you all have been so important to making Cosma Visions what it is, and since this project has taken off in the way that it has, I am able to make these as attainable as I possibly can. So you can add it on to your pledge for only $35 and you will be one of the first to ever get this set of custom coins. It'll be the full thing: the full box, the full manual and anything else that it may develop into during the process. A satchel bag to draw the coins out of? I don't know! It's an incredible steal and I'm probably going to regret offering it this low later on. 

You can add $35 on now if you want the set of coins, or you can wait until the survey process when you are filling out your add-on selections, I know the math is getting hard.. 

Sound too good to be true? Here's the catch: there won't be any photos of samples of the actual item until after the campaign ends. So you will need to trust me. If you have any of my previous decks you know I only make top-quality items and this isn't going to be any different. So I am treating this as a super pre-order item. I'm planning on doing a full release of this set in 2021, but as a backer you will have yours before the release even happens. 

In all honesty, even after making 5 different decks I haven't made anything like this before, I don't know what the final product is going to look like or how extensive the manual will be. It may be 40 pages, it may be 100. Because of the size of Geomantic Visions (the box that houses the coins is around 8x8 inches) there is a chance that these ship separately from the rest of your reward box, but you won't have to pay shipping twice. 

So what is Geomantic Visions? This will be a set of sixteen 3D metal coins that represent the 16 different geomantic figures based on the suit of beings. I will update the coins as they are created so you are kept in the loop but at the moment only the ones above have been designed. Each coin will be two sided, one side with the Cosma Visions being on it and the other side with a geomantic symbol. If you are familiar with geomancy these coins are made for you, if not there is always time to learn a user-friendly ancient form of divination 

Rough Item Specs:

•  16 double sided 3D coins, 1.75" diameter, 5mm thickness
   
•  Housed in a protective 8" x 8" box
   
•  Beginners Geomancy Manual included 

 No clue what Geomancy is? 

 Here's a quick crash course:

The difference between tarot and geomancy was best described to me as this: Geomancy will help you answer a yes or no question, while tarot will tell you what is happening in your unconscious/subconscious world.

While tarot uses a system of 78 symbols, Geomancy uses only 16:

These figures are all of the possible configurations of eight dots, in 4 rows of 2:

In each row you can have either one or two dots. Each row is also associated with an element and a part of the body. When there is only one dot in a row it is considered "active", when there are two it is considered "passive". So the above figure, Populus (the other side of the Peacemaker coin)includes all 8 dots and is the most passive figure. Populus, also known as "the people" in latin, is meant to look like a crowd seen from above. 

The roots of Geomancy go way further back than tarot. It was originally done with sticks/stones in the dirt, which is where the word Geomancy (earth magic) came from. In Geomancy you start by casting a shield (shown below). The shield is always the same, with 8 boxes on the top row, 4 in the 2nd row, 2 in the 3rd row and 1 in the final row. Each box is filled in with a geomantic figure. You begin with the drawing of a blank shield below. (I will include some Geomantic Shields in the Regressions Workbook, so you can do Geomancy on your own even if you choose to not get the coins).

Only the first 4 boxes are filled in through random selection of coins. These are called the "Mothers" and are what generate the rest of the figures in the shield

The final three boxes at the bottom are the two witnesses and the judge in the final position. This is where you get your answers. I'm not going to go too in depth on this part because it's going to be too much information to digest at once. 

Geomancy is really amazing, it uses a system of recursion to develop every symbol based on the previous symbols. In ways I feel like it is the most intertwined and straightforward form of divination.

If you choose to add on Geomantic Visions to your pledge you can do so now by adding $35. If you are unsure how to add on to your pledge there is a detailed breakdown in the FAQ. 

The two stretch goals that come after Geomantic Visions are going to be freebies!

 $500,000: THE COLLECTORS COIN

A collectible coin that will be given to all backers of the Cosma Visions Project regardless of if you are adding a Geomantic Visions set(your pledge must include at least one Cosma Visions deck or Geomantic Visions Set) Limited to one coin/backer, no add-ons allowed.

 $550,000: THE COSMA VISIONS CARD HOLDER
 

This will be a custom made card holder to display your card of the day. I haven't designed it yet, so I don't know what it will look like. I think it's going to be wooden.  This will be added to ALL PLEDGES that include a Cosma Visions Oracle Deck. Only one card holder is added per pledge, no matter how many decks you are getting. If you would like an extra card holder you can add $10 to your pledge.

That's all for this update, if we somehow slip past $550K I will have to announce some new goals. 

Be well, 

J 

The Regressions Journal
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 04, 2020 at 12:32:32 AM

After looking at the survey results for the Regressions Journal it was a pretty even split (like it is every time, except maybe for those round cornered art cards..) So I put some more thought into it and here's what I'm thinking:

I'm going to do both. There will be a blank version and a regressions workbook version. They will both be 6x9 inches (the same size as the Big Visions Book), 80 brown kraft pages with a faux leather cover and a string closure with a custom metal charm. The blank version will be stitch bound with fixed pages, the workbook version will be spiral bound with interchangeable pages. 

The Regressions Journal will be a $12 add-on item. If you want two/both versions it is only a $20 add-on. You are welcome to change your pledges now if you would like, please keep in mind that details are still being worked out on the specifics of the interior pages as well as the design and things are subject to change. These items will likely retail for $20 each after the campaign.

The Regressions Journal is our $425,000 stretch goal item

On the left is the blank journal in dark teal, on the right is the workbook in light grey. 

