From aeromancy (divination by atmospheric phenomena) to xylomancy (divination by twigs, branches, et al.), there sure are a lot of ways to foretell the future. Whilst your Author and Archivist prefers Shakespearean bibliomancy when in a prognosticating mood, in this edition of A Year in the Library, we’re focusing on examples of cartomancy from The Collection, specifically, The Tarot. Whether another post may review the oracles, Lenormands, and fortune telling decks that are the Tarot’s brethren, the fates have yet to reveal.
Divination has always been a tricky business. In the Ancient Near East, celestial bodies were observed for omens and portents, and eventually codified into what we now refer to as astrology. The unsanctioned creation of an astrological horoscope for a king or emperor could result in severe punishments as only court-appointed astrologers were allowed to know what might befall a potentate. By the time Tarot cards were in use in mid-Fifteenth Century Europe, fortune telling had become greatly democratized, if not still frowned upon by those who believed such matters to be the Devil’s purview. What better recommendation need we, then, to pursue our topic?
The Tarot finds its origin in the deck playing cards. While the latter is used for gaming, cartomancy, and the occasional separation of fools from their coin, the former is used exclusively for divination. This divination may take the form of self-realization or of prognostication. (As an aside, it is almost certain that your Archivist will review the ever-growing collection of playing cards in an upcoming post, so keep your poker faces on). Whereas a traditional deck of playing cards numbers 52 (not including, as I am reminded posthumously by Mr. Kilmister, the jokers), a standard Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. Of these, 22 are identified as the Major Arcana. These are identified with such evocative names as “The Tower”, “The Hierophant”, and “The Devil”. For a peek at some of the Devil Tarot cards not considered here, please see the prior A Year in the Library entry, “Hail Satan!”. The remaining 56 cards are collectively known as the Minor Arcana and are segmented into four suits of 14 cards each. The Tarot suits correspond to those of traditional playing cards: batons for clubs, disks for diamonds, swords for spades, and cups for hearts.
Pages for Sages
Your Archivist is no expert practitioner of The Tarot as a divinatory endeavor. Rather, the interest lies in the cards as examples of graphic art, and as primal archetypal images which differ based on artistic representation within the constraints of the two arcanæ (the persistence of the monstrous and the artistic variance of form within an iconographic type being two recurring themes within The Collection, and thus too, A Year in the Library). With this caveat, it will be understood that the books reviewed below are overviews and histories of The Tarot, rather than exclusively guides to it practice or interpretation.
Tarot. A volume of the Library of Esoterica. 2020. Hardcover book by Jessica Hundley. Taschen. About 18 x 25 cm., 520 pp.
As extoled in prior posts, your Archivist is a big fan of Taschen publications, and this volume does not disappoint. After a brief history, this colorful volume focuses on modern examples of Tarot cards, of which there are many. The bulk of the book concerns itself with the Major Arcana, assigning a chapter to each.
A glimpse into the reader’s future...
An example of how disparate representations of a common card may be.
The fate of Tower Records foretold.
A variety of lunar landscpaes.
Tarot and Divination Cards. A visual Archive. 2021. Hardcover book by Laetitia Barbier. Abrams. About 20 x 26 cm., 400 pp.
In contrast to Hundley’s use of modern cards in her history, Barbier utilizes a wide sampling of historical cards to illustrate her book. She also devotes a section to the Minor Arcana as well. A short section near the end is dedicated to cards by modern artists.
The Major and The Minor (sorry Ginger, I couldn’t resist).
The inescapable fortune.
Getting mooned.
Takign a stab at soothsaying.
Iconic Tarot Decks. The History, Symbolism and Design of Over 50 Decks. 2021. Hardcover book by Sarah Bartlett. Frances Lincoln. About 20 x 25 cm., 224 pp.
Well, the title about says it all. Fifty historical and modern decks are reviewed in color and in detail. By way of in introduction, the author provides a few sample spreads for answering such queries as “what is going on in my life?”. A section which, rest assured, your Archivist will revisit in private as it is a source of perpetual mystery.
All decks on hand.
For fans of the Noir genre...
A magical mystery tour.
The History of Tarot Art. Demystifying the Art & Arcana, Deck by Deck. 2021. Hardcover book in slipcase by Holly Adams Easley & Esther Joy Archer. Quarto Publishing Group. About 26 x 28 cm., 256 pp. 24 Tarot cards included.
A well-illustrated history and overview of notable decks with many supporting images that provide insight into the creation of the decks reviewed.
