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.

Clown tarot by Debra Klopp-Kersey

There are many themed decks, decks build around a theme be it art, animals, herbs or bygone era’s (think of the dozens of Egyptian themed decks), but to my knowledge there is only one clown cantered deck and that is this one! Many themed decks lack in consistence, to match the chosen theme, but not this one, the images are not yet another copy op the images by Pamela Coleman Smith but with clowns.

The images in this majors only deck are truly original and the clowns are not all happy but further flat emotionless beings but display a wide range of emotions from the sweet innocent to the sad. The settings are sometimes a bit bizarre and surreal and sometimes your looking at them and go Ooo yes indeed it is….indeed they work within their chosen format and within the broader tarot tradition stand tall and strong on their own.

The artist site where you can admire all and buy the deck is here
And here is her Etsy shop
And finally here is her blog

Vitas - Personal Idol Diary Tarot by Sky Lee

One can find sometimes interesting overlooked decks. And the Asian marked is often overlooked by many, one has to say there are many many manga-style decks in Asia and if one does not like those you don't pay much attention to the entire market as a consequence. But sometimes there are decks that are really different and worth looking into it like this one.

While being printed in Asia it does not feel Asian, the persons depicted in it look Caucasian, the imagery is dark-fantasy and the language is ....Greek (the only deck in my collection of 1000+ decks that is in that language). The way the artist depicts the archetypes is fresh and original - original enough to give me for some cards difficulties enough to match the images to a title, i even had to look the titles up using google-translate to be able to match them all.

Message of Elements Tarot by Larissa Renard

With this deck we are back to Russian tarots and to the real of the surprising strangeness (if that is good or bad is up to each individually to say).

Leaving the well know imagery of classical tarot can be at least very refreshing, even if one does have a “what the ‘beep’” is this reaction to each card – and that is what I had at least 99% of the cards. Off course knowing Russian and being able to read the book and what is printed onto the cards may help lots…

What I was able to gather about the deck was that the cards are created to help you learn all about the interaction of male and female energies, which govern the flow of events and the state of the human world. The 56 minors tell about the role that elements play in your life: the freshness and fluidity of water, heat of fire, transparency and freedom of the air or the hardness and reliability of the Earth. Hence the elements of its title.

How all this is translated into images is less clear almost no “person-cards” (only the 2 highest court cards) non scenic minors and loots of swirls and pyramids in all kinds of variations throughout the deck...

In all it’s unconventionality it’s nice deck to look at, nice sized and good quality of both printing and cardstock – possibly great for meditation or creative work.

Italtel - Il Tarocco (aka Il tarocco di Tania Gori )

Yet again a small break from posting my Russian aquisitions, this time it's one of those modern TdM variations i adore and loveingly call Neo-Marseille.It's a full 78 cards deck with recognessable images and a true TdM structure executed in an angular almost entirely geometric style.

Althoug modern it is not really a "new one", it was published in 1989 in a big limited edition of 5000 decks as promotion for Italtel (a major telephone provider in Italy) The deck is bigger than most decks at at approx. 3-1/2 x 6 inches and that combined with it's stong colors and silver and gold ink (not gilded!) makes it a deck with a strong personality that stands out wherever you put it.

Magic Tarot by Aleksey Kluev

Back to Russia so to speak, and with a deck that screams it's name MAGIC the whole deck breaths an atmosphere as it where created to be used by a grand mage, a Voodoo priest or at least someone playing these in a movie of soap. A formula that seems to work as this deck is already at it's third print-run (Published by KSP+ in 1999, 2003 and now in 2010) This new edition has been very slightly restyled by fitting it with very dark blue/black borders giving it an even more 'occult tool' look.

This collage deck combines in an harmonious and apparently seamless works of classical art, magical elements and in the minors own drawings giving an own reinterpretation of the WCS ones original and yet easily recognizable.

As to it's structure? Well although being a Russian deck this one is completely similar to a 'normal western' tarot 78 cards divided in 22 majors, the 4 classical suits and yes even the classic court cards page, knight queen & king are all there, except it being in Russian the whole deck could as well have been printed in Europe or the USA .

