Tarot of the Stars vs Stairs of Gold Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 08 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

felicityk	08 Mar 2003
I wanted to have a deck by Giorgio Tavaglione in my collection, and I initially chose the Tarot of the Stars because it has illustrated minors. Now, however, I'm thinking the Stairs of Gold Tarot might appeal to me more. Does anyone have strong opinions on one or the other? You can see both decks in their entirety (listed as "Stella" and "Stairs", respectively) at: http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/decks/browsedecks.php All of Tavaglione's decks (Enoil Gavat Tarot is another) are chock full of symbolism, perhaps too much so! They're certainly unique. Felicity

Cerulean	08 Mar 2003
I liked Stairs of Gold from the start because of the booklet...I saw a sample at Psychic Eye sample section and bought the deck at a local store after U.S. Games started distributing it again. I haven't seen it since in Northern California. But Alidastore.com has it... I believe Stuart Kaplan saw Stella and then commissioned Taviglione to do Stairs of Gold. I haven't read his entry on either deck. Stella and the Egyptian style looked interesting, but I liked the delicacy and intricacy translated into how the Stairs of Gold displays it. If you decide to sell, I think I've seen others post the Stella on their wishlists. I prefer the Stairs of Gold. Best of luck on your searches... Mari H.

felicityk	09 Mar 2003
Thanks for your input, Mari. Tarot Garden has the Stairs of Gold, and it's inexpensive, so that will probably be my next purchase. Right now, though, I have the Knapp-Hall on the way from Australia (glad to have found a source other than Trigono; shipping would have run me more than the deck itself) and that will probably replace the Alchemical. Even with a limit on the number of decks I own, it seems I can never let my collection stay the same for long. :) Felicity

Cerulean	23 Sep 2003
I changed my mind about the Stairs of Gold vs. Tarot of the Stars. The Stairs of Gold is a great, useful deck for me to study and nice if you like plain pips or delicate paintings with subtle suited cards. However, I like bigger decks for beautiful art and the airy, vibrant paintings of Giorgio Tavaglione in the Porta Celeste/Celestial Gate/Tarot of the Stars is really done justice in the big deck. The review at www.wicce.com says this best. I think Etteilla influences are in all three of the Tavaglione tarot decks that I know of right now, from Enoil Gavat, to Stars and Stairs of Gold. But the prettiness and the challenge of the big blue booklet is quite captivating. Also, the beautiful matte finish and color variations makes me think of it as fine illustrations rather than just cartoons. I bought the last one at the moment on tarotgarden.com, but I've also seen the deck at trigono.com and alidastore.com as well. I don't know if you are keeping this older deck, but to me, it's worth it to keep. And the publisher, Del Negro, has printed another large deck that I enjoy without the plastic coating, the Romeo and Juliet by Scapini. Mari H. P.S. Now I am curious if the first edition Tavaglione Tarot/Stairs of Gold ever emerges online...whether it was very large as well and had real gold inks!

Lee	23 Sep 2003
I have the Stars and not the Stairs. I like the Stars a lot, the Minors are very interestingly illustrated, not the usual Rider-Waite-Smith type thing. The big blue booklet is *too* challenging for me, because it's entirely in Italian! :) -- Lee

Christine	27 Sep 2003
I have carried the big blue book from the Stelle to several Italian-speaking people, and apparentlly it is 'special'. For one thing, being an antiquarian, Tavaglione wrote it in the dialect of the 1500's, some locality-based version of the Italian that nobody speaks anymore. Plus, it's deeplly metaphysical, as I was told several times. One person, an older native Italian speaker, said it was amazing when he read it, but it was too disturbing to his Catholicism to stay with it to the end. This same man's son, born in America, looked it over and said it was too esoteric for his "street-level" Italian. What will we do? My Queendom for a translation! Christine www.tarotuniversity.org

