This older tarot deck is another interesting deck of Russian design.  I remember the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg was the first deck of this design that I was exposed to; however, the Egorov Tarot actually came first, and so this deck is really the pioneer of this style of tarot, which is basically painted with brilliant colors against black backgrounds, making for a very rich look.  The deck I have here is a "Gold Edition" (I'm not aware of a "regular" edition) which means the cards are bordered in a handsome gold metallic ink.

The Major Arcana in this deck have some new titles, although they do stay within the traditional meaning of the cards.  Egorov says in the little white booklet that the cards themselves have been designed in keeping with the divinatory meanings of the cards.  This deck is more of an esoteric one than the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg, which is essentially a remake of the Rider-Waite.  This design shows more consideration of what the tarot's significance actually is about.  The Major Arcana are numbered with Roman numerals and the order has also been rearranged slightly.  In addition to Justice being 8 and Strength 11, the Fool has been moved from his usual place at the head of the deck, to being placed between the 20th and 21st cards, near the end of the Major Arcana.

Titles are as follows:

1 - The Magician
2 - The Science
3 - Fertility
4 - Man of Knowledge
5 - Inspiration
6 - Choice
7 - The Chariot
8 - Justice
9 - The Hermit
10 - Wheel of Fortune
11 - Strenght
12 - Selflessness
13 - Death
14 - Sun Genius
15 - Devil
16 - The Tower
17 - The Star
18 - The Moon
19 - The Sun
20 - Rebirth
21 - The Fool
22 - Crown

No, that wasn't a typo in the Strength card, or at least not a typo on *my* behalf; the title is misspelled on the card in the deck.  I believe it must have been a translational error.  Each title is in larger letters in English, but also appears in German and French in smaller letters underneath.

The Minor Arcana has some interesting stuff going on too.  Suits are the traditional Wands, Cups, Swords and Coins, but within each suit, all the cards are designed so the scenes themselves have a single predominant color.  These colors were not exactly what I'd have expected; usually if you see color schemes in suits they correspond to the elements of earth, air, fire and water, but in this case you have a predominant Pink theme for Wands, Green for Cups, Blue for Swords, and Orange/Brown for Coins.  I didn't find anything in the booklet which explained why those particular colors were chosen.  The court titles are King, Queen, Knight and Page.  The numbered cards have full scenes in them, they are not just pip cards.

The cards themselves are slightly larger than standard and are printed on a very thick heavy cardstock, which is typical of Piatnik decks.  This makes the deck somewhat difficult to shuffle and handle, but not badly so.  They are coated with a lightweight semi-gloss to protect the cards.  The edges are evenly finished and the corners are rounded nicely.  The back design is a black background with a gold border and a pair of gold firebirds.  This design is reversible.  The little white booklet is fairly substantial, and gives a long esoteric "pep talk" in the beginning before going into the divinatory meanings.  Reversals are used.  There is only one spread listed in this booklet and it's the Celtic Cross, which disappointed me because it seemed like Egorov spent a lot of time on this deck and its esoteric values and I thought he should have also designed a spread that went with it.

If you liked the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg, you will probably like this deck even better.  I found when I compared the two, the resemblances were striking and I can't help but think this deck inspired the other's design in some respects.  However, these cards aren't as cluttered looking and are easier on the eyes.  They also are more intense as far as meanings go, so I would not necessarily recommend this deck for a beginner.  Collectors will definitely want to grab one.  They aren't as easy to find as they once were, but there are still copies for sale floating around out there.

Click here for pictures
 
or here for purchase information

or here to return

Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures

Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

Egorov Tarot by Alexander Egorov, 1992
published by Piatnik and Sohne, Vienna, Austria
ISBN 0189019751