This deck is a Major-Arcana-only art deck, featuring just 22 cards with a spiritualist flair to them and a minimal amount of overt symbolism, relying instead on representations of scenes which are evocative of the overall meaning of the cards.  Very few decks that are done in 22-card formats use a real spiritual or esoteric meaning system; most are simply done to be new artistic renderings of tarot tradition.  In this tarot, Mourouzi breaks the Majors into three series' of seven cards each (called a septenary) and each one develops a progression of meanings.
 
The first septenary involves the evolution of man and includes the following titles:  The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Pope, The Lover, and The Chariot.
 
The second septenary reveals the plans and evolutions of man's quest for spiritual attainment and union with higher energies.  These seven cards are Justice, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Force, The Hanged Man, Death, and Temperance.
 
The third septenary, then, recalls the highest mystical evolution that mankind can attain.  This is where the deck takes its name from; the entire deck as a whole explores the spiritual journey of man.  The seven cards in this last series are The Devil, The Tower of Destruction, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, and The World.
 
The Fool is unnumbered and is excepted from the septenary organization of the deck, since the Fool moves freely throughout the rest of the deck.  According to Mourouzi, the Fool is connected to each of the other cards in the deck independently by means of its symbolic value.
 
Traditional order following the European, or Marseille, style.  Justice is 8 and Force (Strength) is 11.  Each of the cards features a central image area and a title box underneath the image, which has the title in French with black lettering and the English title in blue under that.  Above the image is another box which has the number for each card in it; Roman numerals are used.
 
Since this deck is made using only the Majors, there are no suits or court cards present.  The cards themselves are somewhat larger than standard but since there are only 22 of them, handling the deck is a breeze.  The cardstock is substantial but flexible, and coated with a nice semi-gloss protective coating.  Edges and corners are nicely rounded.  The back design is a rather simplistic dark red with white interlocking circles and is reversible, though nothing is given to indicate that reversals would be used with this deck.  There is no little white booklet, only a card in French outlining the concepts behind each septenary.

I recommend this deck for collectors, and for people who are interested in decks which artistically demonstrate spiritual concepts.  It's not something that is overtly symbolic, though, so not really something for beginners.  I also find it harder to work with Majors-only decks and many others will also find this so.  There are no books or other materials that work with this deck.  Le Tarot Mystique is technically out-of-print but copies can still be found if you are willing to dig.

Click here for pictures
 
or here to return
 
Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures

Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

Le Tarot Mystique by Alexandre Mourouzi, 1978, 1983
published by AGM AGMuller and Samjac SA