Samstag, 17. November 2012

TaRat -mini-

                                                                 Creator(s): Nakisha VanderHoeven
                                                                 Date:  2010
                                                                 Country: USA
                                                                 Publisher:
self-published
                                                                 Number of Cards:
78
                                                                 ISBN:
    
                                                                 Type:
RWS
                                                                 Reference: artist's website

 





Notes: 
The TaRat was created in a limited edition "extra mini" uncut 1" deck with black background and a 2" uncut version with white background. I have the 2" edition. Only 100 each of these uncut decks were printed.

TaRat

Creator(s): Nakisha VanderHoeven
Date:  2011
Country: USA
Publisher:
self-published
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
    
Type:
RWS
Reference: artist's website

Notes:
The cards were created  in ink and watercolor on 2.5" x 3.5" sized paper. It was in 2010 originally designed to be a mini novelty deck, but due to demand, is now available in various sizes. This is the largest edition, which is still smaller than average, measuring 8.9 cm tall x 6.4 cm wide.

The TaRat is a 78 card deck, each card with a different image of white rats. There are Swords, Cups, Pentacles and Clubs in this deck, as well as underlying themes of stars, moons and planets and some birds.

The majors are un-numbered. The minors are scenic and are sometimes, but not always, similar to the RWS. The backs are reversible. It came with a one-page sheet of card meanings and an envelope of inclusions from the artist. No title card, no bag, no box.

Freitag, 16. November 2012

A Tarot Titkai

Creator(s): Katalin Szegedi, Zsofia Lazar
Date: 1991, 2010
Country: Hungary
Publisher:
Roder-Ocker
Number of Cards:
22
ISBN:
  978-963-08-0401-1 
Type:
RWS
Reference: artist's website

Notes:
This deck was originally created  in 1991 by the Hungarian illustrator Katalin Szegedi and came with an  accompanying book by Maria Szabo. Thus it was known as "Szabo/Szegedi Tarot". In 2010 it has been reprinted under the name "A Tarot Titkai"(which translates: Secrets of the Tarot). It came now with a little booklet, Hungarian only,  written by Zsofia Lazar

The new version has a better cardstock, a different back and brighter colors. Some cards, e.g. Justice  and Wheel of Fortune,  have a newly added artist's signature. Also some details are different, such as stars in the sky on the new version of The High Priestess.

Kitchen Tarot

Creator(s): Dennis Fairchild, Susan Shie
Date: 2010
Country: USA
Publisher:
Hay House
Number of Cards:
22
ISBN:
  978-1401924164 
Type:
other
Reference: artist's website

Notes:
Susan Shie is a full-time artist who paints, draws, writes, and sews in order to create her artwork. Susan Shie began in 1998 with the Colander piece for the traditional Fool card. Each new mixed-media art quilt had its own size and proportions, and during the first year, she made only two pieces because her painting and hand sewing were so time-consuming. Later she learned to use both airbrush and airpen, and slowly switched from intense hand sewing  to  hand journaling and machine sewing. These changes allowed her to work faster.
Dennis Fairchild is a well known author of more than a dozen books and prediction calendars. 

The cards are larger than in traditional decks and follow RWS tradition only so far that Justice is 11 and Strenght is 8, but  the artist has changed completely the names of the arcana in order to fill the kitchen, e.g. instead of The Tower, we have The Pressure Cooker or instead of The Moon, we have The Calendar.The art shows many words as a sort of quick reference to the traditional name and meaning of the card.

Fantod Pack

Creator(s): Edward Gorey
Date: 1969, 1995, 2007
Country: USA
Publisher:
Pomegranate
Number of Cards:
20
ISBN:
  
Type:
non-tarot
Reference: aeclectic









Notes:
 Edward Gorey is an illustrator and artist known for his morbid sense of humor. Originally published in Esquire magazine in the sixties,  there was an unauthorized version of the deck printed back in 1969, and then an authorized limited edition of 776 copies (750 numbered, and 26 lettered) in 1995. The current 2007 edition, which I have, is unlimited.

The artwork on the cards and the cover of the booklet are the classic Gorey style of finelydetailed pen-and-ink work. The card backs and the booklet feature a strange little creature known as  'Figbash'.

