Russian Tarot of St Petersburg companion book

I've just took delivery of the Russian Tarot of St Petersburg and I wondered if anyone has the companion book to it.

The LWB has watered down descriptions of who is on some of the Majors and I wondered if the companion book is a good one. I wasn't going to get the book because the deck looks really easy to read with but if the book gives good descriptions of the cards I might get it. So I thought I would ask if anyone has it and what do you think of it.

I glanced at it in the store once. This book, supposedly enlightening the reader on the Russian cultural background of the deck, lost all credibility for me when I saw a passage that suggests that the traditional religion of Russia is Roman Catholicism. Anyone knows it's Orthodox Christianity, not Roman Catholicism.

Hi Rusty Neon,

I wonder how they managed to slip up - the LWB is littered with references to the Russian Orthodox faith. But apart from that, which should have been corrected - how does the book describe the cards themselves?

Emily,

I haven't read the book fully (but I made a good effort at it when I first received it) I will look further at this tonight but I know there is a whole section on the Russian Orthodox Church and how Communism try to destroy it. I don't remember the section Rusty Neon refers to but for me the History, although interesting for background of the deck, is not so important. so maybe I missed it.

The cards themselves have two pages written about each one and most of this has historical background about each card, then a description and then the meaning. I think its a nice book.

At the beginning, there are sections on the land, language, old Russia, literature, films, art, Peter the Great, esoteric traditions, dress, symbolism, icons, architecture, literature. Well, lets put it this way - there is something for everyone (IMO)

Moonbow*

I don't have the deck and it's not on my wishlist, so I didn't look at the book for more than a few moments, but just long enough to catch the erroneous mention about Catholicism. Based on what Moonbow says about the book and its comprehensive contents, the error is probably a mere editorial slip.

Hi Emily,

I have this book, and I think it is a good book. I was not aware of the error Rusty mentioned, but despite this, the book is chock full of info. The descriptions of the majors are excellent. Ms Giles goes into what the symbolism means in Russian culture.

For the minors she writes much less about each card. Bare minimum. However, if there is a stray from tradition RWS symbolism, she covers why. Here is her description of the 6 of cups:

"This is the only Cups card which makes a considerable departure from the Waite pattern. The Waite card features 2 young children in a cottage garden, surrounded by cups filled with flowers. The Russian Tarot of St Petersburg image retains the flower-filled cups, but places them on a mysterious tier of stone tables. The young people - who are quite a bit older than the Waite children - are working together on arranging a cup of flowers, which reminds us of the Russian love affair with flowers.....Not only did flowers grow wild about the countryside, gardens were carefully cultivated and in the cities, flower markets provided a profusion of blooms.

One traditional meaning for the 6 of Cups is nostalgia for a better past, such as the world of childhood. But other meanings, which seem better suited to the Russian Tarot of St Petersburg card , are asssociated with pleasureable memories and with sexual fufillment - in general, the recollection of sensual riches."

Russian Tarot of St. Petersburgh by Cynthia Giles; pg 273

She does also include an introduction to the minors that discusses the different suits, and also an intro to each suit that is more extensive. She treats the court cards separately. She pays very little focus on 'how' to read and more on meanings and history.

In my opinion, this book is definitely worth having. Well worth the money.

Mimers

Hi Rusty Neon, Moonbow, Mimers,

It does seem like an interesting book, I did order it last night from Amazon after doing a search and not being able to find it anywhere else. Amazon Uk have already stopped selling the book/deck set for some unknown reason so I've ordered the book and hopefully it should be here in just over a week. I did read a few of the sample pages on Amazon usa, it did make for fascinating reading.

Emily ... On a related note, here's a thread I started a while back about my continuing search for a Slavic folklore/mythology themed tarot deck.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15073&highlight=slavic

Hi Rusty Neon,

Thanks for posting your thread, the links look really interesting - I'm going to go through them later.