THE SOCIETY · ABOUT
Old symbols.
New readings.
PUBLISHING · DESIGN · EDITORIAL WORK
The Sic et Non Society is an independent publishing and design house devoted to symbolism, art, literature and esoteric thought.
The Society
The Society studies how old images and ideas travel: through books, objects and visual culture, and into contemporary interpretation. Its work places historical material beside present questions without pretending that the two are the same.
The name recalls a medieval habit of inquiry: setting yes beside no, authority beside doubt, and reading more carefully because the sources do not quite agree. The Society approaches its subjects in that spirit — curious, exacting and independent.
The work
The Reading Room brings selected sources and contemporary editorial interpretation into a digital setting. Its bibliomancy and tarot readings are made as prompts for thought, with source, context and interpretation kept distinct.
The tarot collection is one expression of this broader enquiry, rather than its limit. The 78-card collection and its companion text draw on the recognisable symbolic structure of the Rider–Waite–Smith tradition while expressing the Society’s own visual and editorial language. Selected illustrations also appear as art cards and prints.
PUBLICATIONS · IN PREPARATION
Further reading.
The first-edition tarot is accompanied by a concise guide to the structure of the deck, traditional ways of laying out the cards and the meanings of all 78 cards.
A more extensive practical guide to reading the cards is in development. It will move beyond the compact first-edition booklet to consider how a question is framed, how cards modify one another and how a complete reading can be approached without treating the cards as a fixed prediction.
The Society is also developing essays and longer studies on symbolism, art, literature and esoteric thought. Some may eventually form a collected publication; its scope, authorship and format will be settled by the work rather than announced in advance of it.
Publication dates will be announced when the manuscripts are ready.
CREATIVE PROCESS
The Artwork
Our illustrations are created through research, art direction, AI-assisted image generation, digital compositing, retouching and colour work.
For the tarot deck, the compositions have been selected and refined as a complete visual system, with close attention to character, atmosphere, palette and symbolic detail.
The deck draws on the conventional imagery and interpretive traditions of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot. Each card has been reviewed against those references, preserving recognisable symbolic structures while placing them within a distinct contemporary world.
AI-assisted generation is one tool in this process. The finished collection reflects editorial selection, art direction and substantial digital refinement.
Reading across disagreement
The Society does not treat historical sources as unchanging authorities, or symbols as diagnoses. Its work makes room for uncertainty, contradiction and another perspective. The aim is not to settle every argument. It is to give careful thought a useful form.