Le Tarot Magique

Creator(s): Frédéric Lionel
Date: 1980, 1982
Country: Germany
Publisher: Aurum 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 3-59108179-5    
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.329-332



 




Notes:
Frédéric Lionel was a prolific writer on philosophical and esoteric subjects. His  cards were originally published in 1980 by the French publishing house Editions du Rocher to accompany the book Le Tarot Magique. In 1982, the German publisher Aurum issued the cards with a German edition of Lionel 's book, entitled Das Spiel der Spiele: Tarot.

The Roman numerals in the upper left-hand corner represent the symbolic quality of the card, while Arabic numerals in the upper right-hand corner indicate the cards' representative stages along the path of initiation. Neither numbering system follows traditional tarot numbering.

Most of the cards have the conventional titles (exeptions are The Divine Mistress / The Master instead of High Priestess / Hierophant and Serenity replacing Strength).The artwork is abstract and geometrical, consisting of line drawings with some regions coloured with watercolour.

The images as a composition look like the sigils found in magical manuscripts. They are constructed from various elements. There are a number of Egyptian images, like the eye of Ra or the Ankh, also appearing are the Chinese Ying-Yang, astrological signs, constellations and planets.The design of each card represents an abstraction of the idea of each arcana.

Tarot de Louttre B

Creator(s): Marc-Antoine Bissiere
Date: 1981
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud 
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:    
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.320, 323

Notes:
Louttre B is the pseudonym of the French painter Marc-Antoine Bissiere (1926-2012). The deck was published in 1981 by Musee des Arts Decoratifs in cooperation with Grimaud on the opening of an exhibition called "Antique Playing Cards - A Collectors Dream". The cards originally were part of a book called "Le Tarot des familles", which was printed in a limited edition of only 75 copies. The book contains hand painted engravings of the cards with explanations.

The deck shows no human figures, but only the objects taken from Tarot de Marseilles. The images of this deck play with symmetry in various aspects. The three cards, where the symmetry of Roman numbers allows it, have mirror-inverted images. That leads to the first impression, that both The Emperor and The Lovers have number VI and Sun and Fool both have number XXI.

La Force (Strength) has no explicit number, but the number XI is part of the image.

Card titles are in French. The suits are d'Epee, Baton, Coupe, and Deniers. The courts are Valet, Cavalier, Reine, and Roi.  The backs are reversible. The 78 cards plus titlecard and a French only lwb came in a lidded cardboard box.

Elemental Tarot (Smith)

Creator(s): Caroline Smith, John Astorp
Date: 1988
Country: USA
Publisher: Dolphin Doubleday
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 0-385-24726-5   
Type: other
Reference:  Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 193, 194




Notes:
John Astrop is an astrologer and writer, and Caroline Smith is a painter and tarot reader. The Elemental Tarot fits a system of astrological combinations to the 78 cards of the Tarot. The card designs are vertically divided at the point of the golden section.

There are several symbols printed within the borders of each card. The suits are renamed. Earth refers to pentacles, air to swords, fire to wands, and water to cups. The corresponding elements are symbolized at the bottom by one of five geometric shapes. These five shapes are actually the Tattwa symbols. The Trumps are noted by an egg shape which corresponds to Spirit, the suit of Fire by a red triangle, Air by a blue circle, Water by a silver moon, and Earth by a green square.

Each card is also assigned a pair of planets which is meant to give additional meanings. This system of correspondences does not use the twelve zodiacal signs, but instead uses the ten planets, the midheaven, the ascendant, and Moon's node. The total pair combinations possible equal seventy-eight.

The Major Arcana are titled at the top, and have a descriptive keyword at the bottom. Some retain their traditional titles, such as The Sun, The Star and The Fool, others have been renamed, the Magician, for example,  is called the Trickster, it is the Pope instead of High Priest, and Aeon instead of the World. Within the side margins are lines from a Gnostic poem titled The Thunder, Perfect Mind. This text was one of several documents comprising the Nag Hammadi discovery in 1945.

