Twin Peaks Tarot (Claire Maiafire)

This is the awesome Twin Peaks tarot, 78 cards with the minors fully illustrated following the classic tarot tradition with the typical Twin Peaks twist. Regarding the artwork it is one of my favourite decks, it's very detailed, vibrant and very close to the series of the same name. The world card for instance is just beyond awesome. The only big flaw of this deck is the kind of flimy cardstock so you have to be careful using this deck for readings!

The deck comes probably with my favourite version of the World Card  ever:

Blue Bird Tarot (Hesomoge)

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest manga fan on the world so I'm rather picky regarding Japanese Tarot decks. But I had to learn that not everything from Japan must be Manga in the first place. One of my first Japanese decks was the stunning Blue Bird Tarot by the artist Hesomoge. It's a major arcana only deck but offers some really fascinating artwork. Every card of this deck is a piece of art in his own right. I ordered this deck directly from the creator. I think a few decks are still available so act fast if you want a copy. Hesomoge

The deck came with some postcards, one of them showed a very cool version of the death card and I really hope that this is one of the new projects the artist is working on.

The Eye Of Myrddin (Phillipe Rouchier)

This is another obscure release from France. The Eye Of Myrddin Tarot (1994) follows a very interesting concept. Instead of the classic tarot imagery of a Raider-Waite similar decks it depicts traditional meanings with images of gateways, stairs, pillars, labyrynth and build literally a bridge to your subconciousness. The art itself is quite strange to describe it's quite surreal and dreamlike but follows a coherent concept. The deck contains of 63 carts with the minors fully illustrated. The minors are very strange too, and quite confusing they show the classic court cards but only 5 of the suits (numbers: 1, 10, 13, 5). They are not numbered but show symbols of the corresponding suits (wands, cups, swords, discs). The deck was created by a guy named Phillipe Rouchier who works in the film industry, there is a 85 page booklet included but only written in French so sadly I don't understand a thing. It would be so interesting to learn more about this interesting deck.

The Spiritual Tarot (Akira Uno)

My collection of Japanese Tarot decks is slowly growing, so far I have four decks which I really love. My newest addition just came in today. It's the fantastic Spriitual Tarot by Akira Uno. It has quite a timeless vintage feel and a specific "used" look which was intentional by the artist. It's majors only but with such a beautiful artwork that I couldn't resist. Quite hard to describe the style of the deck it reminds me of something that could have been made in the 60s. It's quite psychedelic and I really like the washed-out color look of the cards.

Stella Tarot (Claire Lamotte)

That's the cute Stella tarot a handdrawn take on the classic Marseilles deck. I like the simple style of the cards and sparse use of color that gives it that certain "naive" innocent touch. It's a majors only oversized collector's deck.

Trionfi della Luna Tarot (Patrick Valenza)

This is kind of the "sister deck" to the quite popular Deviant Moon tarot created by Patrick Valenza. If you look closely both decks share quite a common style where the Luna Tarot follows a more classic handdrawn style which gives it that ancient look. It really looks like a medieval deck and style wise closer to the tarot of Marseilles. The imagery is very colorful, slightly bizzare and comes with a twist here and there. It's one of my favourite decks of alltime and I really wish that it will become a fully 78 cards deck.

Tarot of the Tree Women (Beth Seilonen)

That's quite a little strange deck. Very minimalistic in style but it has something that I found quite appealing. I bought this a few month before directly from the creator of the deck Beth Seilonen on Etsy. I like tarot decks which have a coherent style and this is really a beautiful piece of art. I'd describe the style as a very minimalistic kind of art neauveaux. The imagery is quite abstract but gives little hints of the traditional tarot meaning like a little keyword on the bottom left corner. This deck ist strictly limited to only 25 copies!

Fantastical Tarot (Nathalie Hertz)

This is the phantasmagoric Fantastical Taro illustrated by Nathalie Hertz. The artwork is slitghtly surreal and reminds me a bit to Pablo Picasso's cubic phase the lines of the character's faces are much edgier than usual just look at the magnificent Moon card which is a good example. This is also quite a "darker" deck as the overall tone is quite melancholic and surreal but also very energetic if you look a the artist's version of the Strength card.The Queen Of Wands made me smile, but it took me a second sight to notice. 

The Didactic Tarot (Jeffrey M. Donato)

So if you ask me which deck is the weirdest, most vibrant totally trippy one. The Didactic Tarot (Tarot D) by Jeffrey M. Donate definately wins the cake. The deck consists of 102 cards! 22 majors which follows largely the classic raider-waite tarot tradition and 90 minors. The images are powerful with plenty of visual and symbolic details. Each suit is identifiable by its strong border colour– red for Fire (Wands), green for Earth (Pentacles), orange for Air (Swords) and blue for Water (Cups). The deck comes with a huge 160 page book with colored illustrations explaining every meaning of the cards. I'd describe the style of the cards as psychedelic comic artwork I really love Donate's kind of style and there is so much detail in his work which makes this deck so special. Definately not your everyday's reading deck but an exciting mindtraveling adventure!

