The Marcel Ruijters' Tarot

Aaanddd...I'm back, yes once more I'll try to resurrect my blog, once more I want to reach out to the tarot-community and share my 'babies' with all of you out there.So for my first installment in a very long time  I've chosen something special, with both a bite and a laugh.

Earlier this year cartoonist Marcel Ruijters has published in cooperation with the Dutch publisher Sherpa, his interpretation of the tarot in a 80 cards deck, in a very limited edition of only 50 decks.
But it was not it's first print-run, in it's first incarnation the deck was a hand screened, majors only + 2 extra cards deck published by 'Le Dernier Cry' an independent publisher specialized in the bizarre, the unusual, the alternative.

Between both editions there are not only many years but also some changes.
The most noticeable differences between both editions are in language, in size and hue, where in the first edition the cards where big bold and in fluo colours, in the 2014 edition we get cards in standard tarot size and more earthy natural tones. Over the years many cards also underwent change, where redisigned, some depict completely different scenes even between both print-runs, like the  lovers seen here under

The decks are executed in his personal modus of expression: his images are a mix of medieval woodcuts, magic, the surreal and absurd, a style he pulls of consequently through all 78 cards.
Where the major arcana differs most from the standard, both in numbering and imagery the minors are more like a personal reinterpretation of the decks we know, with a personal cheeky re-imagination, a deck with a tongue in cheek sense of humor and one I can appreciate, or what do you think of the cards below?

For those who love this deck enough to want one, I have good news, I've spoke to Marcel and he told me that they are about to publish more decks through printing on demand.For those who want to know more, you can ask Marcel he is on faceBook 

and what better way to end my first post in a very very long time with the 2 extra cards from the deck

The Prisma Visions Tarot by James R. Eads

Last year James R. Eads had a kickstarter campaign entitled "The Visions Project: Tarot Cards & Art Prints" to publish his 79 cards deck in a bi-chrome scheme, a modern reinterpretation of th WCS deck and also a majors only + extra card prints set that are a color reworking of that deck with some other changes, tweaking - now he's back with the follow up on that project so to speak, the "The Prisma Visions Tarot".

First let's begin with the beginning,  the Light Visions tarot (first self published as a major arcana deck before the kickstarter project and than as the 79 cards deck, both OOP now), a very nice deck that is modern yet ancient at the same time, technological as natural. The both the modern as the technological parts can be seen in the contemporary some/many re-workings of the tarot archetypes like the chariot that became a car coming towards us,from the left to the right hand side of the card, the ancient feeling comes from the technique used: hand drawn images in a style that are reminiscent of old woodcut blocks. The 2013 kickstarter campaign was to fund that deck and the Prisma Visions Collection, 22 majors plus the extra card that flowed from those images, similar, but different, not only because those are giclee prints but they underwent some evolution.

Take for example the chariot here below where the Prisma Visions version not only gained colors but also in dynamism due to the headlights being turned on.

And now James is back for a full 79 cards version of the Prisma Visions, as with the Light Visions tarot there is an 'interesting 'thing' with the minors arcana, if you put every card of a suit one next to it's predecessor it forms one single continuous scene, for now only the suits of Chalices and wands are ready.


Take a look at his project here and if it's anything it looks like and the quality as high as the previous (of what i have no doubt) this will be a winner (in a way it already is having more than doubled the artist's funding goal)

Alice tarot by Karen Mahony & Alex Ukolov

Baba studio has done it again, after many years passionate work this summer they have finally published what was one of the most anticipated deck of the year, and it is good, very good even!

Many have been talking, waiting, wanting this deck ever since it was first mentioned and the number of individuals interested only rose despite it's long genesis, the longest in the very successful parcours of Baba stdio  must say...and once it was available for pre-order I jumped on the occasion to obtain it (as many others did), the best proof it how successful it is, is the fact that the deluxe limited edition, despite its price  is already sold out! But was it worth it or is it just one of those hypes the tarot world has? My answer is simple: YES it is worth.

A work of love and dedication combining the tarot with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by means of collage art, a technique they have proven in the past to master at a very high degree. Due to the source material and the understanding Karen and Alex have of the tarot this deck resulted in more than just another WCS-clone with happens to be Alice themed, no this is a fresh exciting cross-fertilization between the two resulting in a 'child' that will fill you with wonder, and make you wonder if the Cheshire Cat was correct when  saying "Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
But then (some) madness never hurt, and where the artist and geniuses not considered mad by those who did not understand them?

