Jungian Tarot by Robert Wang   I had a lot of high expectations when I got this deck, which came in a deck-and-book set.  It was once available as either a set or sold individually; it is my understanding that now the deck is out-of-print, however, the book is still to be found in some retail establishments.   The concept here is to attach Jung's system of archetypes to the images of the tarot cards.  All 78 of them.  I've never had a problem understanding the archetypal nature of the cards, but even so, I think this was a tall order to fill.  Without the book, I'm not sure this concept would carry over.  I found that while I am familiar with a lot of the archetypes explained in the book, the paintings in the cards only mildly inspired those in me when looking through the deck.   Not one of the cards in this deck has any title or number on it of any kind.  There are, in fact, no markers at all, which may be confusing for beginners.  If, however, you don't like the traditional order of tarot decks, this would be a plus.  There are a lot of small recurring themes; Wang has placed flames all over the darn deck, for example.  At first, I thought he was onto something when he portrayed the King of Cups surrounded by flames on the water, since in some traditions of tarot interpretation, each court in each suit has an elemental assignation, Water of Fire, etc.  However, there is never anything to indicate this for any other element.  In short, it just appears to me that Wang loves painting little flames.   Wang is also the artist who painted the Golden Dawn Tarot.  I didn't care for his artistic style in that deck, either.  He got a lot better by the time he painted this tarot deck, but there is just something I don't like about it.  I can't put my finger on why, but the people in his paintings look wrong.  There are, however, some spectacular hits in this deck as well as the misses.  There is one recurring theme among the Major Arcana which I applaud highly, it seems well inspired.  The archetype of the Original Man appears consistently and recognizably in several of the cards, including the Lovers, the Devil, the Hierophant, the Wheel of Fortune, and Strength.  He appears silhouetted in the Moon, as a child in the Sun, and the Hanged Man and the Fool resemble him as well, though not as recognizably as the others.   Actually I thought the Fool looked like a young Jimmy Carter..... the Magician looks like a petulant teenager, and the court personages in the suit of Pentacles are holding their Pentacles like big cookies they are afraid someone will snatch away from them and dunk in a glass of milk.  (Horrors!)  The back design is actually the best painting in the whole deck.   Since there are no titles, the suits are pretty much open to naming anything you like, but they are shown in the book as Cups, Wands, Swords and Pentacles.  Courts are also unnamed but are pretty obviously King, Queen, Prince and Princess.  The deck is standard sized and handles and shuffles fairly well.   The book that comes with the set, in addition to the meanings and descriptions of both Jung's archetype theories and the card paintings themselves, outlines a 34-week course of self-study with the deck as a meditative focus for going inward.  I think this is biting a lot off unless you are committed to that serious of an introspection.  The course targets personality conflicts and whatnot, so unless you are ready to deal with a lot of shadow issues I wouldn't recommend following the course.   Overall, this was a very interesting addition to my collection.  Like I said, the book is probably the more worthwhile part of the set.  There is a lot of helpful information here on the meanings of the cards; anyone who has gotten stuck on what the cards mean in any traditional deck will be helped by what is in this set.  I recommend it for anyone looking for a deep psychological connection to a deck.  Collectors, of course.  Since it is out-of-print, if you encounter it anywhere, snap it up right away!   Click here for pictures   or here to return   Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures   also by Robert Wang: The Golden Dawn Tarot   Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace