On a recent expedition to Borders, I picked up "The Encyclopedia of Survival Techniques," because I figure it looks useful, and hey, someday (after the increasingly inevitable nuclear winter) I may urgently need to figure out how to make an igloo. Lying on top of it was "The Merlin Tarot Handbook," which I had been consulting as a reference for a story I'm planning, and must have put down absentmindedly in the living room.
The juxtaposition -- and especially the relative position of the books; so that I briefly did actually read the combined title as "The Encyclopedia of Survival Tarot" -- kicked my brain into a gear I haven't really been able to get it out of; which is why I'm making this post.
Namely, What would a "survival tarot" look like? I mean, heck, you can wrap pretty much any arbitrary theme into a Tarot deck already ...
I noodled briefly over this, both alone and with
Some of the major arcana lend themselves to quick parallels. Such as Tower -> forest fire. Devil -> (insert local large predator here, or perhaps hostile humans). Kady suggested food poisoning would be Death, but that seems a little off to me, and I counter-suggested the Hanged Man, which in retrospect also seems as badly off.
And, of course, the Wheel of Fortune -> "Edible" Mushrooms. ;-)
Any other card suggestions?