The Tarot of Dreams was Ciro Marchetti’s second deck and is still one of his most popular. But as it goes with self-publishing decks not everyone is able to ‘snatch’ one away due to pricing or limited editions. That’s why, when it became clear that US Games got the rights for the mass market edition, loads of people were holding their breath for a good alternative. And specifically that deck, the mass-market Tarot of Dreams, is what this review will be all about.
It’s always hard to review a deck that has both great plus sides as well as huge downsides. The Russian/Ukranian Agni Roerich Tarot is such a deck and in order to know if this is truly a Tarot you want to put on your wish list, you better read all the plusses and minuses. Russia is known for its great writers and painters. Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) definitely belongs on that list. The Russian painter, inspired by Shambhala (a mythical Buddhist kingdom situated in the Himalayans), traveled around and used both of these inspirations in his artwork. There are several museums dedicated to his artwork, but the best known is in New York. Roerich is often seen as a ‘Symbolist’, so it wasn’t that surprising a Ukranian publisher – name not mentioned anywhere, other than the author Svetlana Traskovskaya – ended up creating a tarot deck from his work. Pre-made tarot-art Designers of Oracles make frequent use of existing paintings and pictures. They add a theme or thought to it and with a bit of luck you have an excellent divination tool. I think in as many occasions that it works, it fails too. And for a tarot deck this practice…
While researching on new(s) items for The Queen’s Sword I see a lot of decks, but I can never fully suppress that tinge of excitement when I discover work that I like and think others will too. The Nightscape Tarot is such a work. It is still in its early stages and made by a couple: designer Molly Greenlee and tarot reader and soon PhD Jungian Depth Psychology Dylan Hoffman. An interview with Greenlee about everything Nightscape and of course a sneak peek of the images.
I am a huge Grecophile, actually lived on Crete and I am an historian. So the fact that the Minoan Tarot grabbed my attention is quite logical. But I would do the artist a disservice if I left it at that. The Minoan Tarot, now up for pre-order, and hand drawn by Laura Perry is definitely something different despite already so many Ancient history (Greek or Egyptian) decks out there. First of all, the Minoan culture has only been portrayed on a deck *once* before – that I know of. And that deck looks quite different, with another take on the suits and names of the Majors. The very colorful cards are inspired by frescoes, jewelry, pottery and carved seal stones created by the Minoans. And that is indeed visible, also in the style of the art. Border-change This is not the definite version yet – something about the borders is going to change. My hope is Perry will keep the fitting colored ones, find a solution for the titles and skip the yellow in its entirety. But all in all you can definitely see how this deck might look once its done. Not everyone will think this art is…
Historian and deck curator Giordano Berti has another gorgeous reproduction to offer. The Tarocchi Perrin, or Perrin Tarot is like a younger cousin of the Soprafino Tarot and will most likely speak to those who are a fan of art like this. Eh…that would be me! The Perrin Tarot has *just* become available. It is a faithful remake of the 1865 Turin deck by Claudio Perrin, a lithographer/publisher from the 19th century. Colorful Soprafino Tarot Perrin’s inspiration came, not surprisingly, from the engraver Charles Dellarocca (some write della Rocca) and his Milanese manufacturer Ferdinand Gumppenberg. The style is quite similar. However, the artist who designed the Perrin Tarot, still worked enough of his own magic and originality in the deck. The characters and environments are different and it seems the deck is also more colorful than the Soprafino. I might just openly cheat… The actual artist is unknown, but it is probably safe to guess he was one of the many illustrators used by Perrin’s Publishing House, back then specialized in illustrated history books. The deck was already extremely rare in the 19th century, since Claudio Perrin wasn’t a regular Tarot producer. He probably didn’t have the same distribution network…






