Tarot in Eastern Europe

Does anyone here know if Tarot is at all popular in eastern Europe, including Belarus, the Ukraine, and of course Russia? I know some decks have been produced in Russia, though many with an essentially western European look to them. And there have been versions of some western decks published with Russian titles, ...which made me wonder just how many tarot afficionados might there be in that part of the world. I can't recall seeing anyone posting here on Aeclectic with a Russian address, so there might be a Russian or Slavic website similar to this one for all I know.

In recent years there have been a lot of Polish decks produced, so Tarot would seem to be booming there, at least as far as publishing is concerned. But there, and elsewhere in eastern Europe, I wonder about Readers, collectors, meditators, etc. Is there a sigificant tarot following there?

Thanks in advance for any light you might shed on this!

A quick answer is yes, tarot is absolutely huge in Russia (edited to add - okay, that's an exaggeration, but it's popular in many circles) and in fact in many of the countires of the former Soviet block.

We watch Russian television frequently (Alex my partner is Russian, from the Crimea which is now of course in the Ukraine) and we sometimes laugh at just how often tarot is featured, often in a rather "spooky mystic" way - you know the sort of thing, ladies dressed to look mysterious, candle-light, blurred lense photography, spooky music playing. The fact, however, is that tarot reading is very popular, and readers (and pyschics of all sorts) are often consulted for business as well as other matters. Sometimes I think I should just retire and move to Russia and become an "exotic" tarot reader - as being Irish would I guess count as exoticism in Moscow

By the way, I know of at least one AT member who is Russian, but of course the language barrier may prevent people posting much.

There is at least one Russian site that I am aware of that seems to feature tarot decks among other playing cards.

As I am not familiar with Russian per se , I hope you will be able to get around on that site, which I first got introduced to a long time ago on this thread.

Just find gambler.ru for certain featured tarot decks.

I'm in full agreement with Baba-Prague here. My wife hails from the Ukraine, and she it was who first introduced me to tarot. Tarot readers, mediums and psychics are widely respected in Eastern Europe, and will often receive favourable coverage in the national press whenever they are featured. There are a couple of Russian magazines that I know of (I can't name them offhand, but my wife is an avid reader of them) that feature articles on psychic phenomena, the paranormal and other subjects besides tarot.

I have Polish roots (both parents from Lodz), and what I know a lot of Polish people are interested in "mysterious" things like tarot and palmistry, despite it being a Catholic country... I remember my mother telling me a few years ago that she got a very accurate tarot reading done in Poland when she was in her twenties (so perhaps around 1970).

tarot in eastern europe

My hunch is that the-average-person-in-the-street tends to get more interested in spiritual matters when there is a lot of upheaval and uncertainty taking place in the society at large. For some people, this is seances , for others Tarot, for others radical and/or fundamentalist forms of world religions, for others palmistry, etc. Though there is no doubt that Tarot goes back a long way in Eastern Europe, I wonder if its use has become more widespread in the last 15 years or so?

When I lived in Hungary in the early Nineties-how long ago that sounds !-there was a whole spate of UFO sightings, many of them reported by people who would see themselves (and be seen) as rationalistic. I believe that's part of the same phenomenon.

rosyelf said:

. . . For some people, this is seances , for others Tarot, for others radical and/or fundamentalist forms of world religions, for others palmistry, etc. Though there is no doubt that Tarot goes back a long way in Eastern Europe, I wonder if its use has become more widespread in the last 15 years or so?

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Sallie Nichols makes that very point in Jung and Tarot. She states that UFO sitings and all of the other thoughts about other worlds and people and alien abductions are just a newer component of the need for people to find connections to the archetypes. She also states that Jung mentioned the Tarot in one of the conferences she attended and that is how she began. I think that your question about whether or not it has become more popular in Europe is probably yes. I think back in the '70's when most people here in Utah had no clue what Tarot was.

I think I must have been the one of the very few 12-year-olds (if not the only one) in the city who read. Then there is the history of playing cards and reading with them.

Does anyone know how far back the tradition goes with the Russian and gypsy fortune telling with cards?

Junia said:

Does anyone know how far back the tradition goes with the Russian and gypsy fortune telling with cards?

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In fact, the tradition of using cards for fortune telling may not be nearly as old in Russia as people tend to think. The very best book (in my opinion) on the historical facts about Russian magic belief is Ryan's "The Bathhouse at Midnight" and he says that although many, many things were used for divination, there isn't mention of cards being used for divination until a document dating from 1765 which refers to a young Russian serf girl who was famed for her fortune telling with cards.

As for Roma use of cards, again it isn't clear that this is so very old. I find it harder to get hard evidence about this. The Roma cultural expert here - a wonderful woman who is a professor at Charles University- does not research much into magic and magical belief so couldn't enlighten me much about this.

It would be very interesting to see if others here can add much. I will go look at my "Bathhouse at Midnight" again!

I live around a large group of Lithuanians and two of the other people in our group have tarot cards, although they do not read that often. One has a RWS and the other has Osho Zen. I know from talking to everyone that people who read the cards are well known and are consulted by all kinds of people, athough it may not be advertised. My mother-in -law had her palms read by gypsies when she was young as well. There are mixed feelings regarding whether they are evil for religious reasons, but at the end of the day there is much interest. I hope that in my next visit there I might be able to find out more. I highly doubt I will find a tarot shop, as things seem to be underground, but I may be pleasantly surprised. We all live in London now so that can change attitudes as well. Interesting thread!

I live in Istanbul/Turkey..And here tarot is very popular; actually fortune telling itself is very popular among people (esp.teens) here..there are loaaadss of tarot-café s here where you drink your cappucino then get a reading afterwards for free and i've got pretty accurate readings there...
We have the Robin Wood; Rider Waite; Radiant Rider Waite;Romani; Da Vinci; Osho Zen Deck published as far as i know..I am always watching for new decks..but Rider Waite and the Osho is the most popular right now..I am dying to get the Thoth but nobody seems to know of that deck but the publishers do know Crowley and his books very well...