Tarot of the Masters

Taking a 'small brake' from the Russian decks - i love to mention this deck by tarot writer, blogger and all round well rounded person James Ricklef. Already to his third small limited edition run it is very well worth having a look into, and perhaps get one now you still can.
(First limited edition of 55 copies; second limited edition of 101 copies & Third limited edition of 110)

The deck has as starting points great masterpieces of classical art and links them to all 78 tarot archetypes, indeed we recognize paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec, Rembrandt and Hieronymus Bosch. But different than other decks who are based upon classical art James takes them and does his 'thing' to them redrawing them in n pen and ink and colored on the computer, giving all cards in the deck an uniform feel and look, something - in my humble opinion - he has very well succeeded in doing.
James website is here
and here is his blog

Rocambole-Tarot

This deck was the first truly Russian deck I ever discovered, although Russian… The artist behind it Anna Nikolaeva and the author of the book Sergey de Rocambole are Ukrainians* and the art is a geometric Mayan/Toltec style.

As with so many east-European decks from Russian or the former USSR, the structure is deviating from standard tarot decks, it has 89 cards made up of the majors + 3 extra fools and the minors have 6 person in the court cards, what gives balance in genders namely: a King and Queen, male and female Riders (who correspond to the Knight), and male and female Servants (who correspond to the Page). So despite the unusual number of cards a nicely balanced out whole.

Thought provoking innovative in structure yes but with a strong and logic structure it’s is a deck that is both modern and in line with classics, a nice addition to any collection, and for the tarot readers among us something you may try out and see on what strange ways it leads you.

The one thing that may hold many persons back are the non-scenic minors, but fear not they are not boring at all, and the decorations and positioning of the suit symbols is very reminiscent of the TdM**.

*(one of the former republics within the USSR, and also known for the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history – what is on the mind of most westerners ‘Russian’),

** TdM = Tarot de Marseille

Demons Tarot

These last weeks i found a reliable way to obtain Russian tarot decks - so I did with great joy and passion (and a budget to fit those). Russian is from a occidental view a 'terra-incognita' when it comes to tarot, so lots of new thing to discover for me

One of these new arrivals is the 'Demons Tarot' by Vera Sklyarov, a very prolific person and big in tarot circles in Russia, who's decks start to fetch high prizes. As one can imagine by its name there are a fair amount of dark images but not in a cheap gruesome way rather surreal strange and captivating.

One characteristic of many Russian decks is their strangeness - or rather not fully tarot structured, there are 78 cards divided into 22 majors who are for the most part easily recognizable the problem reside in the 4 suits of each 14 cards, with each suit having its own color (namely red, blue green and yellow) but without any symbol or recognizable court cards with gives the minors more the feeling of being an oracle rather than a tarot.

Le Tarot Idéographique Du Kébèk.

Each of us had at least once had this; you see a deck, fall in love only to discover its OOP (Out-Of-Print). These last years I found a few places that listed it as in stock so I ordered only to discover they are unable to deliver. So when I found one a few weeks ago at yet another shop I ordered but without much hope (but then you never now was what I was thinking) and YES at last after a hunt of 5 years I found one and even better at a price that seems identical to when it was released.

The Tarot Idéographique Du Kébèk was the first tarot created and published in Canada (Kébèk or Quebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level)

It is a majors-only deck following the Wirth/ Papus systems and inspirited by the Papus deck but with a twist: the images are constructed entirely by lines and non-elliptical arcs, variant curves are created by joining arcs of different size, and shading is created with crosshatched arcs and lines. The artist, Yves Paquin, restricted himself to using only square rule and compass to accomplish this.

Les Tarots Du Non Être Suprême - le livre qui parle

Highly esoteric decks that are very balanced in their structure convey the system they are based upon and are artistically very nice to look at they exist - proof of it is right here.
In stunning black and white images with an oriental feeling, lots of Buddha's and Buddha like figures represent the supreme un-namable being as seen through the various archetypes he presents himself to those on the lower planes of existence.

This French deck was published in 1979 as 22 oversized (37 x 17 cm) prints with a few pages of information and poetic descriptions of some cards, who have all been renamed to fit the system behind it .