It is a nice tradition at Baba to have 2 variations of a card, in the Alice these are 2 lovers cards, both very nice and very different from your 'classic' lovers.
One card is the The Walrus and the Carpenter. the other is showing flamingo's whatever version you choose to use (or be bold and use both) they will make an interesting impact on your view of the lovers.

Both editions the Limited and the 'normal' version use the same images with metallic ink to highlight elements and/or parts of the cards (or in some even up to 90% of the image), both use the same high quality card-stock with a carbon inner layer to protect against bending and creasing, etc...
So in what do the editions differ? Well both editions have a different back, a different size (Limited edition 65 x 100 mm , about 6.5 x 4 inches and the Standard deck 28 x 78 mm (about 5 x 3 inches) and also the limited edition came in  a nice wooden box with the deck inside it also protected by a hand-sewn fold-over pouch in pure silk dupion and printed satin, the standard comes in the same kind of hinged box we came to appreciate from them.

You can still by the standard editions at the shop, it is not  a mass-market deck so  it will not be available via mass-market sellers. For our convenience the Baba Studio shop has now been divided into an European and an international part the main address remains the same http://baba-store.com/  and there you will be redirected.

Bohemian Gothic Tarot third edition is open for pre-order

In case you didn't notice one of my favourite gothic decks, is almost back in print!
I'm not the only one loving it that much judging the attention it gets on tarot groups and forums all around,and prices it fetches on eBay once it goes OOP, so there will be a lot of people happy (and this just in time for the holidays) .

This third edition had just like the second one (and as will all decks by Karen & Alex before being re-published in a new edition) under gone some changes, some subtle rather tweaking others are more noticeable and some can already be seen at Baba Studio's facebook page - here.

Like the first and the second edition that had 2 'formats' (for the 1st a normal and a sliver edition, and for the 2nd a normal and a deluxe version with pewter/silver edges) this 3rd edition comes also in 2 different shapes a normal deck and a mini deck with foiled silver backs.

You can pre-order the deck directly at Baba Store here and to sweeten the deal not only you get  a pre-order discount on the deck but also on their wonderful limited edition Bohemian Gothic tarot bags with an "authentication" ribbon tag.

Warning: fake Bohemian Gothic Tarot

It has come to my attention that there are bootleg  Bohemian Gothic Tarots for sale coming from Russia/Ukraine.

This is what Karen Mohony one of the wonderful creators of this and many other great decks wrote today:

"WARNING. There are fake Bohemian Gothic decks on the market now. These are illegal bootlegs from Ukraine/Russia and are very badly done. Please beware and warn people. How to tell the fakes. Please look at the photos here. (Facebook Link)
1. All prints are over-exposed, glaringly wrong colours and fuzzy. 
2. Deck is smaller and to make the images fit they have just cropped them (yuck). 3. Box is different. 
4. Weird typo on box Poe's death date is very, very wrong! 
5. Russian LWB 
6. Most ironic of all - our copyright notice on the box has been removed."

The quality of these decks is clearly very bad and has nothing to do with the excellent quality that Baba studio is so very well know for.

Here is the page they have made with some images so everyone can see the difference in quality between the original and the fakes.
 

The Zombie Apocalypse TaROT by Joe Frost

This is the second tarot that I know of that has been published this year,  and both decks are on the most opposite places of the spectrum possible.Where the other zombie tarot was tong in cheeky and kitschy in a good kind of way this one goes all the way in gore and horror.

With a subtitle like "The Deck That Puts The ROT in TaROT" the tone has certainly been set...and one can not say the artist didn't go all the way, he went even in full overdrive! Using photographs of fanatical gruesome zombies makes so that more realistic and dark that it may scare away the more faint of heart...

Joe Frost used photo's from a variety of artists around the zombie-theme to link to the 78 arcana + one extra card named Undeath, fact is that the images do not always speak for themselves. Due to as good as no identifiable elements from the major arcana or suit symbols, any esotheric pointers linking a card to an imaes is not always simple or logical,  where some images can clearly be linked to a card others can only be identified by the title printed upon them and are mutually interchangable.