Cerulean	28 Sep 2003
In the investigation of the aspects and the celestial quality of the description of figures, symbols and of planets and stars. Between more ancient investigative thought the spiral is between profound and mysterous. The spiral that you and he think of is the labyrinth. It has both the entrance and exit. The labyrinth that you sense is direct with life, the individual evolution and all human society. The incisions of the megaliths of the Celtics, Africans, the decorations of Maya and Aztecs and from East India, Devas and Asura, the Chinese double spiral known as the yin-yang--the spiral expresses the primal range, the emanation, the development of the continuous cycle of the creative rotation. It is marvelous to imagine cosmic and symbol equilibrium in the line breaks, to arrange the internal change and mutation. The spiral logarithyms stays, formed notwithstanding, its assymetrical growth. The spiral represents always rhythm repeatedly of life and the characteristic cycle of evolution, assurance of its permanent essence that fluctuate and changes as part of the center of expansion (the solvent of the Alchemist) and is the return to the center in condension (in coagulation), the movement possesses being in agreement with birth and death (per the East Indians - kapa and prayana) Come death, initiates rebirth and the diverse being, transformed, agreement comes in the journey of the soul after the death, otherwise the orderly life upset is to join in the center, return to unity, the eternal essence, the reintegration into the primary whole.

Cerulean	28 Sep 2003
...The usual symbolic aspect of evolution-reintegration of the double spiral- is pure guesswork to constructively analyze the 22 major arcana. Every one of the cards has various correspondences in symbols-astrology, alchemy, alphabetical-numerological. It is the ultimate and (numerous) that every card furnishes also symbology-sequentially it indicates a kabbalistic philosophy. To enter into the diagram of the double spiral we separate the into a distinct group, the 22 arcana. The primary group is part of the spiral in expansion. From the center of the major arcana, the first one, is the Bagatto, or Magician, corresponding to Alef symbolically... (Mari's note--Garrett Knight suggests to lay out the cards in an outward spiral from the center and although he starts with the Fool, you can see his spiral layout in the book and also start with the Magician/Bagatto. He does this as one of the beginning exercises in imaginative thinking and magical associations with the major arcana in A Treasure House of Images or Tarot and Magic). ...(Bagatto) is the young person initially in a career that arises in activity, it is the indicator of the primary grade, the primary major that oversees the next development in a discourse to bring the conquest alone. It is the royal duty to carry and superintend the merit of the material, to own afterward, conquer, possess and exercise.. (I don't think I have the above two segments right...but I'm just using a small dictionary and some small understanding from going through some Renaissance and a Dante seminar using a bilingual text...anyway, this rough 'making sense' might help inspire others to take a look and try as well to glean the beautiful mass of information out. I'm becoming convinced the Stairs of Gold booklet and deck actually was a tighter organization and distillation of his earlier decks.)

felicityk	28 Sep 2003
I've had both decks in my collection now, and I eventually decided neither of them really did it for me in terms of artwork. I sold my Tarot of the Stars, but I am holding onto Stairs of Gold for the time being if only to study the booklet (in English!) further. Felicity

Cerulean	10 Jan 2004
I've been comparing my Pictorial Key to the Tarot with various decks with illustrated pips. The keyword on the Tarot of the Stars (Celesta Portal) for the Ten of Pentacles is Origin and it shows a familar Rider Waite scene with a man, woman, gate and old man sitting in front of the portal with two dogs near him. He usually has some astrological symbolism and little alternative perspectives to any of his scenes, which could be Rider-Waite in style, or include some ornamental details from older decks such as the Mantegna or Milianese decks. Some keywords I pulled out of the blue booklet suggests a harmonious integration stage of earthly material wealth and home, and family. Tavaglione is an esoteric scholar as well, so in his booklet he mentions numerology, kabbalah references and ten Buddhist deities...it takes me awhile to go through even one card of this deck, but I really like the rich blend of correspondences. This is one deck I don't mind revisiting... Mari H.

The Tarot of the Stars vs Stairs of Gold Tarot thread was originally posted on 08 Mar 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.