Wicce's Tarot Collection -- Second Opinions!

The Alchemical Tarot Deck and Book Set
by Robert Place and Rosemary Ellen Guiley
a guest review by James Ricklef

I recently bought this book and deck set and immediately was struck with the beauty of the cards. If first impressions mean anything, I'm going to enjoy using the Alchemical Tarot Deck for a long time to come! The cards have the look of Renaissance prints, but the artwork is much more fluid than that of decks actually from that period. In fact, the designs for most of the Major Arcana Cards are based upon illustrations from old alchemy texts. In the center of the backs of the cards there is a picture of a rose, which is a symbol of perfection, according to the book. The background is split diagonally, with one half of it red and the other half a black and white checkerboard. This design is therefore NOT reverse-symmetrical, meaning that it looks different when upside-down. This, coupled with the fact that I have found nothing in the book to explain meanings for reversed cards, leads me to believe that this deck was designed to be used without reversals. This doesn't bother me (in fact, I find it to be somewhat of a relief), but you may not be too happy about it.

The suits are:

Staffs (for Wands). All of the staffs are aflame, so I would have called the suit "Torches", but nobody asked me.
Vessels (for Cups). The vessels are generally crockery of assorted sizes and shapes, but some are glass, and some are chalices. I prefer more consistency in suit icons, but it doesn't bother me TOO much.
Coins (for Pentacles). The coins all have different images on them and are of differing metals (see above comment about consistent icons), but at least they are all coins, and the variations seem to be better justified than in the case of the Vessels.
Swords. Different swords have different hilts, but this variation is less obtrusive than that of the Coins and Vessels icons.

The court cards have a couple of deviations from the norm. A minor change is the use of "Lady" instead of "Page". This is not unprecedented, and I prefer Place's choice of "Lady" over the more typical "Princess" as it goes better with "Knight". The other innovation is, as far as I know, unique. Whereas the Lady, Knight, and Queen cards all depict a person, the King cards all depict an animal that relates to the element of the suit (see below), instead of a person. This dichotomy is a bit jarring, but perhaps I'll get used to it.

Staffs: A dragon
Vessels: A whale
Coins: A lion
Swords: An eagle

Many of the images on the Minor Arcana cards depict scenes similar enough to those of the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith decks that it seems comfortable to use them if you are already conversant in the RWS symbolism. However, there are many deviations from RWS due to the infusion of alchemical symbols and philosophy into this deck. Or, as the book states, "each card bears a different alchemical image, thus adding depth to the interpretations possible." The result of this is that those of us who are alchemy-challenged are left to read the book (which luckily, I have found easy enough to read) in order to get the most out of these cards. As an example, the 8 of Swords shows a mythical beast with a lion-like body, a man's face, and a goat's horns, which is walking past eight swords. This is a very different image from the kinky RWS image of a woman tied up, blindfolded, and caged by eight swords. Briefly, the book tells us that the meaning of this card is "holding back the beast [i.e., anger, repression, etc.] within." Hmmm. With that intent, shouldn't the beast have been pictured behind the swords, not in front of them? That one quibble aside, I do appreciate the book's concluding remark regarding this card, which by the way is a good example of the many little gems that sparkle throughout the book: "When dealing with angry persons, look past the beast and speak to their Higher Selves." As for the Majors, again some of the symbolism is familiar, but as Robert Place states in an article on his website (see http://www.octagamm.com/alchemicalegg/), "the purpose of my deck is to draw similarities between the Tarot and alchemical images and processes." And so, relying heavily upon the symbolism of alchemy, many of the Majors may have images similar to the corresponding RWS trumps, but there are many interesting differences. For example, the High Priestess wears the usual crescent moon on her brow and again carries a book of (presumably) arcane knowledge. However, she is standing in a boat that is shaped like a crescent moon, and she holds a finger to her lips as if to say, "Shh. Don't tell anyone about this. Let it be our little secret." I find her expression to be more evocative than that of her more aloof and enigmatic counterparts in other decks.

Some of the other images are strikingly different from what I am used to, but they provide such a powerful gut reaction that they lead my thoughts in challenging new directions. A couple of examples are The Star and The Devil. The Star shows a twin-tailed mermaid squirting milk from one nipple and blood from another. On The Devil card, the typical man and woman are combined into one hermaphroditic figure with two heads, one male and one female (of course). He/she is standing on top of a Dragon, to which the male side of the figure (i.e., the conscious mind) is bound by a chain at the ankle. You get a visceral reaction to these two cards from just a brief description, don't you? Wait until you see the cards themselves. One minor irritation for me is The Moon card. It depicts the goddess Diana with her hounds, but she is carrying a staff instead of her typical bow and arrows, and she wears a flowing gown, not a tunic. This figure does not remind me of the Huntress and Moon Goddess Diana. Finally, for those of you who care about the ordering of the Majors, Justice
is 8, Strength is 11, and The Fool is 0.

The following are a few miscellaneous observations regarding the Alchemical Tarot. Marketing: First, one extremely nit-picky note. As far as I can tell, this deck is only available in a deck and book set--unfortunately. What happens when you wear out the deck (or if your dog eats some of the cards) and you want a new deck? You won't need another copy of the book, but you'll have to get one anyway. Usage: The cards are large, but not unusually so (about 3 1/4" x 4 3/4"). However, they are also quite slick. These two qualities combine to make them hard for me to shuffle without dropping a few. But then, maybe I'm just a klutz. Nudity: There is a bit more than the usual amount of frontal nudity in this deck. I only mention this because it may be an issue for some people, and they should know about it ... well, up front. Ethnic diversity: This deck is consistently Caucasian--rather Aryan, actually. It should be understood, however, that this complaint is not aimed solely at this deck. I just do not understand why so many deck creators seem to only care that people of Northern European descent identify with the images on their cards. But with that politically-correct comment out of the way, I should point out that only about half of the pip cards (and, as noted above, 75% of the court cards) in this deck have people on them. Most of the others are illustrated with animals or mythical beasts, which have no overt ethnic or racial overtones.

An insistent deck: This last note is a very subjective one. When I bought this deck I had intended to put it aside and come back to it later when I had more time to get to know it. It wouldn't let me do that! The first night after I bought it, this deck invaded my subconscious mind. I woke up several times that night with vague fragments of dreams about it lurking on the periphery of my consciousness. Well, I don't have to get hit over the head with a sledgehammer; I can take a hint. The next day I did a 3-card spread with this deck to say, "Hi! What do you want to tell me about yourself and about our relationship?" and it gave me an earful! In a nutshell, it told me that it is a passionate deck with a lot of creative potential that it is eager to share with me. And so I am anxious to explore this deck further, although at times I wonder who is exploring whom here!