Knapp-Hall Tarot
a guest review by
Jason Carr
The most obvious
distinguishing feature of the K-H tarot pack is it's 1930s pulp fiction
or comic book looking artwork.[0] I rather like the cereal-box look,
but understand how others might not.
It has other quirks:
It has odd little mandalas in each Major and Court card (Hall instructs
these are for meditational purposes, and steadfastly refuses to give any
meanings for them). And the Court cards are abbreviated oddly:
K king
Q/G queen (I remember
"gween")
W knight (I
remember "warrior")
S page (I remember
"servant")
The pack fits well
in the hand, which I like. One of my pet peeves is packs that are
so stiff, thick, or wide that they defy shuffling.
The pack contains
a bit more esoteric content than most ordinary (exoteric) packs, and a
good deal less than the BOTA, Thoth and Golden Dawn packs. With the
addition of the Hebrew assignations to each Major and the occasional astrological
and alchemical sign, I'd say it's about even with the Rider-Waite pack.
It is pips-only, which may discourage some readers.
I like the quaint
little pack enough that it's the one I travel with (small size makes it
easy to stuff in a pocket) and I usually draw my Card for the Day from
this pack, or the Transformational Tarot by Ando.
[0] I have read that
the Rider-Waite original editions had similar coloration.
Bonus trivia:
this pack was referenced in Waite's Oracle of the Tarot, a short
treatise on tarot divination. A text copy is available online
at
http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/tarot/txt/oot/
Review Copyright
1998 by Jason Carr; used with permission
http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/tarot