Alchemy 1977 England Tarot

Alchemy 1977 is a brand well know for its gothic and steampunk imagery and products,that enjoys a vast number of followers and has a big catalogue of images.

The house-style is a mixture of sexy temptresses, sculls and skeletons, mystical creatures like dragons (lots of them - they even replaced the Kings in the courts by one) and all other kind of monster from popular culture all set in a world that is set in a magical medieval period with steam-punk elements (quite an explication isn't it - for something that seems to be very pomular and guarantee to sell well). Fitting into the old school fantasy book genre the decks is guaranteed to have it fans both from fantasy lovers as tarot lovers with a taste for the darker stuff

They matched pre-existing art to the 22 majors and court cards, what in most cases produced sometimes a great card (I love the Fool) but mostly just satisfiable good nor bad, giving a 'pretty' card that happens to correspond to...some can make you wonder why they used it, but never in a shocking way. The minors 1-10 are beautiful, elegant and...non-scenic only x times the suit symbol (wands have become roses, and i can see why a black rose is so much elegant than a stick..)
Every image is set within ornamental frames augmenting the cohesive feeling between the cards and also the dark gothic feel of the set.

All in all a very nice deck, no deep mystical secrets hidden in it, no high art, just 78 dark cards for those into something more dark.

The decks is available from the usual places like Tarot Garden or Alida or other shops near you or on-line that sell tarot.

The Rosetta Tarot - Book of Seshet by Melissa M Meleen

There is a new Thoth-remake out, and knowing how few there are (especially when compared to the amount of  Waite-Colman-Smith and TdM-style ones) this is always a good news! Among those children of the Thoth this one is for sure one with the brightest and most vivid colours around so if you like a Thoth using a vibrant palette this might be one to look out for.


The artist wanted her deck to be a lovechild between the Thoth yet somehow during the elaboration of it the Thoth took over. In the portray of the archetypes and in structure it's a true Thoth with only here and there some stylistic WCS hints and traces, particularly in the minor arcana.

One interesting technique used by the artist is the fact that for each suit and the majors she used the techniques that where closest to the meaning and spirit of that suit, for example for the Cups connected to the element water  she used a mixed media technique of watercolor, water-based ink and acrylic, the acrylic comes back in all cards to create an unifying force throughout the deck.

The tarot is independently yet professionally printed in a limited edition of only 777 deck and comes in a well-constructed box together with an informative LWB that gives more info about the cards and the structure they are build on - in addition the artist also wrote a companion book for those wanting more.

The artist's site is here,  to find more about the deck and if you like it even buy it!

Update: The deck is now available as an app for iPhone and iPad  here (as well forTarot of the Holy Light and others)

Tarocchi I Colori E I Sogni by Maria Carmen Franca

One has not always to be a great artist or show huge craftsmanship to produce an interesting deck worthy to be collected, proof of that is this self published deck very limited edition (only 50 decks where created).

Early this year she released her “I Tarocchi della Notte” (aka Tarot of the Night) this seems to be her next brainchild (that could be translated as Tarot of Colours and dreams). There are lots of similarities with that deck in style and structure (and they both have non-scenic pip cards) but where the previous was clearly inspired by the Papus tarot this one seems more like a personal interpretation of the Tarot de Marseille.

Where the naïve style images may irritate, bore or even appal some people they have character something that can not always be said of the highly polished commercial decks – pretty but dead…. What misses Franca is lacking in the highly skilled artistic field she makes more than good in insight into the tarot tradition, this is a deck that would make proud the big names of old but also I’m sure the modern stars & teachers.