Sad about Pentacles in the Palladini deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 05 Mar 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Pagan X	05 Mar 2004
In response to some folks' fears about Pentacles being Satanic, Palladini doesn't use the standard five-pointed stars in his new deck, but has more-circusy looking stars. It is to make the Tarot more accessible to Christians as a spiritual tool. a. I'm not sure that's enough to do that b. It's sad that he had to modify his design in response to prejudice and fear. It makes the deck *less* effective for me, a Pagan. To be reminded every time I use it that mine is still a persecuted faith does not make for good readings.

laura_borealis	05 Mar 2004
That is sad. After I read what you said, I looked up this deck and Palladini's earlier Aquarian tarot. The overall style of the new one is nice (though I do like the 70s look of the earlier deck). But the pentacles in the Aquarian are much better. The new ones bring cheap jewelry to my mind, with glass "gems" in the middle. Did he actually say he changed them to make it more accessible to Christians?

Lee	05 Mar 2004
Here is what Palladini says in his LWB: "The Suit of Pentacles -- In creating this suit, I have decided to alter the imagery somewhat. The accepted image of the pentacle (a five-pointed star within a circle) seemed uncomfortable to me. My association for this symbol is one of Satanic worship and occult black magic. In my opinion, the Tarot is corrupted by this association. I have therefore tried to alter the pentacle to be less like the Satanic pentagram." He does indeed seem to have a biased view against pentagrams, and I daresay his negative view demonstrates ignorance regarding Paganism and the occult. However, it's also true that the pentacle isn't native to Tarot. The idea of replacing pentacles with coins was A.E. Waite's. Before that, all published decks used coins. So, in general, just because a deck artist chooses to not use pentacles doesn't necessarily mean they are prejudiced against Pagans, although that does indeed seem to be the case with Palladini. -- Lee

Rusty Neon	05 Mar 2004
Playing devil's advocate here (Pardon the pun) ... So please don't flame me .... I'm not sure of the exact history of the renaming of the suit, but it goes back to at least the time of the Order of the Golden Dawn. In our multi-faith world, it would arguably be more politically correct to restore the Coins suit or call it Disks or something along those lines. The pentacle was, in earlier times, a Christian symbol (and apparently appeared even in cathedral architecture) but in recent times, it has been used more by paganism and other earth-based religions than by Christianity and has come to be more closely associated with those earth-based religions, than with Christianity. Arguably, the tarot should be accessible to people of all religious confessions and to those who have no religious confession.

Thea Lynx	05 Mar 2004
Hi Pagan X, I'm a bit confused - I have the New Palladini & checked my deck after reading your post. The Pentacles on my deck are all five pointed stars within a circle, most are not containing the lines within, just the outline of the "star" and some have a center colored circle - is this what you were referring to? They didn't strike me as particularly circusy, although they are not quite the pure design I see in my Aquarian. You did get me to thinking about one thing though - I have several decks that use the term "coins" or "disks" or "shields" instead of pentacles, and the symbol is, of course, more in keeping with that verbage. I have noticed that in the accompanying books, the meanings given are usually quite different than those that have the suit referred to as pentacles & do seem to stick quite a bit closer to the material and have nowhere the same magickal content that pentacles has. I plan to pay more attention to this as I work with my decks - I am planning to separate them into the ones I really want to work with and the ones I have for the aesthetics, so the line of thought you've got me going on should prove very valuable. Thanks Thea Lynx

sunflowr	07 Mar 2004
regarding the Palladini being a "new" deck... I thought that deck has been out about 10 or so years now. (???).

laura_borealis	07 Mar 2004
Sorry, I didn't realize it had been out that long. It's called the "New Palladini" and I guess that threw me! :)

Le_Corsair	07 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by sunflowr regarding the Palladini being a "new" deck... I thought that deck has been out about 10 or so years now. (???). It is new compared to his other deck, the Aquarian, which came out around 1970. I think that the intent was to call it the Palladini Tarot, but tarot aficionados are a literal-minded bunch at times and usually call it the New Palladini, just like it says on the box. Bob :THERM

sunflowr	08 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Le_Corsair It is new compared to his other deck, the Aquarian, which came out around 1970. I think that the intent was to call it the Palladini Tarot, but tarot aficionados are a literal-minded bunch at times and usually call it the New Palladini, just like it says on the box. Bob :THERM Oh ok. ;) I had just wondered, and thought maybe he re-issued it or something. Thanks for clearing it up. :)

Logiatrix	08 Mar 2004
If it is a general choice between the Aquarian and the New Palladini, I hafta choose the Aquarian, no contest. I dunno, mebbe David Palladini had some life altering experiences that influenced his personal spiritual beliefs, and that has reflected in his work 20 years later. Also, I think that the Aquarian Tarot was a strictly commissioned work based on classic tarot structures such as that of Waite and Case, as opposed to the Pallidini deck, which was more freely expressive of the artist's own perspective. Personally, I just like his first deck better, simply based on artistic taste. :)

Centaur	08 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Pagan X In response to some folks' fears about Pentacles being Satanic, Palladini doesn't use the standard five-pointed stars in his new deck, but has more-circusy looking stars. It is to make the Tarot more accessible to Christians as a spiritual tool. I think that is ridiculous. I just do not understand that line of thought. But I guess it is his choice, and if he is a Christian and he holds those specific beliefs re. the Pentacle then I guess it is up to him as the artist of the deck. However, I feel that artists should be challenging these negative associations re. tarot. If Palladini adheres to such thinking, then he only serves to perpetuate that specific perception of tarot, eg. Pentacles as connected to Satanism which therefore connects Tarot with Satanism if those pesky Pentacles are included on a card. But then if Palladini firmly believes that the Pentacle is associated with Satanism, then what can be done? Stereotypes and prejudices are only changed if someone is brave enough to challenge them. C

Shade	08 Mar 2004
Every once in a while I feel like a deck should have called the suit coins rather than pentacles (and I'm Wiccan), the Fey deck is one example. As to the Palladini, if he didn't want his pentacles to look like pentacles he probably should have taken the look farter in the other direction.

Centaur	08 Mar 2004
Now, if he wanted to stick by a purely Christian theme, he could have replaced pentacles with communion wafers. ;) C

Rusty Neon	08 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Centaur Now, if he wanted to stick by a purely Christian theme, he could have replaced pentacles with communion wafers. ;) C Coins would have been fine too. By the way, Eastern Orthodox Christians and, at least sometimes, Anglican Christians use bread, instead of communion wafers, for the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

paradoxx	10 Mar 2004
The Ace of Pentacles and the pentacle court cards make up more than enough for the suit to be effective. The 8 of pentacles shows the hard work taken into this suit to make is appealing.

The Sad about Pentacles in the Palladini deck thread was originally posted on 05 Mar 2004 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.