Frankly, I thought this deck was going to be more original than it is.  Perhaps I should have reviewed it before looking at the other "traditional" decks.  Actually, the original designs for this deck predate the Rider-Waite by many years.

Oswald Wirth was a famous occultist in the nineteenth century who devised a set of tarot cards which were inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles.  His original pack was only the 22 Major Arcana and were hand-colored.  These came out in 1889.  Wirth's cards included the Hebrew alphabet, following the beliefs of Eliphas Levi that there were correspondences between the alphabet and the Arcana.

The deck which is published today as the Oswald Wirth Tarot consists of his original 22 Major Arcana, plus the 56 Minor Arcana which were later designed in keeping with his treatments of the deck.

The backgrounds of all the cards is done in a metallic gold color which gives the images on the card a luminous, three-dimensional quality.  They seem to be floating.  All the card titles are in French.  The suits are Epees (Swords), Batons (Staves), Coupes (Cups) and Deniers (Coins).

Only the Major Arcana and the Court cards have figures in them, the numbered cards have simply an illustration of the number of items in the suit.  They are nicely drawn, if less than intuitive.  I actually don't think any of the "classic" decks like the Marseilles, the Classic, or this one, have much in the way of intuitive design.  You basically rely on what the card is supposed to mean.

The deck is slightly longer than standard but not uncomfortable to shuffle and handle.  The backs have a boring design on them.  The enclosed booklet is really a flimsy foldout with keyword interpretations provided only for the Major Arcana.  This would not be a very good deck for a beginner for this reason.

For the collector or reader who likes to work with "classic" style decks, this one is nicer than the Marseilles or the Tarot Classic.  However, there still isn't a whole lot to work with.

It should be noted that this deck has gone out-of-print, so if you like what you see here, and you have an opportunity to pick one up somewhere, you should certainly get it right away. Once they are gone, they are gone for good.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace