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A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. July's Theme: "Risibility"
Volume 9 Issue 5 ISSN# 1708-3265



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 		Cards & Curios
with Dan Pelletier

Max came into The Last Stand and occupied the barstool next to me.

"You know," he said as though we'd been talking all along. "Starting in 1781 and on up until the 1990's Tarot history was based on a fictional foundation. They made it up. Invented myth. Even now, I pick up most of the books out there designed to educate the new Tarot enthusiast, and I read stuff that came out of the fictional era as factual."

Josh came over and looked at Max, "Fat Tire?"

"Sounds good." He turned back to me and continued, "And the internet isn't helping. There's always some person joining some Tarot group on Facebook, or the forums that talks about how they've read all the books, and have been reading Tarot for years. And when you let them talk enough, and post enough, you find out that they haven't got a clue. They're making up their own history as though we wouldn't figure out they're frauds. Catfish."

I slid a deck towards Max as Josh set a pint of cold amber goodness in front of him.

"Tarot of the Silicon Dawn? 99 Cards? Are you serious?"

"Start with the book. It rocks."

He opened the box and was silent for a few minutes as he began reading. He took a sip of his beer. He got to that part of the book. Beer dang near came out his nose while trying to laugh and swallow at the same time. "Oh my gawd! She gets it! 'Tarot is a big pack of lies and interpretations,'" he read aloud from the book. "Brilliant!" He kept reading.

I watched him take another drink and edged away from him. He was getting close….

I assumed he made it to page 8 when he sprayed beer with laughter, "'…that's how I see Tarot: a historical trainwreck pulled by about 22 decontextualized images….'" He read from the book, and set it down; and pulled the first half of the deck from the box. "Cartoony." He started scanning the cards, making his usual 'ums' and 'ahhs'. I reached over and stilled his hand.

"Hold the card to the light."

"What? Oh my gawd…." TAROT GARDEN

"Riccardo Minetti of Lo Scarabeo suggested the varnish process that adds a third dimension to the images. So the artist added the intentionally incomplete suit of Void, and the additional cards for each suit."

Max scanned the deck, holding varied cards up to the light to see the secondary image cavort with the primary image — and he froze. Turned a card so light reflected off the surface. "Too freakin' rich."

"What?"

"Nine of Wands. Check out the equations on these posts."

"Yeah?"

"This one is the equation for compound interest. But what's the other one?"

"Malthusian population growth."

"I think I like it. This really is a Tarot for the modern age. Tossed out the fictional mythos and just went for it. I have to hand it to not only the artist for having an honest vision, but Lo Scarabeo for taking a truly brave step and publishing this in its form. Scrumptious." He finished appreciating the deck and returned it to its box. "What else you bring?"

He slid it across the bar towards me as I slid the next deck towards him.

"The Maddonni." He opened the box, removed the deck and started scanning it. "Non-scenic pips, also kind of… Holy fish in the market! She gets it! This is really nice. How new is this?"

"Came out back in '81'. But it's never been widely available in the English speaking market, so it's been overlooked for three decades."

"This is incredible. This is a treasure."

"One last deck for you to contemplate." I slid the Mary-El across the bar, and slid the Maddonni Tarot back into my shoulder bag.

"Oh, I followed her creation of this on the net, I've wanted to see it live." He opened the large box and removed the book, flipped it open and began to read. "Oh, she uses Hebrew Kabalah as opposed to Hermetic! What a wonderful surprise!"

He put the book down and began to scan the deck. "Well, this is a very different approach. Great art. Some of the images are a tad disturbing…."

"Some aspects of life are a tad disturbing…."

"True enough. But this is lovely! This is a serious departure from Waite or Crowley. The artist really embraced this project, her love for it shows. And I like the black borders. It's almost like not having any borders at all. I know this isn't for everybody, but, I'd really like to see it as a successful project for the artist. Great work. I'm glad you saved it for last.

He returned the deck and book to its box and continued, "Nice. So I guess I have to eat my opening comments. It seems that there are some folks that are breaking away from the fictional mythos at last. And in the case of The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn, are doing it with humour and light; and in the case of the Maddonni, an almost minimalist approach; and with The Mary-El, exquisite art, and a return to Hebrew Kabalah, plus excellent composition and content."

"Your turn to pay" I said as I slid the Mary-El back into my bag.

Max reached into his pocket and threw a bill down on the bar. "Thanks Josh. I saw on Facebook that a tree fell on your house this morning in the wind storm; hope it didn't do too much damage."

Josh picked up the bill, "The roof has to be repaired. You know when a tree falls in the forest…. But when a tree falls on your house — it's freakin' loud."


Dan Pelletier is the author of 'The Process - The Way of the Tarot Reader', articles appearing in the Tarot for Life website newsletter "Seeker's Journey", TarotSchool.com, and Tarot Passages; Dan has also published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

Dan has been reading Tarot for himself and others for close to four decades; is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet.

He now resides in Des Moines, IA.

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