For anyone really into zombies, with a sub-categorie of realy dark decks in their collection or who just want to have the most distressingdeck for those halloween readings this might be the deck for you.
The artist self-published this deck trough the Gamecrafter where it can be bought 

Wormweird Tarot by George Higham

Time for real horror gore and darkness, the subtitle of this deck says it all: "The path to enlightenment has never been so dark" and believe me it's not just a marketing slogan, but the reality for each and every card of this deck, beware my friends there be monsters there....The whole atmosphere breathes a mixture of steampunk, classical horror absinthe and

The images where created using good old Victorian style stage-illusion techniques, waxwork sculptures and the interplay of light and shadow, no photoshop or other digital manipulation after the images where taken was applied- perhaps this too contributed to the power of this images, no slick or polished cards but pure horror and madness.

The deck follows the downfall of the town of Wormwood (as the herb used to produce the ill-famed liquor Absinthe that is present in almost every card and dragging everyone down into insanity ) and its inhabitants into a hell the story of it described in the codex that gives a kind of biography of each card/personage of the deck,  information also about its divinatory meanings at the same time.

Where every major, court card and the extra card "baron Alchymus (around who's actions and experiments everything evolve and drags the down into decay, insanity and a world full of abominations of man and nature) depict a person who's story represents it, the minors 1-10 show dark-inimistic scenes.

The images on the cards and the stories in the codex are miles away from the classic tarot but yet for a coherent system and for those into some (or much) darkness it is something they might get into their collection.

you can see more of the deck and the artists other work at his website here

Robo Tarot by Pete Hague

I admit it I have e nerdy, geeky or whatever you want to call it side,I love sci-fi (both books, movies, as...whatever) so when I found a deck that combines my passion for tarot with my sci-fi love I just had to grab it!

Originally designed only to be featured upon T-shirts but the demand upon the artist for a 'real printed deck'  became that big he finally went along t make one - something I've been very happy about!

All the characters in the deck have been replaces by those wonderful 'living machines' who are portrayed in a wide array of shapes and poses,so to fit best the 'role' they are playing.
All are executed in a style I'd call retro Science Fiction (remember those old posters from the '40ies, 50ies and 60?) and each one of the 23 majors (yes 23, the artist created 3 versions of the Fool, each as funny as the other, it would have been, a shame not to see them) and 56 minors  is produced within a limited pallet up to maximum 4 I think  which accentuates the retro elements while giving the image a strong and solid feel.

For some the unillustrated pip cards might be a downside but with such a deck rich in colour these do have a soothing effect upon the eye, just enough to be ready for the courts. An other aspect that keeps the theme up to the very last (or very beginning as you open the parcel they come in) is the metal tin they come in an that's held together with a metal strap, nice touch and wraps the whole up very well.

You can find the tshirts, prints and deck (in 2 sizes) at the artists Etsy shop, and on the tarots Facebook page, and for those who want there is even a website (very creative man isn't he and really passionate about his art and the works it produces).

Pre-order Victorian Romantic - Second Edition

Rejoice tarot lovers after some time the well-know even well-loved Victorian Romantic Tarot who was for some time OOP (with prices exploding on eBay and similar sites) comes back into print scheduled for November 2012.

As with all Baba Studio's before a deck comes out of the OOP status and back into circulation it underwent a thorough renewal, reworking to fit the artist high standards, elegant taste and inspiration.

You can now pre-order it in a bundle together with a mini version of it. (and you even have the possibility to ad some special extras. The pre-orders will be taken in batches, you can subscribe to a list to be notified when the next one starts.
The link to the pre-order page is here. 

The Sacred India Tarot by Rohit Arya & Jane Adams

India is one of those countries that despite being depicted in deck or it's mythology being used in many decks has produced very little tarot decks itself,  this one is only the second one I have that is produced there.

All cards where stripped down to their archetypes, transported from western esoteric thoughts and concepts into India and dressed up in it's still living mythology (with elements drawn from Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism to form a coherent system) 

It is a 82 cards deck consisting of the classic 78 + 2 versions of both death and the world and also 2 'blessing cards' Blessings of Ganesha & Blessings of Blessings of Babaji. The style is directly identifiable as Indian, not the opulent rich golden one but the contemporary swirling vibrant version of it.

  

The majors depict the Indian Gods & Goddesses while the minors are retelling the epic stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the life of the Buddha and the love story between Shiva and Parvati, poured in a narrative form best suiting for each suit. All information you need and even more about the cards and what they stand for, their background and meaning is found in the well-written 350 pages handbook.

The Incidental Tarot by Holly DeFount update

Last year in August I told you you about the fund-raiser for this deck, well recently I received the printed deck in my mail, and I like it very much!