3 faces of Tarot - Variations on a Marseilles

Some 10 years after the first silkscreened and 4 years after the second printed edition of his 'Tarot de la Félicité' came out Pierrick Pinot has now released 2 new decks the 'Le Tarot des Renart' and the 'Le Tarot De Minuit', these last 2 are variations of the first, but what nice variations they are!

With his 'Tarot de la Félicité' Mr Pinot tried to go back to the style and feeling of the old Tarot de Marseilles decks like the Jacques Vieville and Nicolas Conver making a synthesis of these but then with a fine art feeling nicely printed on very thick card stock making it a true gem of craftsmanship.

Last month saw the release of 2 new decks that are born out of the Félicité, the first is the 'Le Tarot des Renart' a stripped down and lightened up version, that feels more close to the older Marseilles, with the second Pierrick wanted to create a deck 'as they arise in the imagination of the person who designs, just before they are embodied' the result is a quite psychedelic deck.

All 3 versions are limited edition major only decks and are availlable at the artists eBay shop here

The artists home page is here but for the moment only the 2 last decks are not yet mentioned in the English version only in the French.

Silver Era Tarot

It's not only rare or Out-Of-Print decks that get my attention or a place in my collection, and some 'big or mid-seized' publishers also produce interesting decks both on the content as from the artistic point. Schiffer Books is a relatively new player on the tarot market but has already earned a lot of good publicity with their good quality decks and broad spectrum of styles in their catalogue. The Silver Era Tarot is one of their latest publications and despite being a classical Waite-Coleman based deck it has some nice differences with it and more important a real personality.

The artist behind the deck Aunia Kahn used black and white photographs with only a bit of color to accentuate elements and details but all with much restraint, giving it an feeling similar to the images from our great grand parents (well if they posed for a tarot deck it would be). The result is both elegant, romantic and gothic.

The artist website is here
And you can get them at Tarot Garden

I 22 Grandi Trionfi Di Mauro Capitani

There those decks that can stay for ages on your wanting list, because they are rare, or because they are really expensive and there are those that are both. One of these is this deck, in the last 10 years I only saw one for sale online and it went quite high.

So when I discovered end April that the artist released 13 years after the original publication, and after much demand by collectors who contacted him, a limited number of 24 copies from uncut sheets and test prints and made these available exclusively through Alida my collectors heart jumped up in my chest and made my blood pressure soar sky high (what for me is rare) – that much I had to check a few times to see if I saw correctly.

I jumped up, grabbed my VISA – stopped to think and ponder off course (this is no small sum of money after all) and finally bought them! And as with all my deck with no regret at all they are sublime, not a readers deck, not for meditation but purely for the die-hard collector and tarot-art lover, but those who count themselves to this last category and can afford it do it, you won’t regret it. They are bold magnificently looking and BIG at 241x154mm and printed on some heavy cardboard.

Le Tarot de l'Etoile

Big, very dense and yes also weird could be a way to describe this true find - and one i'm very proud of having in my collection a new treasure to add to my ever growing collection.

This majors only deck was printed in 1979 in Paris in a limited edition of 303 decks by the Mouvement Nouvelle Civilisation a French esoteric organization and comes in a nice wooden wooden hinged box with a bronzed Egyptian symbol nailed onto it as it's title on a paper sticker - the cards have the look and feeling of meditation or study cards with has the effect of not always giving the most esoteric result but intriguing it sure is!
The deck is populated by Amazon-figures, who populate almost each card, and filled with Hebrew letters and other esoteric symbols.The Tarot de l'Etoile has a very unique look that sets it apart from all others often if not always departing radically from set images.

Tarot Marselles by Alejandra Coirini

I love doing these little discoveries, decks or artists no one has heard off before, makes me fee like one of these explores from times gone by, there are no new countries to discover yet decks there are always and this Argentinian deck certainly was a real find!

There is something fresh to artist who come from 'outside' the tarot world, but decide to study the tarot as yet another way to express themselves, a hook on witch they can hang their art on. Miss Coirini apparently has been working for quite some years now within the tarot structures, studying it, by herself and through interactions with other tarot students the result of this being a deck that not only look nice to the eye but also has meat on it bones, enough even to be a workable deck.
The deck she used as a starting point is the 'Tarot de Marseille' and knowing my fondness for the neo-Marseilles I just had to have one! The result looks far very far even from the classic TdM, and will surely horrify the Marseilles-purists among us but yet it also feels right in a way, and who am I to contradict the artist when she calls her deck 'Marseilles' anyway (for me it's close enough to be counted). Elegant balanced and through the techniques used by the artist this deck has character in the most positive way of the word.

