This tarot deck, by the creator of the Ibis Tarot, is a nifty concatenation of several different styles of tarot, thus the name.  Machynka took his inspiration from Rider-Waite, Marseilles, Visconti-Sforza, and Papus, among others, as well as the I Ching and astrology.  At least that is what I can get from the little white booklet which comes with the deck, which is entirely in French.  There is no English translation.

The cards themselves are very thick (typical Piatnik deck, really) on heavy stiff card stock which is coated on one side only and does not flex.  Thus, shuffling is not a real option with these cards.  The deck entire is fully half again as thick as a standard 78 card deck.  Yet there are no extra cards, that's how thick the cardboard is.

The card titles are in German first, which I thought weird since the booklet was in French.  Underneath, in smaler letters, are the English title and the French title.  Hebrew letter and astrological correspondences are also featured in the title block.

Traditional titles are used throughout the Major Arcana.  Justice is number 8 and Strength number 11.  The rest of the Majors are recognizable in their influences.  There is a lot of Egyptian styling to this deck as well.  Of course Machynka later refined that and created the Ibis Tarot.

The Minor Arcana have the traditional suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.  I found it very interesting that while the concept of pips is maintained, the actual items themselves vary so much as to make them more interesting.  For example in some of the Cups, canopic jars are used.  And the Ace of Wands shows an Egyptian pharaoh's scepter.

The Courts are the classic King, Queen, Knight and Page.  The back design is a bland representation of the sun and the four suit symbols in gold ink on black.  As stated earlier, this is uncoated and could be damaged easily.

This deck is out-of-print and so whatever is out there, grab it if you like what you see and read here.  However, if you like this deck, you will probably like the Ibis Tarot better, which is still readily available.  This seems best suited to the collector.

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also by Josef Machynka:
Ibis Tarot

Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace