Samstag, 31. März 2012

Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA

Creator(s): Julia Turk
Date: 1997
Country: USA
Publisher: US Games
Number of cards: 78
ISBN: 3-908645-58-1
Type: Golden Dawn
Reference: aeclectic







Notes:
It's SEA in all-caps in the title, because it also refers to the Mystic Society of Enochian Anchorites.

The artist and author of the Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA, spent many years at sea working in the yacht charter industry and skippering sailing vessels on long passages. In 1988 an amazing escape from certain death in a car wreck encouraged the "Navigator" to ask the universe what might be offered in return for this unfathomable grace.

The Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA is based on the traditional Golden Dawn foundation of the Hermetic Cabala, with the Tree of Life on the back of the cards.

A keyword (representing the most important quality of the card) is written at the top, while the card title (for the Major Arcana), suit and number (for the Minor Arcana Pips), and title and suit (for the Court Cards) are written at the bottom of the card.

The Major Arcana are not numbered, most of them have standard titles, with the following exceptions: Universe (World), Aeon (Judgment), Art (Temperance), Suspension (The Hanged Man), Destiny (Justice), Fortune (The Wheel of Fortune), Arch Priestess (The Priestess), Magian (Magician).

The four suits are ment to represent four different aspects of the psyche: Wands represent Intuition, Cups represent Emotions and Dream States, Swords represent Intellect, and Pentacles represent the Five Senses.

The book also includes Julia Turks poetry for each card.

Sonntag, 25. März 2012

Tarot of Marseilles Millennium Edition

Creator(s): Wilfried Houdouin
Date: 2011
Country: France
Publisher: FJP
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 978-2841975655

Type: Marseilles
Reference: tarot-de-marseille-millennium








Notes:
The "reconstruction" of the Tarot de Marseilles by Houdouin is based on the theory, that the sacred geometrical blueprint of the Marseilles tarot was a geometrical matrix known as Metatron's Cube overlaid onto the Flower of Life.

Houdouin draws a line from Pythagoras and Aristotle to Leonardo Fibonacci and Henri Poincare.

The five Platonic Solids were related to the tarot via the elements. The tetrahedron associated with fire, the octahedron associated with air, the cube or hexahedron associated with earth, the icosahedron associated with water and lastly the dodecahedron, which is associated with the ether, the fifth element, the all permeating quintessence.

The tetrahedron if inverted upon itself produces the Stella Octangula, or star tetrahedron, which is the dynamic core of Metatron's Cube.

Regretsy Tarot

Creator(s): April's Army Artist Collective
Date:
2011
Country: USA
Publisher:
Moon & Star
Number of Cards:
79
ISBN:

Type:
RWS
Reference:
Caboosterkit








Notes:
This deck is being designed by 25 Regretsy fans and artists all over the world, who call themselves 'April's Army'. Regretsy is an online community created by April Winchell that parodies the handmade crafts that are shown on Etsy.

The Regretsy Tarot is a limited-edition tarot deck of 1200 copies. The 79-card deck follows the RWS pattern and is divided up into major and minor arcana. The cards depict the vocabulary and culture of Regretsy. The suits are Tools, Genitalia, WTF, and Whimsicles (F*ckery). "Whimsical" is often spelled wrong on Etsy, so that particular typo has become a running joke amongst Regretsians.

Both the majors and minors give a title for each card as well as the promotional information for the artist who designed the card. The deck comes with an extra card called "Towel Mike".

The backs of the cards appear from a distance like black and white diamond and square patterns with a flower image in the center. On a closer look they are human genitalia, a circle of penises surrounds a circle of vaginas.

In the Regretsy Tarot, the major arcana cards represent people and things of special significance to the Regretsy community. The Majors have been renamed as follows:


The Fool
The Cupcake

Justice
Judge Judy
The Magician
Sir Flounce of the Forest

The Hanged Man
Turkey Skants
The High Priestess
Helen Killer

Death
Skull Fascinator
The Empress
The Vagoo

Temperance
The Flounce
The Emperor
Bronc Drywall

The Devil
The Reseller
The Hierophant
The Hellephant

The Tower
Never Forgetsy
The Lovers
The Owl and the Octopus

The Star
Peck of the Day
The Chariot
The Chariot (Level 4 Cat)

The Moon
Accidental Goatse
Strength
Goatse

The Sun
Coleslaw
The Hermit
The Sad Hipster

Judgment
The Rapture
Wheel of Fortune
Steampunk

The World
April’s Army


Donnerstag, 15. März 2012

Ancient Tarot of Liguria Piedmont

Creator(s): Giovanbattista Guala
Date:
1860* reprint 2000
Country:
Italy
Publisher:
Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
9783927808720
Type:
Piemontese
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 678-679








Notes:
Lo Scarabeo published the first reproduction of this deck as "Antichi Tarocci Divinatori" in 1995 with divinatori meanings in Italian added at the bottom of each card. It included a title card and nine instruction cards in four languages. The edition publisahed in 2000 has a LWB instead of the presentation cards and titles in English, French, German and Italian instead of the divinatory meanings. The original deck belongs to a private collection in Turin.

