Tarot Decks And Cards You Only Hear About In Whispers

McFaire

What about the deck used in The Red Violin? I think it's been concluded here that the cards must have been made for the film, but... I suppose it could be an unknown real deck...
 

FLizarraga

OK, this is probably nonsense, but here it goes.

Someone supposedly well-versed in matters of the occult told me once that there was a Crowley deck that was the "real" Sangreal --not the so-called Sangreal edition of the Sixties, or the 1944 limited edition, but something else, something that he and Lady Frieda Harris were working on in true hush-hush fashion.

There was a third person involved according to my source, a man who was also Crowley's lover at some point. My source also referred to the deck as "the Boleskine deck," but as far as I know Crowley had been out of Boleskine by the time the Thoth Tarot was even conceived. The whole thing sounds like pure poppycock, but I'm telling it here as it was told to me.
 

velvetina

mine also features a Thoth deck...in true 'Chinese whispers' style a friend of a friend (honestly!) told me he'd been given a Thoth deck independently produced in the 1950's by occultists ...the person who'd given it to him I know genuinely had some amazing Crowley ephemera he'd collected over the years so it seems possible, and my acquaintance has no reason to lie, yet I've never seen it myself. It's just spoken of in my circle of occult-interested friends and acquaintances and everyone wonders!
 

Thoughtful

Fliz and velvetina l am so intrigued by this Thoth secret. Why is it so hidden do you think its because it deals with the very dark side. l love mystery.
 

EmpyreanKnight

Oh wow, FLizarraga and velvetina. The Thoth Tarot is my favorite, fixed firmly in the top three. Not just because of its exquisite, intensely spiritual art, but also because of the depth of its symbolism and its layered esotericism. If the commercial deck is already this deep, and with Crowley's almost sinister reputation, I wonder what secrets a hidden Thoth Tarot would divulge, what forbidden power it wields. If it truly exists it is well worth any Tarot connoiseur's (formidably bankrolled) hunt.
 

EmpyreanKnight

gregory's Holy Grail of the Wooden Kashmiri would fall into this category.

Hmmm I tried googling this Tarot, but nothing comes out. What is deck all about?
 

EmpyreanKnight

What a fascinating story EmpyreanKnight (I can just hear the theme tune for Alfred Hitchcock's Twilight zone as I read :). Watched in my childhood.) - thank you so much for sharing it.

You're very much welcome, Tanga. Glad you liked it! :)

We have many more interesting village stories, like the Devil's love song that cures unrequited amour but which comes with the most terrible consequences, or ghost orchids that absolutely ensure fertility but which require murder rituals to bloom. But these are off-topic now hehe.


Thanks for this McFaire! The all-wood major arcana looked so good. This reminds me of the full-metal Tarot I conjectured in the Metallic Decks forum, only more feasible.

If this is the Holy Grail of the Wooden Kashmiri deck mentioned by rwcarter, then I guess its veracity as an actually existing deck is established. That's one mystery solved.

Keep the stories coming guys. Four/Five days until Halloween!
 

Psychonox

Welcome Kapatid

Welcome to the wonderful world that is Aecletic Tarot :) more than one Filipino shares your passion for the tarot here my friend :)
 

Zephyros

Wasn't there one made in a concentration camp and smuggled out?

The Kobe Tarot was made in Allach. It wasn't smuggled out but was made both before and after the camp was liberated. It certainly fits the definition of this thread... I know of no one who has it or has even seen it in person. The site I linked to says that a small run was printed for an educational conference or something like that, but it was never for sale. gregory once told me she came close to getting it but the deal fell through or something. That's the closest I've ever heard someone come to it.

More of a Tarrochi than Tarot, it has 78 gorgeous reversible images that are haunting and disturbing but nevertheless have a kind of bitter humor. This one and another unpublished deck, the Amun-Ra, are without a doubt my own Tarot Holy Grails. The Kobe exists... but that's all I know of it.

I think it is okay to link to the site here even though it shows the whole deck because it is what you might call authorized. It isn't a bootleg site, is what I mean.