Elisabeth Haich Tarot

Creator(s): Elisabeth Haich, Oswald Wirth
Date: 1983
Country: Germany
Publisher: Drei Eichen Verlag 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 3-7699-0408-7    
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Decker/Dummet A History of the Occult Tarot p. 185-187

Notes:
Elisabeth Haich (1897-1994) was an internationally recognized sculptor, painter and author of several books on spirituality. Together with Selva Yesudian she was instrumental in popularization of yoga in Central Europe.

She created 22 cards in the style of the Oswald Wirth deck to accompany her book Tarot. Die zweiundzwanzig Bewußtseinsstufen des Menschen, which was first published in 1969.

Her book does not advocate the use of Tarot to predict the future, nor  Tarot readings for any other purpose. She simply explains her mystical interpretations of the Major Arcana. Haich claimes that Tarot cards were created by initiates of prehistoric times and her interpretations of the cards make some use of Hindu ideas.

She aknowledges Oswald Wirth as the artist who originally created the set of Major Arcana,  which came with the book. For the edition printed in 1969 Haich reproduces his design, but without the borders and Wirth's ideograms. In the reprint of book and cards from 1983, the ornamented borders returned and the colors are a bit different.

Both editions have blank backs and very thin cardstock.

Creator(s): Elisabeth Haich, Oswald Wirth
Date: 1969
Country: Germany
Publisher: J. Fink Verlag 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:     
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Decker/Dummet A History of the Occult Tarot p. 185-187

Tree of Life Tarot / Kabbalistisches Tarot

Creator(s): Rufus Camphausen, Apolonia van Leeuwen
Date: 1983
Country: Switzerland
Publisher: AGM
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 3-85914-147-3
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, pp. 638, 640-641



Notes:
This deck was designed as a study aid for learning the kabalistic and astrological associations in Tarot. The images on the deck are wholly symbolic. The titles are in English and German.

The Major Arcabna feature the Tree of Life with a path between two Sephirot highlighted. Within each of the  two Sephirot a planetary symbol is inscribed. In the upper left corner is a zodiacal or planetary symbol, on the lower right is a Hebrew letter.

The Minor Arcana show a zodiac wheel with three houses highlighted. A small glyph of the Tree of Life is in the center of the Zodiac wheel. Each suit is matched with an element and colored in the appropriate color for the element: red for fire, blue for water, yellow for air and green for earth. The planet assigned to the card is shown on the outside of the zodiac wheel in position next to the appropriate sign. The symbol for the suit's element is in the upper right corner of the card; the card's number is in the upper left corner.

 The court cards are Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. They show the four letters of the Tetragrammaton in the center of the zodiac wheel, vice the Tree of Life. The appropriate letters for the court card are colored in.

The kabbalistic attributions follow the Golden Dawn interpretations, with some exceptions . The back design shows the Egyptian god Thot. The deck came with a book titled  "Spiegel des Lebens - Tarot und Kabbala" by Rufus Camphausen.

The Tree of Life Tarot was first published in a limited edition of 222 decks. In 1983 it was published by AGM as an unlimited  massmarket edition.

Jeu de la Princesse Tarot

Creator(s): Johannes Trismegiste
Date: 1843*, 1876*, 1983
Country: France
Publisher: Dusserre
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:  
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Tarot Garden
 





Notes:
The first version of this deck was designed 1843 by Lorambert under the pseudonym Johannes Trismegiste. It was published with Jules Laisne and appeared  in a book called L'Art de tirer les cartes, revelations completes sur les destinees au moyen des cartes et des tarots, d'apres les methodes les plus certaines (The Art of Rreading the Cards, complete instructions on fortune-telling by means of cards and tarots, according to the most reliable methods). It was reprinted unchanged in 1850.

In 1864 there appeared a new edition called Jeu de la Princesse Tarot. The designs of the cards remained the same, but some titles and inscriptions of the trumps and names of court cards and aces where changed to a more ancient Egyptian style to emphasize their supposed origins, e.g. number 3 was called Anubis. The production was continued by Wattillaux (1874-1908).

Dussere reprinted one of the Wattillaux Jeu de la Princesse Tarots from around 1876, which was preserved in the National Library in Paris as photoreproduction. A modified version of this deck has been reproduced in 1996 by Lo Scarabeo as the Esoteric Ancient Tarots.

The cards were numbered consecutively from 1 to 78, following the system started by Etteilla to emphasize that the cards were pages of an ancient book. The cards have a central image surrounded by a large border with two lines of text at the bottom. The first is the card title the second line it’s divinatory meaning. At the top of the card is a reversed printed line with the reversed divinatory meaning.

In spite of their titles the cards do not portray convincing Egyptian iconography instead they incorporate symbology from such sources as Genesis and the Hermetic creation myths of The Divine Pymander.

Vandenborre Bacchus Tarot

Creator(s): F.I. Vandenborre
Date: 1780*, 1983
Country: Belgium
Publisher: Carta Mundi
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 0-88079-050-4  
Type: Belgian
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.I, p. 145






Notes:
This deck is a reproduction of the Vandenborre tarot published in Brussels, Belgium, in 1780. It is also called the Flemish Tarot by Vandenborre. 

The Belgian tarots were also known as "Cartes de Suisses", although no examples made in Switzerland were known. The order of the trumps is the same as in the Tarot de Marseille, and a number of the designs are also similar. Other cards (Tower, Sun, Moon, Star, World, Hanged Man) are different. Pope and Popess are replaced with  “Bacchus” and the “Spanish Captain Fracasse” (a figure from the Commedia dell’arte).

Probably  it is a hybrid pattern, combining some features of a Bologna-like Italian pattern with the Tarot de Marseille pattern, with which it must have overlapped geographically in the 17th century.

The Court consists of Roi (King), Reine (Queen), Chevalier (Knight) and Valet (Page). The suits are Epees (Swords), Deniers (Coins), Batons (Wands) and Coupes (Cups). The Minor Arcana are pips.

The graphics is less detailed than the Jacques Vieville Tarot.  The cards are colored in red, blue (light and dark), green, yellow and flesh coloured. Originally printed from woodcuts and coloured using stencils,the colour for the Carta Mundi edition  seem to have been added as process colour.