Here's a look at the inside spiral workbook version: 

Here are a few pages you'll find in the workbook, but I would like to open it up to hear what you all would like to see in a tarot workbook. I've never used one before, I'm a blank book let-your-mind-wander kind of guy, so I could use the input! 

These pages will be repeated, so workbooks will contain 10 or so of the "Mirror Arc" and "Lifemap" worksheets as well as Cards of the Day etc. 

 The Cosma Visions Regression is the featured spread of the deck and is quite involved, so I feel this is where the workbook will really come in handy. There will be duplicates of this spread as well. 

Let me know what you would like to see in the workbook! 

A Better Look at the Art Cards
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 07:28:57 PM

I wanted to take a minute and share a quick update on the art cards. They just finished the sample product and WOW they look great. Check it out: 

The question now is, rounded edges or sharp edges? There's a comparison in the video below, cast your votes in the comments!

The set of 22 art cards is available as an add on for only $10.

What Comes Next!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 07:21:08 PM

After the chaos of update #14, I am pleased to tell you that update #15 will be filled with more "oohs" and "aahs" and contain no panicking. So as I said in the initial announcement, I would probably be changing the upper stretch goals around to better fit the project. I did that, and now they're even better. 

 $375,000 UNLOCKED: THE REMAINING STICKERS
 

I grouped all the remaining stickers together, mainly because I don't want to keep updating the tier photos, and they aren't exciting enough to announce individually now that we have all these fun goodies.

So that means all pledges are now coming with SEVEN stickers. 

...But here is the one that 99% of you have been screaming for:

 $400,000: THE PAST IS A PRESENT
 

I've put a lot more thought into rereleasing the 79th cards from previous editions, and I've come to a compromise. This stretch goal is for the pack of previous 79th cards of Prisma Visions (Light Visions not included) and will be a simple $5 add on.

Here's the catch: they're going to be matte cardstock so they will stand out a bit when used in older editions of Prisma Visions (sorry!!). They are also going to have holographic features to stand out from the cards that have officially come with each edition. AND they will have different color variants than the originals. I think that this will set them apart enough that they will be collectible in their own way but won't devalue the original 79ths and will also satisfy your needs to have these cards. 

 $425,000: THE REGRESSIONS JOURNAL
 

Alright, so the Journal! We haven't talked about this much at all. I did a lot of research these last two weeks on suppliers and the best way to go about making this thing. At first I thought about designing an interior that could be used as sort of a workbook. But then I thought about my favorite journals and notebooks and they are all blank. I find that the mind has more room to grow when there aren't confines of design. But now I'm torn. Samples are in the works and I will have photos soon. But I'm curious, do you prefer blank books or ones that have content inside to fill out? Rather than counting the comments, I created a survey, it's just a quick one question:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BZBPLKL

I don't want to share too many details now as some things might change, so the pricing and look is still TBD, but I should have more info by the time we get there, I hope. 

 $450,000: GEOMANTIC VISIONS

Geomantic Visions is basically an ENTIRELY new "deck" inspired by the 16 beings of Cosma Visions. It's going to be a set of 16 double sided coins housed in a nice box with a manual on beginners Geomancy.

I think I first learned about Geomancy in 2017, I have actually started to design a Geomancy deck before but it didn't feel right so I scraped it. This though, this makes sense to me. The difference between tarot and geomancy was best described to me as this: Geomancy will help you answer a yes or no question, while tarot will tell you what is happening in your unconscious/subconscious world.

Geomantic Visions will be a new add on item and will not come free with any tiers. Pricing and details TBD.

So what is Geomantic Visions? This will be a set of sixteen 3D metal coins that represent the 16 different geomantic figures based on the suit of beings. Each coin will be two sided, one side with the being on it and the other side with a geomantic symbol. If you are familiar with geomancy these coins are made for you, if not there is always time to learn a user-friendly ancient form of divination ;) More to be announced later..

Item Specs:

• 16 double sided 3D coins, 1.75" diameter, 5mm thickness
  
• Housed in a protective box
  
• Beginners Geomancy Manual included

 $500,000: COLLECTOR'S COIN

If we make it to $500,000 this stretch goal unlocks the Cosma Visions Coin, a collectible coin that will be given to all backers of the Cosma Visions Project (your pledge must include at least one Cosma Visions deck) Limited to one coin/backer, no add-ons allowed.

Phew, think that's it for today. It's been a big day. 

J

Stretch Goal Unlocked: Cosmic Tree Bookmark
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 05:09:03 PM

We're over 3,000 backers strong (three thousand!!) and we JUST sneaked past our $300,000 (three hundred thousand!!)stretch goal for... 

The Cosmic Tree Bookmark! 

These will be included for free in each pledge that includes a Big Visions Book. Only one free bookmark is included, no matter how many books you are getting, BUT but if you would like to add a second, or third, or you aren't getting the Big Visions Book but you want to get the bookmark, you can adjust your pledge and add $10 per bookmark. If you don't know how to adjust your pledge, or what that means - there's an FAQ!

It's going to be a .3mm laser cut metal bookmark, finished with gold and It will have a nice tassel  (photos to come later). I think these are going to look beauuuuutiful.  

On another note, I wanted to take a moment and a video that my manufacturer sent me while they were printing the covers of the Big Visions Book. Here they are using a letterpress machine to emboss the book and then hot stamp it with gold foil, over and over and over. I always find behind the scenes looks fascinating and I'm sure a lot of you wonder how these things are made. If there's interest I will try to have them send me more. 

I think that's all for this update, but I have something exciting in store and will announce it soon. 

Keep on sharing, and have a good weekend!

James