More then 22 Major Arcana?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 30 Nov 2001, and now archived in the Forum Library.

malkuth	30 Nov 2001
Hi gang... Im new to this forum. Seems that its very active and I look forward to meeting many of you. In an email thread recently we are disscussing decks that have more then 22 of the Major Arcana or less. Could anyone provide a list of some sort names of decks that contain more or less then the standard 22 Trumps? Is this too m uch too ask? Am I out of line in such a request? Thanks in advance malkuth

jmd	30 Nov 2001
Greetings and welcome, Malkuth! What seems to define a deck as a Tarot deck is a certain number of cards: 40 pip cards in four suits, 16 court cards in the same four suits, ... and 22 Major Arcana. During the renaissance, a number of 'decks' were in existence, mostly not Tarot, which had different numbers of what can be described as Major Arcanas. Later, the Ateilla deck altered the Tarot to also include two additional cards (querent, male and female). During the 20th century, a number of Tarot decks also occasionally added a card or duplicated one (Crowley's Thoth deck possibly being the most well known and common). I know I have seen other decks with duplicated cards, but I cannot remember them off-hand. I consider these, as I have said, duplicates of a card, and thus not changing the number of Major Arcanas... I would personally question the legitimacy of a deck which had more (or less) than 22 Major Arcanas as Tarot... (though it may be a deck which was influenced or inspired by the Tarot). I'm looking forward to other responses, and your future posts... Your post has certainly laid a good foundation for future glory, victory, beauty, awe, lovingkindness, understanding and wisdom, leading to a crowning achievement... without mentioning knowledge!

AmounrA	30 Nov 2001
Hello 'malkuth', Thats a good kabbalistik name you have there. I would imagine decks that don't follow tradition or aren't tree of life in structure are free to have as many trumps as they like. I am a traditionalist on this front though, I would only work with 22 trump decks as anymore would not work with the system I work with :-)

tarotbear	01 Dec 2001
For "ha-ha's" I created a 23rd Major Arcana card to use in my example for the Tarot project; that way I would not influence anyone who might be doing the card I might have chosen in my explanation. The 23rd trump is called the 'Oligarchy'. It is a satire; I hope that when the guidelines are posted and anyone reads it that they DO NOT think there is or will be such a card the the F.A.C.T. Tarot!! :P

malkuth	01 Dec 2001
Thanks all for your replies. I will answer tomorrow after work when there is more time. malkuth :D

kayne	01 Dec 2001
The Cosmic Tribe tarot has three variations of "The Lovers" but usually it is recomended that you substitue the most appropriate card. One contains two men together, another two women and the third contains a man and woman all in the same position and with the same symbols around them... Check them out at http://www.stevee.com K.

tarotbear	01 Dec 2001
Two men card- interesting, but I could have done WITHOUT the 'blue fairy wings'.

bec	01 Dec 2001
hi, I know of the shapeshifter it has 3 additional majors in the deck - something about 81 knights of something, haven´t read my book yet.

The More then 22 Major Arcana? thread was originally posted on 30 Nov 2001 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.