Each Minor Arcana card is titled with an elemental based keyword and includes the name of a god or goddess from a variety of cultures at the bottom. The symbols found in the lower left margin of the Minor Arcana are Egyptian  hieroglyphs.

The court cards are Father, Mother, Son and Daughter and correspond to the traditional King, Queen, Knight and Page.

This is the first edition from 1988, which has sturdy slipcase packaging which houses a boxed set of cards and a hardbound book.The later edition by St.Martin'sPress in 1999 is of inferior quality.

Mythic Tarot

Creator(s): Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene, Tricia Newell
Date: 1986
Country: United Kingdom
Publisher: Eddison-Sadd Edition
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:  
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 609, 612, 613




Notes: 
The Major Arcana depict Greek gods or demi-gods and keep the traditional names but are unnumbered.The suits carry the traditional designations of wands, cups, swords and pentacles. Each suit is based on a Greek myth and the cards from the suit tell the story as they progress from Ace through ten.

Cups tell the story of Psyche and Eros, Wands tell of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Swords tell the story of Orestes and The Curse of the House of Atreus and Pentacles tell of Daedalus. While each suit is tied to a story, we still find scenes that are similar to those in the Waite-Smith deck.

The deck seems to be published by many different publishers in 1986, there is an edition by Fireside mentioned on aeclectic, one by  Simon and Shuster (USA) mentioned by Kaplan, one by Century Hutchinson (UK) and mine by Eddison-Sadd. They all have slightly different backs, some black with gold embleme as mine, some purple or blue. Mine came with a hardcover book, some others came with a softcover book
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Morgan-Greer Tarot (US Games)

Creator(s): Bill Greer, Lloyd Morgan
Date: 1979, ca. 1985
Country: USA
Publisher: US Games
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 595, 608





Notes:
The Morgan-Greer Tarot was originally published by Morgan Press in 1979. Morgan and Morgan declared bankruptcy in 1975, but continue publishing decks and books up to 1985. The deck was later published by U.S. Games Systems. This edition is the "transitional edition", it was still printed by Morgan Press but already distributed by US Games- and thus it must be from 1985 or older.

The cards have seven different star patterns on their backs. These are the same patterns (which are on the same cards) as in the last edition by Morgan with the two-piece box. Coredil classified the star patterns of the last Morgan edition in this thread on aeclectic.

Basque Mythical Tarot (Euskal Tarot Mitikoa)

Creator(s): Angel Elvira, Maritxu Erlanz de Güler
Date: 1982
Country: Spain
Publisher: Heraclio Fournier
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 564, 571




Notes:
Angel Elvira drew the designs from the traditions of the Basque people, who inhabit the western pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay.

The figures in the deck are dressed in traditional Basque costume. The colors red, yellow, green and turquoise predominate.Titles on the cards are in Basque, Spanish and English. The deck has two extra title cards, which show a hand between two birds, with four faces below representing the four elements. The Minors are plain pips. The deck came in a lidded cardboard box with a lwb.

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Neuzeit Tarot - New Age Tarot

Creator(s): Walter Wegmüller
Date: 1982
Country: Switzerland
Publisher: AGM
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, pp. 609, 616





Notes:
Wegmüller grew up within the Rom Gipsy culture of Switzerland, where he was shown his first Tarot deck. Like his friend Sergius Golowin he believes that the Tarot is closely connected to the history of the Gipsies.

Each of the Major Arcana has  a different border drawn into the design. Many of the Minors referred to legends of the gypsy-culture.

The card titles are printed in English, French and German. The back has a geometrical design in blue and white.

Tarot of Saqqara

Creator(s): Donald Beaman
Date: 1985, 2012
Country: USA
Publisher: 'nlitn! media group
Number of Cards: 82
ISBN: 978-0-9885777-0-1 
Type: Golden Dawn
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 462, 466

 



Notes: 
Donald Beaman is a professor of theatrical design at Boston University. On a visit to Saqqara in 1981 he was inspired to create a Tarot on the basis of ancient Egyptian religion.

Saqqara was the first pyramid built in Egypt and was probably designed by Imhotep. Beaman saw the floorplan of the entrance hall, the Double Hallway of Ma'at, as a series of gateways that could be assigned  to the Major Arcana of the tarot.

