Received the Golden Tarot!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Aug 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Trogon	28 Aug 2004
Yaaaaayyyy! I got another "fix" for my Tarot addiction... ;) I had ordered the Golden Tarot from the Tarot Garden. Got it in about a week... By the way, I am very pleased with the service from Tarot Garden! Ah... the Golden Tarot. This is a deck which many of us on Aeclectic Tarot have seen grow from an on-line deck only to a full-fledged, hard-core, hard-copy. ;) I have such fond memories of when it was on-line only... it was sooo cute! :D But, the Golden Tarot has grown up into a be an absolutely beautiful Tarot deck! Kat Black has very effectively reintrepted the Rider-Waite symbolism into a collage deck of artwork from the middle-ages. She has done a magnificent job with her collage work (would that be collagagraphy?). In fact, she has done so well, you almost can't tell that the images are collaged... in fact, in many of the cards, you really can't tell. The artwork itself has that "old" feel one would expect from such old works of art, but the colors show up as vibrant and real. This deck has many modern feeling symbolisms in it, but done with very old art. As a result I have the feeling of looking at a story that was written 500 years ago, but it was written about me. Another thing about this deck. As I've been looking through the deck (and having done one reading with it - a "new deck reading") I am already discovering something with it. I am picking up many new thoughts on the cards as I study them. These cards bring to mind nuances and facets that I hadn't really seen (or at least thought of consciously) before. Physically, the deck is made extremely well. It is on the usually heavy and well laminated card stock used by U.S. Games. The edges of the deck are gilt with gold making the deck very beautiful. Alas, with the method I use for shuffling... the gilding is already rubbing off the ends of the cards... . But so far, that's the only problem I've had. :D The deck comes in a very nice box with a top that slides off (instead of the ubiquitous flip-top lid). This means that there are no flaps that I have to reinforce with packing tape so they won't tear. The book is also excellent; the write-up on each card includes not only the meaning (upright and reversed) but also explores the artwork and imagery in each card. There is an appendix at the back of the book which cites the sources of each artistic component used in each card. RetroKat (I think that's you...) - You've done a magnificent job on this deck! Thank you so much for all your hard work!

darwinia	28 Aug 2004
And how about that Hermit, huh???!!!! My favourite Hermit in all my 43 decks. I don't know if I mentioned this--probably back in the dawn of time, but I once read a wonderful book called "That Quail Robert" which was about an orphaned quail a lady adopted. He lived with them for many years and she had him toilet trained (trained on a paper towel), and she used to give him baths in the sink and he had all kinds of delightful personality. So the quail, coupled with the cat (swoon) in this Hermit card does it for me. Years ago when I was an idealistic teenager, a movie about St. Franics of Assisi came out called "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" which vaulted me into my missionary period before I woke up to reality. I've got a soft spot for St. Francis; it is such a GREAT card with all these elements so seamlessly collaged together. I have two other card decks with this kind of box, The Relax Deck and The Perfect Calm Deck, and I much prefer boxes like this. They ARE machine-made--similar to molded paper sludge with a sealant (sorry to dare to criticize the spurious reviewer who got a great deal of mileage out of implying that little third world fingers made the boxes cheap and by hand for US Games), and they are very sturdy and much more accessible than fighting with flaps and getting your cards caught on the glued flaps inside. <> What a fabulous way of putting it Trogon.

The 78th Fool	28 Aug 2004
There's not much else to say about this deck apart from the fact that it's an utter masterpiece. I waited a long time for it to be published, I wasn't disappointed when it was and it became one of my primary four decks. I wouldn't be without it. Chris. xx

lark	28 Aug 2004
What Chris just said "ditto" for me. :) Just picked up an extra copy at Borders. Don't ever want to be without this one.

Trogon	29 Aug 2004
Darwinia - yes... The Hermit is one that caught my eye during my first quick look through the deck (though I missed the quail - and me being a bird watcher! :| ). The animals in the deck added to the feel of the card, I felt, in that not only is he holding up the lamp of enlightenment/truth for all to see but is at such peace with himself and the world that these animals know they have nothing to fear from him. Now... the next question on this card... what is that thing laying on the ground by the cat? Next to the cat is a log and beside the log is some sort of... thing... maybe some kind of tool? Wonder what it is?

Alta	29 Aug 2004
Yes, this deck sets very high standards for art, thoughtfulness, and evn for publishing standards. The cards seem to have a real depth to them, like looking back in time to see the future.

darwinia	29 Aug 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Trogon Now... the next question on this card... what is that thing laying on the ground by the cat? Next to the cat is a log and beside the log is some sort of... thing... maybe some kind of tool? Wonder what it is? It looks a little regular to be a branch, perhaps it's a branch that served as a staff for some pilgrim wanderer at some time? Pilgrim laid the staff down because he found his home and felt no need to wander? Was the Pilgrim St. Francis or someone who came to him for The One True Answer? Francis spoke to him and took the pilgrim's staff and broke it (it seems broken at one end), and flung it on the ground, and told the man he was looking in the wrong places for support, and he could stand on his own and find his own answers if he stopped looking to others for The One True Answer. St. Francis was a gentle fellow and probably quite kindly, but you have to firm and get people's attention sometimes. And Marion, I love this word "thoughtfulness" you have used. I recently purchased a hardcover book that was a catalogue of the largest exhibition of William Blake work, held at the Tate Gallery. As a premium, I received another hardcover art book on Masaccio. It hit me as I was glancing through these books, and comparing them with my books on Giotto and Bosch, what incredible knowledge and memory art historians must have. Even when narrowed down to one period, as Kat has done with this deck, you need to know how to fit the whole together and to organize your thoughts and memories. Kat did this, not once , but twice with her deck. She had a firm idea of the deck and then US Games wanted her to regularize the images a bit to fit the R-W symbolism, so she had to think the whole archetype thing out all over again and research the art further. Try doing that with one artist! I did it with Leonardo da Vinci and still haven't sorted it out, imagine doing that with European artists as a whole in the Middle Ages, and you start to see the exacting thoughtfulness that went into this deck. It required enormous focus and concentration, memory, and research to bring to fruition. TWICE!! Incredible. [p.s. i used to have sticks that were sharpish at one end like this. i called them all "digger" and used them in the snow when playing. maybe st. francis used it for just such a purpose? or he might have used digger to clear a place in the snow so he could put seed and dried fruit down for the birds in winter.]

darwinia	29 Aug 2004
This was driving me nuts yesterday. I saw the Vasaccio painting of Adam and Eve being turned out of Eden and I knew I'd seen it before. I went through all my arty decks and couldn't see it. So today, I'm browsing through the Golden for the third time and there Adam is on the Nine of Swords. If it had teeth it would bite me. Memory is a great thing, but unless you can connect the dots it's maddening.

Emily	30 Aug 2004
I love the look of the Golden too - it must be one of the prettiest decks I own and its completely readable. The extra symbolism has me reaching for my tarot dictionary and I have found that its very easy to read a story into the card images. I can't do this with many of my decks but with this deck its easy. I too like the way that you can't tell that its a collage deck :)

The Received the Golden Tarot! thread was originally posted on 28 Aug 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.