Miss DeFount did a great job with the money she harvested on IndieGoGo, the printing quality, card-stock and boxes are of a high quality and do her art really pride (and bring joy to me).

While the settings (medieval and early renaissance) & the images images themselves she drew look like classical tarot images, a lot has been changed between this deck and a classical deck.Individual major arcana cards, suits and court cards have been renamed and even substituted by different images but who's  signification are similar.The images themselves look peaceful, nothing dark or dangerous, but rather 78 holiday postcards from the tarot-side-of-the-world.

The renamed majors are: The Red King (Magician), Cathedral:(Hierophant), Gryphon (Strength), Blue Buddha (Hermit), Triskelion (Wheel of Fortune), Eclipse (Hanged Man), Polarity (Temperence), Chimaera (Devil),  Phoenix (Tower), The Grail (Star) & Awakening (Judgement) not really a substitution but a translation is La Lune for the moon.and on top of that you get 2 extra cards: Labyrinth & Ariadne whom she describes as Tarot Talismans in stead of wild-cards or significators.

In the minors things get a bit more complicated with 4 renamed suits en in each suit the page and knight received a different name,so that gives us the following courts:
Court cards are:
- For Oak (for Earth (Pentacles)):The Steward, The Builder, The Queen & The King
- For Quills (Air (Swords)): The Oracle, The Alchemist, The Queen & The King
- For: Roses (Water (Cups)): The Muse, The bard, The Queen & The King
- For the Arrows (Fire (Wands)): The Messenger, the Archer, The Queen & The King

The artist has an Etsy shop, her own website and one especially for the deck here and even a FaceBook page, sadly for the moment on none of these there seem to decks available (for the moment?)

The Regretsy Tarot Project

The name of the decks sounds whimsy and that's exactly what the deck is! It is a collaborative project between 25 artists all over the world active on the website Regretsy.com (a site that's a humorous view of all strange stuff that can be found on the Etsy site )  and who call themselves 'April's Army'. last year they organised a successful fund-raiser and there are still some of the 1144 decks that make up this edition available at this location.

The cards are as a result of the regretsy origin full of fun and general (and specific) strangeness, and yes some of that is of an adult nature (for example the suits are called Tools, Genitalia, WTF, and Whimsicles and with extra card Towel Mike). The occasional hint to the WCS-deck, keeps it recognisable as a tarot yet viewed through an hilariously mad mind, the majors have been renamed to go with the vibe of the whole, some title work some are just bizarre - but as part of this deck what could you expect.

Darkana Tarot Deck

And once again I'm here with a deck in the fund-raising stage of it's creation/publication life, it seems lately many artists who want to self-publish have discovered this way get their project off the ground.

The deck was seeking the needed money to go through and get published, and meanwhile already succeed in, (after only 4 days) but it is still possible to obtain one though his kickstarter page here.

It is a full 79 cards modern, black and white deck with non conventional imagery, the extra 79th card is called the Badass, a clear illustration of the artist's sense of humor. Tongue in cheek, irreverent, comic or just plain fun, well these impressions are correct the deck creator Dan Donche (aka Tarot Junkie) is the man behind the Inappropriate Tarot Readings application on Facebook.

Watcher Angel Tarot by Jacqueline Williams & Michelle Belanger

There are quite a few angel themed decks out there, mostly very sugary sweet or with detached absent looking beings, not so for this one here is drama, action, emotion, both good and bad.

The Watcher Angels to whom the decks title referred are the angels who chose to fall to earth for the love of human women, and learned them the arts of prophecy, root-cutting, cosmetics, and metal-smiting. Briefly mentioned in the bible book genesis, the angels story is told at large in the the first section of the "Book of Enoch",a non-canonical Jewish text.

Each major arcana is linked to one of these angels, whose name appear at the bottom of the card, the minors portray both humans and angels and the impact those had on our world, this linked to a keyword under the image.

78 cards + one extra card the 'Seeker', available as deck alone or as set with the companion book.

The homepage for the deck is here
The deck can be ordered here or at the artists Etsy store

Tarot Collectors Forum 2011 Collaborative Deck

Le nouveau Tarot Collectors Forum tarot has arrived! Yes it's that moment of the year again, for it's 4th consecutive year members of the Tarot Collectors Forum have put together their efforts, creativity and love of tarot to create a 78 card deck - and once more the harvest from all that labour of love has been a good one.