Giovannbattista Guala worked in Ghemme, a Piedmont town. He made the deck around 1860 from woodblooks and coloured using stencils.

The original numbering of the Major Arcana was in Roman numerals, in the upper left hand and lower right hand (reversed position) corners of the card. The reprint has additional a Roman number in the middle of the bottom of the card.

The suit names are: Bastoni (Wands), Coppe (Cups), Spade (Swords), Denari (Pentacles). For the suits of Wands and Swords the cards two through ten also have the original number in Roman numerals on the top left hand corner and bottom right hand corner (reversed). The reprint has an additional number in the middle of the bottom for all four suits.

On all of the Court cards appeares the printers name and, with the exception of the Page, they carry the title in Old Italian across the bottom. The printers name also appears on the Major Arcana Il Pazzo, Il Bagatto and Il Mondo and on the Two of Cups.

The printers stamp appears on each of the card (in some cards it is more visible than in others). It is a printers stamp and no tax stamp, because the stamp does not indicate value. It is a round stamp of a four part coat of arms topped by a crown.

Mittwoch, 14. März 2012

Tarot der Eingeweihten

Tarot der Eingweihten (1954)Creator(s): Joachim Winckelmann, Erich & Liesel Mutze
Date:
1949/1954/1962
Country:
Germany
Publisher: Schikowski
Number of Cards: 22

ISBN:
Type: Egyptian
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. I, p. 220






bookcoverNotes:
The first edition of the cards was printed 1949 in Berlin, these cards were of larger size than the following editions and came without or with a shorter version of the book. Unfortunately I do not own the 1949 edition. The Editions from 1954 and 1962, which are in my collection, have smaller cards and accompany a book by Joachim Winckelmann.

The 1949 and the 1962 editions are mentioned in Kaplans Encyclopedia of Tarot. They are not "privately printed" by a Mr. Schikowski, as Kaplan assumed, Schikowski Verlag was a well known German publisher for occult books. The cards were designed by Erich and Liesel Mutze, Wickelmann wrote only the book.

card back (1962)card back (1954)The cards from 1954 were ivory-colored and have a brown back, the cards from 1962 are orange with a grey-white patterned back.

In the 1949 edition the fool is numbered XXII, in the two later editions the fool is numbered 0.

The cards bear Egyptian features with Roman numerals at the top and German titles at the bottom of each card.

The symbolism largely follows the Marseille tradition, some of the cards are renamed.

Tarot der Eingweihten (1962)
The design of the cards is possibly inspired by a 1931 book from Woldemar von Uxkull titled "Die Einweihung im alten Ägypten" which has 22 very similiar pictures:



The Cards of U'ut

Creator(s): Ellis Nadler
Date:
2011
Country:
United Kingdom
Publisher:
self-published
Number of Cards:
37
ISBN:

Type:
non-tarot
Reference:
Ellis Nadler






Notes:
"The Cards of U'ut", formerly known as "The Cards of Wu", is a deck of 37 cards, size 21 cm x 15 cm, packed in a plain aluminium box, with a 48 page booklet and a numbered certificate signed by the artist.

For this limited edition of 100 sets the originial woodcuts were scanned an digitally coloured.

In the LWB the author claims this to be a "unique deck of tarot cards", the cards are described as "the first arcana" and "a second arcana" of 41 cards is currently in production. For each card there is a little explanatory poem in the LWB.

The cards are awesome, its great artwork and maybe they can be used for divination as described in the LWB, but they are not tarot and they won't become tarot when the "second arcana" completes the deck to 78 cards.

Legend : The Arthurian Tarot

Creator(s): Anna-Marie Ferguson
Date:
1995 , second edition 1999
Country:
USA
Publisher:
Llewellyn
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
9781567182675
Type:
RWS
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 393, 397






Notes:
The deck is also known as the Avalon Tarot ( but there is another Avalon Tarot by Viglioglia from Lo Scarabeo).

The back design shows the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral. The suits are swords, spears, cups and shields. All majors have their standard title plus an additional title belonging to the Arthurian Legend except the devil, which has been renamed "The Horned One"

The deck includes an extra card on which is a dragon, totem of Pendragon, Arthurs male lineage. The set also contains a layout sheet and a 304-page book titled "A Keeper of Words

Golden Dragon Tarot

Creator(s): Jean-Louis Victor, Marie Delclos 
Date: 1993
Country:
Switzerland 
Publisher: AGM 
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
3-908646-39-1
Type:
other
Reference:
Aeclectic








Notes:
The deck is called "Tarot Chinois" in the French version and "Tarot und Chinesische Weisheit" in the German version, but it is not the same deck as the U.S. Games "Chinese Tarot".