Cartomancicological numerology (and if that isn’t a word- it should be).
Hammer time.
The Beast and other deviltry.
G.O.A.T.
Á la carte
The Tarot has retained its popularity from its inception to contemporary times, and The Collection contains examples of classic decks reissued and those of modern occultists and artists whose interpretations range from the theosophical to the whimsical. As your wastrel Archivist has chosen to allot his few ill-gotten florins to acquire Meiji lacquerware and oil paintings of questionable merit, there are, sadly, no examples of original Tarot cards prior to the 20th Century in The Collection.
Whilst your Archivist finds echoes, reflections, and connections in almost everything he sees (a boon and a curse, I assure you), shuffling through a deck of Tarot cards is particularly evocative; it simultaneously provides tactile, visual, and intellectual stimulation. The abundance of archetypal imagery almost compels the viewer to construct a narrative, fueled by one’s inner fancies and dreads. It elicits an exchange between our conscious and subconscious selves, and can be at once an entertaining, enlightening, and a sobering experience.
And now the challenge of categorization falls to your Archivist. How might the myriad of particular packages of prognostication be presented? Unsruprisingly, to those few and treasured initiates into the Ways of The Library- according to my various whims and some ill-conceived arcane schema, undoubtedly based on a poorly-recalled Scholastic philosophy of the Grand Order of Things.
The collection to date; a most complicated spread. Note that oracles and Lenormand and fortune telling decks from The Collection are also included in the image below. You didn’t really think I had that many Tarot decks, did you?
Historical Decks
Whilst The Collection does include a number of historical decks, few will be represented here as they are all reproductions and are better suited for inclusion in more individually-themed posts (e.g., XIII: Hail Satan! and XVI: Egyptomania!).
To better see the individual cards, click on the images to enlarge them.
Visconti Sforza Tarocchi Deck. 1975 (Facsimile of the 15th Century hand-illuminated deck). U. S. Games Systems. New York. Cards about 92 x 178 mm.
More appropriately this collection of cards should be referred to as decks, as it is the amalgamation of several incomplete examples from the mid-15th Century that are currently held in collections across the globe. The product of a father (Filippo Visconti, Duke of Milan) and son-in-law (Francesco Sforza) duo, their cards were visual progenitors for many later decks.
The Queen of Coins, various stars, fallen and otherwise, The Ace of Cups.
Tarocchini di Gioseppe Maria Mitelli. 1980s? (Facsimile of the 17th Century deck). Dal Negro. New York. Cards about 92 x 178 mm.
The Italian Tarocchino is a variant of the traditional Tarot, with 62 cards instead of 78. This edition was engraved by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli in about 1660 for a Bolognese family. The deck’s iconography is replete with innovative neoclassical imagery.
The Nine of Clubs, The World (Atlas), The Traitor (later to become the Hanged Man), and The Seven of Coins (note the wonderful grotesques on the coins).
Today’s Tarot
Many contemporary artists have adopted the Tarot as a means of individualized expression resulting in a wide variety of styles and peculiar iconographies. Of these, The Collection (of course) has many.
For those faint of heart and possessive of a particularly Puritanical perspective, please take note that some of the following images may cause you to involuntarily expand your horizons. For those with interests equally prurient as mine, proceed with glee...
Zombie Tarot. 2012 Boxed tarot deck with booklet by Paul Kepple and Stacey Graham. Pittsburgh, PA. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
A collage tarot with an homage to midcentury sensitivities recommended by the authors to be used “in the event of a zombie attack”. Whilst we await that inevitability, these cards provide a welcome distraction from those merely emulating ravenous revenants as regularly reported in dispatches from local gazettes. Undoubtedly the preferred deck of Mr. Draper.
A deck where every card is death, or rather un-death. Oh Romero, wherefore art thou? The answer undoubtedly requires... more brains.
5¢ Tarot. 2019. Tarot deck by Madam Clara. Hazlet, NJ. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
Clara Vaduva (a.k.a. Madame Clara, a nom de plume) was inspired by Victorian poster art when designing this collage deck. The cards themselves are what one might imagine receiving from a fortune teller booth with a carney sensibility.
In place of the standard suits, Ms. Vaduva has cleverly used matches for clubs and needles for swords.
Salem Arcanum Tarot. 2016? Tarot deck by James Bostick. Salem, MA. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
A resident of Salem (the one in the Colonies, about witch so much is written), Mr. Bostick applied his artistry to create a photographic tarot. His images are reminiscent of late 19th century cabinet cards, the most interesting of which were tableau vivant- staged scenes of “living statues”.