Tarot Of The Master (Giovanni Vacchetta )

I got another big haul of great tarot decks the day before yesterday. One of the decks is another classic one. The tarot of the master. Originally illustrated by Giovanni Vacchetta and first published in 1893. I really like the deck although the Lo Scarabeo version comes with extremly ugly green borders! Heard that there is also a version by Menghello and I will definately try to get this as well. When looking at this deck the devil card seems so extremly out of place I'm wondering what the artist was thinking.

Showing the green borders:

The Symbolon Tarot

The Symbolon Tarot is a very intersting deck. It consists of 78 cards but not necessarily follows the classic tarot tradition. Instead it shows beautifully illustrated, very vibrant, images which took its influence from different kind of sources. In the Symbolon you will find hints of Greek Mythology, classic literature such as the Arthurian Saga, and even fairy tales like those of the Grimm Brothers. All cards are fully illustrated and the deck has no such things as minors - with one exception, though! There's a pretty designed Ace of Cups card in the timeless Art Neauveau style. Also, the deck comes with several versions of the devil. One classic depiction and one where the devil is shown as Mephistoles from Goethe's Faust epos. There is a nice little b/w booklet (112 pages) giving the meaning of every card.

The Enochian Tarot

Usually I'm quite sceptical about angel decks, most of them are just too lighthearted for my taste. But the Enochian tarot is a very different angel tarot. It's based on the writings of the medieval mystican John Dee who is also the "inventor" of the Enochian Language (language of the angels). This is a fully illustrated 86 cards set just loosely based on traditional tarot meanings. It has 30 major arcanas and 56 minors. What I like most about the Enochian Tarot is the artwork which reminds me on expressive art such of Eduard Munch. It offers great vibrant chalk paintings and the overall tone of the cards is pretty dark in the meanings. It's definately not a beginner deck as it requires some time to get into the subject matter.
I got the mini kit set which comes with the deck and a little 128 page book which gives interesting insights of the creating of the deck and meaning of every card.

The back of the cards come with a nice looking emblem:

Tarot Del Fuego (Ricardo Cavolo)

The Tarot Del Fuego is a very interesting deck by Spanish artist Ricardo Cavolo. It is very vibrant and expressive in imagery. Also, the artist seems to be fascinated with eyes as eyes are everywhere and often the characters in this deck are depicted with an additional pair of eyes or even triples. Looking at all these eyes had a dizzling effect on me but I like the over-the-top psychedelic art which makes reading with that deck a little complicated as it's fully loaded with symbols and other little details so I regard this more as a great artist deck.

M.A. Eisenhut - Animal Tarot

This is a 22 Major Arcana only deck and I didn't expect much from this  and honestly I have only ordered it because I found the box so nice. But when I opened it I was positivly surprised! The illustration of this deck is very beautiful and quite innovative. The cards have the traditional tarot names like the fool, the hanged man etc. but the images depicted widely differ. My favourite card from this deck is the Moon, I don't know really why, I think I have a certain weakness for snakes! But the stag beetle as the sun is great, too. Limited to 500 decks only!

 The Box:

The backside of the cards:

Some of the cards: 

Alice in Wonderland (Dominic Murphy)

Normally I only post Tarot decks or ocassionly Oracle decks. But this time I will make an exception as Dominic Murphy's art is just too good for being ignored. This is a 54 cards deck fully illustrated with Alice In Wonderland themed imagery. I think the artist's intention was to create something special for the 150 anniversary of Lewis Caroll's famous tale.

I have to say that this is one has become one of my favourite card sets as I'm very fascinated by Mr. Murphy's art. His work is quite bizarre, morbid and sometimes cruel. So I wouldn't show some of the cards to childen although the original work was a children's tale.

One of the intersting aspects of the deck is the continuity, all of thethe 2s for example consist of twins!

Mind the hammer in Alice' hands and the Dali reference on the madhatter's hat! (8)

Jamie Hewlitt Tarot (Unpublished)

It's a real shame that this magnificent artwork by Jamie Hewlitt is still unpublished. The guy was the co-creator of the fictional comic band Gorillaz, who found some fame in the late 90s. I think this deck would have many fans. The artwork is just stunning somewhere between modern comic art and some kinky re-interpretations just look at the devil card! It has also a distinctive Marseilles influence which you can find in his version of The Moon. I really hope this will find an official release it's already on my wishlist. I keep the finger's crossed.

