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Ninth Gate Tarot Cards
a promotional item from Artisan Entertainment
This tiny little deck
of "tarot" cards is actually not a true tarot deck in any sense of the
word, but a promotional item passed out at the premiere openings of the
movie, "The Ninth Gate," starring Johnny Depp, across the country.
This movie is about a trio of rare books that exist whose sole purpose
is to gain access to the nine gates of Satan and if you attain all nine
gates the world is at your fingertips. (Satan's public relations
writers are always really good and make it sound so enticing!)
The books are three copies
of the same original work, that according to the story was written in the
seventeenth century and the author of the books was burned for heresy for
writing them. In the books there are nine illustrations, one for
each "gate." These illustrations have a puzzle quality about them
(if you can figure out the esoteric meaning of each illustration you can
then achieve that "gate") and many of the illustrations feature tarot symbolism.
There is a hanged man, a wheel of fortune, a hermit, and several other
symbols as well.
I remember thinking to
myself when I was in the theater, those illustrations would make an excellent
set of cards. Imagine my surprise when I came home that night and
found that such a thing actually existed! As stated earlier, Artisan
Entertainment produced the set of these cards to hand out at movie premieres
across the country. There are ten cards in the set altogether, one
for each of the nine illustrations in the book (the nine "gates") and one
which includes the frontispiece of the book. This book, and these
illustrations, were created just for this film, and these cards exist only
from the producers of this film.
Each card is a different
pastel color. While I enjoy looking at the cards (and studying the
symbolism in them) I think personally I would have preferred to see the
entire set done in an off-white parchment color. The paper is a stiff
gloss-coated affair which protects them well. On the back of each
card is a blurb about the movie and a description of the imagery on the
front of the card. Each image has latin inscriptions around the edges
of the image area, which are abbreviated. I would have liked to have
seen the latin terms explained, but they are not. I am not familiar
enough with latin to be able to figure out its shortened use here.
The number at the top of each image correlates to the "gate" which it opens.
Hebrew letters flank this number on either side.
Fans of Johnny Depp will
love this movie. Anyone who likes anything dealing with the occult,
demonic sciences, etc (bearing in mind this is a work of entertainment,
and cannot be used for real) will enjoy these cards along with their moviegoing
experience. The cards will have little meaning for anyone who has
not seen the film. I picked up a copy of these cards from The
Nostalgia Factory, dealers in movie posters and film memorabilia.
I cannot say that they will have any more, but they have other items from
the movie and tons of other related items to browse.
I recommend that anyone
interested in picking up a copy of these cards go directly to eBay and
watch there for them. However, I would make this point directly:
do not look solely under tarot, but rather, go to the Advanced Search and
type in Ninth Gate and bring up all the listings. Many copies of
this set are listed without the word tarot being associated with it (as
in, trading cards, movie memorabilia, etc) and you will find that the listings
in the tarot section go for a much higher price in general. Shop
smarter, not harder! *smile*
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The
Nostalgia Factory
Review Copyright 2000
by Gina M. Pace
Ninth Gate Tarot Cards
a promotional item from
Artisan Entertainment
for the film
"The Ninth Gate" starring
Johnny Depp and Frank Langella