This tarot deck, affectionately known as "the 70's counterculture tarot," is a black-and-white exploration into the deep recesses of the psyche and trancendental thoughtform.  I am reminded a lot of Buddhist teachings when I read a lot of the cards in this deck.  It's definitely weird, definitely groovy, and definitely grabs you!

Instead of the traditional 78 cards, this deck has 88 cards.  It is, in fact, a very nontraditional tarot deck.  There are no major or minor arcana, the cards do not have numbers and do not seem to have values above or below each other.  Each card is to be taken for what it is.  A lot of the meanings require a sense of humor, or at least, the ability to laugh at oneself.  Many of the cards seem absurd on the surface, until you realize they are accurate metaphors for the meaning of life itself.  Images can be anything from a simple line drawing of a circle, to a complicated landscape drawing, complete with clouds.  Details are used only where necessary, drawing the focus more towards the realizations necessary for enlightenment.

The first time I looked through this deck, I had a blast!  The next time, I sat and thought about the meanings, and they are quite profound.  While there is a little white booklet provided with the deck, often the cards need no further explanation.  My personal favorite this week is the card entitled "This May Not Be A Perfect Circle, But It's A Perfect..... Whatever It Is."  Another favorite is "Yesterday's Truth..... or, What Was It I Was Doing A Minute Ago."  As you can see from these two, the cards in this deck have very little resemblance to a traditional tarot deck.  In fact, I'd almost call this a non tarot deck.  I could list the titles here, but since there are 88 of them, I'll skip through a few at random.  Basically there is no order to the deck anyway, it even says in the little white booklet that there is no order to the deck and cards are described at random in the booklet.

Other titles include:
"Transmutation Through Union of Opposites"
"It Is Not What You Do That Counts, It Is Where Your Head Is At"
"Who Am I?"
"Someone Is Laughing At You"
"Be Careful Going Around Curves"
"No Trips Without a Tripper"
"And There I Was..... Surrounded"
"Who Is Watching The Cosmic Drama?"
"It's A Dog Eat Dog Food World"
"If There Is A Judge You Are It"
"Wait"
"Let George Do It"
"Tee Hee Ha Ha"

Obviously there are a great deal more in this deck, all gems.  It's hard to pick titles when they are all equally significant.  Of course, since there are no majors or minors, you won't see any court or suit cards in this deck.  No pips or aces.  Just 88 cards of equally interesting comments and all of them thought-provoking.  This is one of the best aquisitions I've made tarot-wise in aeons.

The cards themselves are standard in size and are printed on flexible card stock which is comfortable to shuffle and handle.  The edges are smoothly finished.  The images are all in black and white, and the cards are coated lightly with a sheer gloss finish.  The back design is a reversible pattern from Buddhist culture called a Yantra.  It's printed in fuschia ink.  It's interesting that the design is reversible, since this deck doesn't use reversals.  Just the nature of the Yantra, I guess.  Words appear sort of hidden in the back design, so that in reality it is not perfect when reversed, but you can't tell from looking at them quickly, so I don't count that.  It's more like subliminal messaging or something.  Backward masking, heh.

I love this deck!  It's a lot of fun. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to do some personal tarot work.  I don't know how it would be working with clients, but it emphasizes something I've always maintained about tarot for the self -- that is, that tarot doesn't allow you to keep your false illusions.  This deck really gives that a new meaning.  Collectors will also like this deck, for obvious reasons.  But it's a real, working, useable deck that merits a lot of consideration.  Guess that's why it's still in print, even though it's been around for a long time.

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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

Morgan's Tarot by Morgan Robbins, 1983
published by US Games Systems Inc.  ISBN 0-88079-028-8