This hugely colorful new tarot deck from US Games is a stunning array of wild art and tribal looking imagery. My first impression of it was that it reminded me of the Gipsy-Tarot Tsigane Zigeuner. Other than that, it's hard for me to actually find anything to *say* about this deck. And that's unusual. It's very..... um, bright. Yeah! and....um.... colorful. Oh wait, I already said that.
I didn't find the images in the deck intuitive; that is, they seem to be very artistically oriented, but the semi-scenes that are painted on each card don't necessarily inspire one to think about what the card means. If one didn't already know the meanings, one would have to resort to looking them up in the booklet. I would say it is safe to assume this is a collection of 78 small works of art.
It is interesting that none of the Major Arcana are numbered. This would be especially helpful for those who disagree with traditional numbering and order, as the cards without numbers can be arranged in any order that pleases. Titles appear in white boxes at the bottom. There seem to be five differently patterned borders which repeat at random throughout the deck. Sometimes you will see five or six cards in a row with the same pattern border. There seems to be no rationale to this. Just random assignment. The titles used in the Majors are traditional. Going by the order the deck came in, Strength is 8 and Justice 11, but as they are unnumbered that is an arbitrary order.
In the Minor Arcana, suits are Cups, Wands, Swords and Coins. The numbered cards are basically stylized suits; that is, they are more than just an arranged number of the suit items, but far from being a scenic design either. Just very artistic. Courts in the suits are Knight, Princess, Queen and King. That seems to be a combination of a couple different styles.
The cards themselves are standard sized and shuffle and handle reasonably well. Surprisingly stiff when new, they break in well and flex rather than crease. A glossy coating makes them slightly slippery. The back design is gorgeous, in fact it's my favorite piece of the deck, being a pattern of blue-on-blue, a muted contrast to the cards themselves, which use every single color in the spectrum richly and lavishly.
The little white booklet which accompanies the deck is a hearty little affair (very nice typeset job!) and I love the descriptions which are printed for each card. Instead of a divinatory meaning, each card has, at the bottom of its description, the "Imagination" meaning which assigns you, the reader, a meditative thought to explore which teaches the fuller meaning of the card involved. I would love to see a full-blown book by Ms. Nitsche, if the booklet is any indication of her awareness of tarot. The Celtic Cross spread is the only one used in the booklet.
Overall, I recommend this deck for experienced tarotists, not for beginners. Art tarot collectors will enjoy it, I'm sure. The artwork is of the kind that you would discover new and intriguing subtleties every time you look at the cards. It's a pretty neat deck, in a weird way......
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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace
Tarot of the Trance by
Eva Marie Nitsche, 1998
published by US Games
ISBN 1-57281-094-7