I would recommend the set with the full length companion book, because without the book it is hard to understand the meanings of the cards and the intended relation between the chinese philosophy and the tarot.

The top border has the card number and what appears to be the name of the card in Chinese for the Major Arcana, and the suit name (without a number) in Chinese for the Minor Arcana. The bottom border has the card name in German.

Most of the Major Arcana have been renamed:

I - Der Lehrling
(The Apprentice)
VIIII - Der Weise
(The Master of Wisdom)
XVII - Der Stern
(The Star)


II - Die Wasserträgerin
(The Waterporter)
X - Das Schicksal
(Destiny)
XVIII - Der Mond
(The Moon)
III - Die Reiskönigin
(The Queen of Rice)
XI - Der Drachen
(The Dragon)
XVIIII - Die Sonne
(The Sun)
IV - Der Herrscher
(The Emperor)
XII - Der Gehängte
(The Hanged Man)
XX - Das Tao
(The Tao)
V - Die heilige Pagode
(The Illuminated Pagoda)
XIII - Der Tod
(Death)
XXI - Der Affe
(The Monkey)
VI - Das Labyrinth
(The Labyrinth)
XIV - Der Ausgleich
(Balance)
XXII - Die Ernte
(Harvest)
VII - Der Sieg
(Victory)
XV - Das Gewitter
(The Thunderstorm)

VIII - Die Gerechtigkeit
(Justice)
XVI - Zerstörung des Tempels
(Destruction of the Tempel)

Dienstag, 13. März 2012

Universal Wirth Tarot



Creator(s): Giordano Berti, Stefano Palumbo
Date: 2008
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-8883957604
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Aeclectic







Notes:
Berti and Palumbo take the classic Wirth images, rendering the majors in an updated style, and adding the 56 Minor Arcana. Wirth never thought of drawing the 56 Minor Arcana, because he considered these cards have been unduly added to the Tarot deck by printers who knew little about esoteric doctrines.

In spite of the absence of direct references in Wirth's writing Berti and Palumbo thought it is possible to create a "harmonic hybrid" that unites the 22 Major Arcana of Oswald Wirth with the 56 Minor Arcana of Eudes Picard.

Picard, a contemporary author, had printed a "Manual synthetique et practique de Tarot" in Paris 1909, which reflected hermetic-alchemistic doctrines that were shared by Wirth.

Despite being french, Picard was interested especially in the history of Spanish tarots, thus pentacles are associated with earth, swords are water, cups are air and wands are fire.

An essay on the Minor Arcana by Eudes Picard, appears in The Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences, which was published anonymously in English in 1939.In this article on Tarot from the Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences, Picard's section is illustrated with the Minor Arcana from the Etteilla Tarot, although the descriptions make it clear that what he was writing about was acutally a deck much like El Gran Tarot Esoterico.

Samstag, 10. März 2012

Tarots Oreste Zevola

Creator(s): Oreste Zevola
Date: 1989
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, p. 607






Notes: The Oreste Zevola is a tarot with abstract designs on very long cards. It is published in a limited edition of 2.500. There is no numbering on the pip cards and the death card is not labeled.

Il Tarocco Soprafino of F. Gumppenberg

Creator(s): Carlo DellaRocca
Date: 1835* reproduction 1992
Country: Italy
Publisher: Il Meneghello
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference:










Notes:
The most authentic reproduction of the original Gumppenberg deck was produced by Il Meneghello in 1992 in an edition of 2,000 called Il Tarocco Soprafino of F. Gumppenberg. In Lo Scarabeo's photo-reproduction called the Classical Tarot the cards are larger and brighter, making it easier to see the details. The background is lighter and the age marks and stains are cleaned up. But their appearance is marred by Lo Scarabeo’s typical wide left border with the card name repeated in several languages.

There are two different types of boxes for the Il Meneghello deck. Mine is is tied by a ribbon and the deck is slid in through the side. It also has a red wax seal as is customary with Meneghello limited edition decks. There is another model, a two part box, lined on the outside with paper which has illustrations of tarot cards. On the top of both sorts of boxes is The World card.

The small, slightly off-white cards have square corners and the backs have a regular pattern of dots. The fronts of the cards have not been cleaned up, as blemishes of age and acid stains from the original cards are reproduced. There is no LWB or instructions of any kind.