Decidedly pagan iconography befitting a fertile (we hope) field in Summerisle.
The Wizard’s Tarot. 2019. Boxed Tarot deck by Wizard of Barge (aka Dakota Cates). Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
A punkish deck with hints of Magic the Gathering crowd with comic-booky (an arcane term used only by the most erudite of art historians) renderings. For minor arcana The Wizard has replaced traditional symbols with Beasts, Curses, Cults, and Swords.
Even the catastrophic fortunes look better in pink!
The Insect Tarot. 2021 Boxed Tarot deck of 78 cards by Loren Sherman. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
As a fan of invertebrates, paleolithic as well as contemporary (although the later slightly less so), this deck was acquired for The Collection.
The limited color palette and graphic renderings of the insects give the impression of solarization.
Deviant Moon Tarot. 2014 U.S. Games Systems. New York. Boxed Tarot deck by Patrick Valenza. Cards about 70 x 130 mm.
Mr. Valenza is the creator of numerous cartological decks including tarot, triphone, and oracles. This is one of his earliest efforts.
Iconography reminiscent of a certain gentleman late of 's-Hertogenbosch?
Pagan Otherworlds Tarot. 2016 Boxed Tarot deck by UUSI. Cards about 75 x 130 mm.
Designers Peter Dunham and Linnea Gits have produced several decks of playing cards and Tarot, from the erotic to the sublime. This deck is based on oil paintings on Celtic themes.
Accompanying the traditional cards is a series of moon phases for those who wish their fortunes lunar rather than later.
Tarot de Mars. 2017. Le Dernier Cri, Marseille. Silkscreen Tarot deck of 22 Major Arcana in envelope by Celine Guichard. Edition of 500. Cards about 125 x 200 mm.
Celine Guichard is a French artis whose sensibilities in this deck are clearly influenced by early woodcuts and occult imagery.
Demons, death, and debauchery with a serpent or two for good measure.
TRT MCRHZ. 2023. Le Dernier Cri, Marseille. Silkscreen Tarot deck of 22 Major Arcana in envelope by Alexios Tjoyas. Edition of 500. Cards about 125 x 200 mm.
A decidedly Psilocybian approach to the attainment of self-knowledge.
I’ll bet Matango is one of his favorite movies.
Tarot Des Ambiguities. 2022. Tarot deck by Alejandro R. Rozan. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
Here new tarot meets old as the artist reinterprets the traditional Tarot de Marseille in woodcut style with faux stains aging on the cards.
Something is afoot; the artist seems disarmingly obsessed with beheadings.
Mars Power Tarot. 2020? Boxed Tarot deck by Charlie Quintero. Cards about 75 x 120 mm.
A punkish deck with hints of David Bowie and contemporary Japanese Manga, the art is ideal for those seekers interested in a trippier journey.
Jimmi inquires, are you experienced?
The Tarot of Vlad Dracula. 2020 Boxed Tarot deck of 78 cards produced by Travis McHenry with art by Nikita Vuimin. Cards about 87 x 126 mm.
This deck was produced as a loving tribute to Vlad Dracula whose spotless reputation was later besmirched by a Mr. Stoker.
Well, they don’t call him “The Impaler” for nothing. Point taken. Aren’t you Vald you asked?
Tarot de Marseille. 2022. Le Dernier Cri, Marseille. Silkscreen Tarot deck of 22 Major Arcana in envelope by Leatitia Brochier. Edition of 500. Cards about 125 x 200 mm.
Another, albeit more outsider-arty (another bona fide technical term used by cognoscenti and art historians of merit), collage deck with iconography befitting a story by The Old Gent, late of Providence.
Shades of Une semaine de bonté?
Mystical Medleys Tarot Deck. 2021. Boxed Tarot deck by Gary Hall. Cards about 70 x 120 mm.
For fans of Walt and Ub, a deck of googly-eyed funny animals with which to divine your fate.
See? It’s not all doom and gloom? Happy death!
Whether a Novice or Faithful Reader, I thank you for visiting this post from A Year in the Library. I hope that you found it amusing, inspiring, or at least a better expenditure of your time than that other “hub” of dubious merit...
What’s in the cards for the next post? An uncharacteristically autobiographical post on Medieval illuminated manuscripts lurks in the (relatively) near future. Before then, I suspect, something more serpentine in nature. Please return so as to divine what it might be.
Until such time, I remain yours, most sincerely,
le Compte Paul Gregoire de Gustibus
“Nothing is but what is not.”
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