Card Titles : The Ladder, The Child, The Limb, The Yellow Bird, The Stones, The Effigy, The Insects, The Plant, The Waltzing Mouse, The Urn, The Feather, The Bundle, The Sea, The Ecorche, The Bottle, The Burning Head, The Blue Dog, The Ancestor, The Tunnel, Untitled 

The Fantod Pack comes with a booklet by one "Madame Groeda Wyrde" (anagrams areanother Gorey favorite), giving instructions for how to read with the deck. The booklet itself is quite funny, with instructions such as the following:

"Interpretation must always depend on the character and circumstances of the person consulting the pack. What might portend a wipe-out for a teenage hotdogger from Yokohama, might warn an octogenarian spinster in Minot, North Dakota, of a fall in the bathtub, though, of course, the results might come to much the same thing. "

Simplified Tarot

Creator(s): Paul de Becker
Date: 1984
Country: Belgium
Publisher:
Carta Mundi
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
  
Type:
Marseilles
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 629,633
Notes:
The Simplified Tarot is a black and white deck intended to be simple and easy to handle. It has simple designs and is smaller than the average tarot deck, which makes the cards easy to shuffle.

The minors are undecorated pip cards with arrangement of suit symbols, the majors show satirical-looking characters. The back design shows two hands.

The deck is also known as Le Tarot des Pauvres

Sonntag, 11. November 2012

Russian Tarot

Creator(s): Boris Monosov, A.N. Golod
Date: 2011
Country: Russia
Publisher:
Vektor
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
978-5968419248 
Type:
Marseilles
Reference:

Notes:
Boris Monosov is an author who wrote some books on tarot and magical arts. Each card has a signature A.N. 

According to Adam McLean the Russian Tarot by Boris Monosov has been designed in 1994 but not been printed that time. This edition  was issued by the Russian publisher Vektor in 2011.

It came in a box with a Russian-only booklet.

Buckland Romani Tarot - Russian Edition

Creator(s): Lissanne Lake, Raymond Buckland
Date: 
Country: Russia
Publisher:
Tarot777
Number of Cards:
78 + 2
ISBN:
965-755-5931-12-2 
Type:
RWS
Reference:
aeclectic






Notes:
The first edition of this deck was by Llewellyn in 2001, a second edition followed in 2008 by Galde Press, the Russian Edition has no date.

The Russian Edition came with two extra cards "man" and "woman". It has borders while the original edition was borderless. The titles on the minors are in Russian.

The cards images are based on the tradition of the Gypsies of England. They show natural landscapes set in time pre-1950 and gypsies and gypsy caravans in various states of decoration. In almost every card it is possible to see the sky, which is coloured appropriately for each suit - Wands are a  golden-skied dawn, Cups are a rainbow blend, Swords bleak and snowy, Pentacles the blue skies of the afternoon.

Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot

Creator(s): Graham Cameron
Date: 1998
Country: USA
Publisher:
US Games
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
978-1572811959 
Type:
RWS
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.IV, pp. 456, 461
Notes:
The Major Arcana have  traditional names with the exception of the Hierophant, which is called the Grand Master. In the Major Arcana the card name number is spelled out in the top border and the name is in the bottom border. Those Major Arcana associated with a zodiac sign have them worked into the image, but those associated with planets or elements do not. The Majors also have a puzzle piece in the lower right corner that indicates whether the "influence" of the card is masculine, feminine, or both.

 The suits are Swords, Wands, Cups and Coins. Each suit takes place in a different setting: Swords are in the mind, Wands are at the circus, Cups are in the desert and Coins are in a village.

78 cards, a title card, an informational card ans a LWB, in a standard cardboard tuck box.  The cards are oversized ( 13.7 cm  x 8.8 cm ).

Usatarot

Creator(s): Rinousagi
Date: 2010
Country: Japan
Publisher:
self-published
Number of Cards:
22
ISBN:
 
Type:
RWS
Reference:
artist's page
Notes:
This is a handmade self-published tarot. Pen drawn outlines were coloured using a computer graphic program. Except that all personage is rabbit, this tarot has standard RWS images.

The cards measure 94mm x 60 mm

Usagi is the Japanese word for "rabbit".