As with the 3 previous decks style and materials used where up to the participants what resulted in a wide array of possible variations in result; mix that in with a background of people who have and know literally hundreds of decks and or even created at least one (some among us are even artist with deck that are self published or published by a big company). My personal contributions this year where The Chariot, the Page of Swords and shown below the Page of Pentacles (and I think I may be proud of my creations)

A big project like this one brings its problems with it, many persons working together on the same project but in their own manner, their own speed and personality means there is need for a good organisation with some strong personalities to keep the reigns, but we reached the finish all together and even faster than previous years. Bravo for us all!

It is a very exclusive deck, not meant for sale, there is one deck for each participant + one deck for the forums host Adam McLean and one fro the "Museo dei Tarocchi".

See also:
Tarot Collectors Forum 2010 Collaborative Deck
Tarot Collectors Forum 2009 Collaborative Deck

The Alchemical Tarot: Renewed - Third Edition

The first 2 editions of this great deck went sadly out-of-print, but luckily we won't have to fear prices exploding like they did when  the first edition went OOP. Robert Place is planning to launch a third &; improved edition.


In conjunction with the new printing, Robert is finishing an updated version of the companion book and working with software engineer, Tony Newell, to create an app. version of The Alchemical Tarot.


To raise funds Robert Place has turned to IndieGoGo (a site designed so artist can raise the money they need to make their projects come reality), you can find his fund-raising page here

Tarocchi Minchiate "Al Leone"

Nice decks, interesting decks ones with historic importance do not always need to be expensive, proof of that is one of my latest find of mine. During my daily overview on eBay I stumbled upon this historic reprint (unaltered or corrected - thus looking exactly like it was printed a few centuries ago) published back in 2004.

This deck is a photo reproduction of a Florentine Minchiate deck (circa 1790) from an original contained in the collection of the "FOURNIER" cards museum located in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, owned by the Excma. Diputacion Floral de Alava.The cards measure a nice sized 115mm x 60mm printed on lightish stock, with round corners but unfortunate gloss finish what takes away some of the authenticity, yet it remains an interesting deck for collectors and all those interested in historic decks.

Twilight Rabbit Tarot by Jessica Clayman

There are many animal themed decks out there both self published or by big companies, featuring all kinds of animals but decks with rabbits there are few (as a matter of fact this is only the 2nd one I found and bought).

The artist has worked 5 entire years on this deck  of anthropomorphic rabbits featured in images that are interesting renderings of the WCS-tarot but seen through rabbit eyes. The cards echo at some places classical works of art, general culture or ancient mythology  (doesn't that empress remind you of a certain Venus and that 3 of cups made me think of Alice in Wonderland...) there is even place for my favorite Egyptian deity.

The deck is for sale at miss  Clayman's Etsy shop in 2 versions an 78 cards one and one with 83 cards where the 5 extra cards are Thoth-tarot versions of The Emperor, The Star, Lust and Adjustment (Balance) and also an Happy Squirrel card.

But wait there is more for those who doesn't get enough of this rabbit-o-rama there is the website wwww.twilightrabbit.com Fitting the theme the suits have been renamed to Clover (= Wands), Passions (= Cups), Carrots (= Swords)  and Stone (= Pentacles). The court cards became : Throne, Jack, Queen and King 

Tarocchi Minchiate "Al Leone"

Interesting decks with historic importance do not always have to be expensive or hard to find, proof of that is this interesting find I did on eBay during one of my daily overviews hunting down interesting decks to add to my collection.

The deck in question is a photo reproduction (thus looking excacly like it was printed a few centuries ago) of a Florentine Minchiate deck (from circa 1790) from the original found in the collection of the "Fournier cards Museum in Alva, situated in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain and published in 2004.The cards measure a nice115mm x 60mm on printed upon lightish stock, round corners with a gloss finish that take a bit away from it's authenticity. An interesting deck that enriches the historic section of my collection (there are still some left on eBay at a nice price)

Tea Tarot by Marcia McCord (pre-order info)

Marcia McCord who also created the Picture Postcard Tarot, the Art Postcard Tarot and the Victorian Trade Card Tarot is now at this very moment (March 2011) working on a new deck.

Once again it will be in the familiar style of her 3 other decks vintage and antique images from a period we imagine to be sweeter and more innocent than ours, and this time there will be a theme tea-related images, ads from tea companies, photos of tea-related antiques...something worth looking into for all tarot readers and/or collectors especially those who like a hot cup of tea.
The deck shall have rounded corners and have the same size and cardstock as her other decks.
 

You can find more information and how to pre-order on her blog