Each Major Arcana has in the background a drawing showing a reconstructed version of the gateways in the hall. The drawings were inspired by those of Lucie Lamy, who illustrated the works of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz and from the illustrations in the works of Sir Wallis Budge. In the upper part of each Major Arcana from left to right are a Coptic letter, an image of the goddess Ma'at, a Hebrew letter and a hieroglyphic of the name of Ma'at. At the bottom a major deity is named on the left of most cards and a talisman is shown on the right.

The four suits are ankh for wands-ruled by Isis, neb for cups -ruled by Nephthys, uas for swords- ruled by Set and djed for pentacles-ruled by Osiris.

The Tarot of Saqqara came with four extra-cards: 00 The Double Hallway of Ma'at, 22 Ayin, 23 Categories and 24 Life in Death.

Beaman's original paintings are composed on 36” x 52” wooden art board using acrylic, silver and gold leaf paints. The deck was designed in 1985,first issued in 2006 on a CD-Rom, with the Minor arcana also provided as a coloured version. In 2012 it was produced by 'nlitn! media group as a deck of cards.

Voyager Tarot

Creator(s): James Wanless, Ken Knutson
Date: 1986, 2008
Country: USA
Publisher: Fair Winds Press
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-1-59233-322-6 
Type: Other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 646, 647



Notes:
Ken Knutson created the photo-collage cards under the direction of James Wanless. The names of two of the suits are changed: Swords become Crystals and Pentacles become Worlds. Wands represent spiritual qualities, Cups emotional, Crystals mental and Worlds are for physical or wordly qualities.

The  court cards are sage, child, woman and man. The Minors have, in adition to tarot-titles, descriptive titles. Several of the Major Arcana have been renamed : Justice became Balance; Temperance changed to Art;  Devil's Play instead of The Devil; Judgment is Time-Space; The World became The Universe.

The back design shows a cross-section, composite view of DNA .

The Voyager tarot was first published by Merrill-West Publishing in 1986. Mine is the later, smaller edition from 2008 by Fair Winds Press.

Cartomancie de l'An 2000

Creator(s): Pino Zac
Date: 1981
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.556, 557

Notes:
Pino Zac is the pseudonym of the Italian cartoonist Giuseppe Zaccaria. He studied architecture in Rome, before going into illustrating. He made his debut in 1950, with Gato Filippo – the first comic strip ever to be carried by a newspaper in Italy.

The images of this deck show a humorous depiction of life in the year 2000, as envisioned by artist Pino Zac in 1981. Illustrations are rendered in a cartoon-like style.

The backs have a swirling design in different shades of blue.

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.

Tarocco Italiano (Dotti)

Creator(s): Teodoro Dotti
Date: 1845* reproduction 1985
Country: Italy
Publisher: Il Meneghello
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 179, 181








Notes:
This is a reproduction of a deck originally printed by Teodoro Dotti circa 1845. He and his son Edoardo published many decks based upon these designs, though most of these were woodcut decks. An engraved deck such as this one would have cost more because of the skill and time required for the finer lines.

Dotti's playing card factory  was in direct competition with Ferdinando Gumppenberg's factory at that  time. Gumppenberg's Soprafino Tarot  was published ca. 1835 and there are many similarities between the two decks.

Trump XIV has the unusual title of L’Intemperanza instead of the usual La Temperanza. This probable misspelling was copied onto a few subsequent decks.

The small cards have square corners and the backs have a regular pattern of dots.There is no LWB or instructions of any kind.

The poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) kept a Dotti pack for his personal use. The deck is in the collection of Yeats's memorabilia and has upright and reverse meanings written on the cards in the poet's hand

Tarot Egyptien

Creator(s): G. Regamey, Haugard-Mauge

Date: 1890*, 1985
Country: France
Publisher: Dusserre
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:  
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, p. 587 








Notes:
This Etteilla  type deck was originally published by Delarue of Paris around the turn of the century. The tax stamp on the two of swords was valid from 1890 to 1917. The original title was 78 Tarots Egyptiens Grand Jeu de L'Oracle des Dames. A case for the deck in the British Museum indicates that the designer was G. Regamey and the lithographer was Haugard-Mauge.

The reprint was issued 1985 by Dusserre with a pink and white geometrical back design. It was a reproduction of a deck in the Bibliotheque Nationale De Paris

Daityanus Tarot

Creator(s): Ernst Kurtzahn (Daityanus)
Date: 1920, 2012
Country: Germany, USA
Publisher: Talis / Schikowski / HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, pp. 158, 161

Notes: 
Ernst Kurtzahn, who wrote under the pseudonym Daityanus was a member of various Rosicrucian and magical orders, and especially interested in Kabbalah. The cards were small (2 3/4 inches by 1 5/8 inches) and first published by Talis Verlag in Germany in 1920 in the book Der Tarot by Ernst Kurtzahn as black and white line drawings.The book was reprinted by Schikowski in 1983 and the cards were published as a deck in 2012 by HistoricalRetrospective.

Most of the designs are redrawn from Etteilla Tarot and arranged and titled in traditional tarot sequence. Two ofthe designs (VI Lovers and Xii Hanged Man) are taken from the Tarot of Marseilles.

In his book Kurtzahn states that his tarot is derived from Etteilla's Tarot, the Tarot de Marseilles and Oswald Wirth's Tarot. The Fool is numberd zero, The World is numbered XXII, no card is numbered XXI. The cards have Geramn titles and a Hebrew letter with its corresponding number at the bottom.

The book and scans of all cards are available online here

Arcus Arcanum Tarot

Creator(s): Hansrudi Wäscher, Günter Hager
Date: 1986
Country: Switzerland
Publisher: AGM
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:  
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 564, 569  

Notes:
For the Arcus Arcanum Tarot, esotericist Hager enlisted renowned comic book artist Hansrudi Wascher to create a friendly, bright Waite-Smith derivative which consciously removes all occult symbol from the images, favoring story elements to convey meaning. Its comic book artwork is reminiscent of the Prince Valiant series.

There are Northern mythology references on various cards and the cards have a more masculine appeal than usual tarot decks.

Card Titles and LWB is German only.

Tarot des Centuries

Creator(s): Jean-Pierre Payen, Dominique Webb
Date: 1760*, 1986 
Country: France
Publisher: Héron
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp. 572, 576

Notes:
The Tarot des Centuries is also known as the Nostradamus Tarot. It is partly copied from the Tarot made by Jean-Pierre Payen around 1760 and partly redrawn from a seventheenth-century manuscript found in France. Dominique Webb claimed that the manuscript, on which tarot-cards were drawn, was inspired  by Nostradamus.

The cards are partly "renamed" according to Nostradamus work. E.g. the Magician became "Branchus" a prophet in Asia Minor, because Nostradamus described the  rite of Branchus, performed with a tripod, such as pictured usually  in the Magician. On the two of coins and the  two of cups "N.D." for Nostradamus is replacing the name of the original maker, Payen.

Nostradamus (1503-1566) has written a book of prophecy known as the Centuries. Although tarot cards were known in France during Nostradamus's lifetime, there is no reference to them in his works.

Heiri Steiner Tarot

Creator(s): Heiri Steiner, Mary Steiner-Geringer
Date: 1968
Country: Switzerland
Publisher: Rene Simmen, Zürich 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:
Type: Mixed
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, p. 491,492







Notes:
The cards are basically Marseilles Type with a bit influence by the Papus. The images look  a lot like children's drawings. The backs are not reversible. The cards have Roman nubers, German titles and Hebrew letters on the top.

The deck is accompanied by the book 'Das Tarot: Die Welt als Spiel' (The Tarot: The World as a Game) by Mary Steiner-Geringer, which also includes an essay by Sergius Golowin.


The book is in German, it has a chapter on each card and additional chapters on tarot and the zodiac, tarot and kabbalah as well as a lot of suggestions for spreads.

The tarot deck and the book are wrapped in a red cardboard box.