The deck is handmade and laminated (so you can manipulate it without fear of damaging it), provided with it's own individually decorated box and although they where not really cheap, but then what hand-produced piece of art is..., so in order to spread out the cost i've first got the majors and some time later the minors (Miss Coirini sells her Tarot Marseilles in both a 78-cards version or as majors and minors separately)
The artists website is here where you can admire har tarot and other works

Tarot of the Red Jester

I do love Beth Seilonen's decks they breath such a cheer and light hearted atmosphere a what the French would call "Joie de vivre", and who said tarot has to be all serious dark broody and heavily mysterious? Well certainly not me, tarot can be dark symbolically hermetic etc... but it can be also fun and happy and equally be valid!



The latest brainchild (if it's from the brain or from the heart or both...) is the Tarot of the Red Jester, a full 78 cards deck and expansion of one of her very first decks, a fun simple, but not simplistic remake of the WCS-standard but seen through the Red Jesters eyes. No dark or frightening images, even death looks cute while juggling skulls (great deck for readings with children i would say...). There are also, for those who know Beth other work, some returning themes/figures like the Tree Spirits (who now get their own suit even (wands have been renamed Tree Spirits, Pentacles became Spheres). All in all a nice little deck without any pretension, that exists in 2 versions one with and one without key-phrases. This deck (and her others) can be seen at her homepage here

Tarot Collectors Forum 2009 Collaborative Deck

A Collaborative yes and one I participated in so it's not with some pride i mention it here - you see I do more than just collecting ;-)

The "team" behind it are some of the members of the Tarot Collectors Forum - some of whom are well known and celebrated artist in the field of tarot like among others: Arnell Ando, Ly Marquez de Narciso, Stephan Lange ....
That what made our 'little' just that tad different from others, and also why I feature it here even when it has been 'out' quite some time is that it recently was featured at the Museo Dei Tarocchi and will be part of their permanent collection, speaking of exposure this one counts.

The link to the special page to the deck is here at the bottom of that page where it says 'Deck', if you click, you will see one card by each of us scroll by with the title and a little bit of info gathered from the LWB and again if there is a website it is shown underneath) the card scrolling by, all 30 artists have a card present and accounted for and it looks wonderful .

See also:
Tarot Collectors Forum 2010 Collaborative Deck
Tarot Collectors Forum 2011 Collaborative Deck

The “i Tarocchi di Andrea Picini”

Change can be good, change can be bad, but mostly change is just that: change something different but nor better or worse than before just different. This can be true for many aspects of life including tarot! This week I had the pleasure of receiving the majors only version of the Picini tarot what gave me the opportunity to compare both versions the 22-version to the 78-version, and yes between both versions the cards underwent change (mostly in colour and hue, sometimes some extra details elements).As to be expected I preferred some cards in one version, and others in the other version – besides their number of cards these changes made them feel different enough to be 2 different decks by one artist rather as the 78-card version being an ‘up-grade” of the first edition, different but better nor worse.

*A little side note here, why do the cards that stand the most for change in the cards, Wheel of Fortune, Death and Tower, are those that in the ± 600 years tarot history underwent the less change?

** In these images the image on top comes from the majors-only version, the one below from the 78-card version.

Billard Tarot

Sometimes I do have luck in finding decks that have been on my want-that-deck-list for ages (and this last year it seems I'm very lucky). While searching on-line for another rare deck I just bought I stumbled upon the Billard tarot - I hesitated 1 sec. even not that much, even the price they asked was sweet (ok the box was missing, but then it was the cards I wanted, the box is only of secondary or even third importance).
The minors in this deck are boring - just a suit-symbol and a number or court-symbol BUT the majors ah those majors, minimal but elegant and even with a 'high-fashion' sense and look to them. The deck was self published by the artist back in the 80ies (probably) and still has that feeling of a bygone era where technology and artisans worked in perfect harmony to result in a great product of art.