Classical Tarots

Creator(s): Carlo DellaRocca
Date: 1835* reproduction 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Sarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference
: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 676-677








Notes:
Ferdinand Gumppenberg was trained in German print shops before immigrating to Milan in 1809, he was able to introduce the German tradition of commissioning decks from well-known illustrators and engravers. In 1835 he commissioned a deck from the engraver Carlo Dellarocca. As the most elegant and refined Italian deck of its time, it quickly became known as i tarocchi sopraffini, the super-fine tarot.

Dellarocca was a highly regarded Milanese engraver/illustrator who learned his craft from Giuseppe Longhi, a prominent engraver and professor of art. Dellarocca was not as famous as his teacher, so his life has not been well documented. His birth date is unknown, most references say he died some time after 1824, so it’s possible that the plates he engraved for his tarot cards were not used until after his death.

The pip cards are delicate and refined. The court cards conform to tradition, but they have more individuality and personality than most decks. The tax stamp and Gumppenberg’s and Dellarocca’s names are on the King of Rods card. The tax stamp shows the steel crown of Lombardy and the crown of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I, symbols of the Austrian Empire, which ruled Lombardy at the time. The initials "F.I." stand for Franz I, Austrian ruler. "C.70" is 70 centesimi, the rate at which the deck was taxed. The tax stamp was valid from November 1, 1823, to January 26, 1840.


There are several unique features of Dellarocca’s deck design: The Bagatto is a cobbler standing in front of a work table strewn with the tools of his trade. There’s a jug on the table and the cobbler hoists a large glass of wine. The Lover stands between his sweetheart and a king who rests his hand on his shoulder. The young man’s clothing announces his divided loyalties. He wears tights and pouffy pants, but also a helmet and armored corselet. He seems to be torn between love and duty.Justice’s body is tilted slightly, as is her sword and scales. She has an eye in the center of her collar.The Hermit carries a little open flame in a holder instead of a lantern.The Strength card is more dynamic than the traditional Tarot de Marseilles image. The woman straddles the lion with a fierce expression on her face. One of her bare feet presses down on the lion’s back. The lion’s front leg is raised and he is resisting her efforts to pry his jaws open.
The skeleton on the Death card is sweeping up symbols of human pride and vanity like jewelry, a bishop’s miter, books, artist’s palette, weapons, and medals. The card is not labeled to avoid using the word “Death”.The Devil card has several symbols commonly associated with him: the trident, ass’s ears, snaky hair, a furry skirt, clawed feet, monsters and hell fire.

The Moon retains the towers and dogs from the TdM, but the scene is an estuary and one of the towers is a lighthouse. The dogs seem to be in a walled garden, and a boiled lobster rests on a large silver platter on the ground.On the Sun card, a carefree young couple dances in a walled garden under a bright sun that is burning away the last of the clouds.

Ancient Italian Tarot

Creator(s): Unknown Artist, Cartiera Italiana 
Date: 1880, reproduction 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher:
Lo Sarabeo
Number of Cards:
78
ISBN:
888395057-7
Type:
Marseilles
Reference:
Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 680-681






Notes:
This deck is a reproduction of an Italian deck from the 1880's, which in turn was based in part on the 1835 deck by Carlo DellaRocca.

This version of Dellarocca’s deck was produced by the Avondo Brothers of Serravalle-Sesia, a small town known for its card production. It was reproduced in 2000 by Lo Scarabeo as the Ancient Italian Tarot.

The trumps in this deck are based on Marseilles symbolism. As typically Italian modification the Magician (I - Il Bagatto) becomes an artisan, probably a cobbler.

This deck is similiar to "The Classical Tarots", which is a recoloured reprint of Della Rocca's original engravings from 1835. In the Classical Tarots, the fields of the images have been narrowed slightly to allow for the printing of keywords along the border. In the Ancient Italian Tarot deck the lines are thicker and less detailed. The deck has not been re-colored, and the colors are darker. The pip cards in the Ancient Italian contain Arabic numerals, whereas the Classical pips have roman numerals.

In the "Ancient Italian Tarot" the court cards have been redone , and the Avondo Brothers gave the pip cards some unique features. The Ace of Cups is unlike that of any other deck. A cherub sits in a window cut in the side of a large chalice that has dolphins at the base. The cups in the rest of the suit have blue jewels on their bowls. The suit of Batons is decorated with gold plaques, red hearts and filigrees instead of the usual flowers and leaves. The center enclosure in the even numbered swords cards has an oak or laurel branch instead of a flower as in most decks.

The Ace of Coins has the tax stamp and Winged Mercury in the center of the coin. The extra tax stamp, dated 1880, towards the top the card is in black, indicating that the deck was for domestic market. The vegetation throughout the pip cards is heavier and more lavish than in any other deck.