Tarot Azteque

Creator(s): Jane Denant, G. Martin
Date: 1986
Country: Austria
Publisher:
Piatnik
Number of Cards:
53
ISBN:
 
Type:
non-tarot
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 85,89
Notes:
This deck is not a tarot. It has 52 numbered cards and one unnumbered card and a card that has on it the signature of the attache of Montezuma. The cards were inspired by Azteque religion and manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

There are four series of numbered cards. The first eight cards, bordered in blue and brown, are for the eight social classes. Cards 9 through 14 and the unnumbered card, are bordered in yellow and brown and indicate the planetary goddesses of the Azteque. The cards 15 through 34, bordered in green and brown, depict the 20 figures found in Mexico on a carved stone which is called "The Azteque Calendar". The last  eighteen cards are bordered in ocher and brown correspond to eighteen periods of the year.

The balls at the bottom of the cards count up to thirteen, which is the number of days in the lunar cycle, and then start over at one.

Tarot of Pagan Cats

Creator(s): Lola Airaghi, Magdelina Messina
Date: 2010
Country: Italy
Publisher:
Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
978-0738726700 
Type:
RWS
Reference:
aeclectic
Notes:
Magdelina Messina is the pseudonym for Barbara Moore, Lola Airaghi is a comic artist, which studied at the Scuola del Fumetto di Milano. She drew her first comics for Il Corrierino and Blue. She then became an artist for Bonelli, where she worked on series like "Brendan" and "Legs Weaver."

Measuring approximately 4 ¾ x 2 ½ inches and framed with an cream paw print border, the Tarot of Pagan Cats follows RWS Major Arcana names. The suits are Chalices, Pentacles, Swords and Wands, with the Knaves, Knights, Queens and Kings Court designation (although the LWB calls the Knaves "Pages"). The titles appear in 6 different languages and the numbering uses Roman numerals for the major arcana and Arabic for the minors.

Like the RWS the suits are elementally coded, Chalices are set in watery locations, Wands in deserts, Swords show high mountain tops and wide skies while Pentacles are set amongst plants, trees and rolling fields.  Sometimes pairs of cards are connected:


Arto Tarot

Creator(s): Jane Estelle Trombley
Date: 2008
Country: United Kingdom
Publisher:
Adam McLean
Number of Cards:
22
ISBN:
 
Type:
RWS
Reference:
artist's page
Notes:
The artist started working on the Minor Arcana but does not intend to complete the deck. Some Minors can be seen here .

The art is watercolour, the cards are brightly and harmoniously coloured, and bring new imagery to the standard tarot scenes.

The Arto Tarot is the 17th limited edition, majors-only deck from Adam McLean. It came in a lidded box and is signed and numbered by the artist. I have copy #24 of 100.

Emanations Tarot

Creator(s): Richard Moult 
Date: 2011
Country: Australia
Publisher: Black Glyph Society
Number of Cards: 64
ISBN:  
Type: other 
Reference: artist's page 






Notes:
The Emanations Tarot is a rare deck by "Christos Beest", a pseudonym used by the Shropshire based composer and artist Richard Moult. The deck includes his 21 major arcana of the original Sinister Tarot, the published court cards and alternate versions of some cards. A selection of Richard Moults newer paintings created almost two decades later, such as his Sappho series, are also part of the deck.

Beest/Moult created this deck while in the Order of Nine Angles (or ONA). Moult was involved with the ONA for about a decade, from 1989 to the late 90s. At some point during this decade, he created a tarot deck reflecting the ONA's philosophy and worldview. Part of this deck was published in 2007 as "The Sinister Tarot," in a limited edition of 40.

Unlike most occult tarot decks, this one is not connected with the Golden Dawn. Its major arcana, and court cards, differ from tradition. A few cards, such as the Lovers, are traditional, though the imagery is not.

According to an accompanying document, this deck is not for telling fortunes, but for "visualisation, and attracting cosmos energies, called 'Dark Gods,' according to the Tree of Wyrd." Each tarot trump represents a Dark God, as well as a pathway in the Tree of Wyrd. These correspondences don't follow the Golden Dawn's interpretations––neither do the images themselves.

Only 24 sets of Emanations using the white ONA Sigil on a black velvet tarot bag were issued, another 24 sets were supplied with red tarot bags adorned with the newer golden sigil designed by Moult. My copy has the black bag with the ONA sigil. The deck came with a black tourmaline stone, a CD with chants and a little booklet.

The Sinister Tarot, like all ONA material, is not copyrighted. An accompanying document to the Sinister Tarot can be downloaded here. Medium to high resolution scans of all available cards are available as torrent