Tarot Universal Dali a guest review by Sarah Ovenall   For some reason, the Tarot Universal Dali brings out strong  opinions -- both positive and negative -- in Tarot aficionados. The deck, distributed by US Games, consists of 78 works by Salvador Dali. I have heard that Dali made the deck as a gift to his wife, who had an interest in Tarot. However I cannot confirm that this is true.    The Dali deck is a standard 78 card Tarot deck. The trumps are labeled in English and Spanish, with traditional naming and ordering. Justice is 8 and Strength 11. The Fool is unnumbered. The only alteration in naming the trumps is the Hierophant, called The High Priest (El Sumo Sacerdote). Each trump also includes a Hebrew letter and an astrological symbol.   The minor arcana are not numbered or labeled, though each card does include the correct number of pips (wands, cups, etc) within the art. The court cards are labeled in Spanish only: Sota (Page), Caballero (Knight), Reina (Queen) and Rey (King). The suits (labeled only on the court cards) are Bastos (Wands), Copas (Cups), Espadas (Swords), and Oros (Coins). So for example, the Knight of Swords is labeled "Caballero de Espadas" in this deck.   The images in the Dali deck are collages of fine art combined with Dali's own painting. The images are -- loosely -- based on the Waite tradition. To say the art is typical Dali is a bit of an understatement. Plants sprout from people's heads; butterflies and snakes pop up frequently; wild flourishes spiral around the collaged figures. Anyone fond of Dali's collage style will appreciate this deck. Some of the cards keep fairly close to the familiar Waite imagery, while others are pure Dali. Death, for example, depicts a skull inside a chopped-off (but still standing) tree. A kneeling figure faces the skull from the left; a single rose blooms from the bare earth on the right.   Dali's own picture appears as the Magician, and possibly also the Rey de Oros. I have also heard that the High Priestess is a portrait of his wife, though I wouldn't recognize her myself.   There is occasional female frontal nudity. But in a strange sort of prudery, Dali painted over every instance of male nudity, or -- as in the Lovers -- covered it with a large butterfly. Certainly there is nothing more explicit in this deck than could be found in a fine art museum (far less in fact).   I find the depth and quality of the art, unfortunately, somewhat inconsistent. Some of the cards are rich with detail, while others (especially some of the minors) seem hasty and bare. There are even a few cards in which Dali seems to have paid more attention to his own signature than to any design element.   The booklet, printed in English, Spanish, French and German, does attempt to make sense of Dali's trumps. It offers "prophetic meaning," "opposite meaning," and a brief description of each trump. I have no idea whether the interpretations came from Dali or not. Whoever wrote the booklet, it seems that it was not written in English, and was not translated with the best of skill. In some cases (the World in particular) the author seems to ignore the tone or mood of the art, attempting to force an idiosyncratic image to fit in with traditional interpretations. Unfortunately, the booklet only covers the trumps. It also provides diagrams of three large spreads with which I am unfamiliar, but enigmatically does not offer any positional meanings -- just unexplained diagrams.   Dali Unversal Tarot does not impress me as representing any personal esoteric system. It rather appears as though Dali got ahold of a Waite deck and, not knowing the meanings of the cards, used the images as the (again, loose) basis for 78 small works of his own. I have read much criticism of the Dali deck on this basis. But frankly, to me that misses the point. This is Salvador Dali, after all. Expecting Dali to have extensively studied esoterica in order to develop his own divinatory system is not reasonable. Clearly the deck was intended as a work of art, and is best judged as such.   My only real problem with the Dali deck (and it is a big one) is not with the art, but with the marketing. The deck is positioned as a high-end collectible, which means that it is packaged expensively. The deck is packed in two boxes; the outer box, covered with red velvet, makes storage and transport more difficult than it needs to be. The cards are oversized -- 3.125 by 5.5" -- and edged with real gold, making shuffling impossible. And at $100 list, the price is outrageous.   There is a Dali playing card deck available from US Games, made by eliminating the trumps and one of the court cards (either Sota or Caballero) from the Tarot deck. While the playing card deck is far more reasonably priced, without the trumps -- the best part of the Dali deck -- I cannot recommend it. Also, I understand that Rachel Pollack's book on the Dali deck includes high-quality reproductions of every card. Sadly, the book is out of print and not easy to locate.   At this price I have a hard time recommending the Tarot Universal Dali. In its current format it is essentially unreadable, unless the reader wants to go to the trouble and additional expense of color photocopying and laminating every card. But the art is good, and deserves wider exposure. US Games ought to offer two versions of this deck: the current, high-end package for collectors who can afford it, and a mass-market version (minus the gilt edging, jumbo size, and velvet box) for the rest of us. Until that happens, I recommend the Pollack book, if you can find it, as a cost-effective way to appreciate the art of the Dali deck.   Example interpretation: Death The Mystic Rose appears as the centre of perfection. With seven petals they are equivalent to the 7 planets, the 7 days, the 7 grades of perfection; with 8 it would signify Regeneration. Death appears in the grieving figure like a crest of grief in the shape of a branch which is the hilt of the sickle formed by the inclination of the figure. The bird is the expression of the fleetingness of life. The cypress as the funerary tree is cut off at its base and contains a skull which is the cup of thought. The shadows are the fantasy of the material and the soul. Prophetic meaning: Esoteric feeling of transmutation. Opposite meaning: Inertia, slow changes. Accident.   Review Copyright 1998 by Sarah Ovenall; used with permission sarah@thefool.com http://www.thefool.com