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

Oswald Wirth Tarot (McLean Edition)

Creator(s): Oswald Wirth, Adam McLean
Date: 2013
Country: United Kingdom
Publisher: Adam McLean
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:   
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Adam McLean

Notes:
The Oswald Wirth Tarot was created in1889 as a majors only deck. It has a Marseilles foundation, with some changes based on the ideas of Eliphas Levi. These cards were used to illustrate Le Tarot des Bohemiens by Papus.

The deck was printed as line engravings then coloured by hand, as was usual with playing cards at that time when colour printing had not fully developed. The colouring of the cards was often messy, with the colour overflowing the lines and often not entirely filling the areas, because the colour was applied using stencils and relatively unskilled labour. Adam McLean has cleaned up the images, sensitively correcting these flaws, to produce a deck that reflected Wirth's original conception.

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.

Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age - Tchou edition

Creator(s): Oswald Wirth
Date: 1926, 2006
Country: Switzerland, Canada
Publisher: Tchou
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 978-2-7107-0728-8
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. I, p. 286








Notes:
Oswald Wirth was a Swiss occultist and kabbalist (1860-1943). He drew his first version of the 22 major arcana cards in 1889, basing them on the Tarot of Marseilles and other decks of the time. These cards were used to illustrate Le Tarot des Bohemiens by Papus. Wirth redrew his cards shortly thereafter, but the revised deck was not published until 1926 along with a book on the cards called Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen-age in 1927.

This rendition of Oswald Wirth's majors, included with a French Canadian edition of Wirth's book Le Tarot: des Imagiers du Moyen Age was first published in 1966 and in many editions since then. Mine is a 2006 photoreprint of the edition Sand 1984

The style is similar to that of the Marseille, with some changes Wirth made based on the writings of Eliphas Levi. Each card except Death has a Hebrew letter in the lower right corner, but Wirth does not use the Golden Dawn assignments. In Wirth’s system Aleph is assigned to The Magician, vice The Fool. The letters continue to be assigned in order until card 20. Wirth then assigns Shin to The Fool and Tau to The World. Death does not have a name or Hebrew letter on the bottom, though it is numbered 13 the top. There are very few Tarot writers who use this assignment of the Hebrew letters ( Wirth's Tarot of the Magicians, Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians, Mouni Sadhu's The Tarot and Elisabeth Haich's Wisdom of the Tarot )