Das Neuzeit Tarot (Tarot Of The New Age)

This is some trippy deck first released in 1983 and illustrated by Werner Wegmüller who takes influence from the gypsy culture. This is a full 78 cards deck nicely drawn. My favourite card from this deck is probably the devil, he looks like he has a great time. It's all fun and the deck doesn't take itself very seriously. The cards are very colorful almost psychedelic and often depict anarchronistic images like modern men in suits etc.

Who's the boss here?:

Tarot der Apokalypse (Gabriele Quinque)

Normally I'm not the biggest enthusiast on religious tarot decks but this one is based on woodcuts made by a young Albrecht Dürer, he was 26 at that time. The woodcuts were made in 1496 and centered around the book of revelations (St. John). There are 22 cards only loosely based on the traditional Tarot meanings. The magican became The Messia and the devil the false prophet for instance.  The artwork of the original woodcuts had been slightly altered to be suitable for the tarot format. The illustrations are still impressive and I can see the use of the cards for serious readings. There is another Dürer based tarot deck which I still don't have.

The most intersting card from this deck was a card called "Intoxication" which strongly resembles the Lust card from the classic Thoth deck.

Here is a direct comparation. The card from the Thoth deck is Number XI representing Strength.

The Marjor Arcana Deck (Luigina Monteu)

This is one oversized only major arcana deck. Printed on cardboard. The 22 cards are beautifully illustrated and are based on the Raider-Waite. This is almost a b/w deck with some strokes of color here and there to underline details like the flames in the Tower card. The overall atmosphere of the deck is quite romantic and is a great addition for any tarot collection. The cards don't come in a box but in a nice bag made of soft cloth. The names of the cards are all in Italian.

More samples of the deck:

The Marvel Tarot by Claire (Maiafire)

This is just an incredible deck! Not only for Marvel fans. This is a full 78 cards tarot with the minors fully illustrated. The majors offer some familiar names like the Hulk (Chariot), Iron Man (The Sun), Spiderman (The Loves) and Deadpool (Fool) but the minor which are the true highlight of this deck have som less known ones like Thanos, Drax, Nova and many more. The colors are very vibrant and the artwork is just stunning. It's from the same creator who made the fabolous Twin Peaks tarot which is sadly now out of print. - Sorry, seems that the Marvel is now out of stock, too! -

I think the artwork of Thanos is my favourite he looks so incredible badass like a true villian!

The Ludvig Tarot (Hungary)

Lately I received my first deck form Hungary. It is the beautiful so called Ludvig Tarot by Zsuzsa Ludvig. It's a Marseille inspired deck and thus the pips are not illustrated. But I really like the old fashioned Eastern European style of this cards and the quite unusual color scheme with purple, yellow red, green and red. The cards were first released in 1998 and were never reprinted as far as I know. It's a true collector's item now.

Tarot Of The Metamorphosis

Speaking of trippy tarot decks I also found this very interesting tarot deck by chance on the internet. It's the Tarot of Meatamorphosis or "Tarot Der Verwandlungen" as that's the name of the German version I have. The deck is strongly influenced by surrealism and some of the cards, The Hermit especially, will remind you to the works of classic Surrealist like Salvador Dali or Rene Magritte (Page Of Swords). Some of the cars have more a comic-book kind of style which is not less amazing, just look at that Alice in Wonderland card as the Eight of Swords!

The Tarot Of The Sephiroth

This deck had been on my wishlist for quite a while but could finally get a copy some month ago. The artwork of this deck is really trippy as if the creators were under a serious drug influence while creating this deck.The colors are extremly vibrant and the cards rich of symbolism based on the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah system. I'm not an expert of that topic and the book I ordered with the deck only gives little further information in how exactly use this deck. But I found most of the cars very appealing. Especially the Chariot card drew my attention as it is one of my favourite tarot cards and the take is just excellent! Many of the cards show scenes of Jewish traditional myth like Moses as the Hermit with the 10 Comandments underneath him. Other cards like the High priestess are just a bit weird and are a bit distracting. Also the Pips are not illustrated which is not much of a deal for me as it underlines the majors even more.

Dio Raman (Der Praktische Tarot)

I have a certain weakness for minimalistic and b/w decks. A good deck doesn't necessarily need an elaborated design to draw my attention. I think I was browsing on Ebay when I found an interesting deck called "Der Praktische Tarot", it's a book and deck set and was first issued in 1978 and had 2 or 3 reissues since than. But is now rather hard to find. I have the reissue from 1985 and the  the book is quite interesting, too but I bought it for the 22 major arcanas that came with it. At first sight these cards might be simple designs but you will find some nice details here and there as well! I love the little bird in the star card for instance or the whole scenery in the "Lovers" card which was renamed to "Die Entscheidung", meaning "the decision". These are some of my favourite cards from the set.

