Association for Tarot Studies

The Fool’s Journey in ceramics

by Carol Liknaitzky When I embarked on this journey of creating the 22 Major Arcana in ceramics, it was a commitment to developing my imagination and finding a way to express the lessons of my life through these ‘windows’. Prior to this I did not have any real knowledge of the Tarot. I was inspired [...]

Journeying the Sixties: A Counterculture Tarot

William Haigwoodwww.counterculturecreations.com “The thing itself is unreachable, but its phenomenon can be apprehended through the structures of thought.” –Immanuel Kant “To have a new vision of the future, it has always been necessary to have a new vision of the past.” –Historian Theodore Zeldin When I recently wrote and created The Counterculture Tarot I finished [...]

1701 Dodal restored!

Jean-Michel David www.fourhares.com I like to imagine what it will be like in 300 years hence: perhaps one of Flornoy’s decks survives, having been found in one of Melbourne’s museums, and perhaps a mastercraftsman has picked it up, obtained high resolution images thereof, and seeks to remake it afresh for all to enjoy. Some of [...]

A Century with the Waite-Smith Tarot (and all the others…)

K. Frank Jensen When the French author, priest and Freemason Antoine Court de Gebelin (1719-84) in 1781 advanced the allegation, that the tarot deck constituted the Egyptian god Thoth’s ‘Secret Book’, he cast a seed to something, which during the next couple of centuries should grow to immense heights. Tarot was an ordinary card game [...]

Magic Manga Tarot

Dan Pelletier I had a problem with reviewing the Magic Manga Tarot. It kept reviving the ‘What is Tarot’ topic, a topic commonly bandied about on the electronic forums. Then there was an evening here a while back when I sat with Robert Place discussing, “What is Tarot”. With his knowledge of symbolism, it was [...]

Petrarch’s Triumphs and the creation of tarot

by Robert Mealing forum.tarothistory.com Years ago, when I first started exploring tarot history, I came to the conclusion that Petrarch’s Triumphs were probably a key element in the creation of tarot. Petrarch was a major influence on his time, and tarot was born not too long afterward. To see this connection wasn’t a new or [...]

Jordan Hoggard – The Mystereum Tarot

review by Bonnie Cehovet www.tarot.thecrystalgate.com “Form Follows Priority” Jordan Hoggard is an architect (principal for J. Jordan Hoggard Design in Denver, CO), artist, and creator of “The Mystereum Tarot”. Definitely a Renaissance man! I had the privilege to meet Jordan while taking a teleclass given by Tarot author/artist Robert M. Place. I was very excited [...]

Twenty Years of Tarot:
The Lo Scarabeo Story.

Pietro Alligo et al, 2007 – review by EC Publishers Lo Scarabeo arouse a variety of feelings among tarot aficionados. Their decks are immensely popular, but have their detractors; some feel they are too “commercial”; some feel their decks “stray too far” from “true tarot” – whatever that is; some feel their decks are too [...]

Journeys in Tarot Creation

by Lee Bursten My friend Jean-Michel David has asked me to set down some thoughts on my experiences as a tarot deck creator and author. During a three-year period, from 2003 through 2006, I authored the Zodiac Tarot (art by Luca Raimondo), the Gay Tarot (art by Antonella Platano), The Tarot of Dreams Guidebook, and [...]

The International Tarot Award

Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions by Jean-Michel David About the Award and how it came to be The International Tarot Award originated as the Lifetime Achievement Award with the International Tarot Society (ITS). I remember at the beginning of 2003 looking forward to who was going to be the next recipient later that year, [...]