Tarot Des Alchimistes (Jean Beauchard)

Last month was quite an exciting one as I was able to obtain a couple of very interesting decks. One of them was the widely unkown Tarot Of The Alchemists by French illustrator Jean Beauchard. Beauchard's work is very much influenced by the Freemason order, I don't know if he is a member of the Freemasonary himself but his work is full of their distinctive symbolism. No wonder that he is also the creator of the much more popular Massonic tarot which is solely dedicated to it.
With the Tarot of the alchemists he follows a more traditional approach. What fascinates me most about this deck is classic kind of design he uses mixed up with very vibrant colors and traditional alchemist symbolism. The package of this deck is very heave and weights about 1 kg! As the deck comes with a 200 pages book! Unfortanetly it's all written in French so I don't understand a single word but it would be so interesting to know more about this deck as info is very sparce.

His version of the Hanged man is probably my favourite card from this deck. I just love the peaceful calmness that cards radiates.

Which is the right deck?

There are so many tarot decks out there and as a beginner it might be really hard to chose just one. But I would always give the advice to keep things simple. A good tarot deck must be easy to read and thus intuitive in use. So the one deck I would suggest is the classic Raider-Waite which imagery is quite easy to understand and learn. As the minor arcanas are illustrated as well they will help you to understand these as well, which can be a real pain since learning another 56 card is not that easy.

The IBIS Tarot

Well my memory was good to me and I want to post my second ever tarot deck. It was a present of my mother when we took a walk through the streets a very long time ago. We visited an esoteric shop and the tarot deck that expressed me the most as a child was the so called Ibis Tarot.
The Ibis is a so called Raider-Waite clone that borrows the artwork from Egyptian myth and transfomrs it to classic Tarot meanings. But there are many debates of the origin of the very first tarot and some say it all started in ancient Egypt. The Ibis as a deck itself is quite a modern take. Many of the cards has been renaimed to fit to their egyptian counterparts. So the fool becames the crocodile, the Moon became the Twilight but the most obscure is the Devil card which is probably my favourite, it shows now an deity called Typhon and is shown as a Hermaphrodite to compromise both forces male and female. It's 78 cards deck with the 22 majors fully illustrated but not the pips. The other downside of this deck was for me the Death card, I mean the whole egyptian mythology had so many possibilities, Osiris and Anubis anyone? But all they came up with was another uninspired death card! But apart from that I just love this deck there is so much symbolism in many of this card like the hidden entrance of the black pyramide of the Twilight/Moon card.

The Lost Tarot (Dominic Murphy)

As a ardent collector of morbid, surreal or in other ways weird tarot decks I can consider my self lucky to get hold of a copy of the legendary Lost Tarot by great artist Dominic Murphy. His art is very expressive and echoes the work of classic painters such like Hieronymous Bosch. The lost Tarot consist of 54 cards of which the first 22 are based on the Major Arcanas of the Raider-Waite. The overall undertone of this deck is pretty dark with skulls all around. The artwork of the major arcanas are really great but the artist takes the cake for the other 32 (bonus cards?!)
The level of details of any of these cards are just outstanding like it was painted with an magnifying glass! 

And the bonus cards:

Via - The Path Of Life

I was very lucky to acquire this little gem at a real bargain price. The Via Tarot - Path of Life had been on my wishlist for quite a while now. It's a modern re-work of the classic Aleister Crowley Tarot but is more life-like in the imagery than it's classic example. 78 cards with both the major and minor arcanas fully illustrated!

I just love the energy this decks radiates and the artwork is truly stunning! The deck came in mint-condition and was still sealed! The accompanying book gives interesting insights to the meaning of every card. It's amongst my alltime favourite tarot decks.

The beginning....

So do I remember my first tarot deck? Of course I do! It must be in the year 1993 when there was this weird Magazine called "Rätselhafte Phänomene". The articles in that magazine were questionable at the least if you ask me and were dealing about urban myth like sponatious combustion, Area 51 and stuff like that but from a children's kind of view they were very intersting.

The first few issues of the mag came with Tarot collecting cards and as soon as I hold the first ones in my hands my sould was sold! I had to have them all and couldn't wait until I had the full set complete. The cards came in a nice looking black box. Unfortunately the box is missing but I still have the cards which makes me very proud after so many years.

The box:                                       And The Back of the Cards:

       












And the cards themselves:

I didn't know the actual name of the tarot for many years. Just as with the internet I found out that this is the rather popular 1JJ Swiss Tarot. The name might be a little strange but this is a so called classic Marseilles deck. The original was created around the 1830s and consists of 78 cards with 22 illustrated minor arcanas and 54 minors without illustrated pips.

Regarding Marseilles decks the opinions amongst collectors are widely divided. Some apreciate the decks for their old fashion looks whereas other's prefer the illustrated minors of a classic Raider-Waite deck.

For me this deck has still a special place in my heart for being my very first tarot deck. But concerning it's imagery it's not my favourite.